Stuffed Peppers for the feast of St. John Bosco

From Catholic Culture: "If you feel brave, try cooking the stuffed raw peppers suggested for today. Mama Margaret probably cooked Peperoni farciti à la Piemontaise (peppers stuffed with boiled rice), a speciality from Turin, for St. John Bosco's boys."

Today I'll be making stuffed peppers for dinner in honor of St. John Bosco. I made these last year and even my picky eaters loved them. I hope you try them. They are delicious!

Stuffed Peppers

1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup uncooked long grain white rice
1 cup water
6 green bell peppers
2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Place the rice and water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and cook 20 minutes. In a skillet over medium heat, cook the beef until evenly browned.

Remove and discard the tops, seeds, and membranes of the bell peppers. Arrange peppers in a baking dish with the hollowed sides facing upward. (Slice the bottoms of the peppers if necessary so that they will stand upright.)

In a bowl, mix the browned beef, cooked rice, 1 can tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Spoon an equal amount of the mixture into each hollowed pepper. Mix the remaining tomato sauce and Italian seasoning in a bowl, and pour over the stuffed peppers.

Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, basting with sauce every 15 minutes, until the peppers are tender.

Top with Cheddar cheese.

Update:  Here is a picture of the above recipe, which I recently made for my family, substituting red peppers for the green.  It is a favorite! God bless, Jessica

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Edible Candles for Candlemas

I stumbled upon this post recently at the decorated cookie blog, which described making "edible candles" using Pepperidge Farm pirouette cookies and making flames using candy melt. I thought they were really clever and would make a great treat for the Feast of the Presentation (also called Candlemas) - as they really do look like candles. I didn't plan to make the candy melt flames so tried to come up with some alternatives. One possibility would just add a pointy dab of orange tinted frosting to the tops. Jessica suggested using a candy corn for the flame - that would work as well. What I ended up using, based on what I had in the house, was tissue paper flames. It's not edible, but it looks good and can just be pulled out before eating the "candle" cookies. The original post creator used a thick cookie with center whole as a base to hold the candle. Using what I had on hand, I hollowed out the center of a small frozen cream puff. A mini donut could be used, too. And you wouldn't need a base if you didn't want one. They could just be held.

If you'd like a savory snack alternative that is similar in look, large pretzel rods can also double as an edible candle, topped with a pimento-cheese spread or other orange colored spread.

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St. John Bosco's Feast Day

Enjoy yourself as much as you like

- if only you keep from sin. - Saint John Bosco

We love celebrating the feast of this very joyful saint. Our tradition every January 31st is to make Bachelor Button cookies and drink (decaf) caffe lattes. From our celebration two years ago:

To celebrate this feast day, we a have a little family tradition of making Bachelor Buttons. I started this a long time ago and The Professor has never let me off the hook. I chose this recipe simply because you roll the dough into balls and then roll them in sugar before putting them on the pan to bake. I told the children they were like the juggling balls Don Bosco used to entertain people with. In exchange for the entertainment, he would ask them to go to Mass or say a rosary. I am sure there are many cookie recipes that would also require this step, but the Bachelor Buttons are the ones requested. (Maybe because they sound so masculine?)

Here is the recipe I use. It is from a friend of the family who passed away several years ago but who is remembered fondly whenever I pull out that yellowed, wrinkly card from my recipe box:

Bachelor Buttons
3/4 C. butter
1 C. brown sugar
1 egg
2 C. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1 C. nuts, chopped (optional)

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and beat well. Mix in dry ingredients. Stir in nuts. Chill several hours. Shape into balls. Roll in granulated sugar. Cook 2 inches apart at 375 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes. Use a mix of walnuts, almonds, pecans, etc... for a special treat.

(My kids are not fond of nuts in cookies so we make them without.)

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Skillet Lasagna

January 31st marks the Feast of St. John Bosco.  My family will be celebrating with an Italian Dinner and Movie Night in his honor... I plan on making homemade bread sticks and Skillet Lasagna, just like we did last year.

The Skillet Lasagna is really easy and can be made in less than 30 minutes, start to finish!  I've also prepared it with other types of pasta (ie: penne, bow tie) in the past, which tastes yummy too.  Enjoy!

Skillet Lasagna
from The Pampered Chef 29 Minutes to Dinner

1 jar (24 - 26 oz) marinara sauce
3 cups water
8 oz lasagna noodles
1 lb hot Italian turkey sausage (casings removed)
2 garlic cloves, pressed
2 oz Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley, divided
1 cup fresh ricotta cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
Additional grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Combine sauce and water in 12" Skillet. Cover; bring to a boil.

2. Meanwhile, wrap noodles in clean kitchen towel and break crosswise into quarters. Stir noodles into sauce. Cover; reduce heat and simmer 16 - 18 minutes or until noodles are tender, stirring occasionally.

3. As noodles cook, place sausage into 10" skillet; cook and stir over medium-high heat 6 - 8 minutes or until sausage is no longer pink, breaking into crumbles. Add pressed garlic; cook 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir sausage into noodles and sauce.

4. Meanwhile, grate Parmesan cheese. Chop parsley; set aside about 1 Tbsp parsley for garnish. Combine cheeses, remaining parsley and black pepper in bowl. Scoop cheese mixture over noodles. Cover skillet and simmer gently 3 - 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and ricotta mixture is heated through.

5. To serve, sprinkle lasagna with reserved parsley and additional Parmesan cheese, if desired.

(Makes 6 servings)

St. John Bosco, pray for us! 

