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

This post is linked up at the Catholic Bloggers Network monthly link up blitz

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



  








This post is linked up on the Catholic Bloggers Network monthly link up blitz

Feast of the Assumption Snack Cups

Happy Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary! Don't forget that today is a holy day of obligation.

We have a play date today and I wanted to bring a snack to share that celebrated today's feast. I got inspired by Catholic Cuisine's Heavenly Assumption Parfaits, a simple and beautiful treat using blue jello and whipped topping to create a cloud and sky affect. I really liked the idea, but needed to make mine a little more portable to bring to the play date.

So instead of breaking up the jello and putting it in parfait glasses, I poured the liquid jello into disposable plastic cups and let it set in those. I then put a layer of whipped topping on top, and garnished it with a blue white chocolate "M" for Mary. It was the first time I tried a decoration like this, and though every M wasn't as neat as I might have liked, I think they turned out really well and added a special little touch!









To make the white chocolate garnishes I melted some white chocolate chips in the microwave and added blue food coloring. I then put the melted chocolate into a zip top bag and snipped off the corner with some scissors to create a piping bag. Then I piped the M's onto parchment paper that was on the back side of a baking pan. Make sure you make more than you need because some of them will probably break when you remove them. Pop the baking pan into the freezer and the chocolate should set in a just a few minutes! They lift off the parchment paper really easily, and then you can place them on top of the jello cups. Enjoy!

You can print a free Assumption coloring page from Happy Saints by clicking here. 

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

Joking around with St. Jane Frances de Chantal

I only recently discovered St. Jane when looking up feast days in August, but what a remarkable woman she was! When she married she inherited her husband's enormous debt, but she took charge and organized all the finances and got her family back on its feet.She would give food away at her home and never turned anyone away. When her husband was killed in a hunting accident she was able to forgive the man who killed him, though she struggled at first. She was friends with St. Francis de Sales and founded the Visitation order for elderly and sickly women who were rejected by other orders. She and her husband had four children and she was a very gentle and loving person.

One of the things that jumped out at me when I read about her was a quote from a friend of St. Jane's saying, "Even stupid jokes were funny when she told them." I think that sometimes we get a picture in our heads of saints as someone stoic and serious, maybe even a little "holier than thou," so I think its great when we get an image like this! St. Jane Frances de Chantal was a human being with joy in her heart who loved to tell jokes! Of course we know that her joy came from God and was key to her work in helping the poor and needy. St. Jane is not the only one with that joy either. I have seen that great joy in all the sisters of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, MI when I visit my sister. I've seen it at the beautiful Catholic weddings of my friends. I've seen it in my friends who are in seminary studying to be priests. I've seen it in loving, Christ centered families. I've seen it in my priest from college who also loves to tell stupid jokes! Wherever God is truly present in the hearts of His people, I see a great joy.

Now in college, when that priest would tell stupid jokes, most people would moan and shake their heads. Me, I would laugh. That's because telling stupid, (aka hilarious), jokes runs in my family. Its a grand tradition going back generations. So today in honor of St. Jane Frances de Chantal, I'm going to share some of my favorites. So please feel free to share the joy and get together with your family to tell these jokes, along with your own personal favorites! Please share your favorite jokes in the comments!

Warning: Some jokes may contain elephants

Q: How can you tell if an elephant's been in the refridgerator?
A: There's footprints in the butter.

Q: Why did the cowboy buy a dachshund?
A: Because someone told him to "get a long little doggie!"

 What's the difference between an elephant and a plum?
I don't know.
Then I'm not sending you to the store for plums, you might come back with elephants!
(I have a hard time with this one. The person I tell it to always seems to try to answer the question instead of saying "I don't know.")

Q: What's brown and sticky?
A: A stick!

Q: Why are elephants big, gray, and wrinkly?
A: Because if they were small, white, and smooth they'd be asprin!

Knock Knock.
Who's There?
Winnie the Puh
Winnie the Puh-who?

Q: Why did the elephant wear green tennis shoes?
A: So he could sneak across the pool table without being seen.

 Q: What's the best time to go to the dentist?
A. Tooth-hurty! (two thirty)

Q: Why did the elephant wear red tennis shoes?
A: Because his green ones were in the wash!

Have you heard the one about the sidewalk? Its all over town!

And finally...

Q: What's gray, has big ears, and a trunk?
A: A mouse going on vacation!   fooled you, didn't I? 

To learn more about St. Jane Frances de Chantal, click here.

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

St. Lawrence Day Cook Out

Happy Feast of Saint Lawrence! St. Lawrence in a martyr of the Church, most remembered for being able to maintain a sense of humor even as he was dying. It is one of my favorite saint stories.

