St. Cecilia Biscuits & Jam Session

This clever St. Cecilia feast day idea, from guest contributor, Rebecca Collazo, also uses a play on words - suggesting a jam and biscuit bar for refreshments to a musical jam session. Rebecca is a homeschool mom to four wonderful kids who shares that she loves reading to her children, having poetry tea times, teaching writing at a Catholic co-op, and traveling to places of literary and Catholic significance. Thanks again, Rebecca, for sharing this idea for a fun gathering of musicians and food event to honor St. Cecilia. Hopefully this gives you enough time to think about having a jam session for St. Cecilia sometime next week.

My daughter Celia, her name a variant of Cecilia, is a wonderfully talented singer, pianist, and budding self-taught ukulele player. It makes my own heart sing that she is so naturally gifted in an area that I myself have zero talent. Who knew when we chose the name that it would work out so perfectly? I like to think that St. Cecilia, patron saint of musicians, has a little something to do with that!

St. Cecilia’s Feast Day is November 22. She was an early Christian virgin and martyr. She was promised in marriage but told her new husband that she had made a vow of virginity to God and had an angel protecting her. It is said that she sang this promise in her heart to God, hence the connection to music. Her husband wanted to see this angel, and she told him to be baptized by the pope, and he would be able to see her protector. He did what she asked and was indeed able to see the angel. He honored her wishes to remain a virgin. His brother followed his lead and was baptized, and they went on to bury many of the Christians being killed in Rome. They were ultimately executed for not worshipping the Roman gods. Cecilia is said to have converted many with her witness, and as many as four hundred souls were baptized by Pope Urban because of her evangelization. Eventually, she was condemned to death, but when they attempted to behead her, she survived for three days. Her heroic faith is inspiring indeed! Learn a bit about her with your kids by reading Cecilia: Singing and Sharing the Faith or by listening to Glory Stories--Saint Cecilia: The Saint of the Catacombs

We have heard it said, “To sing is to pray twice.” Why not gather loved ones to do just that? To celebrate this patroness of music, this year my family plans to host a St. Cecilia Jam Session. Since her feast day falls on Thanksgiving this year, I feel like she would approve of celebrating a day early, or even squeezing in a little breakfast fun on Thanksgiving morning with relatives already gathered for the big feast). We will invite a few families to join us to perform on their instruments of choice, sing praise songs together, or maybe even bust out the karaoke machine for the bravest among us! My plan is to begin by praying the Prayer of St. Cecilia, read a short book about her life, and offer friends refreshments as we listen to the performances. And what more perfect snack at a jam session than jam itself! I’ll spread out a simple biscuit bar with a variety of jams, jellies, and spreads for folks to choose from. Coffee, tea, and juice will be the beverage offerings, and if I’m feeling fancy, we might have some fruit, too. My friends are always more than willing to bring things to share, so I may ask them to bring their favorite jam, fruit, or biscuits, but honestly, this is a pretty simple spread, so I may even be able to pull it off without too much hassle! True confessions: my biscuits will be of the Pillsbury variety, and I can assure you none of my people will be disappointed. Insert Dough Boy giggle here.

Simple celebrations are the best way to keep up with these feast days and to keep my own heart singing. My hope is that by creating these special memories with my children, they’ll really appreciate the Liturgical Year, and all the richness that it offers us. And that, my friends, really is my jam!

St. Cecilia, Patron of Musicians,

Pray for us!

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A Simple and Sweet Treat for the Feast of St. Cecilia

St. Cecilia, whose feast is celebrated on November 22, was named the patroness of music because “While the profane music of her wedding was heard, Cecilia was singing in her heart a hymn of love for Jesus, her true spouse.” She is often represented in art with an organ or organ pipes in her hands. In honor of her feast you can easily create “St. Cecilia’s Heavenly Music Candy Bar” using Kit Kats!

St. Cecilia’s Heavenly Music Candy Bar

Supplies:

• Serving Tray
• 4 White KitKat Candy Bars
• 6 Snack Size Twin Packs of KitKats - Regular or Dark Chocolate

 

Unwrap the KitKats and aassemble the candy on a serving dish to resemble an organ keyboard.  Enjoy!

Let the deep organ swell the lay
In honor of this festive day.
Let the harmonious choirs proclaim
Cecilia’s ever blessed name.

Let the harmonious choirs proclaim
Cecilia’s ever blessed name.

Cecilia with a two-fold crown,
Adorned in heaven we pray look down,
Upon thy fervent children here
And harken to their humble prayer.

Let the harmonious choirs proclaim
Cecilia’s ever blessed name.

St. Cecilia, special patroness and advocate of all singers, musicians, authors, and students, pray for us!

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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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Candy Corn Saints

The following recipe was submitted by Eliana Murphy.  Thank you Eliana! 

My brothers and I made candy corn saints a few years ago for All Hallow's Eve. We adapted a candy corn recipe and used the candy dough to make all sorts of shapes! I couldn't find the original recipe link, but I found another one that appears to be very similar, if not identical:

Candy Corn Saints

adapted from The Washington Post  

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup non-fat milk powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup light corn syrup
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Red and yellow food coloring (Note: If you wish to avoid the chemicals in artificial food coloring, you can use natural Earthgrown Food Colours from Dancing Deer Baking Co. as we did, purchasing them from our local Whole Foods. India Tree also makes natural food colors. The natural colors are more pale than artificial colors, which is why our candies are not brightly colored. )

Directions

Sift powdered sugar, milk powder and salt and reserve in a medium mixing bowl.
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan (wide and shallow is preferable, as is nonstick or enamel coated), bring granulated sugar, corn syrup, fat and vanilla up to a boil over high heat. When you begin to see bubbles, reduce heat to medium-high and cook for five minutes, stirring frequently with a heat-proof silicon or rubber spatula. A candy thermometer will read 225-230 degrees, just before thread stage. You want to set a timer or use the thermometer - this is very important. (Note: If you live at high altitude, subtract 2 degrees F for every 1000 ft above sea level, otherwise the candy may overcook or even burn.)

