Frittelle di San Giuseppe (St. Joseph's Fritters)

We are in the process of putting together our family St. Joseph's Altar in honor of today's feast. You can find ideas in the archives, beginning with Jennifer's great post on Foods for St. Joseph's Altar.

One of the recipes we decided to try this year is called Frittelle di San Giuseppe, St. Joseph's Fritters.  We found the recipe in A Continual Feast: A Cookbook to Celebrate the Joys of Family and Faith Throughout the Christian Year, and I just happened to have all the random ingredients needed, including orange rind, golden raisins, and pine nuts!  (We omitted the fruit brandy.)  

I offered each of my children a sample and they have all declared them a delicious success.  They are all eagerly awaiting to eat the rest during our celebration this evening.  Here is the recipe.

Frittelle di San Giuseppe

adapted from A Continual Feast

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups milk
• 1 cup raw rice
• Pinch of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons fruit brandy (optional)
• Grated rind of 1 large orange
• 3 tablespoons golden raisins
• 3 tablespoons pine nuts
• Oil for deep frying
• Confectioner's sugar

Directions:

Bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan. Add the salt, vanilla, granulated sugar, and rice. Cover the pan and simmer for about 30 minutes, until the rice is cooked and the milk has absorbed. Let the rice cool for several hours, or overnight. (The rice needs to be completely cooled before proceeding to the next step.)

Mix the rice thoroughly with the eggs, flour, baking powder, brandy, orange rind, raisins, and pine nuts.

Heat the oil to 375˚ F. for deep-fat drying. Drop 1 tablespoon of the Frittelle mixture at a time into the oil until golden brown.  You can cook a few at a time, keeping them separate.

Drain the Frittelle on paper towels.

Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar and serve hot.

Happy St. Joseph's Day! 

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St Patrick's Day Bread

Sweet Pistachio Bread (Green Bread)

1 yellow cake mix
1 pkg instant pistachio pudding
4 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1 cup sour cream
5-10 drops of food coloring (or more)

Mix above well. Generously grease 2 loaf pans.
Dust with a mixture of 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon.
Reserve remaining sugar mix.
Pour batter into loaf pans.
Sprinkle remaining sugar mix on top.
Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes. (or til done)
Remove immediately from pans and place in plastic baggies and refrigerate!

I am about 1/8 Irish.  My mom always argued with my dad, saying us kids were more Irish than German. My dad is 99% German though, so he wins that one.  Us kids all had dark hair and blue eyes so mom always said we looked Irish.  I thought the Irish were famous for having red hair?

We make this bread for St Patrick's Day and for Christmas to give to all the neighbors!  It's always a hit!

Happy St. Patrick's Day and don't forget to wear your green!

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St. Patrick's Shamrock Pretzel Treats

We have made many various combinations of Pretzels + Hershey Kisses or Rolos + M&M's or Pecans, but I just love the cute variation I recently ran across at Once Upon a Dream for "clover treasts."  I made a couple slight modifications, making ours with some Irish Creme and Creme de Menthe Hershey Kisses (Yum!!!) and green candy melts instead of the frosting.  These will make a great little treat for the feast of St. Patrick!

St. Patrick's Shamrock Pretzel Treats

Supplies:

• Pretzels
• Irish Cream Hershey Kisses
• Green M&M's
• Green Candy Melts (or Frosting)
• Parchment Paper

Directions:

Cover a cookie sheet with waxed paper. Cover with a single layer of pretzels and place a Hershey Kiss in the center of each pretzel.

Place the cookie sheet in the oven at 200˚ for about 8 minutes, until the Hershey Kisses are soft, but not melted.

Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and immediately press 3 green M&M's on each Hershey Kiss, creating a Shamrock.

Note:  I suggest looking for a bag of St. Patrick's Day M&M's or just purchase green M&M's from a candy store.  The "big" bag of M&M's I originally purchased only came with enough to make 16 shamrocks.  Nowhere near enough!

Melt a few green candy melts (or use green frosting) and add a stem to each shamrock.

Put them in the fridge until the chocolate set back up. Then add a line of green frosting to make the stem.

May your thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks. 
May your heart be as light as a song. 

May each day bring you bright, happy hours 

that stay with you all the year long.

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St. Patrick's Day Chocolate Gold Coins

This past weekend, while one of our boys was attending a birthday party, my oldest daughter and I went out to lunch and then did a little (very little, since we had the baby with us) shopping.   Since there happened to be a See's Candy store right next to the restaurant, I ran in to purchase some of the super cute Hollow Easter Eggs with White Chocolate Chicks that we love to include in our children's Easter baskets.   While I was there I also purchased a box of St. Patrick's Day Gold Coins.   The box is rather expensive but comes with 50 Chocolate Coins - 30 large coins and 20 small - making each coin about .17 cents each!

A couple years ago I shared our St. Nicholas Chocolate Coins with you all and, this year, thought it would be fun to make St. Patrick's Day Coins too!    We thought these coins would make a fun addition to place on the tables during our coffee hour after Mass this Sunday honoring St. Patrick.

I cropped some old favorite images of St. Patrick to fit on the face of the large 1 1/2" Chocolate Coins (The See's coins are the same size as the ones that come in the smaller $1.00 bags that you can find at various grocery stores or online), created a word document with all the images adding an optional border to the images, cut them all out, and then my children glued them to the front of the coins.

I thought I would share my documents with you all as an early St. Patrick's Day gift, in case any of you would like make some for your own St. Patrick's Day celebrations.

St. Patrick's Day Coins

I printed out a second document at 70% to use for the smaller 1" coins.  I saved it as a pdf, already in the reduced size, to share as well.

St. Patrick's Day Coins - Small

St. Patrick, pray for us! 

