St. Jude Impossible Pie

The patron saint of impossible causes - St. Jude. What could be better than an "impossible pie" to remind us of St. Jude's intercession for us with impossible causes. This is a pie that does the impossible by making its own crust while it bakes. It was marketed as versatile and crowd-pleasing, as well as quick and easy which is ironically the opposite of impossible.  Impossible Pie is one of the most successful corporate recipe projects in the U.S. food-marketing history.  Americans took to the easy recipe that is adaptable for making both sweet dessert pies and savory meat, vegetable and cheese pies. There were recipes for crustless coconut custard pies that appeared in cookbooks in the south in the mid-century but it first became widely known as Impossible Pie when it was printed on Bisquick baking mix boxes in the 1970s and then adapted for a multitude of variations.  You can find many varieties of pie recipes - from sweet to savory - in this Bisquick booklet from 1982.

The impossible pie is impossibly easy. You don’t need to make a crust for it. Instead, you just mix up all the ingredients together — the ingredients for the filling and the crust — and while it cooks the pie forms its own crust. I have found that the "crust" is more pronounced in the original custard recipe than some of the variations with add ins. But it is defineitly firmer along the bottom and sides and sets up nicely when cooled to form an easily made, but substantial pie. Give it a try in honor of St. Jude today (or St. Rita on her feast, as her patronage includes the impossible, too!)

Since St. Jude's feast falls in October, I went with one of Impossible Pumpkin Pie recipes to fit the season.

Impossible Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

1 cup canned pumpkin
½ cup baking mix
½ cup sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1 tablespoon butter or margarine, softened
1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 9 inch pie plate. Put all ingredients in a mixer and blend until smooth. Pour into pie plate. Bake until knife inserted into centre comes out clean (35-40 min).

Garnish with whipped cream.

One nice aspect of Impossible Pie is that the basic ingredients are probably readily available in most kitchens - just add the extra for the variation of choice. You don't even have to have a baking mix as that is very easy to make at home.

Homemade Baking Mix

1 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter or shortening

Combine dry ingredients. Add butter and cut with pastry blender until evenly combined. 

St. Jude Thaddeus, Pray for us!

Cuban Cuisine on St. Anthony Mary Claret Feast Day

St. Anthony Mary Claret, known as the “spiritual father of Cuba” was a missionary, founder of the Claretians, social reformer, queen’s chaplain, writer and publisher, archbishop, and refugee. He was appointed archbishop of Santiago, Cuba in 1850 and served there until 1856. In his six years there he restored, both materially and spiritually, the languishing Archdiocese of Santiago. Celebrate the October 24  feast of St. Anthony with some tradional Cuban cuisine.

Cuban Mojo Pork Roast

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 3/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 cup cilantro, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup lightly packed mint leaves, finely chopped
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon minced oregano 
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• salt and pepper
• 3 and 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder

Directions

Add orange juice, cilantro leaves, mint leaves, and smashed (not minced) garlic cloves to food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add this mixture to a ziplock bag, along with the oil, orange zest, lime juice, oregano, and cumin.

Add the pork shoulder. Place the zipped up bag in a baking dish and marinate in refrigerator at least several hours, or overnight.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet. Place the pork on the rack and discard the marinade. Salt and pepper the pork well.

Roast the pork for 30 minutes. It should be lightly browned. Turn the oven down to 375 degrees F. Roast for another 1 hour and 20-30 minutes, or until a meat thermometer reads 160.

Transfer to a cutting board, cover with aluminum foil and let rest 20 minutes. Carve and serve.

Cuban-Style Black Beans

Ingredients: 

2 tsp olive oil
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 scallions
2 tbsp red bell pepper
3 tbsp cilantro
15 oz can black beans, do not drain
1/2 cup water (or more if needed)
1 bay leaf
few pinches cumin (to taste)
pinch oregano
1 tsp red wine vinegar
salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

Chop onion, garlic, scallions, red pepper, and cilantro in a mini chopper or food processor.

Add oil to a medium-sized pot on medium heat. Add chopped vegetables and saute until soft, about 3 minutes. Add beans, water, bay leaf, cumin, oregano, red wine vinegar, salt and black pepper and bring to a boil. Lower heat and cover, simmer about 15 minutes stirring occasionally (adjust water as needed). Taste for salt and serve over rice. 

St. Anthony Mary Claret, Pray for us!

Miracle of the Sun at Fatima - 100th Anniversary

This year we have been commemorating the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima.  Now we come to the anniversary of the date of the final apparation - October 13, 1917 - which ended with the miracle of the sun. Over the years, several Catholic Cuisine contributors have posted ideas for celebrating this day and the miracle associated with it.

So to make your celebration planning easier, here is a compilation of the past posts.

Miracle of the Sun Liturgical Tea
This post is complete with a creative menu and the recipe for these Miracle of the Sun Krispy Treats.

Our Lady of Fatima Miracle Morning Breakfast
A great idea to start out your 100th anniversary day of celebration with a healthy breakfast is detailed here.

Miracle of the Sun Cake
This colorful sun cake will brighten any celebration and remind us of the swirling sun.

Dancing of the Sun Cupcakes
These simple to decorate sun cupcakes will be a hit with the kids.

Miracle of the Sun Fruit Platter
A delicious and nutritious choice for the 100th anniversay isthe creative fruit platter.

Spinning Sun Cake
If you are feeling a little adventurous this cake complete with a real spinning fiery cake might be what you are looking for.

Our Lady of Fatima, Pray for Us!

Cookies that Remind us of the Stigmata Saints

There are numerous examples of hand shaped sugar cookies decorated with "stigmata" in various places on the internet.  It is hard to track down where the idea originated. It has not been posted on Catholic Cuisine, and I wanted to share the easy version we created. The ones I have seen either used jam/jelly or a frosting to get the effect. I thought an easier alternative would be to just place a red hot in the center of the cut cookie and bake. No need for the more time consuming decorating.

We just passed the feast of one of the most well-known stigmatists, St. Pio of Pietrelcina but are coming up on the feast of St. Francis, the first recorded stigmatist.  St. Francis received his stigmata on the Feast of the Exultation of the Cross in 1224. There is a specific feast to commemorate that event - Septemper 17 though his October feast day is a good time to recall it as well. 

Some of the more well-known stigmata saints:

Gemma Galgani (April 11)
St. Catherine of Siena (April 29)

Veronica Giuliani (July 9)

Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis (September 17)

St. Pio of Pietrelcina (September 23)

Francis of Assisi (October 4)

There are also many saints who recieved the invisible stigmata or only the crown of thorn head stigmata, including St. Faustina Kowalski, St. Rita of Cascia, St. Mary Margaret Alacoque, St. Rose of Lima.

One could also make these for feast of St. Thomas (who had to touch the wounds to believe) or any days around the Passion of Christ (Good Friday, Holy Saturday). 

The cookies are made using any standard sugar cookie dough recipe or even a prepared refigerator dough from the store. Using a hand (or foot) shaped cookie cutter (or paper pattern for cutting if you don't have a cookie cutter in this shape) cut out the dough. Place a red hot candy in the center of the cookie and bake as directed. And if you prefer there are also the options to decorate with jelly or frosting which give it a more realistic image of bleeding.