Feast for the Archangels

Today is the feast of St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael the Archangels! This feast was one of the first times I tried a special Catholic celebration with my family, aside from things like Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter of course. Instead of my usual written summary of today's saints, I encourage you to watch the video below which was made by seminarians in Detroit. These are our future priests people! And I'm okay with that.

For our meal we had a few things that were generally angelic, and a few things specific to each angel.

Angel Hair Pasta with Carrot Cream Sauce
The carrots represent St. Raphael because he cured Tobit's eyesight.

1 box angel hair pasta
1 bag baby carrots
1 jar alfredo sauce

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Toss the carrots with a little bit of vegetable oil and roast until soft, about 45 minutes to an hour.
2. Move the cooked carrots into a blender or food processor and add some water. Blend until smooth.
3. Stir together the carrot puree and the alfredo sauce. Serve over cooked angel hair pasta.

St. Michael's Grilled Skewers
The skewers represent St. Micheal's sword. We used bamboo, but metal ones would look more like swords.

Put whatever meat and veggies you like onto skewers and grill until done. Simple! We used steak, shrimp, broccoli, bell peppers, and yellow squash.



Angel Food Cupcakes with Blackberries
Blackberries are a traditional food associated with St. Michael due to a legend about Satan landing in a bramble bush when he was banished from heaven.

1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
12 egg whites
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Combine egg whites with cream of tartar, salt, and vanilla. Whip until you have medium peaks. Sift the flour and sugar and gently fold them into the egg whites.
2. Scoop the batter into a cupcake tin lined with paper wrappers. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 35 minutes. Cool and serve with whipped cream and blackberries.

Sadly I didn't have anything St. Gabriel specific, but lilies are a traditional symbol for him, so having some for a centerpiece would be nice, though lilies are hard to find in the fall. You could also write out the menu on a banner or, as my husband suggested, put out a bowl of Bugles! Our son colored an Archangel coloring page from happysaints that you can find here.

St. Raphael grant us healing! St. Gabriel bring us good news! St. Michael defend us against our enemies!

This post is linked up at the Catholic Bloggers Network monthly link up blitz, the Equipping Catholic Families Saints Cele-linky and the Catholic and Living It Link Up.

St. Andrew Kim and Our Lady of Namyang

*Update 9/30/13 - My dad sent me some more pictures of the life size rosary mysteries and stations of the cross. Enjoy!

I know that St. Andrew Kim's feast day was yesterday. I was hoping to cook some Korean food like bulgogi or bibimbop (they're so fun to say!), but this past week was crazy and I couldn't get it done. St. Andrew Kim was the first Korean Catholic priest, and was martyred along with many other Korean Christians during persecutions in the late 1800s. To learn more about St. Andrew Kim, click here.

Although I was not able to get my cooking done, I still have something special to share. A few years ago my dad went on a trip to Korea for the military, and he was able to visit Mirinae, which is the valley the Christians fled to during the persecution. Here he got to visit St. Andrew Kim's grave, and there is a shrine for all the martyrs. Dad also says that they had some life size depictions of the mysteries of the rosary here. These are just a few of the pictures he took, though he might send me some more later.

Grave of St. Andrew Kim

Statue of St. Andrew Kim

St. Andrew Kim chapel

Shrine Church of the Martyrs

Near entry to Shrine at Mirinae Valley

Joyful mystery - The Nativity

Joyful mystery - The Presentation

Life size stations of the cross

He also got to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Namyang, (pronounced Nahm Young). Here they have a twenty decade rosary road; a nature trail lined with large granite spheres for rosary beads so you can pray as you walk along. My grandmother has a small version of the statue of Our Lady of Namyang in her kitchen that my dad brought back for her. It is truly a remarkable, beautiful, and inspiring place. These pictures are not my dad's, but are from the internet. St. Andrew Kim and  Our Lady of Namyang, pray for us!

The Rosary Road at Namyang

Entrance to the rosary road

Statue of Our Lady of Namyang

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Mary's Birthday Pancakes

Happy Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary! Kids love birthdays so celebrating Mary's with them is pretty fun. While a birthday cake is a wonderful idea, we kept it a little more simple. My husband got a new job that has him working on weekends, and we couldn't eat a whole cake between the three of us anyway.

With the new job we decided to make sure that our family has a nice Sunday breakfast together after our new earlier mass time, so we dressed up our pancakes for this special birthday celebration. I just used my basic pancake recipe from the family cookbook, added blue food coloring, and layered them whipped cream. You could also layer them with some simple cream cheese frosting. You can find my recipe for it here. I also have some recipes for blueberry muffins and Marian jello cups that would work well for today. In the past I shared my recipe for whole wheat pumpkin pancakes, which bump up the health factor, but due to their golden color would be difficult to make blue.

Make sure you sing Happy Birthday to Mary (kids love this part!), and say a Hail Mary or other Marian prayer together as a family.

Pancakes

1 egg
1 cup milk
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Beat the egg and mix all the ingredients together until smooth.

Grease a hot griddle or pan. Drop batter onto the pan with a large spoon. When bubble form on the top they are ready to flip. If you want to add any extras like berries or chocolate chips, add them in while they're on the pan, but before flipping.

*Update: We won a cake at the parish picnic cakewalk so ended up with cake anyway!

 This post is linked up at the Catholic Bloggers Network monthly link up blitz , and the Equipping Catholic Families Saints Cele-linky

S'moregasbord

Yesterday we made s'mores in the backyard, trying to put a little bit of summer into the first day of school. It was mostly for me since my three year old doesn't start preschool until next week. Sigh, where did the months go? For those who may be wondering I'm still working for as a teacher's aid in a kindergarten classroom; a full time teaching position still eludes me. But even though I may not have my dream job, and even though the pay is much too low, and even though my teaching style is different than the teacher I work with; gosh darn it I can't help but love all those kids. That includes the one with snot running out his nose as he cries about wanting to go home, and the ones that puked on the carpet, (yes that was plural!), the one that hits and bites, and the one the gives you a little smile right before they do something that they know is wrong. Yes, some days it's hard, but I love them. Its those troublemakers that seem to find a place in your heart though. Frankly I'm not sure how teachers without faith get through all the craziness that is being responsible for 20-30 little people. I know that seeing Jesus in the face of each of those children, knowing that they were created by God, is what gives me the patience and the love to get me through each day and help them as best I can.

School may have started, but the weather is still beautiful enough to enjoy an evening of making s'mores. Let's not let the craziness of a new academic year make us forget about taking the time to enjoy the company of our loved ones. We truly had a "s'moregasbord" with an array of three different types of s'mores: classic, peanut butter cup, and lemon pie.

 Classic S'more
We all know this one!:

Chocolate
Marshmallow
Graham cracker

Peanut Butter Cup S'more
Amazingly tasty!

Peanut Butter Cup
Marshmallow
Graham Cracker












Lemon Pie S'more
A little off the beaten path, but so yummy!

Lemon Curd (homemade or store bought, found near the jams and jellies.)
Marshmallow
Graham Cracker



  








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