Ice Cream w/ Salted Honey Caramel Sauce on the Feast of Blessed Solanus Casey

Blessed Solanus Casey is known as a miracle worker. One story that I came across happened to feature ice cream. Considering that there is this miraculous story involving ice cream, this frozen treat seems a proper dessert option on his midsummer feast day today. I decided to top it with a honey caramel sauce because he took care of the beehives at the monastery and was known to soothe the bees with his harmonica playing. 

One hot summer day, Blessed Solanus had seen many people at the door seeking his blessing and counsel. One visitor had come to thank him for his help in one manner or another, bringing ice cream cones to celebrate. Called to another situation, Blessed Solanus sat the ice cream in his desk drawer.

About 30 minutes later, one of the friars returned to the monastery from the dentist’s office. He had gone to arrange an operation to take care of a serious infection of his jaw. Before he left, he sought Blessed Solanus’ blessing, which he received. Blessed Solanus did not believe that religious should normally ask for miracles because they should embrace the sufferings God placed before them. But, as the custom of the day dictated, such a major health complication for a novice likely would mean they would have to leave the order. Blessed Solanus took pity on this friar, and in giving his blessing indicated the dentist might be surprised. Sure enough, the infection was gone.

When the friar returned to the monastery, he recounted the good news. He knew it was the prayer of Blessed Solanus that brought him healing. But Blessed Solanus offered a detraction from any attention that might be paid to him, and he initiated a celebration for the friar’s healing by pulling out the ice cream cones he earlier placed in his desk. They were fully intact and as cold as if they had been in the freezer all along.    ~ From OSV article

Salted Honey Caramel Sauce

Ingredients:
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup whipping cream
½ teaspoon sea salt

Directions: 
Combine sugar, honey, and water in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium, stirring until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil; cook until mixture is golden brown and smooth in texture, additional 4-6 minutes.

Remove from heat and carefully whisk in cream, butter, and salt (be careful, mixture will splatter). Let cool. Spoon over ice cream and serve. Sprinkle with additional sea salt if desired.

Sauce can be refrigerated for up to two weeks. Reheat before serving.


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Sweet Carmel Rosary

A very simple idea to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (July 16) is a rosary fashioned out of caramel bits. These cute and tasty caramel bits are a perfect rosary bead size - ready made. Just count out 59 caramel bits and arrange in rosary shape. I used some extra caramel to mold the cross and pressed a Marian medal into a flattened bead for the rosary center.  These caramel bits are made by Kraft and where available are sold in grocery store baking sections. You might have to look a few places to find them. I found these at Walmart.

Though this feast day is most associated with the scapular, the rosary is always fitting for a Marian feast day. On this special Marian feast day the family could say the rosary together then enjoy snacking on the beads. Alternatively, you could eat the beads as you go along.

Also, the rosary is a prominent feature hanging from the cinture of the Carmelite habit so is associated with the various Carmelite saints in images. This idea could be implemented on other feast days of the Carmelite saints, too.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Pray for us. 

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Brownies with Salted Honey Caramel Sauce

It's been over a year since I began the autoimmune protocol diet due to health issues. I know how tough it is to celebrate with food for those dealing with allergies, food sensitivities, and other health conditions. It’s not impossible though! Just because you are on a special diet, doesn’t mean you can’t find ways to incorporate some fun and festive foods for feast days every once in awhile.

Here is a delicious {sugar-free, grain-free, dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free} recipe that I made to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It would also be perfect for any of the other Carmelite saints, including the feast of St. Therese! Although I'm not sure I'll be able to wait until October to make them again... They are amazing! 

 

Brownies with Salted Honey Caramel Sauce

Brownies
(source: Eat Heal Trive)  

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup arrowroot flour
• 3 tbsp carob powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla (non-alcoholic) 
• 1 tbsp. gelatin plus 1/4 c water (for your gelatin egg)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8x8 baking dish. (Note: After greasing the pan with coconut oil, I also lined it with some wax paper.) 

