St. Monica's Tears~A Feast Day Treat!

Happy Feast of St. Monica!

St. Monica is the perfect model for perseverance.  She never gave up prayers for her wayward son. (St. Augustine) Begging God for his conversion, she cried many tears. Legend says that a drain formed in the ground where her tears fell while she prayed for her son.  

When she approached her local bishop to ask him to help win over her son to the faith, the Bishop consoled her by saying: "God's time will come.  Go now, it is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish."  

The good news is that Monica never gave up and her son's heart was turned away from his evil ways.  Augustine later became know for his famous conversion and became "St." Augustine after his death, one of the greatest saints and doctors of the Catholic Church.  

St. Monica's life was a message of hope.  Her tears gave way to God's sweet grace and bountiful blessings!  

These teardrop treats represent St. Monica's tears that were "sweetened" by the sweat of her prayers.

St. Monica's Tears

Easy 2 ingredients:

1.Crescent dough

2. Nutella/Hazelnut spread

Break apart crescent dough into triangles.

Spread a small amount (approx. 1-2 teaspoons) of Nutella or favorite spread on the top end of the triangle only. A little bit goes a long way...Otherwise the chocolate will leak all over! 

Roll dough from the larger end down to the smaller end as if making a croissant.  Then, fold the two ends inward to form the shape of a teardrop.

Pinch the ends together to increase the chances of holding the teardrop shape.

Here are before and after photos.  

Remember that the dough will rise/puff up a little bit so try to elongate the ends as much as possible.

Enjoy the sweetness!

Intercede for us, dear St. Monica, example for Christian motherhood, hope, and perseverance!

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St. Monica and St. Augustine Key Lime Pie Recipe

The following recipe was submitted by Susan from Sole Searching. Thank you Susan! 

In honor of these two great saints, here is a recipe for a special key lime pie. Creating some symbolism with whatever fare you make helps make a memory for the children. For example:

- The pie itself represents the sea of tears (blue color, round shape) shed by St. Monica for her son Augustine, that he may know Christ and so be converted by His love.

- The whipped cream with blue sprinkles represents heaven. St. Monica's sacrifice and prayers were honored by our Lord, and St. Monica and St. Augustine live on in eternity in heaven with Christ.

- The icons placed in the center of the pie were there to give the children a visual of the two saints while I read to them their story.

Key Lime Pie Recipe:

I used an already prepared graham cracker crust, but you can also make one with this recipe:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
6 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons sugar

Mix ingredients together in a large bowl. Press into an 8 inch pie plate and bake until golden, about 12-13 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Reduce oven temperature to 325.

1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup freshly squeezed key-lime juice*
1 tablespoon grated key lime zest
4-5 drops of blue food coloring (more or less, depending on the brand)

Combine milk, egg yolks, lime juice, food coloring and zest in a medium sized bowl and whisk together until blended. Pour into prepared, cooled crust. Bake until the center is set, but still quivers when the pan is nudged, about 15-17 minutes.. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours or until chilled. Top with whipped cream, homemade or Redi-Whip, and garnish with blue sprinkles before serving.

*I have used the bottled key lime juice as well as the fresh juice of regular limes and the pies have turned out just fine.

“You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our 

hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

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Edible Eagles

"E is for Eagles

Here where clear waters reflect the clean air, 

look to the deep sky,

up where big birds fly.

See! Against white clouds...a bald eagle pair!"

~ G is for Granite: A New Hampshire Alphabet

As an extra project to go along with our Geography Study of New Hampshire this past week, my boys made Edible Eagles!

Since the Eagle also symbolizes some of the saints, I thought this would be a fun addition to our collection of ideas and recipes here at Catholic Cuisine.  These Edible Eagles would be a great little treat to make for the feast of St. John in December, a fun snack for the first Blue Knights meeting for Year Two (featuring St. John), or even for the upcoming feast of All Saints!  

"The Eagle when accompanying St. John the Evangelist is an emblem of the spiritual character of his Gospel, but when the King of Birds accompanies St. Prisca it refers to the legend that an eagle held watch over her body until it was buried after her martyrdom.  When a figure bearing an eagle's head, or a four-winged eagle, or a male saint with an eagle is depicted, it always represents St. John, ot in the character of a simple Apostle, but as the Evangelist." ~   How to Distinguish the Saints in Art by Their Costumes, Symbols and Attributes

Acording to Saints.SQPN.com, the Eagle also symbolizes the following:

• Our Lord, who could gaze undazzled upon the glory of God, the Father, as an eagle at the sun
• Baptism by early Christians
• Saint Augustine of Hippo as a symbol of inspiration
• Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, who was fed by an eagle
• Saint Florian of Lorch, whose corpse was protected from abuse by an eagle
• Saint John of the Cross as a symbol of inspiration
• Saint John the Evangelist as a symbol of inspiration and the Holy Ghost
• Saint Juan Diego, whose birth name means “the eagle who speaks”
• Saint Medard of Noyon, who was sheltered from the weather by a hovering eagle
• Saint Ruggero of Canne, who was sheltered in his travels by an eagle
• Saint Servatus, who was sheltered from the sun by an eagle while he travelled as a pilgrim
• Saint Wenceslaus, due to his association with Bohemia

Edible Eagles

(from Family Fun Magazine)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of white chocolate chips (we used candy melts)
• 6 large marshmallows
• Finely shredded coconut
• Chocolate sandwich cookie
• 6 Cashews (we used peanuts) 
• Black decorators' gel

Instructions:

Melt 1/4 cup of white chocolate chips (or candy melts) according to the package directions. 