In 258 during a persecution of Christians in Rome, the Prefect of Rome believed that the Church had some great hidden treasure and demanded that St. Lawrence bring it to him. St. Lawrence then gathered all the poor and needy of Rome and brought them before the prefect telling him that they were the treasure of the Church. That didn't sit too well with the prefect. St. Lawrence was tied to iron grill that was put over a fire to be cooked to death. It is said that through God's assistance he felt little pain, and even joked with his torturers, "Turn me over,  I'm done on this side!" St. Lawrence in the patron saint of cooks and chefs. To learn more about St. Lawrence click here.

It only seemed appropriate to have a cook out on the grill to honor this bold and joyful saint! We ended up doing it yesterday evening as we made it a family gathering with my dad and step-mom and that's when everybody could get together. It was a beautiful evening of enjoying each other's company with delicious food and fresh air. The following things are some of the food that we had, but of course it can be something as simple as throwing some hot dogs on the grill.

 Grilled Veggies - a staple for us at any cook out!
 -Veggies - some of our favorites are broccoli, carrots, bell peppers, and parsnips
-Olive oil
-Salt

Put the veggies on the grill and brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Cook until tender and slightly charred. Enjoy!

 Burgers on the Grill
This is a venison sausage patty with horseradish sauce and a brandywine tomato from my dad's garden. Yum! My dad is a hunter so I love venison. We probably had it more than beef growing up! We also had regular burgers, but I just couldn't pass this one up!

Grilled Fruit Sundaes
-Grillable fruit - we used pineapple and bananas. Stone fruits like peaches and nectarines work well too.
-Ice cream
-toppings

Grill the fruit until soft and slightly charred. put on top of vanilla ice cream and add your favorite toppings! I used chocolate and caramel sauce. Enjoy!

Prayer to St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr

O Generous patron of the Church’s poor, St. Lawrence, pray to the One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit that all the poor of the Church in need in every corner of the world may feel the effect of the love of their brothers and sisters who seek to help them.

Deliver the Church from the greed and envy of the powerful and protect her rights and property so that she may serve the needy in freedom, giving them good things for soul and body.

May we come some day with all those whom we helped on earth to the bright mansions of heaven where we will enjoy the riches of God’s house and the company of the Savior who lives and reigns forever and ever.

                                                                            Amen

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

Fun with Fingerpaint and Boxes

For a child there isn't anything much better than being allowed to make a mess and having a big box to play in. For the past couple days I've had one happy kid because that's exactly what we've been doing with a combination of fingerpaints and Nana and Grandpa's box from their new dishwasher!

It started out with a regular fingerpainting session. We covered the kitchen table with newspapers and cut stamps out from sponges. We also only bought red, yellow, and blue tempera paint, so we could have a little fun with color mixing. Our three year old Sam had lots fun creating colorful art!

 I love this rainbow hand print! We basically made a color wheel on a paper plate, and he stuck his hand in it and put it on the paper!









The day ended something like this.

















And then things got really crazy. Grandpa finally took the dishwasher out of the box! Sam wanted to turn it into a fort. To make it really special we told him that we could take the box outside and paint it. The key to this project is to not care how messy the kids get and let them go for it! Tempera paint is washable, but its still a good idea to strip 'em down, (good for when they're younger) or wear old clothes.

Here's Sam painting the box.















These are some of the stamps we cut from sponges. The green blobby one is a sassafras leaf, Sam asked for it because sassafras is his favorite tree.

Here is the paint we mixed, set up color wheel style to add a little education to the craziness!

 Final results! You will notice on the left side of the picture two red footprints on the driveway. There was a threat of rain in weather report so we put the box in the garage to dry, and we'll bring it in tomorrow so Sam can set up camp in is fort. When you're done make sure to give the kids a bath or spray them down with a hose in the yard!

This post is linked up on Catholic Bloggers Network Monthly Link Up Blitz.

Bluebarb Crisp and Grandpa's Farm

Hello everyone! I know I haven't posted in a while. Its the time of summer when I run the studio's dance and theater camps. We've been having a blast and everyone is doing a wonderful job!

In between last week's camp and this week's camp I got to go to my favorite place in the world for a family reunion; my grandpa's blueberry farm in southwest Michigan. When I'm there I just seem to be more at peace with everything. Any problems with jobs or housing, or money don't matter anymore and I just feel good being. Sort of a "God created me and this beautiful world I'm in and that's enough to make me happy" feeling. Not to mention the joy of seeing my wonderful and amazing grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and other extended family. Hanging out in the barn, tooling around on four wheelers, swinging over the creek on the rope swing, playing pooh sticks on the bridge, feeding the pond's resident snapping turtle, and of course picking blueberries! Who could ask for anything more?







When it came time to leave my son began to cry and exclaimed over and over, "I want to stay here forever!" One of my cousins was touched by his sorrow and shared this reflection on Facebook.

