Happy Birthday, Blessed Mother!

Birthdays are always joyous occasions in families. On September 8th, the Church, the Family of God celebrates the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary.



We can bake or purchase a white cake to symbolize Our Lady’s purity and top it with a circle of 10 candles to represent one decade of the rosary.

Pray a “Hail Mary” as each you light each candle and then sing Happy Birthday.

(pictures from our family's celebration last year)

Rejoice, O earth, because from the womb of Anna, as from a fertile vine, has sprung a sweet ripe cluster. To the harvesting of this vineyard all are invited, none are excluded - it is the joy of all.  ~ St. John Damascene

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Heavenly Cloud Cookies

Sacred Art Series Rosary Flip Book and Trader Joe's Vanilla Meringues

I picked up a box of Vanilla Meringues  - "Heavenly Cloud Cookies" -  from our local Trader Joe's to serve as a little treat following our family rosary. 

Additional ideas and recipes can be found in the archives. 

Happy Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary! 

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Dairy Free Blueberry Annunciation Smoothies

This recipe was submitted by past Catholic Cuisine contributor Amy. You can find additional pictures of her cute children enjoying their Annunciation Smoothies over at her blog, Knit Together.

I thought I would share this with you super quick.  It is an easy way to whip together something special for the Feast of the Annunciation today.  I did a dairy free version, but you can replace the canned coconut milk with yogurt and the almond mil with regular cow's milk if you prefer.

You will need:

• 2-3 cups Frozen Blueberries
• 1-2 cups Frozen Peaches (or other fruit)
• 1 Can Coconut Milk
• Almond Milk
• approx. 1/4 cup Sweetener of your choice, I used Maple Syrup

Put the frozen fruit in blender.  I use peaches too because blueberries can be a really strong flavor and some people, especially kids, might not like it.  Next, add the canned coconut milk (this will make it thick and creamy) and sweetener.  At this point you want to pour in the almond milk.  I do this by eye.  Depending on how thick you want your smoothie, you will want to fill the blender halfway or up to covering the frozen fruit.

Blend it thoroughly!

If you need more almond milk, fruit, or sweetener feel free!  Make it to your taste.

Additional recipes for the Solemnity of the Annunciation can be found in the archives. 

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Authentic Liege Waffles for the Belgian Saints

Belgium is famous for its waffles. So if you are looking at celebrating a feast with a Belgian connection, look no further than the glorious waffle. I have some family members who are currently very excited about waffles and wanting real Belgian style. I did some research and found that there are two primary distinct styles of waffles in Belgium and both are different from the Americanized version most of us are familiar with. Even the name "Belgian waffle" came from the 1964 Worlds Fair in New York. There is the gaufres de Liege (Liege waffle) and the gaufres de Bruxelles (Brussels waffle) - gaufres is French, wafel is Dutch. Some history of the Belgian waffles can be found here, here and here.

Both are distinguished from the Americanized version by a yeast batter with a delicious amount of butter. Liege waffles are made with a thick, sticky batter with added vanilla and large sugar crystals called pearl sugar. When the waffles cook in the iron, the sugar crystals melt and caramelize on the surface, contributing to a crunchy sweetness. They also have uneven edges. These are the common waffles sold by street vendors in Belgium. Brussels waffles were made with a thinner batter which makes them lighter and crisper with smooth edges. These are closer to the American version.

So I splurged on a new Belgian waffle maker and some pearl sugar with Christmas money we got and put it to work to recognize the feast of Our Lady of Banneux, January 15. This commemorates the apparitions of Mary to a young girl, Mariette Beco, between January 15 and March 2, 1933 in the town of Banneux, which happens to be in the province of Liege in Belgium. It was very similar to a series of apparitions to five young children in nearby Beauraing from November 1932 to January 1933. Both were investigated and approved by the Church in 1949.

