Candy Caramel Corn for All Hallows' Eve

I've been busy preparing for our All Hallows' Eve/All Saints Party this year.   In the past I have always helped organize one with a local homeschool group, but this year we are looking forward to having just family and close friends over to our home for a party!

One of the activities I have planned for the children is a Saintly Symbols Scavenger Hunt, and I've been working on making treat bags, filled with homemade Caramel Corn mixed with Candy Corn, to use as prizes for this game.   They were so easy to make and I thought they turned out cute.

Candy Caramel Corn Recipe

2 1/2 qts. Popped Corn
1/4 c. Corn Syrup
1/2 c. Brown Sugar
1/2 c. Butter
1/2 t. Salt
1/2 t. Baking Soda
1 t. Vanilla
2 cups Candy Corn

Cook syrup, brown sugar, butter, and salt in microwave, on high for 2 minutes, stirring once after a minute. Add baking soda and vanilla. Stir well. Place popcorn in a large brown bag; pour syrup mixture over popcorn, stir a with wooden spoon. Roll up top of bag and put in microwave. Cook on high for 1 minute. Shake and repeat 2 more times for 30 seconds each. Add Candy Corn.

I made four batches and ended up with 3 dozen treat bags.

I filled each bag with about 1-2 cups of Caramel Corn and tied it shut with some green ribbon and a tag (a modified version of the tags I made for our Patron of Students Back-to-School Treat) that reads:

These earthly treats will pass away.  

Store your treasure in heaven.  

You can download and print the tags here, 

which could really be used on any sort of treat bag! 

(Note: My original tags had a typo... The link has been updated to the corrected tag!) 

The 2011 Saint-O-Lantern Link Up!

A common activity for families, in preparation for All Hallows' Eve, is carving Pumpkins. We have found this to be yet another wonderful opportunity to tie in our Catholic Faith. Every year our children look forward to choosing a pumpkin and carving their "Saint-O-Lantern!"

In addition to all the pictures which can be found in the archives, here are some links to templates found online to help get you started with creating your own "Saint-O-Lanterns:"

For the "IHS" pumpkin that we carved, which is pictured above, and you can download the template I created here.

Pumpkin Glow offers a number of free templates including:

• Noah's Ark (Level 1- Easy) 
• White Dove (Level 1 - Easy) 
• Let the Children Come Unto Me (Level 2 - Intermediate) 
• Gethsemane (Level 2 - Intermediate) 
• Nativity (Level 3 - Advanced) 
• The Last Supper (Level 3 - Advanced) 

Another great source is Squidoo's Christian Pumpkin Carving Page.

Also free, from American Life League, is the Pro-Life Pumpkin Template.

My family has enjoyed carving the Pro-Life Pumpkin the past two years! 

For a small fee you can purchase a number of "Have Faith" templates from the Pumpkin Lady.  A couple years ago we carved the One Nation Under God and Mother and Child.

Last year we carved The Yellow Rose in honor of St. Therese and my boys carved a Knight in honor of St. George.

Some other ideas would include the new "Three Blind Mice" (perfect for St. Martin de Porres) and the Scallop Shell (for St. James - which is on our list of possibilities for this year!).  Also be sure to browse through the various entries in last years link up, as well as the Pro-Life Pumpkins at American Life League!

Other ideas for celebrating the feast of All Saints can be found over at Shower of Roses (scroll down to the bottom of post) and in these All Saints Link Ups, as well as in the archives under the labels for All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

If you carve a Saint-O-Lantern this year, we'd love to see it!

To Add Your Post:

1. Create a post about your Saint-O-Lanterns.
2. Using the Mr. Linky below, enter the exact link to your post.
3. Link your post back to this post. (Please feel free to include the Saint-O-Lantern Button!)
4. Be sure to visit the links and check out everyone's Saint-O-Lanterns!
5. The linky will be open through November 2nd.
6.  If you would like to share a picture but do not have a blog, please email it to catholiccuisine[at]gmail[dot]com and I will either post it here at Catholic Cuisine or on our Facebook Page.  