In a small bowl, sift together the coconut flour, arrowroot flour, carob powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

Note: If you’re okay with cocoa (a Stage 2 AIP reintroduction), then replace the 3 tbsp. of carob powder for cocoa powder. 

In a large bowl combine the apple sauce, oil, honey, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla using an electric mixer.

In a small saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over the 1/4 c water and allow to soften for 2-3 minutes. While the gelatin blooms, mix the dry ingredients with the wet.

Turn the heat to medium low to melt the gelatin. This should only take about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Whist vigorously until the gelatin egg is very frothy. Then add this to the brownie mixture. Stir to combine.

Pour the mixture into your prepared baking pan and gently smooth and spread with the back of a wet spoon.

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before cutting.

 

Salted Honey Caramel Sauce

(adapted from freshtart.com) 

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups full-fat coconut milk
• 1 cup honey
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (non-alcoholic, optional)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions: 

In a medium saucepan, combine coconut milk and honey. Bring to a low boil over medium heat. Continue to boil, stirring occasionally, until mixture is thickened to caramel sauce consistency.

Note: The time will vary depending on the size of pan you use, but plan on around 15 minutes of low boiling. (It took me about 25 minutes.) 

Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla and salt (adjust to taste). Serve warm or transfer to a jar to store in the fridge. Warm before serving. Makes 2 cups.

Serve over brownies and sprinkle with additional salt if desired. 

You can also create {AIP} Brown Scapular Treats with the brownies as well, decorating them with caramel ropes and mango crosses. 

You can see the rest of our Feast of Our Lady of Carmel celebration over at Shower of Roses. 

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us! 

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Easy No-Bake Brown Scapular Treats

Here is a fairly quick and easy no bake treat that I made for my children today, to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, inspired by one of my brown scapulars.  These would be perfect for any of the Carmelite Saints and Blesseds as well. 

Supplies: 

Hershey's Milk Chocolate Candy Bars
Just Mango Slices
Cocomels Coconut Milk Caramels (or use regular caramels, these are what I had on hand) 

Directions: 

Break each Hershey's bar into 4 sections. Use 2 sections to make each scapular, placing them top down on a plate. Cut a cross out of the dried mango for each side of the scapular. Create the cord by cutting the caramel into sections, rolling it into a rope (2 per scapular), and placing it under each corner of the scapular. 

You can see the rest of our celebration over at Shower of Roses. 

Holy Virgin of Mount Carmel, Our Lady of the Scapular, 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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A Simple Caramel Applesauce Crown Cake

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel!  

Our family is celebrating with a simple Caramel Applesauce Crown Cake in honor of Our Lady baked in a beautiful Marian Fleur de Lis Cake Pan.   

Caramel Applesauce Crown Cake

Ingredients:

1 pkg Namaste Foods Spice Cake Mix 

3 eggs

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup oil

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 fresh apple, grated or chopped (skin left on is okay)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Caramel sauce (optional)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350˚ F. Grease and flour a bundt cake pan.  (I choose a beautiful Marian Fleur de Lis Bundt Pan for our crown cake. )   

Combine all ingredients and mix well.

Bake for approximately 45-50 minutes.  Cake is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  

Cool for 5 minutes and remove from pan. Cool completely and then top with caramel sauce.

*This cake can also be baked in a 9x13 pan for 35-40 minutes, or 2 -9" round layers for 30-35 minutes. 

*You can find the beautiful Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Statue here. 

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Ora Pro Nobis! 

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Healthy Gluten Free Scapular Cake

I'm trying to eat a bit healthier than usual at present and so I wanted to make a healthier annual scapular cake for the feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel. It is gluten free. I have a great recipe, but to make the cake you see above, I only used half of the ingredients. I'm calling it a cake, but in way, it's more like a slice, when you make half recipe. It's very dense and the topping is almost as thick as the cake. My cake tin 10 1/2 inches by 7 inches and an inch and half deep. (27cm x 17.5cm x 4cm)

It's healthy but very, very yummy!! Here's the recipe:

Firstly I'll start with the icing..allow it to be nice & thick, it has no sugar so you can feel guilt free about applying it thick! I use a 250gram pack of cream cheese (8.8 oz) and the same about of butter at room temperature. I then beat the two together, add cacao powder until it is a nice, deep chocolate colour, then I add honey to taste (I'm fairly liberal with it, for a lovely, sweet taste.) This icing holds together beautifully and very easy to apply to the cake.