So if you are interested in celebrated Belgian saints with Belgian waffles here are a few of the more well known options:

Our Lady of Banneux - apparition, January 15
St. Colette - March 6
St. Juliana of Leige - April 6
St. Damien of Molokai - May 10
St. John Berchmans - August 13
St. Arnold of Soissons - August 14
Our Lady of Beauraing - apparition, August 22
St. Hubert - November 3

And there are the connections of waffles to celebrating the feast of the Annunciation in Sweden as mentioned in these past posts - Our Lady Feasting and Annunciation Waffles. And in my online reading I am finding was common to sell waffles as treats on the streets after Mass for feast days throughout parts of Europe. Another common feast day for this is mentioned in this past post - St. Michael's Waffles

Celebrate with waffles!

Liege Sugar Waffles

Ingredients:

1 package yeast
1/3 cup warm water
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
3 eggs
1 cup butter (melted)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Belgian pearl sugar

Directions:
Mix yeast, granulated sugar, salt and water. Let stand 15 minutes for yeast to activate. In mixing bowl mound the flour and make well in middle. Pour yeast mixture into well and mix, adding eggs and melted butter. Mix until blended. Batter will be thick and sticky. Cover dough and let rise in warm spot 30-60 minutes to double. After rising add half cup of pearl sugar and mix in.

Spoon onto hot, greased waffle iron. Cook until golden - time depending on temperature and temperament of your particular waffle iron.

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Our Lady of La Salette - Mini Blueberry Galettes

Mid-September brings one of the Marian feasts of an apparition in France. The Blessed Virgin appeared to two young shepherds, Maximin Giraud and Melanie Calvat, on the mountain of La Salette, France on September 19, 1846.  After thorough investigation the Church approved the message and secret of La Salette as written by Melanie. The account was published in Lecce in 1879. Mary's message in La Salette was similar to that of Fatima, "If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and weighs me down so much I can no longer keep hold of it." Our lady cried and expressed her sadness at those who do not keep Sunday holy and who take the name of the Lord in vain.

I saw the idea for mini blueberry galettes on The Pioneer Woman’s blog. They seemed a perfect dessert for French Marian apparition feast days – galettes because they have a French connection and blueberries because the color is associated with Our Lady.

Galette is a French culinary term referring to a variety of flat, round cakes, made with a flaky pastry dough. It is a broad term and can include a wide variety of different desserts, but most often galette refers to a free form tart that is made with a flaky pasty crust. The tarts are not molded in tart pans. Instead, filling is placed directly on top of a circle of rolled pastry and the edges are folded up and around the filling and baked until crisp. 

Galette Pastry Dough

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
6 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup ice water

In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in half of the butter with pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Cut in the remaining butter until the largest pieces are the size of peas. Drizzle the water over the dough and mix until moistened. Knead together 2 or 3 times. Flatten dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Mini Blueberry Galettes

1 cup blueberries
1/8 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 lemon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch Of salt
1 egg
1 Tbsp Water

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Stir together blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, 1 tsp lemon zest, juice quarter of the lemon, vanilla, and salt in a bowl.

Roll out dough. Using a 5-inch round pastry cutter cut rounds of pastry. Rerolling and cutting until dough is used. Makes 6 mini galettes. Place rounds on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Evenly distribute the blueberry mixture between the six discs.

Gently fold over the edges of each crust, folding the dough in on itself to create a small rim of crust.

Make an egg wash by beating together the egg and water. Brush edges of each pie with the egg wash. Sprinkle the crust with sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes until golden and filling is bubbly. Remove from the oven and allow pies to sit on the pan for 5 minutes. Remove and cool.  Serve warm or at room temp.

~There are several apparitions of Our Lady in France, so these mini treats could be used several times around the year. 

Our Lady of Pontmain (OL of Hope) - January 17

Our Lady of Lourdes - February 11

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (Rue du Bac) - November 27

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White Chocolate Cream Cake for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin

prepared a worthy dwelling for your Son,

grant, we pray,

that, as you preserved her from every stain

by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw,

so, through her intercession,

we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence.