Soul Cakes: The Original Halloween "Treat"

The following recipe was submitted by Lisa, from Catholic Missionary Family. Thank you Lisa!

During the Middle Ages in England, on the night before All Saints Day, or Hallowmas, pesants and children called "soulers" would go about town singing and praying for the souls of the dead. They would stop at homes and beg for a "soul cake" and promise in return to pray for the household's deceased family members to be released from purgatory. If homeowners did not give out cakes it was believed their home would be cursed. And this my friends is thought to be the origination of trick or treating.

There are many recipes for soul cakes from a small round cake to a doughnut shaped treat. Some variations include cutting a cross on the top or adding rasins. It seems that the recipes developed over time and region.

Because my children need more sugar from October 31st to November 2nd, we made our own soul cakes today. I'm hoping someone comes by singing the traditional song:

Soul, Soul, a soul cake!
I pray thee, good missus, a soul cake!
One for Peter, two for Paul,
three for Him what made us all!
Soul Cake, soul cake, please good missus, a soul cake.
An apple, a pear, a plum, or a cherry, any good thing to make us all merry.
One for Peter, two for Paul, & three for Him who made us all.

Chances are if I try to hand one out people will quietly usher their children to the next house and later report me to the police, so perhaps I'll just stick with taking them to our churches All Souls Day party.

If you are looking for a festive treat to make on All Souls Day these are a delicious little treat. They are a bit like a spiced shortbread cookie, not really fluffy cake like.

I decided to go with a traditional recipe from food.com, but I'll still post the full instructions with pictures for you below, as I made a few changes as I went.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
3 3/4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon allspice
2 eggs
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
6 tablespoons milk
powdered sugar, to sprinkle on top

Directions:

1. Using a pastry blender cut 1 c. of butter into 3 3/4 cups of flour. I bought my first pastry blender just for this occasion.

2. Blend in the sugar, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and allspice. Allspice smells like Christmas.

3. In a separate bowl beat eggs, vinegar and milk together. I would like to add a little shout out here to my amazing mother-in-law, who is always gifting me with amazing things for my kitchen, like these awesome Pyrex measuring cups, Thanks!

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix.

5. Kneed thoroughly to form a stiff dough. You really have to work this dough, I thought there was no way it was moist enough, but once I mashed it all up it was just right.

6. Roll out to a 1/4 inch thickness and cut out 3 inch circles with a cookie cutter or glass.

7. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

8. Sprinkle with powdered sugar while still warm. I use a slotted spoon for this.

9. Eat, yummy.

You can find additional recipes for All Hallows' Eve and All Saints Day in the archives! 

The Winner of the St. Therese Apron is. . .

Comment #24!

After saying a little prayer to St. Therese, asking her to help me choose the person to whom she would like to send this little "rose," and then clicking the number generator, the winning comment came up as #24, Bethany Hudson, from The Apple Cider Mill.   Clicking over to her blog, I loved that her last post was actually in honor of St. Therese!  How appropriate! 

Congratulations, Bethany!

Please email me at catholiccuisine[at]gmail[dot]com with your shipping information, and I will forward it on to Catholic Embroidery.

For those of you that didn't win, you can still purchase a beautiful Catholic Apron on our Apron Page or in the right sidebar!  I just updated the page with some new revisions that Catholic Embroidery made on a few of the aprons, making them even lovelier!   Be sure to keep them in mind, as they would all make wonderful Christmas gifts!  

Thank you all for your participation!  I could hardly believe the response, as the comments started flooding my inbox from the minute I published the post.   It was so nice to hear from you all!

In Honor of the Most Holy Rosary :: An Edible Rosary Link-Up!

Since I had been asked to bring all the treats to serve after Mass this past Sunday, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to make another Cupcake Rosary!

This year we made our Cupcake Rosary with Pumpkin Cupcakes topped with Cream Cheese Frosting and added Fall themed Sprinkles to the tops of the Our Father "beads."   We also used a milk chocolate cross for the Crucifix.