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Mint Crunch Cupcakes with Candy Shamrocks

Just like the leaves on each shamrock I see, 

there are three parts to the Holy Trinity. 

First is God the Father, then Jesus, His only Son, 

and the Holy Spirit together as One.

I recently agreed to help a friend provide treats for our Coffee Hour after Mass this coming Sunday.  She choose the Sunday closest to March 17th so that we could incorporate St. Patrick's Day!    I will be making a couple of the treats and she is going to borrow a couple of my cookie cutters to make cookies, in addition to a big Rainbow Fruit platter and some Irish Cream coffee creamer.    The dear owner from our local Catholic book store will be bringing St. Patrick and St. Joseph Holy Cards to set on the tables, in addition to a couple statues as well.  It should be lots of fun!

I have a few extra cupcakes in my freezer, so I made a sample cupcake to see how it would look.   I've made Shamrock Mint Cupcakes in the past, but this time I decided to use my Shamrock Chocolate Mold to make candies to decorate the cupcakes.  Didn't it turn out cute?

Mint Crunch Cupcakes with Candy Shamrocks

Supplies:

Chocolate or Mint Chocolate Cupcakes
Milk Chocolate Frosting
Wilton Mint Crunch Sprinkles
Green Candy Melts
2-Inch Shamrock Chocolate Mold

To Make Shamrock Candies:

Melt Green Candy Melts.

Fill each Shamrock with the melted Green Candy.   For the 2-inch mold, each shamrock required 3 candy melts.  Tap against counter to remove any bubbles and then fill the molds completely, if needed.   

Assemble Cupcakes:

Spread Chocolate Frosting on top of each cupcake.  
Add Mint Crunch Sprinkles.
Top with Shamrock Candy.

Here are a few more great shamrock candy molds and baking supplies for St. Patrick's Day:





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New Products for Easter {and a Giveaway!}

Catholic Embroidery has just launched a few more lovely items, just in time for Easter! I've added them to our list of Catholic Aprons available to order right here at Catholic Cuisine, or you can purchase one directly from the links below.

Also, in honor of the upcoming feast of St. Joseph, Catholic Embroidery has generously offered to sponsor another giveaway!

One lucky visitor will win this beautiful new
Pysanky Basket Cover/Liner!

To enter this give-away:

Click on over to our Apron Page and check out all the gorgeous kitchen products created by Catholic Embroidery and then leave a comment on this post before Midnight on Monday, March 19th, the feast of St. Joseph. Be sure to leave your email address, or have it linked in your profile, so that I am able to contact you.

Note: One entry per person, please, and those that contribute here at Catholic Cuisine are welcome to enter as well! The winner will be announced on Tuesday, March 20th. 

.: New Products :.

Lamb of God Apron ~ $29.95

A durable white twill apron, embroidered with the Triumphant Lamb of God design. This Biblical symbol of Christ represents the sacrificial offering of Christ’s redemption and his glorious triumph. Designed with two large pockets and an adjustable strap; measures 23" W by 30" L --- perfect for men and women alike. Extra long 39" ties and reinforced bar tacking construction ensure durability and practicality. Cotton & poly blend.

Lamb of God Table Runner ~ $36.95

This white hemstitched linen/cotton table runner measures 16” by 36” and is embroidered with a Triumphant Lamb of God design, a Biblical symbol representing the sacrificial offering of Christ’s redemption and His glorious triumph. A lovely addition to any table, desk, piano top, or sideboard.

Pysanky Basket Cover/Liner  ~ $24.95

This 20” hemstitched linen/cotton basket liner is embroidered with our signature Pysanky Cross design. Inspired by the traditional Ukrainian Pysanky eggs, the budded cross is flanked on all sides with the Greek letters for Christ: IC XC and Greek verb for triumph: NIKA. Hence, this basket liner provides a perfect Christian Easter basket, or meal any day of the year. The liner also functions as a cover, insulating food of all sorts, including baked items and breads.

St. Joseph, Patron of Families, Pray for Us!

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St. Patrick's Shamrock Eggs and Fruit Rainbows

This past October, when studying colors and guardian angels with my pre-schooler, we made some fun and colorful flower eggs for breakfast.   Looking back at the pictures I realized that by using just three-lobed peppers, like we've used in the past for our Shamrock Toasties and Mini Pizzas, we could make Shamrock Eggs by just adding a stem!  I gave it a try yesterday morning with the Green Pepper I  happened to have in the fridge.  It would have worked much better if I had used a larger pepper, but at least you can still get the general idea.  Our four oldest children aren't very picky, and they love these.   Our extra picky pre-schooler, on the other hand, won't even touch them!  :)

I'm thinking that these will make a great addition to the Cinnamon Shamrocks for our St. Patrick's Day brunch!  I just need to get back to the store for a few more green peppers.  

St. Patrick's Shamrock Eggs

Ingredients:

Cooking Spray or Coconut Oil for Pan
Three Lobed Green Bell Peppers
Eggs
Salt and Pepper (optional)
Fresh Fruit

Directions:

Heat a non-stick skillet to medium low heat. Lightly spray skillet with cooking oil spray.

Cut bell pepper into 1/2 inch thick slices. (You should be able to get four slices from a larger pepper.)  Slice some "stems" from the remaining pepper.  Place pepper rings and stems in the skillet.

Crack one egg into each pepper ring. Cover and cook for a few minutes, until egg yolks are to desired firmness. If you like your yolks firm, it helps to break the yolk right after cracking into pepper rings.

Place one stem on each ring, completing your "shamrock." Season to taste. 

Serve with fresh fruit rainbows! (In the past we have made rainbow fruit skewers, a rainbow fruit platter, and mini rainbow fruit plates.)  Enjoy!

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