Custodians of Beauty

St. Therese, the Little Flower, please pick me a rose from the heavenly garden and send it to me with a message of love. Ask God to grant me the favor I implore and tell Him I will love Him each day more and more.  Amen "St. Therese loved nature, and often used the imagery of nature to explain how the Divine Presence is everywhere, and how everything is connected in God's loving care and arms. Therese saw herself as "the Little Flower of Jesus" because she was just like the simple wild flowers in forests and fields, unnoticed by the greater population, yet growing and giving glory to God. Therese did not see herself as a brilliant rose or an elegant lily, by simply as a small wildflower. This is how she understood herself before the Lord - simple and hidden, but blooming where God had planted her. " - Text taken from the Society of the Little Flower The girls colored the Little Flower  print out while I read them a short story of St. Therese from ou...

It's been rainy, wet and cold. Low, gray clouds covered the sky for most of the week. As the storms rolled in, we watched and listened to the rumblings of the thunder. Come to think of it, my kids aren't afraid of storms. I've always told them that God sends the rain (and the lighting) to help the plants, flowers and trees grow big and strong. The day after a storm, they like run out to inspect our yard. What do they find? The grass is a brilliant green, flowers have pushed through the dirt and the trees are sprouting leaf buds! Oh, and a worm or two stranded on the pavement. It's such an exciting time for them, watching things grow! My favorite rainy day book is  Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco. I promised the girls we would make this delicious cake next time it stormed, and so we did! Babushka's Thunder Cake recipe is written at the back of the book. I used a slightly different recipe for our cake. Unfortunately, it sat in the oven a bit too long and came ...

On the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus I made a treat for the kids. It was a solemnity after all! The base was a graham cracker spread with buttercream frosting. I used slices of strawberries for the hearts and slivers of roasted almonds for the crown of thorns and cross. The fire at the top was orange and yellow sprinkles. You could use flower sprinkles instead of almonds to turn this into the Immaculate Heart. (Next year!) Extremely impromptu, yet fun and easy to make. Just used what I had in my pantry at the time.   Before we ate our snack, the kids looked at the image of the Sacred Heart and I pointed out to them the thorns, fire, and heart of Jesus. We talked about what each symbol meant. The flaming heart showing His burning love for us, and the cross and thorns circling the heart reminding us of His suffering and death on the cross. Prayer to the Sacred Heart: O Most Holy Heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, I adore you, I love yo...

On the morning of the Feast of St. Lucy ,  virgin and martyr, in honor of my namesake, the girls and I enjoyed a delicious cherry cheese coffee cake.  This simple recipe was found on  CatholicCuisine . It calls for things that were already in my fridge/pantry. Love that. Crescent rolls, pie filling, cream cheese, an egg, powdered sugar and a little vanilla. I wimped out on making the traditional Luciakatter , a sweet saffron-flavored twisted bread. But this coffee cake recipe was quick and easy. Plus there's always next year! While we waited for the pastry to cool, I read a short story about the life of St. Lucy and then we said a prayer asking for her intercession for our family.  Note: In the future, I hope to up my game a bit and enhance the pastry with dough braids or twists to add some artsy flair. It's such a pretty breakfast treat to eat.  Cherry Cheese Coffee Cake Cake and Filling Ingredients: 1 8 oz. package of refrigerat...

Spotted the first leaf to turn on our maple tree. I was in a baking mood last week and decided to make cut-outs using my new leaf cookie cutter (10 ¢  garage sale find, score!) I wanted to try using several different colored doughs, roll them together to end up with a multicolored cookie. I didn't have time to make an entire batch, so I made half and chilled the rest of the dough for later. Using my aunt's "Peanuts Cookie Cut-outs" recipe, I divided the dough into 4 parts and dyed them red, orange, green and yellow. Then made smaller dough balls of all the colors and started rolling. As I rolled out the dough, the colors started to merge. My leaf designs were changing from bright and bold, to swirly marble-like patterns. So cool. I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for more leaf cookie cutters--different shapes and sizes. Let's make some cookies! See how the colors are looking more marbly? Neato. Ready for the oven. ...

Taking a break from packing to bake some muffins! These are my ALL time favorite muffins to bake. Granted, I don't make very many muffins, but even if I did, this one would be at the top of the list. Don't let the avocado/blueberry combination scare you away! The avocado lends a subtle flavor and gives the muffin a delicious creaminess and the streusel adds a sweet crumble to the top. You can find the original recipe on Ali's Blog, Gimme Some Oven . Don't the photos of her baked goods make your mouth water? MMmm! Ok, so here's how my Blueberry Avocado muffins turned out. I altered her recipe slightly because I didn't have greek yogurt (I substituted with sour cream). Below is my revised recipe if you care to try it. The recipe yields a dozen muffins. Muffin Ingredients: 2 cups flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1 ripe avocado, pitted and peeled 3/4 cup sugar 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1 1/4 ...

Cranberries were never my thing. In the past, my experience with cranberries was limited to the gelatinous form that comes from a can at Thanksgiving, and well, the cranberry juice my grandpa used to drink. Meh. Not my cup of tea.   Then it all changed when my aunt baked THE cranberry orange pecan cookies. They were delicious! There's just something about cranberry orange that makes my knees buckle. I'll be at the coffee shop ordering my usual beverage and catch a peek at their bakery case. At that point, there's no turning back. That cranberry orange muffin has my name on it. End of story.  I took it upon myself to bake cranberry orange scones this week. Now, I have never tried this before... so it was a shot in the dark as far as flavor goes. I used my strawberry scone recipe swapping out the strawberries for cranberries. Didn't have an orange on hand, so I improvised with lemon zest and orange juice to it spruce up. These cranberry orange scones pa...

The floral rolling pin makes an appearance again! After testing it out on a rhubarb pie  I baked in the spring, I was eager to try it out a second time. I made shortbread cookies to bring to my family's thanksgiving dinner. To make the floral pattern stand out and be recognizable, I used basic circle and diamond shaped cutters... and I cut out a few turkeys, gobble gobble.  When rolling out the dough, I found it was tricky to keep it from tearing. I chilled the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling it out. Maybe it tore because it was too cold? I dunno. The cookies were eaten none the less.  Buttery and delicate, these cookies were delicious! No frosting or sprinkles needed. Tea and cookies, anyone? If there are any food safe paints out there for decorating, I would love to try them out on these cookies.  A spot of color here and there, maybe painting a flower or two on each cookie.  I found this charming tea...

So far I've used my dehydrator to make dried strawberries, mango, apple slices, and fruit leather. The dried fruits are great trail snacks, but what's even better is homemade beef jerky.  Now, although I can't take the credit for making this mouth-watering jerky, I can say it was fun documenting the process. My brothers and husband joined forces to create the ultimate dry-aged beef, which they've dubbed, The Brother's Jerky . Mmmm, tasty dry-aged beef. The meat packaging alone was worthy of a photo. They purchased 6 lbs of beautiful London Broil at Whole Foods. The very low fat content makes for beef jerky that doesn't spoil so fast.  The butcher sliced the meat thinly, which made it easy peasy for the jerky making. Meats! The makings of a delicious, lip' smackin' marinade.  Jerky strips were divided out into bags and the marinade was generously poured into each bag. After massaging the meat (the br...