Cake/slice recipe:

1/2 cup of coconut oil

1 cup of caoco powder

270ml (9 oz) can of coconut cream (or milk)

(Melt the coconut oil and mix these ingredients together)

1 and 1/2 cups of rapadura (dried sugar cane juice)

9 eggs

1 tsp of vanilla extract

3/4 tsp of salt

(Mix these ingredients together)

3/4 cup of coconut flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

OPTIONAL: 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

(Mix together)

Mix the three lots together.

Pour half of this recipe into a dish with the measurements I mentioned above OR pour full recipe into a larger rectangular dish for a larger scapular cake.

If you are using half the recipe, cook only for 20 to 25 mins at 180 degrees celsius (356 degrees fahrenheit) or for 35 mins if using the full recipe.

I wanted to do something a little different for the top of the scapulars...I found this breathtaking image of Our Lady of Mt Carmel bestowing upon St Simon Stock, the scapular. So I printed it up and cut out the two sets of angels and Our Lady and St Simon Stock. I then laminated the images so that they could lie on top of the cake without the image becoming damp.

Here is the cake, once it came out of the oven..

Once I had iced it, I then added the laminated images to the top...the original picture is split among the two cakes, Our Lady and St Simon Stock on one side, the two sets of angels on the other.

The picture has the Our Lady and the angels sitting among the clouds, so I thought I'd add those clouds back into the cake by making them out of whipped cream.

Our Lady of Mt Carmel's scapular has been on my mind all week, as I finally start making homemade scapulars from scratch..these are scapulars for life ~ you will never need another, they will never break. I have also enclosed inside my scapulars, a miraculous medal, a St Benedict medal, an little photo image of Mother of Good Counsel and St Anthony's Brief.

Those added sacramentals are securely sewed between the two layers of 100% wool felt and will never come out. I have taught myself to embroider and designed the two designs you see below. My daughters are very keen to learn how to make these, and I hope to remake all the scapulars in the home, as well as make some for other relatives and friends. I hope to share a tutorial on how to make them, over at my blog very soon for anyone who may be interested in this craft.

Tomorrow for the feast, we look forward to having the very youngest members of our family enrolled in the brown scapular after the Mass. Wishing everyone a blessed feast day and I ask for prayers for the family members of a young cousin of mine who died in a house fire almost 30 years ago on the 16th of July, the pain and suffering is always there for them, especially at this time.

One side of the scapular has the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts design, the other side, the two sides of a miraculous medal design.

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Our Lady of Mount Carmel Meatball Sandwich

Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Our Lady, queen and beauty of Carmel, pray for us. 
July 16 ~ New & Traditional Calendar

According to legend, a religious community was established even before the time of Christ on Mount Carmel. This is the mountain overlooking the Mediterranean Sea on which the prophet Elijah successfully challenged the priests of Baal and won the people to the true God. The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel entered the Calendar of the universal Church in the early 18th century.

~~~

My family has a special devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.  She is also Sparkles and mine namesake – Carmen.  Because of this, Dad coordinates this feast day celebration.  Praise God!

Dad has narrowed in on my favorite, Carmel Iced Coffee and his specialty, meatballs. 

This recipe is not my own. Dad found it on one of my family’s favorite recipe site, Pioneer Woman. We have been using her recipes for some time. We even started a cooking challenge, where we make one of her recipes every week – for the entire year. We have never been let down by any of her recipes. She gives great directions and provides wonderful pictures and humorous dialogue. Pioneer Woman is also a homeschooling mom!

Dinner: Mini Meatball Sandwiches

Meatball ~ Mount Carmel.

Provolone Cheese ~ White for the purity of Our Lady.

Bread ~ The Bread of Life, Jesus – who Mary ALWAYS leads us to.

