Classic Polish Cucumber Salad for St. John Paul II

There are two foods that I associate with going to visit my relatives on the farm where my Polish American father was born and raised - and Mizeria, cucumber in a creamy dill dressing, is one.  It was a staple. From most Polish families you will hear the same. As a classic Polish salad side dish it seems very fitting for the feast day of St. John Paul II (Karol Wojtyła), October 22. And it is super simple to make - a bonus for a busy day.

Mizeria - Polish Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

• 1 large cucumber 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar
• pinch of sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 

Directions

Peel cucumber(s).  Slice cucumber very thinly and place in a bowl.  Sprinkle slices with salt and let sit for 30 minutes to pull the liquid. Drain water from the salted cucumbers and gently squeeze to expel any remaining water.  Pat dry with paper towel.  

Mix sour cream, vinegar, sugar, and dill in medium bowl.  Toss cucumber slices in mixture. Allow the salad to marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour.  Taste, season with salt and freshly ground pepper as needed and serve.  Garnish with dill if desired. Serves 4 but is easily doubled or tripled. 

St. John Paul II, the Great, Pray for us!

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Footprint Cookies on St. Stephen's Day

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gath'ring winter fuel.

"Hither, page, and stand by me
If thou know'st it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence
Underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes' fountain."

Having some cookie dough already made up in the fridge and knowing that tonight our Christmas book was Stephen's Feast, I decided to make some footprint cookies in honor of St. Wencenslaus and the miracle of his footprints on this special day. I used this template to cut out the shape of the cookies. My first thought was to fill them in with icing and topping them with red and yellow sprinkle sugar.

"Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I will see him dine
When we bear him thither."
Page and monarch forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude wind's wild lament
And the bitter weather.

"Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, my good page
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly."

But then they looked less like footprints and more like sprinkled blobs. That was when I decided on the outline of the shoe print. The sprinkles represented the warmth felt in holy King's steps. I used a simple cookie icing recipe that called for light corn syrup. I was out of light corn syrup so I substituted with honey.

In his master's steps he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing.

Cookie Icing

1 cup confectioner's sugar
3 tsp. milk
2 tsp. honey
1/4 tsp. almond extract

Stir together sugar and milk. Add honey and extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick add more honey or milk.

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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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Eagle Cake

As I mentioned earlier, today was the feast of St. John the Apostle. One of the symbols for St. John is the eagle. Since we celebrate one of my sons namedays today, I decided to make an Eagle cake using the directions for an Eaglet Cut-Up-Cake in My Nameday Come for Dessert by Helen McLoughlin as a guide. It was really easy and quite fun to put together!

It turned out very homemade looking -- but that never does matter to children, does it?!

EAGLET CAKE

Modified from: My Nameday Come for Dessert

1) You will need a 9-inch square cake. Bake it from a cake mix or
from your best-liked recipe. When cool, cut a strip diagonally
across the center of the cake, 3 inches wide to use for the body.
Cut the corner off one end to make a beak.

(In case some of you need visuals like I do, I drew a picture for you.)

2) Place the cake strip so that the pointed end is the head; use
the cut-off piece for the beak. Use remaining cake pieces as
spread-out wings. Frost with white seven-minute frosting.

(I used canned frosting in chocolate and lemon.)

3) When the fluffy frosting is swirled on the eaglet, add coconut
for feathers. Make a red gumdrop eye and a glistening beak of
tiny yellow candies. For the feet and wing tips use split pieces
of licorice "shoelaces."

(I skipped this step since my goal was to use what I had on hand. I frosted the body with chocolate frosting, the beak with lemon, and used powdered sugar for the head. I then added a couple candy corns for his talons. To finish him off I just added a brown M&M for his eye.)


This cake can also be used for the feasts of Sts. "John of the Cross; Augustine of Hippo; Priscilla, an early Christian martyr; the Benedictines Cuthbert, Bertolph, and Thierry (or Theodoric); Leopold; and Wenceslaus, who is shown in art with an eagle on a shield." ~ Helen McLoughlin
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