Just like in the past, we'd LOVE to see any of your edible rosary creations made this year in honor of the Most Holy Rosary and the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, which was just celebrated on October 7th!

The linky will remain open through the end of the month.

Reminder: You have until midnight (PST) to enter our St. Therese Apron Giveaway, if you haven't already!

Regina Sanctissimi Rosarii, Ora pro nobis!

A Saint Therese Apron Giveaway...

... on this traditional feast of St. Therese!

I have been given the priveledge of hosting another giveaway sponsored by Catholic Embroidery, in honor of the feast of St. Therese.  I just love all the products from Catholic Embroidery, but I think the aprons are my favorite!   I recently ordered a few to use as gifts, including the "Ora et Labora" that I just gave my mom for her birthday, and this new St. Therese Apron is the next on my own "wish list."  You can't have too many aprons, right?!

One lucky visitor will win this beautiful St. Therese Apron!

This brown poly/cotton twill adult apron is embroidered with Catholic Embroidery's St. Therese Symbol and ejaculation, "St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us!" With two pockets, extra long ties, and an adjustable strap, the St. Therese Apron combines versatility and usefulness with an outward expression of love for this Saint of the Little Way.

To enter this give-away:

Click on over to our Apron Page and check out the six beautiful new designs that were just added, and then leave a comment on this post by Midnight on Monday, October 10th, telling us which one is your favorite!

Note:   One entry per person, please, and those that contribute here at Catholic Cuisine are welcome to enter as well!    The winner will be chosen with a random number generator and announced here at Catholic Cuisine on Tuesday, October 11th. Be sure to leave your email address, or have it linked in your profile, so that I am able to contact you.

View all these beautiful aprons, including the new St. Therese Apron and our exclusive "Catholic Cuisine" apron on our Apron Page! 

Special Offer:

In the spirit of St. Therese' missionary heart, Catholic Embroidery would like to extend a special offer in apron purchases. Order an apron through the Catholic Cuisine website within the octave of St. Therese' feast day, October 3 - October 10, and 10% of your apron purchase will be donated toward the Missions in Africa.

St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us!

A St. Therese "Shower of Roses" Tea Party

"My mission-to make God loved-will begin after my death.

I will spend my heaven doing good on earth.

I will send a shower of roses."

Saturday afternoon, in honor of St. Therese, we had a "Shower of Roses" Tea Party.  It was just the children and I, since my husband was working on a fire engine for the day, and I actually nearly skipped doing anything special (other than letting the kids work on some of the printables I had created) since I had a low grade fever on Friday and still wasn't feeling completely back to normal - thinking we would just wait until today, her traditional feast to celebrate.

However, dear St. Therese must have come to my rescue once again... I started feeling a little better that afternoon, and decided to try and pull together a simple little tea party.  After a quick trip to our local market (to try and find some eclairs, ingredients to make our own eclairs, or maybe some cream puffs) everything just fell into place, and our "Shower of Roses" Tea Party turned out much lovelier than I had imagined!

~ On the Menu ~

St. Therese of Lisieux Tea

Red Rose Naturally Decaffeinated Tea

Cream and Sugar Cubes

Heavenly Rose Garden Tea Sandwiches

Fruit and Veggie Platter

"The Story of a Soul" Cookies

Saintly Symbols Cupcakes :: St. Therese of Lisieux

Rose Petal Scones

French Vanilla Rolled Wafers

Éclairs

St. Therese of Lisieux Tea

 I pulled out my St. Therese Tea from Sancti-Teas, a couple precious statues, and my rose tea pots to get started!  I purchased the tea awhile back, and use it for special occasions only, so I still have plenty.  I also made a decaffeinated Red Rose tea that my children like as well. 

Heavenly Rose Garden Tea Sandwiches

I then started working on some Tea Sandwiches.   I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to make, but wanted to try to come up with a Rose themed sandwich and ended up with these "Heavenly Rose Garden Tea Sandwiches!"  They turned out so pretty and were not only delicious, but healthy as well!   The perfect alternative to all the sweets, especially for this pregnant momma who has been gaining weight a little quicker than I would like! 