"When I was a child, I remember having to leave family members after a fun event like a reunion. I would be so sad, crying even, at having to part from such wonderful people who loved me. What hurt additionally was the fact that my mother, father, aunts and uncles weren't crying. Weren't they sad to leave their family? Won't they miss them? Don't they love them?
 
Now, of course, I realize the necessity of leaving visits and returning back to our busy lives. Parting is inevitable, but we take consolation in the hope of seeing them, our loved ones, again.
 
Watching one of my young cousins weep over our departure struck me. The young ones haven't endured as many goodbyes as those who've lived longer, but does this give us, the older ones, an excuse to be numb? Does the quantity of our goodbyes mean we should display less passion for those we love? I have become so accustomed to leaving and reuniting that I forget reuniting is only a hope, and not a certainty."
  
I certainly look forward to the next time we can all get together, especially on Thanksgiving. This year will mark the tenth anniversary of "Thanksgiving in the Barn," and we are all excited! As excited as we are my cousin's reflection strikes a chord as my grandparents are getting older and slowing down. Will we have one more Thanksgiving with them?  Two? Five? More? Less? My grandparents are some the most loving, holy, people I know, and I have been blessed to still have all my grandparents on both sides.  Its a tough thing to think about, but a reminder of how precious time with our families is.

 
While we go back to our lives at home and hope for the joy of the next family gathering, we can reminisce about those good times with a lovely dessert made from the blueberries I picked on Grandpa's farm. I also included some rhubarb I picked from my dad's backyard once we got home. We call this fruit combination "bluebarb" and its one of my favorites. Its great in a pie as well as made into jam. Just to let you know, I don't really measure too much with a crisp recipe, except for the topping.








Bluebarb Crisp

Ingredients:

Fruit mixture:

fresh blueberries
rhubarb, chopped
sugar
flour
lemon juice
butter

Crisp topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup old fashioned oats
6 tablespoons soft butter

1. Combine the blueberries and rhubarb in a 9 x 13 baking dish with a little flour, sugar, and lemon juice. Dot with butter (you can use the two leftover tablespoons from the crisp topping for this.)

2. Combine all the ingredients for the crisp topping in a bowl and mix until you a good chunky consistency.

3. Crumple the topping on top of the fruit and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Serve with vanilla ice cream. 

This post is linked up on Catholic Bloggers Network Monthly Link Up Blitz and  Carole's Chatter: Food on Friday: Rhubarb

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Caramel Corn

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and I just can't help it; it makes me think of ooey gooey caramel. Perhaps its because here in Michigan we do not pronounce the candy care-uh-mel, or even care-mel, but car-mul, same as the mountain. So I looked through my trusty family cookbook and found a recipe for caramel corn. My family is just crazy about popcorn, I think it comes from my husband. Not that I ever disliked popcorn, but growing up his family had popcorn almost every day, or at least it seemed like it! My father-in-law even still has the same pot he used to make popcorn as kid. I think that this caramel corn will be the perfect treat for my popcorn loving boys on this special day for Our Lady.

The significance of Mt. Carmel goes all the way back to Elijah in the Old Testament.

"When Ahab saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is it you, you disturber of Israel?” He answered, “It is not I who disturb Israel, but you and your father’s house, by forsaking the commands of the LORD and you by following the Baals. Now summon all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, as well as the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel’s table.” So Ahab summoned all the Israelites and had the prophets gather on Mount Carmel." ( 1 Kings 18, 17-20)

 In the twelfth century hermits came to live at Mt. Carmel and eventually formed the Carmelite order, who have a special devotion to Mary. In 1225 Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock and gave him the brown scapular, also known as the scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. She said to him, "This shall be a privilege for you and all Carmelites, that anyone dying in this habit shall not suffer eternal fire.” Today, many lay people wear a smaller form of this scapular. 

To learn more about Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and the brown scapular, click here.


                                                                                   
Caramel Corn
2 cups brown sugar
2 sticks butter
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
pinch of salt
8 quarts popped popcorn

1.Combine brown sugar, butter and corn syrup. Bring to a boil and cook for five minutes.

2.Remove from heat and add the baking soda, salt, and cream of tartar. (I'm going to admit to you right now that I forgot to do this step today. I didn't have any problems and it turned out delicious! When I realized that I had forgotten I did sprinkle on a little salt while mixing the popcorn and caramel to get a nice sweet and salty flavor. Does anyone know the what the purpose of the baking soda and cream of tartar is supposed to be?)

3. Pour over 8 quarts of popped corn and mix well to coat evenly.

4. Spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 200 degrees for 1 hour. Take out of over every 15 minutes to stir. (Its much easier to stir the corn when your cookie sheet has sides on it. Also, though the recipe does not say to grease the cookie sheet, caramel corn is pretty sticky stuff so I played it safe and gave it a spray.) Enjoy!

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