Resurrection Rolls

Last year I shared a recipe for Resurrection Cookies that I make with my children each year on Holy Saturday. This year I thought I would share another great recipe, which is also full of symbolism, and is a great hands-on way to tell the story of Christ's Resurrection to children.

Resurrection Rolls

What you will need:

• 1 package Crescent Rolls, divided into triangles
• Butter, melted
• 8 large Marshmallows
• Cinnamon/Sugar mixture
• 8 squares of foil (with child's name written on it if desired), sprayed with cooking spray
• Cookie Sheet
  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Give each child a triangle of crescent rolls. The crescent roll represents the cloth that Jesus was wrapped in.

Give each child a marshmallow. This represents Jesus.

Have the child dip the marshmallow in melted butter. This represents the oils of embalming.

Next, have the child dip the buttered marshmallow in the cinnamon and sugar. This represents the spices used to anoint the body.

Demonstrate how to wrap up the coated marshmallow tightly in the crescent roll (not like a typical crescent roll up...but bring the sides up and seal the marshmallow inside). This represents the wrapping of Jesus' body after His death. (Optional: Have each child work on a square of foil with their name written in permanent marker on the foil to easily identify after baking.)

Place on a cookie sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. The oven represents the tomb--pretend that it has been three days!

While waiting for the rolls to bake, use Resurrection Eggs or a child's Picture Bible and tell the story of Christ's Passion and Resurrection.

When the rolls have cooled slightly, the children can open their rolls (cloth) and discover that Jesus is no longer there, HE IS RISEN!

The rolls will be hollow because the marshmallow melted. While the children enjoy the rolls, explain that knowing Jesus is alive and He loves us feels so good, like the rolls taste good and sweet.


Update: I posted pictures of my children making these rolls here.

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Monkey Bread Cross

Our family has a tradition of eating monkey bread, sweet, gooey and delicious, on Easter morning. Usually I make it in a bundt cake pan, but this year I wanted to try making it in a cross shaped pan to honor Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross. I bought the cross cake pan for $5 on ebay. It took me a couple trial runs to figure out how to change the recipe for the different cake pan, but no one in my family minded eating monkey bread twice this past week.

Cross Monkey Bread

• 4 packages of standard size biscuits
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons cinnamon
• 2 sticks margarine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut each biscuit into four quarters. Mix all dry ingredients above in a bowl.

Spray surface of cross cake pan with nonstick cooking spray. Dip each individual biscuit quarter into the cinnamon sugar mixture and then into the cake pan.

Pour half of remaining sugar mixture evenly over biscuits. Melt margarine in microwave and pour all of it evenly over biscuits.

Then pour remaining sugar mixture over biscuits especially in pools of melted butter. Place cake pan on foil covered cookie sheet because it will spill over and be messy. Bake for 35-40 minutes depending on your oven. We like our monkey bread a little undercooked so we cooked it in that range. If you like it really cooked or even a little crispy, then maybe cook between 40-45 minutes. Immediately after taking out of the oven, carefully flip cake pan onto platter and let stand until cool enough to eat.

(please note the above picture was taken on a practice round when I didn't cook it long enough so that is why there is margarine and melted cinnamon seeping out when I flipped the cake pan)

If you want to make it in the traditional circle bundt cake pan, follow the same recipe as above but only cook it for 30 minutes and you don't need the cookie sheet under the cake pan. One idea for being creative with the circle monkey bread would be to put toothpicks in it and have it resemble a crown of thorns. This would be more appropriate earlier in Holy Week. Another idea on Easter Sunday would be to put a white candle in the center symbolizing Christ being the light of the world.

This post was written by Robina, at Motherly Loving, and submitted for publication here at Catholic Cuisine. Thank you Robina!

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Teatime Suggestions for Lent and Easter

 

 
Alice Gunther, author of the wonderful book Haystack Full of Needles, A Catholic Home Educator's Guide to Socialization, shares some inspiring and symbolically rich suggestions for "Teatime" on her blog Cottage Blessings.  She has a few "Teas" for the Lent and Easter season which I plan to serve my children this year.  Alice has made it very easy to implement by including menu suggestions, recipes, reading suggestions, and even shopping lists! 