Remove pan from heat, and gradually add powdered sugar mixture to pan, incorporating with spatula. Make sure that mixture is completely integrated. Let mixture cool until slightly warm to the touch. Be careful that little ones do not burn themselves by molding the candy before it has cooled! It is recommended to not have children working with boiling candy, but they can safely participate in the measuring, kneading, and molding stages.

At this point, if you wish to create only candy corn shapes, you can link back to the original recipe. We got very creative with our candy and created a variety of shapes related to All Hallow's Eve and All Soul's Day. Knead food coloring into candy as desired before shaping. If the candy is too squishy or sticky, especially once you add the food coloring, try adding a little extra powdered sugar to the mixture. If you wish to avoid staining your hands, knead inside of a plastic bag or use plastic wrap between your hands and the candy. Once the candy is colored, you can mold into shapes on a surface covered with wax paper, so it won't stick.

After the candy is shaped, if you wish to keep it for a longer time (if it is not all eaten up immediately!), store at room temperature in airtight container, separating layers with parchment or waxed paper.



Shapes we made include saints, pumpkins and squash, skulls for All Souls, a harp for St. Cecilia, a shamrock for St. Patrick, and a sword and shield for St. Michael. This candy could also be used to make shapes for Christmas, Easter, St. Valentines Day, or any other feast day!
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On the Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum

Deo Gratias.  ~  Thanks be to God. 

Today is the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the 6th anniversary of Summorum Pontificum going into effect.  Father Z suggests that we all "say a prayer for Benedict XVI and thank God for this important gift to the people of God."  He also suggests that we "find some way to celebrate on this beautiful feast day and anniversary. We have a lot to be thankful for, both in the way of the Holy Cross and in how we renew the Sacrifice of the Cross during celebrations of Mass with the traditional Roman Rite."  So, I baked a cake and decorated it with "Deo gratias." at the suggestion of my husband.  After dinner we plan to share a beautiful and inspiring out-of-print book with our children and celebrate this feast and anniversary with cake!

Deo Gratias Chant Cake

1 - 13x9 Cake

White Frosting

1 Hershey's Chocolate Bar - cut into squares

Black Decorating Candy 

(optional...additional frosting probably would have worked better)

Red Sparkle Gel

Black Sparkle Gel

 

Frost, decorate, and enjoy! 

Almighty God and Father, Who have revealed Yourself through Your Eternal Word, and have blessed Your Church with Pope Benedict XVI, our teacher in both faith and reason; receive our prayers of thanksgiving for his witness to the beauty of truth, for his example of hopefulness, for his humble service of Christ's Bride. Grant him, in his time of retirement, the reward of study and prayer as he continues to seek, find, and love you in truth. We ask this through Christ our Lord. 

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Enjoying Chant with St Gregory the Great

The 3rd of September is the feast day of one of the greatest Popes in history. So great in fact, the worthy title is added to his name - St Gregory the Great. He was a pope that had an important and permanent influence on the Church and world for greater good. The music of the Church bears his name – the Gregorian Chant. St Gregory reformed the liturgy and developed the chant as we know it today.

Many symbols are connected to St Gregory and I have featured a couple in this cake in honour of him. The cake represents the chant notation in a schola book. St Gregory is often depicted with a scroll with the words, “Ora pro nobis Deum” which translates, “Pray for us to God”, so I have incorporated those words to the chant notation. Why the connection to those words? The belief is St Gregory was walking in procession, barefoot on Easter morning in Rome when he heard the first three lines of the Regina Caeli chanted by angels, he was so deeply moved he added the fourth line, “Ora pro nobis Deum. Alleluia”

Jessica I would like to thank you for inviting me to participate here at Catholic Cuisine, I think the most encouraging thing I could add is I am not the best cook. I struggle and stress internally doing it, often feeling I am all thumbs. So if I can offer something here it means it is definitely attemptable!

I have used a white mud cake recipe, something I felt would hold together well when I went to ‘chisel it’ I cut the cake in a slight 'v' in the centre and sliced a bit off each end, to give the appearance of the book resting open.

I’ve made a simple icing mixture for the whole cake and I then bought an inexpensive packet of liquorice straps (2 metres or 6.5 feet per packet) and I used clean scissors to cut the liquorice in order to make the book cover, chant notation and words. The book ribbons were made from some strawberry flavoured confectionery straps. So very simple!

WHITE CHOCOLATE CAKE

250 grams (8.8 oz) of butter

150grams (5.3 oz) of white chocolate chopped coarsely

2 cups of caster sugar

1 cup of milk

1 ½ cups of plain flour

1 tsp of vanilla essence

2 eggs lightly beaten

Grease a rectangular tin 16.5 x 26cm ( 6 1/2 x 10 2/5 inches.) I lined the base only and greased the sides. Set the oven heat at this point. Combine butter, chocolate, sugar and milk in medium saucepan, stir over low heat, without boiling, until smooth. Transfer mixture to large bowl allowing the mixture to cool for 15 minutes. Whisk sifted flour into mixture then stir in essence and eggs. Pour mixture into prepared tin. Bake in oven 180 degrees Celsius (356 Fahrenheit) for 50 -60 mins.

VANILLA ICING

2 Cups of confectioner's sugar (icing sugar) sift before measuring

1 ½ tablespoons butter, soft

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

3 to 4 tablespoons of milk (or add only enough to create desired thickness)

Mix and beat on the ingredients together until smooth and soft.

I made a double recipe of icing for this cake.

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