 White Chocolate Cream Cake

Cake:

3 oz. squares white chocolate, chopped
2 1/4 C. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 C. white sugar
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 2/3 C. heavy cream
3 eggs
1 tsp. almond extract

Frosting:
3 oz. white chocolate, chopped
3 1/2 C. confectioner's sugar
1/4 C. butter, softened
4 Tbl. water
1/2 tsp. almond extract

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour two 8 or 9 inch round pans. For the cake, melt white chocolate, set aside to cool to lukewarm. In a small bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a large chilled bowl, whip heavy cream until stiff peaks form; set aside.
In a large bowl, beat eggs for about 5 minutes until light lemon colored. Beat in 1 tsp. almond flavoring and melted white chocolate. Fold in whipped cream. Fold in flour mixture, about 1/2 a cup at a time. Divide batter into prepared pans. Bake in over for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick comes clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes then turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.

For Frosting: In a large bowl, beat 3 oz. of white chocolate over low heat or in microwave, stirring occasionally, until melted; cool to lukewarm. Combine on medium speed, white chocolate, confectioners sugar, butter, water and 1/2 tsp. almond extract. Beat until smooth and of spreading consistency. Pin It

All-Saints Themed Cookies

The following post was submitted by Lynne from Adoro Te Catholic Home Educators. The All-Saints Themed Cookies were made for a parish bakesale to fund their home school groups March for Life bus and are simply beautiful! Thank you Lynne! 

All Saints Day should be a joyful feast in its own right, but its timing leaves much to be desired. For moms who’d like to combat the blur after a night of shepherding and last-minute costume changes, resist the urge to crunch on that rapidly-hardening candy corn and pull out a cookie sheet. The folks at Adoro Te Home Educators recently held a March for Life fundraising bake sale featuring some sweet, saint-themed cookies that are easy to recreate at home. All it takes is sugar cookie dough, a cookie cutter, pre-made fondant and a cookie mold.

All of the cookie molds were ordered online. St. Nicholas, Madonna of the Portal and St. Cecilia are springerle cookie molds purchased from House on the Hill . The St. John the Evangelist and Salve Regina springerle molds were purchased from Springerle Joy.  St. Gabriel and St. Michael are bread stamps from Prosphora Stamp Central.



*Cookie mold tip: The St. Nicholas mold can be used for several saints. Color the fondant red and the image is St. Nicholas; color the fondant green and the image is St. Patrick.

Roll out your cookie dough to a 3/8 inch thickness and cut out the shape of the mold. This can be done in a few ways: purchase the custom cookie cutter available with some molds; use the cookie mold as a template by laying it on the dough and cutting around the edge of the mold with a ravioli cutter; or find the right sized cookie cutter from Cheap Cookie Cutters.  If possible go a slight bit smaller with the cookie cutter because the dough will spread when baking. Bake the cookies, in the center rack, at a 325 degree oven for 15-20 minutes (oven times vary).



* Rolling tip: We used dostix to roll out the dough evenly. Dostix make the rolling process fast and easy. They are the best baking purchase I have ever made. 

* Baking tip: Because these cookies are rather thick they have to be baked at a low oven for a longer period of time to ensure they are cooked through.



After the cookies are baked and cooled it is time to work on the fondant tops. Using pre-made fondant, we used Wilton brand fondant and gel food coloring, knead and roll out the fondant to a ¼ inch thickness. Lightly dust your mold with powdered sugar. Press the rolled out fondant into the mold starting from the center of the mold and working your way to the edges. Be sure to press the fondant into all of the deep areas of the design, you can feel the indentations as you press down on the fondant. Starting from the edge carefully peal the fondant from the mold. Trim the edges of the design then ‘glue’ the fondant to the cookie by brushing the top of the cookie with light corn syrup.



* Fondant tip: When coloring your fondant use plastic food grade gloves.

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Heavenly Garden Apple Rose Pastries

My girls and I enjoyed baking Apple Roses in preparation for the feast of St. Thérèse!  There are many variations of Apple Roses that can be found online, including pies, tarts, cakes and more, but we decided to use the puff pastry sheet we had in the freezer to make the following Apple Rose Pastries.  Happy Feast of St. Thérèse! 