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The Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas

Tomorrow, January 28th, marks the feast of one of the greatest Doctors of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas. It is also the date on which The Summa Theologica, written by St. Thomas, was originally published. Before 1969, and in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, his feast was (and is) observed on March 7th, the anniversary of his death.

St. Thomas Aquinas is the Dominican order's greatest glory. He taught philosophy and theology with such genius that he is considered one of the leading Christian thinkers. His innocence, on a par with his genius, earned for him the title of "Angelic Doctor". Read the rest here...

In her book My Nameday Come for Dessert, author Helen McLoughlin shares a number of ideas for celebrating the feast of this amazing saint (I've added links where applicable):

The star, St. Thomas Aquinas' symbol, signifies the divine guidance given him in his work. A chalice and host are also used as symbols. A star cake-tin and a star cookie-cutter, or a sunburst dessert mold are a delight to a child who likes to help prepare nameday dessert; small children may cut out stars or stick gummed stars on place-mats or paper plates.

For dessert you might make a book cake inscribed with our Lord's words: "You have written well of Me, Thomas" (this can be done with "Cake-Mate"). A dove on a book cake, a rosary cake, or a crown cake are other suggestions.

Our week is pretty busy, but it shouldn't be too hard to find time to let the children cut-out and bake some star shaped cookies in honor of St. Thomas. I have a bag of Betty Crocker Cookie Mixin the cupboard left over from Epiphany, but here is a yummy recipe from the archives in case any of you would like to join us!

Also from the aforementioned book is this beautiful prayer which may be said (or sung) as a family on his feast:

Father: This is St. Thomas' festal day,
Celestial doctor of the King;
Let Mother Church in prayerful lay
Devoutly all his praises sing.

All: While all the Church enjoys the aid
The Angelic Doctor doth bestow,
St. Dominic's fold by him is made
To share with glory's special glow.

Father: O Doctor of the faithful here below,
Fair blossom of virginity unstained,
St. Thomas, grant that we may come to know
The joys which thy triumphant state hath gained.

All: St. Thomas, Doctor of the Church divine,
Italia's star, to all the world a light,
A virgin with chaste lily shining bright,
The twofold crown of glory now is thine.

Father: Let us pray. O God, You enlightened Your Church with the wonderful learning of blessed Thomas, Your confessor, and made it fruitful by his holy works; grant us, we pray, both to understand what he taught and to follow the example of his life. Through Christ, our Lord.

All: Amen. Christ conquers, Christ reigns!

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!

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It's a Boy!

Congratulations to Mary Ellen, one of our contributors here at Catholic Cuisine, and to the whole Barrett Family!

Today they welcomed their eighth baby, Brendan Michael, to their clan.

Please join me in saying a prayer of thanksgiving for her safe delivery and healthy baby! Pin It

Conversion of St. Paul

January 25 is the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. Since this is a special Year of St. Paul, there is special permission to have the option to celebrate this feast on this Sunday. Normally it would be the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

From the readings for the Mass of the Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle:

Acts 9:1-22: Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord,
went to the high priest and asked him
for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that,
if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way,
he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.
On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus,
a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him.
He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him,
"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"
He said, "Who are you, sir?"
The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do."...

Although the story from the Acts of the Apostles doesn't mention St. Paul falling to the ground off his horse, it seems that is how the scene is always artistically rendered (see Caravaggio's painting above). After all, falling to the ground from a standing position hurts, but it isn't as dramatic as a fall from a horse!

Some ideas for honoring St. Paul on his conversion (also for June 29, Saints Peter and Paul):

1. Incorporating a horse in the celebration seems most obvious to me. This previous post for Horseshoe Cookies for the feast of St. Martin has loads of ideas for other horse themed foods. There is also Podovy: St. Stephen's Horns which is a filled bread in the shape of horseshoes. How about the Giddy-Up Horse Cake from Kraft Foods?


2. Roast beef and horseradish, one of my favorite combinations would make a nice main course. And how about Garlic Horseradish Mashed Potatoes?


3. Don't forget what we feed the horse! Perhaps a plate of crudités: maybe just celery and carrot sticks with dip.


4. St. Paul followed the Jewish laws strictly, which would mean dietary laws, too. This could be an opportunity to serve a Biblical Jewish meal.


5. While thinking of a personal conversion, the image of a Black and White, those famous New York cookies came to mind.


6. Perhaps bring in the symbols of St. Paul: a book or scroll (for his letters), a sword (for his martyrdom). Book Cakes are also appropriate for Doctors and Fathers of the Church (for their writings), and Genoise Book Cake is a delicious sponge cake recipe. One could also use cake pans in the shape of a book. The white chocolate cake used for St. Gregory the Great can also be used for other book cake inspiration.


7. I'm keeping the food celebration simple at our house. I'm making chocolate cupcakes and using two symbols of St. Paul as decorations: sword and scroll. And our centerpiece will include a Playmobil horse and St. Paul (Saul) lying on the ground.

Glorious St. Paul, from being a persecutor of the Christian name you became its most zealous Apostle. To make Jesus, our Divine Savior, known to the uttermost parts of the earth you suffered prison, scourgings, stonings, and shipwreck, and all manner of persecutions and shed the last drop of your blood.

Obtain for us the grace to accept the infirmities, sufferings, and misfortunes of this life as favors of divine mercy. So that we may never grow weary of the trials of our exile, but rather show ourselves ever more faithful and fervent. Amen.

St. Paul the Apostle, pray for us!

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