~~~

NOTES:

I like using ground turkey, Dad prefers ground beef.

Dad likes to make an extra large batch and freeze the cooked meatballs for future use.

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Carmelite Sundaes

Yesterday my family celebrated the lives of sixteen Carmelite sisters who died as martyrs during the French Revolution, in Compiegne, France.

Sixteen Carmelite sisters were taken from their convent in Compiegne in northeastern France when their convent was seized by the government. Eventually they were imprisoned and on July 17, the day after the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, they were taken to their death, by guillotine. It is said, they rode in carts to the place where they would be put to death, singing: the "Miserer," "Salve Regina," and "Te Deum," and as they stood at the foot of the guillotine they sang "Veni Creator Spiritus." (You can read the complete story here.)

They turned the bitter, hideous, unjust death by guillotine into sweet martyrdom with their beautiful faith in God. In their honor I made caramel sauce for ice cream sundaes with nothing but heat and white sugar. Just a few moments before the heat turns the sugar into a bitter, acrid substance, it turns it into sweet, molten caramel, just as the Carmelite martyrs turned their bitter death into something joyful and glorious.

This recipe for caramel sauce is most amazing. It is nothing but sugar and water and heat. You can certainly used jarred caramel sauce to make your sundaes, but I love the magic of taking burned sugar and turning into something sweet and decadent.

This recipe for caramel sauce can be used for any Carmelite feast day, like Our Lady of Mt. Carmel...St. Teresa of Avila...St. Therese of Lisieux...St. Mary Magdalen di Pazzi...St. John of the Cross. There are many and a list can be found here.







Use this Caramel Sauce over chocolate or vanilla ice cream -- or go all caramel and use caramel swirl. Top with whipped cream, cherries and chopped nuts, if desired.

Caramel Sauce

1 cup sugar
water

In a small saucepan, combine sugar and 1/4 cup water and place over medium-high heat. Without stirring, very gently swirl the pan until a clear syrup forms. It is important that the syrup clarify before it boils, so move the pan off and back on the heat if necessary. After the sugar dissolves, raise the heat to high and bring the syrup to a rolling boil; cover the pan tightly and boil for 2 minutes. Uncover the pan and cook the syrup until it begins to darken around the edges. Gently swirl the pan by the handle and cook the syrup until it turns a deep amber and begins to smoke -- stop before it becomes red or mahogany. Remove from the heat. Standing back (take one giant step backward and cover your hand with a towel or hot pad -- it's going to spatter) add 1/3 cup water, then stir until smooth. If the caramel remains lumpy, stir briefly over low heat. Cool for 5 to 10 minutes, then serve over ice cream.

Source: modified from The Joy of Cooking

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Scapular Cookies for Our Lady of Mt Carmel

This is my fourth year of making scapular cakes for the feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel and I have in turn been greatly inspired by other ladies creations in the last couple of years, so that my creation for each year, changes slightly with the continued inspiration I receive with ladies sharing their edible scapulars.

I was greatly impressed with Jackie Rosario's Children's Scapular Cake this year and I love Ruth's Scapular Brownies from last year. So this year I wanted to mix the two ideas together as well as keeping it simple for myself with very busy days at present. So my scapular cookies are made from store bought chocolate chip cookies and are particularly for mothers who want to whip up something quickly and on the run, rather than putting in the extra time of personal cooking. (Of course you could bake chocolate cookies if you wanted to.)

It was easy and quick to cut a rectangle out of each cookie.

The other nice thing with using cookies, they are nice and flat, very much like the thickness of a good, strong scapular!

I used store bought blue and white icing sugar tubes and black licorice straps. I used a stanly knife, with a very sharp blade for cutting the black straps of licorice into long scapular straps.

This is the image of the Children's Scapular that Jackie Rosario had used, it is a really lovely image for a brown scapular.