Heavenly Garden Apple Rose Pastries

adapted from here and here

Ingredients:

• 1 Puff Pastry Sheet 
• 3 Apples - I used a combination of Fuji and Pink Lady
• 5 Tablespoons Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Cinnamon
• 1 pinch Nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon Lemon Zest
• 4 cups Water
• 3 Tablespoons sugar
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• Powdered Sugar for dusting (optional)
• Parchment Paper

Directions:



Wash and core the apples. Slice in very thin slices, slightly smaller than 1/8 inch.  Place the sliced apples in a saucepan along with the 4 cups water, 3 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 2 minutes, or until the apple slices soften and can easily bend. 



Strain the apples and let cool in the colander.  Line a plate with paper towels and nicely arrange the apple slices so that they can dry and cool completely.

While the apples are cooling, mix the 5 tablespoons of sugar with the cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon zest.  Prepare you work surface by lightly sprinkling it with some flour (or just use a silicone mat) and unfold the sheet of puff pastry (it is easiest to work with if it is not completely thawed).  Using a pastry (or pizza) cutter, cut long strips approximately 1/2 inch wide.  Spread the cinnamon mixture over the dough and slightly press it down.

By this time your apples should be cool and almost dry.  Take a few slices and place them on the first strip of pastry dough, overlapping them so they do not fall out and will create a rose-like design (petals) once completed.  Now start rolling, making sure it is fairly tightly rolled.  Place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.

Repeat until you have create all of the Apple Roses.

Bake at 425˚F for 25 minutes, or until nicely golden.

Dust with powdered sugar if desired.

St. Thérèse, 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. -Rose Novena

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Queenship Cheese and Cracker Crown Platter

+Happy Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary+

Sharing a very simple idea to celebrate our most holy mother and Queen of heaven.

Crown Cheese and Crackers

Ingredients:

Mini Babybel cheese

Pita chips or favorite cracker

Tools:

Paring knife

Instructions:

After taking off the wrapping paper, gently carve a crown-shape in the top layer of the wax.  You don't need to press very hard and the wax pops right out, leaving the paper tab in place underneath.

Place on a platter, with crackers, for serving.

If you have a crown-shaped cookie cutter, you could add some fruit!

Father, you have given us the mother of your Son to be our queen and mother.  With the support of her prayers may we come to share the glory of your children in the kingdom of heaven.

(Taken from the Mass of the Queenship of Mary)

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Blueberry Peach Parfaits for the Coronation

The following recipe for Blueberry Peach Parfaits was submitted by Mary from Better Than Eden.  Thank you Mary! 

I put together a super simple dessert for the feast day of the Crowning of the Blessed Virgin and thought I'd share it in case you were wanting a jumping off point or some inspiration for your own festivities!

The great thing about parfaits and trifles is that there are no hard and fast rules and they are so versatile and yet still look fancy and are a special treat. This is what I put together from what I had but use what you have and make it work!

The blueberries represent Mary and the peach her golden crown. The whipped cream symbolizes the heavenly clouds and I suppose you could even have the cake represent that she is fully human and still intercedes for us here on earth below.

Ingredients:

• Yellow Cake (Other possibilities: Nilla wafers, brownies, cookies, graham crackers, or just omit it altogether.)
• Blueberries (about 2 cups)
• One Peach (Or how about mango or pineapple?)
• Whipped Cream (I used about 3-4 cups. Other possibilities: Vanilla ice cream or pudding)

Assemble your glasses or use a trifle dish.

Peel your peach and slice thinly. Cube up your cake into bite size pieces. Then just layer it all together: cake, whipped cream, blueberries, whipped cream, and use several slices of your peach for Mary's crown. Simple, simple.

I experimented with several crownesque shapes...

and an abstract version. No rules, remember?

Enjoy!

"And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." Revelation 12:1

Mary, you who are mother of our King and queen of heaven, pray for us!

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Chocolate Graham Scapulars

+Happy Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel+

Here's a simple idea to help celebrate!

This is all you need!

(No, I take that back. Our Lady is really all you need...To lead you closer to Jesus, of course!;) But here's a few more things you might need to make these treats...

Ingredients:

Chocolate Graham Crackers

Marshmallow Creme

Various colors of icing

Instructions:

Spread graham crackers with marshmallow creme and decorate with preferred scapular pattern.  The basic designs are obviously easier to make:)

Enjoy!

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, please pray for us!

Enjoy more information about this feast day here.

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