Popecakes

If your looking for a dessert to go with those Brats, don't miss Margaret's recipe for Popecakes!

It may be a bit late to make these today, especially for those of you on the East coast, but these would really be perfect anytime this week as we celebrate our dear Holy Father's visit to the United States! Pin It

Birthday Dinner for Papa Ben!

This post was written by past Catholic Cuisine contributor Amy. 

Now that you have had your French breakfast in honor of Saint Bernadette, what for dinner? Well today is our beloved Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI’s 81st birthday. In honor of our Papa’s birthday how about a German dinner?

I am not going to give you any fancy recipes, because I tend to stick to the experts when it comes to foreign cooking. We were blessed to live in Germany for a few years and I learned from my sojourn there all about the Brat.

Bratwurst is a wonderful German sausage. I highly recommend getting them from a proper German butcher, if you are lucky enough to have one locally. If not, you must go with whatever you can find at the supermarket.

Brats are not like hot dogs. You don’t just pop them in the microwave for thirty seconds and voila, you have a meal. Now, Brats require some love and attention.

You must first boil some water. If you want to go all out you will boil them in beer! If you really really want to go all out you get German beer. But in honor of our German Pope coming to America, I am using Bud. You can do a mix of beer and water, which is my recommendation. You want more water than beer.

Now put your water and beer on the stove in a large pot. When it starts to boil (quick, because you do not want to know what happens to beer when it boils for any length of time, it is not pretty) take it off the heat, pop your Brats in there and cover for 20 minutes.

While this is happening heat up your griddle, nice and hot. You can also do this on the stove, but I like the even heat of a griddle. You could also barbeque, but that is so American… and also you will more likely burst the skin and burn your beloved sausage.

Butter.

Butter is very important. Do not spray with Pam. This is not healthy eating, so don’t pretend it is. Butter your griddle, till it is nice and shiny. Place Brats on the griddle. Once browned turn and brown the other side at well. Make sure there is enough butter to make the browning nice and lovely.

Ahhhhh....

I would highly recommend serving these on homemade bread, but you can get some crusty rolls from the supermarket and serve your Brats on that.

Now, this is another matter of contention. Where I lived in Germany (northern Bavaria) all you put on your Brat was spicy mustard. That is it. When we returned to the states however some people threw a little shindig for us and made Brats and served them with sauerkraut too. Which is divine. If you have to have ketchup… well, just don’t. Shame on you for even suggesting it.

There you go an authentic German Brat!

Happy Birthday, Our Beloved Pope!

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In Preparation for St. George's Day

First of all, let me say "thank you" to Jessica for providing such a lovely place to gather and for inviting me to contribute. I am putting together this post from my archives since I won't be making our dragon until the day before or maybe the day of St. George's Day this year.

My oldest son has always loved St. George. We even had a father/son party once with a homemade dragon pinata. The little boys loved it and I think the Dad's did too!
Last year, we kept things very low key. I made a dragon shaped cake for the children to devour and you can do the same with a box cake mix, a couple of cans of frosting, food coloring, a package of Ding Dongs and four Hershey's kisses.
I used two 9 inch round cakes. The first, I cut down the middle and "glued" the flat bottoms together with frosting to make the mound that is his belly. The second one, I cut something like this (it has been too long for me to remember specifically):
I used the Ding Dongs, cut in half, to make mounds on the head for the eye sockets and the feet. Cut them into triangles and they can be extra spikes. Toothpicks help hold them in place. Frosting will cover so many mistakes so never fear if it doesn't look pretty at this stage. The eyes and nostrils were made by inserting the pointy end of a Hershey's kiss into globs of frosting. The final touch was turning butter knives into kid friendly swords with some strips of tin foil to hack away at the more cute than ferocious beast.

Here is another variation for those who need more visual assistance. That would be me! I am such a visual learner! Happy baking!

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Crepes for the Feast of St. Bernadette

I want to thank Jessica of Shower of Roses for inviting me to be a guest author here at Catholic Cuisine. I hope to post some of our recipes and liturgical ideas throughout the year for you to try with your families! I feel blessed to be part of this lovely sharing blog!

Here is a very easy and lovely meal that can be prepared for the Feast of St. Bernadette which we celebrate tomorrow April 16th.

I first posted this celebration at Sweetness and Light titled Crepes for St. Therese, hence the statue of St. Therese.

Here's the VERY simple and no fail Crepes recipe:
4 eggs lightly beaten
2 cups milk
1 Tablespoon Canola Oil (or any veg oil, just not Olive oil)
3/4c. to 1 cup flour (depending upon how thin or thick you prefer)
1-2 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 tespoon salt (kosher)
Blend first three ingredients until frothy, add last three ingredients and blend until you have a nice smooth pourable batter. Pour about 1/4 cup batter onto a med-high heat griddle or very large non-stick saute pan. (You need room around your crepe to get your spatula under it to flip) Use a spoon to lightly swirl your crepe into a large disc, be careful not to tear the batter, if you happen to, just spoon a little batter into that spot :) Cook for about 30 seconds on each side until lightly golden, and then stack 'em up on a platter for serving at the table.
Of note: you may have a crepe pan at home and if you like that give it a whirl, personally my favorite cooking surface for these is my stove top griddle ;)

This recipe works for either sweet or savory crepes, I would just omit the sugar if your fixing for a dinner crepe!

Fill with any of your favorite *pancake* type items, like maple syrup, powdered sugar, applesauce, yogurt, peanut butter, jams, honey, strawberries and whip cream :)

I hope you enjoy these as much as we do and please share your results if you try them, they are a mainstay in our family celebrations!!

Bon Appetit! St. Bernadette, pray for us! Pin It

Candied Popcorn

Again from skiptomylou, again for St. Patrick's Day, again it can be altered to fit other feast days (red for St. Valentine, blue for Mary, etc).

How fun would it be to eat this while watching a movie about that day's saint!?

click on image for recipe

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Blarney Biscuits

I ran across these on skiptomylou and thought it was a great idea. They could be used for any feast day really (just change the color of the paper), these were designated for St. Patrick's Day (hence them being Blarney Biscuits). Click picture for recipe, or follow your own recipe and just use the idea.

She also has a great Blarney Stone craft, click here.

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Annunciation pineapple upsidedown cake

I was inspired to make this for the Feast of the Annunciation. I was reading about this Feast Day here. In that link they describe how this Feast Day forecasts the blessed event of Christmas, and illustrates how the liturgical year is an endless circle of days. So, I thought it would be great to use a cake mix I got for free and make this a simple, easy way to incorporate the circle theme. As you are putting on the pineapples, use it as a chance to talk about the Holy Trinity ;)

When you buy the cake mix. There is a recipe on the side of the box for making it the upside down way. Basically you just add 1/2 cup of butter into the baking pan after you grease the pan with Crisco. Then put 1 cup packed brown sugar evenly covering the bottom of the pan. Then add the pineapple circles and cherries however you like. Then mix the cake mix as directed and pour it into the pan, covering the pineapples and cherries. Bake as directed according to your pan size. I used 2 circular 8 inch baking pans and baked it for about 35 minutes at 350.

It is that easy!

We also ate circle waffles that morning, I cut pb&j's with my circular cookie cutter, and we ate a circular pizza with pepperoni for dinner. For snacks in between, we had circle crackers and cheese and sliced bananas. Circle's and more circle's ;)

This is great if you have one of those busy days and can't spend a lot of time in the kitchen. You can still use easy meals to teach about our liturgical year!

Happy Feast Day!

P.S.- This is also a great time to teach a toddler or pre-schooler about circles, the letter O or the number zero. Have fun!

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