Our Lady of Sorrows

September 15 is the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. I have a great dedication to this devotion of Our Blessed Mother. We can learn so many virtues by knowing Our Lady of Sorrows and her great sufferings: her compassion, her fortitude, her faith, hope, and temperance. What can we not learn from Our Mother in heaven?

For this feast day I make a heart-shaped caked and insert seven "swords" as the heart of Our Lady of Sorrows is depicted. No special recipe here -- make any recipe for cake you like -- a box cake is just fine. Bake the cake in one round pan and one square pan. Use this method to arrange the cakes in the shape of a heart. Frost with your favorite frosting -- you can use pink or red -- or whatever flavor you like. Then take cocktail toothpick "swords" or even just long stick pretzels, as I did, and place the swords in the heart -- four on the right and three on the left.



You can certainly take the time to decorate this cake intricately, but it definitely isn't necessary. Your children will remember this dessert without any fuss at all. Pin It

The Year of the Priest ~ Thanking Your Parish Priest

This post was written by past Catholic Cuisine contributor Amy.

As many of you know this is the year of the priest. Many times these men give up their days off to tend to the ill, they wake at all hours to help us in any situation. I have been made very aware, over the last years especially, how much my parish priest means to me. He has been there for my family so many times I couldn’t even count them!

As many of you also know, most priests are very self-sacrificing. It is part of the job description. Any monetary gift you give a priest is very often put right back into the church.

It occurred to me a few years ago that one way to show appreciation for our priest was to make him something special. Not having a lot of resources, there was one thing I thought of immediately.

Cookies.

These are men who often live alone or in a community of other men. How often do they get warm homemade cookies? Unless they make them for themselves?

So the tradition began.

Every so often our priest will simply look at one of my kids and say "chocolate chips." They will giggle and run and ask me if we can make cookies for our priest.

Yesterday, after a wonderful meeting with our priest, I told him I had to stop at the store now and get some chocolate chips. His eyes lit up… he knew what was coming.

Amy Caroline’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks of butter, room temperature
¾ cup white sugar
¾ cup DARK BROWN sugar (that is important!)

Cream together
Add:

1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs

Mix well.
Add:

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon kosher salt

Mix well.
Add:

1 bag of chocolate chips
1 cup finely crushed walnuts or pecans (optional -- this is important too. Crush them very fine so that there are only small chunks and a lot of powder. It gives the flavor of the nut but doesn’t not overwhelm the flavor of the cookie overall)

Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes. It should still appear gooey in the middle, otherwise it will overcook and get tasteless. Depending on what kind of brown sugar you use the cookie might be lighter in color, so do not worry if it is not overly brown.



My advice? When you bring these to your priest offer them warm and with a card from you and your family thanking them for all they do, not just for you but for your whole parish and the kingdom of God.

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Feast of the Holy Name of Mary

On September 12th, we celebrate the naming of the Blessed Virgin as Mary. I want to do something easy and yummy for the kids to celebrate the name of Mary. I decided blue Jello letters spelling out her name would be an easy, inexpensive way to celebrate that is also fun. The directions are simple. Follow the below instructions for maing Jello Jigglers, letting it set in a large casserole dish or deep cookie sheet. Using letter cookie cutters, cut out the letters "MARY," and carefully with a thin spatula transfer them to your serving platter. I wish I had some sort of rose shaped cookie cutter, but any flower shape will do as a little floral decoration with her name. Place a statue of Mary next to the platter and say a Hail Mary or sing "Ave Maria" before enjoying the treat.

~ Directions ~ 

2-1/2 cups boiling water (Do not add cold water.)
2 pkg. (8-serving size each) JELL-O Gelatin

STIR boiling water into dry gelatin mix in large bowl at least 3 min. until completely dissolved. Pour into 13x9-inch pan.

REFRIGERATE at least 3 hours or until firm.

DIP bottom of pan in warm water 15 sec. Cut into 24 decorative shapes using 2-inch cookie cutters, being careful to cut all the way through gelatin to bottom of pan. Lift JIGGLERS® from pan. Reserve scraps for snacking. Store in tightly covered container in refrigerator.

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

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A Blueberry "Waffle Cake" for Mary's Birthday!

So as I imagined, I did not have time to make a cake for Mary's birthday today.  So I opted for my alternate plan of a "waffle cake" for dinner. This was embarrassingly easy, as I didn't even make the waffles, but just used frozen toaster waffles. The kids were having such a fun time at the park, that I decided to let them play longer instead leaving early to get home in time to make the waffles from scratch. To make the "cake," I layered the waffles with whipped cream, finishing with a layer of whipped cream on top. I poured blueberries (defrosted from my large and perfectly frozen collection) all over the top of the cake and then drizzled the entire cake with maple syrup. I had to work fast so the whipped cream didn't melt, but I placed a statue of Mary next to the cake and lit a blue candle on top and we sung "Happy Birthday" to Mary. It was a very sweet dinner, but a dinner and dessert in one. The kids loved it.

