Our Heavenly Grandmother

St. Anne is most traditionally seen wearing green and red. Little girls in Louisiana named for St. Anne used to wear red and green ribbons in their hair on her feast day. We made some for my girls that you can see here. Since it is summertime, when we think of green and red, we think of watermelons. So in honor of St. Anne's colors, we made watermelon cookies and quenched our thirst with watermelon lemonade.

Watermelon Cookies

I used Betty Crocker's Sugar Cookie Mix. Mix sugar cookies using cut-out cookie recipe and red food coloring. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out circles with a cookie cutter or other round object, such as a glass or round plastic container. Place circles on ungreased cookie sheet. (I used parchment paper.) With a knife, carefully slice circle in half and separate by at least 1/2 inch to allow for expansion during baking. Gently press miniature semi sweet morsels into each semicircle. (Little ones can do this just know that the mini morsels melt quickly if handled too much. Refrigerating them beforehand helps. I sprinkled them onto the unbaked cookies and then let the kids push them into place where they fell.)

Bake for 6-8 minutes, checking after 6 minutes. Cookies will be done when edges are lightly browned. Do not allow cookies to get too brown. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes. Remove from cookies sheets to aluminum foil on a flat surface and allow to cool completely.

Glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbsp water
15-20 drops green food coloring

In a small bowl mix together all ingredients to form a glaze. You may add drops of water to thin glaze if it is too thick. To decorate the cookies, roll the round end of the cookie in the glaze, allow excess to drip off into bowl. Place cookies back on foil until glaze dries.

Watermelon Lemonade

• 2 (12-ounce) cans frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
• 15 cups seeded and cubed watermelon
• *2 sprigs mint (optional)
Process watermelon, in batches, in a blender or food processor until smooth. Combine concentrate and 2 mint sprigs, and cook in a saucepan over medium-high heat 10 minutes. Stir together watermelon puree and lemonade mixture; cover and chill 8 hours. Remove and discard mint. Stir and serve over ice.

*If you are not going to add the mint, then skip the stove top step.

I made half of this recipe and I strained my watermelon puree through cheesecloth so there wouldn't be much pulp. 10 cups of watermelon made about 8 cups of puree which made 5 1/2 C. of watermelon juice once it was strained. I mixed those 5 1/2 C. with one can of frozen lemonade.

The French have a great devotion to St. Anne and love to celebrate her feast day with seafood. Maybe consider making your favorite fish recipe for dinner!

We are celebrating early because the 26th is my husband's birthday.