For each bird, drop a large marshmallow into the melted chocolate, using a spatula to coat it well. 

Remove the marshmallow from the chocolate and roll it in finely shredded coconut, leaving one end uncovered. 

Immediately set the marshmallow, coconut free end down, atop a chocolate sandwich cookie. 

Let the chocolate set a bit, then use a toothpick to make a hole in the side of the marshmallow and insert a cashew for a beak. (We attached our peanuts with a bit more white chocolate.) 

Finally, add black decorators' gel eyes. 

You can find a few other great ideas in the archives including the Eagle Marshmallow Pops & Eagle Head Quesadillas and the Eagle Cake.

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Feasts of St Augustine & St Monica

Today is the feast of St Augustine ~ a wonderful saint, who was raised from great sinner to greater saint..by the prayerful tears of a mother....St Monica.

It is a tremendous tribute to the prayers of a mother and as St Ambrose the Bishop advising St Monica said, "A son of so many tears cannot be lost"

Those prayers didn't just save the soul of her son Augustine, no, she raised up a mighty bishop and Doctor of the Church!

So our feast day cake for the family is based on this beautiful reality..a mother's tears and prayers brought forth a saint and bishop!

This sweet involves some cookie and cake making..The lovely image you see above of St Augustine is what I used as the template for cutting out a big cookie, so if you click on the image it will enlarge, save it to your computer and print up ready for cooking.

Here is the cookie already cut out, the template is next to it. Here is my very simple recipe:

Heat the oven to 315F (160C)

Beat together 4 oz (125g) cubed butter and 1/2 cup (125g/4oz) caster sugar until creamy.

Add 1 egg and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence and beat well.

Sift 1 cup (125g/4oz) plain flour & 1 cup (125g/4oz) self-raising flour & fold to form a soft dough.

Roll out dough and cut out cookie.

Don't let the dough be too thick or you will end up with a stout St Thomas Aquinas instead!

Bake for 10/15mins until lightly golden. Cool on wire rake until firm.

I also cut out a strip of cookie dough to use as a support behind the St Augustine cookie when sitting on top of the cake.

*If cooking the cakes is enough, and all you can do, just print up the image above onto cardboard instead.

I then cooked up two round, white chocolate mud cakes, I used this recipe which gives me a yummy and moist cake every time. I cut out a template in paper, a tear shape in order to cut the round cakes into individual tear drops.

You can cook one cake only and just cake it in half horizontally, the only reason I cooked two cakes was due to having guests joining us to enjoy it as well.

Each cake is iced with icing made up using icing sugar, butter and water mixed together with blue food dye added to give a pale blue.

I one of the cakes I iced in these words, "A son of so many tears cannot be lost"...I suppose you have guessed by now that these two cakes represent St Monica's prayerful tears.

Here is the finished sweet, I have iced the St Augustine cookie, giving him lovely definition. St Augustine is propped on top of the tear drop that has no writing. The second tear drop is in front with the famous, comforting words of St Ambrose.

This was a very effective symbol for the children to discuss with their friends today. Whose tears are they? Why were they shed? Who said the quote and why? Why is St Augustine standing on top of one of the tears? Why is he in his bishop's vestments?

Placing St Augustine on top of the tears tells us that he was raised to the priesthood and to sainthood through the prayerful tears of his mother.

This was hughly successful, it was a VERY yummy catechetical instruction, to say the least!

It is also a wonderful way to combine these two saints together as they should be.

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Feasts of St. Monica and St. Augustine

Tomorrow is the feast of St. Monica with the feast of her son, St. Augustine, following the day after. We aren't doing any formal geography this year, but a globe, some wall maps and Google Earth are going to help us explore the place of St. Monica's birth (Algeria) and the place she died (Ostia, Italy). I was looking for recipes that might be appropriate for celebrating St. Monica and her son when I came across this Algerian dish. It just so happened that last week, I decided to reintroduce a similar dish I hardly make any more because the children were never very fond of it. Now that they are older, I know I can coerce encourage them to give it a fair try. My recipe, bearing a striking resemblance to the Algerian version calls for zucchini, chicken, tomatoes and couscous but no chickpeas. I don't see why you couldn't add them if you wanted to.

Chicken and CousCous
2 pkg. boneless chicken thighs
2 zucchini, chopped into bite size pieces
1-2 cans Italian style tomatoes, undrained
olive oil
garlic salt and pepper
couscous (we love Near East Parmesan Couscous)

Season chicken thighs with garlic salt and pepper and brown in olive oil. Remove from pan. Saute zucchini in remaining oil and pan drippings. Add tomatoes (use two cans if you want more tomato in the tomato/zucchini ratio, I prefer more zucchini) and bring to a boil. Return chicken, cover and simmer until chicken is done. Serve over couscous.

As you can see, it isn't really a recipe, rather just a set of instructions. You can play with it and add seasonings that you know your family will like. Also, here is a coloring page I made for St. Monica and here is one for St. Augustine. Please feel free to use them with your family and/or friends.

Exemplary Mother of the great Augustine, you perseveringly pursued your wayward son not with wild threats but with prayerful cries to heaven. Intercede for all mothers in our day so that they may learn to draw their children to God. Teach them how to remain close to their children, even the prodigal sons and daughters who have sadly gone astray. Amen.

Picture credit: Monastery Icons Pin It