I then went on to make some more Rose Tea Sandwiches, using Turkey Roses and Snap Pea Leaves - some with the Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese that I had used for the first tea sandwiches, and some with plain cream cheese for my younger children. 

"The Story of a Soul" Cookies

These "Story of a Soul" cookies were a last minute addition, when I happened to see a package of Rose Colored (Strawberry) Bar Cookies on an end cap at the market.   I put a little icing on the top of each (left over from my Little Flowers Meeting) in addition to a small mini candy rose, after deciding that it would take forever to write on them all with my Easy Writer Food Decorators.   

Saintly Symbol Cupcakes :: St. Therese, the Little Flower

I haven't posted about them all yet, but this is another one of the "Saintly Symbol Cupcakes" that I came up with for Wreath IV of Little Flowers, in honor of St. Therese, decorating the cupcakes with gold sprinkles, mini candy roses, and a chocolate cross.

Rose Petal Scones

I had recently run across this recipe for Rose Petal Drop Scones and considered making them, but honestly didn't feel up to baking, nor was I able to find Rose Water, or edible Roses for that matter.  Instead I purchased a little package of freshly baked Orange Cranberry Scones (the cranberry's at least look somewhat like Rose Petals!) from the bakery, and placed them on one of my daughters Rose Tea Platters.

French Vanilla Rolled Wafers

Since St. Therese was French, these French Vanilla Rolled Wafers from the cupboard were a great addition to our tea. 

Éclairs

Of course, our tea had to include Éclairs, St. Therese's favorite treat, and I was happy to find four at the bakery.  (In the past we have made our own, but our local market doesn't carry the ladyfingers.)  We already had plenty of treats to choose from, so each of my children split them, just one half each, which was plenty. 

I scattered rose shaped and pink tea lights over the table, which was covered with a light pink tablecloth and then our Angels and Roses lace tablecloth, while the boys set out our China and tea spoons.  

Everyone enjoyed our tea very much!  You can see a few more pictures from our afternoon over at Shower of Roses.  

St. Therese, the little flower,
please pick me a rose from the heavenly garden
and send it to me with a message of love; 
ask God to grant me the favor I thee implore 
and tell Him I will love Him each day more and more.

St. Therese, the Little Flower, 

Pray for us!

Heavenly Rose Garden Tea Sandwiches

Today we had a lovely afternoon Tea Party in honor of St. Therese.   I will have to come back later to share pictures since we are about to have a family movie night, watching Miracle of St. Therese, but I wanted to share these yummy sandwiches that I came up with, as a healthy addition (and alternative for me, since I am trying to avoid most sweets) to our tea party treats.

Heavenly Rose Garden Tea Sandwiches
 for St. Therese

Ingredients/Supplies:

Favorite Sandwich Bread

Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese (or Hummus)

Tomatoes

Basil Leaves

Round Cookie Cutter

Sharp knife

I choose the delicious bread we have been getting from Costco lately... How can you go wrong with one that says "Heavenly texture and Saintly Flavor" on the package! ;) 

Directions:

I did a quick online search for tomato roses and came up with several videos showing how to make a rose from a tomato. It is really quite easy: just peel it in one long spiral and roll the desired length into the shape of a rose.

I then cut a circle out of each slice of bread. Then spread a nice thick layer of Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese to the top. Hummus would actually be a nice alternative as well, for anyone that can not have dairy! I then just added the tomato rose to the top along with a couple of freshly picked basil leaves from our garden.

Not only did they turn out pretty, they tasted heavenly and were the perfect addition to our "Shower of Roses Tea!"

St. Therese, the Little Flower, 

please pick me a rose from the heavenly garden 

and send it to me with a message of love. 

Ask God to grant me the favor I thee implore 

and tell him I will love him each day more and more.

St. Therese, the Little Flower, 

Pray for us!