Our Lady of Fatima Blueberry Lemon Cookies

Yesterday was the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. On May 13th, 1917 she appeard to 3 children in Fatima, Portugal, asking them to pray the rosary for the conversion of sinners. The last day she appeard to them was October 13th, where in front of a crowd of thousands of people, the sun danced in the sky! Learn more about Our Lady of Fatima here.

While scrolling through Pinterest I found a recipe for blueberry lemon cookies, two of my favorite flavors! This feast day was coming up and I thought they would be perfect for the occassion. My local women's bible study group happened to be meeting last night and I brought them to share with the ladies, so it worked out great! Everyone agreed they were quite tasty.

I thought that these cookies were perfect for the occasion because of the colors and flavors. You have the "sunny" yellow lemons reminding you of the miracle of the sun, and the blueberries and white chocolate chips  remind me of Mary, since blue and white are colors that are traditionally associated with her. I'm sure the guys can enjoy them too, but after making them they struck me as a very ladylike cookie, perfect for a tea party or shower.

The orginal recipe can be found here. But I did make a couple slight tweaks.

Blueberry Lemon Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

Ingredients:
1 cup ( 2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I wanted to use lemon extract to bump up the lemon flavor even more, but I was out.)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
 3 1/4 cups flour
 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (note: frozen blueberries will turn your dough a lovely magenta color.)
 Zest and juice of 2 lemons
1 cup white chocolate chips.

Directions:
In a bowl beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Mix in extract.

In a seperate bowl combine the salt, baking powder, baking soda, and flour. Add into the butter and sugar mixture. Add zest, juice, blueberries and white chocolate chips. Fold them into the dough and refridgerate for at least and hour.

Scoop dough onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 11-14 minutes at 350 degrees or until the bottoms are slightly golden brown. Move to a cooling rack. Enoy!

This post is linked up on the Catholic Bloggers Network 2014 Link Up Blitz and the Equipping Catholic Families 2014 Saints Linkup! Check it out!

A Mother's Day Garden

Last summer my Mother's Day planter grew green beans

Mother's Day is this Sunday! Of course I can't post any projects my son and I are working on right now for our moms, grandmothers, great-grandmothers and godmothers. They may read the blog and it will spoil the surprise! However, I did want to share something very sweet my husband and son did a few years ago. We were living in an apartment, but my heart wanted at least a little garden to tend over the summer. Maybe a tomato plant or two and some flowers. Well, my sweet husband was ever so thoughtful, and not only got me a little planter for the apartment patio, but added a special touch with my baby's hand and foot print and painting on the title, "Mommy's Garden." Even as my garden (hopefully) gets bigger this summer, this wonderful little planter will always be a part of it.

And of course we can't forget that May is the month to celebrate everybody's mother, our holy mother Mary! We can honor our earthly mothers and our heavenly one by saying a rosary or other Marian prayer for all the moms in our lives. Below are some links to past posts with Marian/Mother's Day projects that would be great for this month of May!

Rosary Flipbook

Spiritual Bouquet Cards 








Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Caramel Corn

Feast of the Assumption Snack Cups