I used the blue icing sugar first and drew the 'M' ~ then I used the white icing to place in the 'A' between the M. I found this really easy and not terribly time consuming, I ended up making 12 scapulars and the icing work was not tedious.

...and they tasted fantastic!!

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Celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

In honor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, whose feast day is celebrated on July 16th, we have decided to host a linky here at Catholic Cuisine so that you can all share pictures of any of the treats you make in her honor!

Lots of ideas can be found in the archives including:

• Granita di Caffe
• Mystic Monk Coffee
• A Cake for Our Lady of Mount Carmel
• A Brown Scapular Cake
• More Scapular Cakes In Honor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
• And one more Scapular Cake
• Our Lady of Mount Carmel Crown
• Mount Carmel Steamers
• Brown Scapular Brownies for Our Lady of Mount Carmel and directions
• Carmel Iced Milks and Coffee

We hope you all have a blessed feast!

O most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel, fruitful vine, splendor of heaven, blessed mother of the Son of God, immaculate virgin, assist us in our necessity. O star of the sea, help us and show us the way. Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who turn to you.

Note:  Please be sure to link directly to your post/pictures for Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and not your main blog link, or the link will be removed.  Thanks! 

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Brown Scapular brownies

Here is a very simple recipe I came up with last year to celebrate the Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Brown Scapular brownies

Ingredients/ supplies

1 batch of brownies, cut into 1 inch X 1 1/2 inches

chocolate frosting, to paste the images on to the brownies :-)

brown or white yarn, cut into 18" long- tucked under the brownies

these images of the Brown Scapular

front back

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us!

St. Simon Stock, pray for us!

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A Scapular Cake

This beautiful cake was submitted by Jackie Rosario from Tampa, Florida.  She says "The idea came from your blog – the design came from my daughter’s scapular! Enjoy!"  Thank you Jackie!

You can find directions and pictures of other Scapular Cakes and Brownies in honor of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the archives for July! 

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Carmel Iced Milks and Coffee

This post, in honor of the upcoming feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, was written by Robina, at Motherly Loving, and submitted for publication here at Catholic Cuisine. Thank you Robina!    A few other drink ideas for this feast can be found in the archives including: Granita di Caffe, Mystic Monk Coffee, and Mount Carmel Steamers!

In honor of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel which falls in the heat of the summer, make some easy and yummy refreshing iced drinks for your family for morning or evening. I decided to make these drinks because I wanted to make something special for my husband who faithfully wears his Our Lady of Mounat Carmel scapular medal daily. He loves Starbuck's Carmel Frappuccinos, so I decided to make a homemade version for him for to take on his way to work on the morning of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

For the children, make Carmel Ice milks by blending milk, carmel sauce and ice in a blender. Top with whipped cream and carmel sauce.

For a refreshing start to your morning make a Carmel Iced Coffee by blending chilled strong coffee (4 times stronger is what I like), milk, carmel sauce, milk and ice. Pour into a glass and for a sweet addition top with whipped cream and carmel sauce.

Or make it a Carmel Coffee piping hot with carmel melted in it.

Add a shot of coffee liquor and serve it in a wine glass for an after dinner treat.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us!

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St. Josemaria Escriva

June 26th~Feast of St. Josemaria Escriva~

Make Flan!

 ...The national dessert of Spain, home country of St. Josemaria...

I originally printed out this recipe to try.

You may want to try it!

In the meantime, this instant flan caught my eye at the the grocery store...

(I tried it ahead of time with the recipe above to use for Plan B)

Ingredients:

~This box and milk~

Now I'm no "flan connoisseur" but I thought it was delicious! 

~It was amazingly easy, which is the best part for those of us with limited time~

My only critique is that it was not as firm as I had expected.  

However, I used a jello mold for the nice shape and effect...So I'm not sure if this had something to do with the consistency.

Since this flan also came with carmel sauce, it would also be a yummy dessert to use for the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on July 16th!

~Just add whipped cream~

God Bless you on this special feast day!

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