Here is her first Lenten Tea Menu.  This menu is based on Chapter 14 of the Gospel of Mark and is perfect for Holy Thursday.  The Menu includes the following:

• Palm on the Road
• Costly Oil
• Thirty Pieces of Silver
• Unleavened Bread
• Mount of Olives
• The Cock Crows Twice
• Gethsemane Figs
• Judas' Kiss
• Clouds of Heaven
• Saint Peter's Tears

Her Second Lenten Tea is perfect for Good Friday and is presented using Chapter 15 of the Gospel of Mark.  This Menu includes:

• The King's Crown
• Out of Envy
• The Purple Cloak
• The Crown of Thorns
• Golgotha Eggs
• The Seamless Garment
• Two Robbers
• Vinegar to Drink
• The Roman Centurion
• Laid in the Tomb

Then, for Easter, she shares a Joyous Easter Tea.   Unlike the two Lenten Teas, she has loaded this menu "with sweets and treats and even a slice or two of savory ham."  

• Tea
  
• Stone Scones
• Linen Cloth and Napkin
• Two Angels
• The Gardener
• Peace be with You
• Receive the Holy Spirit
• The Twin
• Thomas' Thumbprint Cookies
• Many Other Signs and Wonders

I hope you have an opportunity to try out one (or ALL) of these tea's with your families!  I am really looking forward to it myself.  Thank you Alice! Pin It

Can Catholics Participate in Seder Meals?

With Holy Thursday coming up next week, I wanted to take a moment to share an excellent sermon, by a wonderful Roman Catholic Priest, on Seder Meals, from Audio Sancto entitled:

Seder Meals Violate the First Commandment

The sermon is about 19 minutes long, but is definitely worth taking the time to listen to...

Update: I've decided to close the comments on this post. I am not, by any means, trying to tell you what is right or wrong. I originally posted this link since it is related to celebrating the liturgical year at home, and gives some great food for thought. God bless you all, and I hope you have a very blessed Holy Week!
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Carling and Fig Sunday

Hosanna to the Son of David,
the King of Israel.
Blessed is he who comes
in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

In the Traditional Calendar, the Fifth Sunday of Lent was known as Passion Sunday, and the following Sunday was Palm Sunday, the beginning of the Holy Week. In the current calendar the liturgy of these two Sundays are combined into Palm Sunday of Our Lord's Passion. And so I'm combining the foods associated with both Sundays into the one Palm Sunday.

Peas or carlings were traditionally consumed on Passion Sunday particularly in northern England and Scotland, so it became known as Carling Sunday (or Car-Sunday in Scotland). Recipes varied according to region, including Pease Porridge, or split pea soup. Liturgically there is no connection with the peas (or pease); it's just a traditional food served on this day.

And what fun to sing together:

Pease porridge hot,
Pease porridge cold,
Pease porridge in the pot
Nine days old.

Split Pea Soup is a traditional Southern dish, and growing up our house was no exception. My grandmother and great aunts used to use a pressure cooker to make a quick batch of split pea soup.

I use Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux? by Marcelle Bienvenu as a basis for my recipe. Some grocery stores sell a Mirepoix which saves that step of cutting and dicing the onions, carrots, and celery (the trinity in French cooking). It's a luxury I take when I need to save time. You could make this an abstinence recipe by removing the meat, but Sundays in Lent are not a fasting or abstaining day.

Split Pea Soup (serves 8-10)

1 pound dried split peas
1 ham bone, 2 ham hocks, or 2 cups diced ham (I didn't have a large ham bone or lots of ham, so in the last step of adding the wine I added chopped kielbasa into the soup.)
3 quarts chicken broth and water (I used 2 quarts broth, 1 quart water)
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup coarsely chopped carrots
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 teaspoon ground thyme
2 bay leaves
salt and black pepper to taste
a few dashes Tabasco sauce
1 cup sherry or dry white wine

Put all ingredients (except wine/sherry) into a large soup pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 2 hours. Add white wine or sherry (and sausage) and cook for another 20 minutes. Remove bay leaves and serve.

Serve with crusty French bread, Southern biscuits, or cornbread, perhaps a salad to round it all off.

The soup always seems to be better the next day, so great for leftovers. My son likes to help in the kitchen, but his question every time we make this is "What happened to the peas?"