Happy Birthday Mary!

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

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A Birthday Cake for Our Lady!

Each year, on the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady, our family makes a cake to celebrate. Last year we made a Blueberry Cheesecake and this year we opted for a Lemon Blueberry Cake.   Although the type of cake varies from year to year, I usually make sure the cake itself is white, symbolizing Mary's purity, and then we add blueberries to symbolize her blue mantle.

We top the cake with a small statue of Mary and surrounded it with a circle of 10 candles, representing one decade of the rosary.  The children then take turns lighting the candles as the whole family prays a "Hail Mary" for each candle.  Afterwards we sing Happy Birthday and let the children blow out the candles!!!  My children look forward to this tradition every year!

Lemon Blueberry Cake

adapted from the Food Network

Ingredients:

• 2 (8-inch) round white cakes (I made mine using a boxed white cake mix)
  
• 1/3 cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
  
• 2 teaspoons lemon extract, divided
  
• 2 (12-ounce) cans cream cheese frosting
• Fresh blueberries (I used frozen since I had some in the freezer.)
  
• Fresh mint sprigs and Lemon slices, quartered (optional)
  

Directions:

Use a knife to slice cake layers in half horizontally. Use a pastry brush to brush each layer with lemonade concentrate; set aside.

Stir 1 teaspoon of lemon extract into each can of frosting; set aside.

To assemble cake: frost and stack the cake layers on top of each other.

Decorate the cake with blueberries.  You can then add the optional clusters of mint sprigs and quartered lemon slices for further decoration if you'd like.

Happy Birthday Dear Blessed Mother!

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The Winner of the Catholic Cuisine Apron is...

Comment #120 , left by Bridget (janebabes):

Congratulations Bridget!

Please email me at catholiccuisine[at]gmail[dot]com with your shipping information, by Saturday, Sept. 12th, and I will forward it on to Catholic Embroidery. If I don't hear from you by Saturday, we will need to draw another name, so contact me soon! I hope you enjoy your beautiful new apron!

Thank you all for your participation, as well as for all the kind words you left about Catholic Cuisine!  It was great to hear from you all!! Oh and remember that Mary Serafino, the founder of Catholic Embroidery, in addition to sponsoring this awesome giveaway, has generously extended the following offer as well:

I would also like to offer your readers a coupon code, so everyone can walk away a "winner". If they use the coupon code: CATHOLICCUISINE I will give them FREE SHIPPING on any order. This coupon is valid until the feast of St. Michael, September 29th.

Well, I am off to finish our cake, in honor of Our Lady's Birthday, for our teatime this afternoon!   I hope you all have a lovely feast day today.  God bless!

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St. Gregory's Cherries (Crisp)

Legend has it that on St. Mark's Feast Day, St. Gregory the Great, when he was the pope, suddenly had a great craving for cherries. The servants and gardeners were puzzled at what to do, since the cherry trees, which were plentiful, were just in bloom. As the legend goes, one gardener, in search of cherries, was visited by St. Mark in a cloud of fire, and asked why he was in such a state. When St. Mark heard the story about Pope Gregory, he gave a blessing upon one cherry tree, and it was suddenly covered with ripe, red cherries. In gratitude, it is said that the pope "wolfed down a bellyful."

And still today St. Gregory the Great is associated with cherries, and what better way to pass on the legend than to enjoy a dish of cherries? This dessert recipe is just about as easy a recipe as you will find. It calls for Bisquick and a can of pie filling, so I call it a "cheater" recipe, but it's very good, nevertheless. Top it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or even just a few tablespoons of half & half, and you have a dessert worthy of the legend. You can make this recipe with any flavor pie filling, but of course we will use cherries on St. Gregory's Feast.

This would be a good dessert to enjoy on St. Mark's Feast Day, as well, as even today the pope will enjoy a cherry dessert on his feast day to remember St. Gregory's craving.

Cherry Crisp
serves 6

1 can cherry pie filling (or any other fruit)
1 ¼ cup Bisquick
½ cup sugar
½ t. cinnamon
1 egg
¼ cup melted butter


Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Pour fruit in 8 x 8 pan. Mix Bisquick, sugar and cinnamon. Beat egg and pour over Bisquick mixture and mix until crumbly. Sprinkle over fruit. Pour melted butter over dry mix. Bake 25 minutes. Serve warm or room temperature with ice cream or cream.

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