Palm Sunday is also known as Fig Sunday because tradition maintains that Jesus ate figs after his entry into Jerusalem, and the withered fig tree that Jesus cursed is also associated for this day. I admit I don't have any recipes of my own that incorporate figs, but a quick search can find Fig or Figgy Pudding, Italian Fig Cookies, Fig Cake to name a few ideas. And when I'm planning this menu, the tunes keep rolling in my head for "Pease Porridge" and "Bring us some figgy pudding".

I remember eating fresh figs as a little girl from my grandmother's tree in her backyard. That taste and texture is so seared into my memory that I've always been disappointed when I have tasted any other fig that isn't freshly picked. For dessert, I'm going to serve some store-bought fig cookies. Pin It

El Paso Pilaf ~ A Meatless Meal for Days of Abstinence

When I was a child, my siblings and I were members of 4-H.  Each year we took part in an event called "Food Fiesta" where we each had to prepare a dish and present it to the judges.  One year my little brother won a medal for his entry: "El Paso Pilaf".  I couldn't agree more with the judges... I *loved* it!!!

Ever since, I have been making and modifying the recipe.  Since that was about 20 years ago, I have no idea exactly what the recipe called for, so I am going to share my version with you all.  It is a staple in our home since it is easy, healthy, filling, and affordable.

I usually serve it in fried taco shells, though I have also served it in flour tortillas as burritos, and as a side dish for other Mexican dishes. 

El Paso Pilaf

"stolen" from my brother and modified over the years ;) 

Ingredients: 

• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1/2 cup basmati rice (though I do use short grain brown rice on occasion)
• 1/2 cup lentils
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 can (16 oz) kidney beans, drained
  
• 1 can (16 oz) chicken broth (I substitute vegetable broth on days of abstinence)
• 1 can (16 oz) tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water (I usually rinse out the tomato sauce cans into the pan with the water)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons chili powder
• toppings of your choice:  lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream, olives, avocado, salsa, etc...
  

Directions:

Saute onion and garlic in pan.  Add all other ingredients and mix together.  Cover pot and simmer on low for 45 to 60 minutes.  Serve on tortillas topped with lettuce, cheese, or any other toppings of your choice.

Enjoy!

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Chicken Broth on Fridays: Yes or No?

I have recently received a couple emails asking what constitutes a meatless meal or recipe for the days of abstinence during Lent. One reader writes: "I've seen recipes for "Good Friday vegetable soup" and other meatless recipes that use chicken or other meat broth. I don't want to be overly legalistic or over-scrupulous, but I also don't want to offend God by being careless with the obligation to meatless meals on abstinence days. Can you tell me if the Church has a clear ruling on this?"

I wasn't sure myself, but have always substituted Vegetable Broth, when needed, to make our meals truly meatless. I decided to do a little research and found the following article on EWTN which is worth reading: Why No Chicken on Days of Abstinence.

I'll share a few quotes here, but please click through and read the whole article if you can:

In the United States, the bishops recommend abstinence on all Fridays of the year. Abstinence is obligatory on all Fridays of Lent.

The law of abstinence prohibits eating the flesh, marrow and blood products of such animals and birds as constitute flesh meat.

In earlier times the law of abstinence also forbade such foods that originated from such animals, such as milk, butter, cheese, eggs, lard and sauces made from animal fat. This restriction is no longer in force in the Roman rite.

Canon 1250 states: "The penitential days and times in the universal church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent."

Canon 1251: "Abstinence from eating meat or some other food according to the prescripts of the conference of bishops is to be observed on every Friday of the year unless a Friday occurs on a day listed as a solemnity. Abstinence and fasting however are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Present canon law allows the use of sauces made from animal fats, as well as their use in cooking, so the use of beef or chicken stock would enter into this category.

While the use of chicken consommé (that is just the liquid) might fall within the law, it would be more in accordance with the spirit of abstinence to prefer a fish or vegetable soup.

The main thing is to embrace the penitential spirit of Lent. It seems to me at least, if there is an opportunity to deny ourselves, then it would be a nice gift to God and a spiritual reward for us. Another excerpt from the article reads:

The motives for practicing abstinence are admirably expressed by St. Augustine in his Sermon on Prayer and Fasting: Abstinence purifies the soul, elevates the mind, subordinates the flesh to the spirit, begets a humble and contrite heart, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, extinguishes the fire of lust, and enkindles the true light of chastity.

This is summarized in the IV Preface of Lent: "Who by bodily fasting suppresses vice, ennobles the mind, grants virtue and rewards"

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