Collection: Digital Downloads

The beauty of this traditional Rwandan milk tea is in its simplicity: just black tea, warm spicy ginger, milk, and sugar. It’s lovely hot or cold.

This recipe is pretty ubiquitous in Catholic parish fundraiser cookbooks. I haven’t been able to find an explanation as to why it’s called spinach “Cabrini,” and don’t know if there’s any association intended with the saint, but sometimes it's better not to look a gift recipe in the mouth, right?

This recipe originally appeared in Thomas Dawson’s The good huswifes Jewell, part 1 in 1596.

The spookiness comes from cutting a ghost shape out of cheese slices and laying it on top of the macaroni and cheese as soon as it comes out of the oven. Very scary. And meat-free.

St. Augustine and St. Monica lived in the northern part of Africa. This delicious stew is a traditional dish from that area and is perfect for celebrating their feast days!

This chicken recipe, brined and seasoned using ancient Roman ingredients and methods, is my family’s all time favorite chicken.

To remember the miracle, on this feast day, white rose petals are dropped from the dome during the celebration of the Mass . . . and snow-cones are enjoyed at our house.

Pentecost marks the day that the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles and is often referred to as the birthday of the Church. Spread the Good News by throwing a party, and adding this cute topper to your cake. Bonus points if you use red frosting!

On the feast of the Immaculate Conception we like to pray the Litany of Loreto which honors Our Lady’s many titles. Find some of those titles in this word search then pray the litany together as a family.

On Catholic New Years Eve we choose new patron saints for the liturgical year. Choose your patron saints from the list provided or write in your own to create your family litany of saints to pray this year!

The Month of October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary! Display this print all month long and don’t forget to pray the prayer on the back too! The art on the front of this print was by Simone Cantarini in the 1640s, and is entitled Madonna of the Rosary.

Celebrate the feast of Saint Teresa by praying the prayer on the back of this holy card and by displaying her image for the day!

Celebrate Our Lady Queen of Angels by displaying your holy card and praying the prayer on the back!

Ask these three holy siblings to intercede for you and your siblings, then read their stories aloud as your kids color this coloring page! The story of Mary and Martha can be found at Luke 10: 38-42, and the story of Lazarus can be found at John 11:1-44.

Banners like this were used by the Mexican Cristero fighters in their war against the anti-Catholic government of President Calles in 1917. This one features Our Lady of Guadalupe and “Long Live Our Lady of Guadalupe”, the Sacred heart of Jesus and “Long Live Christ the King”, and the coat of arms of Mexico, which depicts a Mexican golden eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus devouring a rattlesnake. This coat of arms symbolizes the triumph of good over evil.

A downloadable activity to use for the feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle on July 3!

A novena to Saint Anne can be prayed for any intention, but her intercession is frequently invoked by those seeking a spouse or hoping for a child.

In Spanish, “magdalena” means “muffin,” and this tall, fluffy, lemony version made with extra virgin olive oil and a distinctive cone shape is ubiquitous in coffee shops across the country. The story goes that there was a young woman named Magdalena who would bake little cakes and serve them to the pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago (the Way of Saint James), the pilgrims went home and recreated them all over Spain, spreading their popularity. As Magdalena was likely named for Saint Mary Magdalene, these muffins are a great way to celebrate her feast day on July 22 AND Saint James on July 25, so maybe make a double batch? It makes a lovely breakfast, snack with afternoon tea, or dessert.

You know me, I like a good food-pun. For the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, I like to play up the near-homophone relationship of “carmel” and “caramel.” Full-disclosure, this isn’t “real” caramel sauce (that would be made of melted sugar, with added butter and cream) but if you’ve ever watched The Great British Bake Off, you know how finicky caramel can be. This dulce de leche sauce, popular in Latin America, is practically foolproof, super delicious, and made with just one ingredient: a can of sweetened condensed milk. Dulce de leche can be made on the stovetop or in a pressure cooker (like the instant pot). It is traditionally cooked right in the sealed can, but transferring the sweetened condensed milk into a jar before cooking avoids some issues of cooking in the can. Plus that’s how I was going to store it in the fridge anyway, and it’s less messy to transfer it before cooking. Serve it with sliced green apples, over a banana split, or make carmel brownie ice cream sundaes for the feast day, that’s what we’ll be doing!

Eighteenth-century Jesuit missionaries like Father Sébastien Rale and Father Joseph-François Lafitau described the making and use of maple syrup by the indigenous peoples with whom they lived. Making maple snow taffy is a simple way to enjoy maple syrup as Saint Kateri might have! As you might have gathered from the name, this treat is usually enjoyed during the winter. We don’t have snow at our house, ever. So we might as well make this treat in the summer. All that’s required is to bring real 100% pure maple syrup to a boil, then pour it over “snow” (we make our own in a blender). It cools to a sticky maple taffy that can be rolled up onto a stick. We like to use backyard sticks, as they seem more authentic, but if you prefer your treats to be 100% tree bark-free you might prefer a popsicle stick. P.S. Snowball fight!

This liturgical food pun was just too good to pass up! S’mores are especially delicious when the marshmallows are roasted over a bonfire, but we’ve also included instructions for making s’mores in your microwave or oven.

This is more of a concept than a recipe and as much an activity as a meal, but I wanted to share t as an example of how catechism and food are tied together in our home. Whether it’s as simple as an apple on the feast of Ss. Adam and Eve or as complex as turducken and crème brûlée on the feast of the Holy Trinity, food is a way to bring people together and start a conversation, sometimes with whatever happens to be in the pantry.

I stood in my kitchen one Friday afternoon, looking at a slightly runny red gelatin heart, decorated with orange segments and pretzel sticks. It was sitting before me, somewhat off-center on its cake plate. It was supposed to be the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but it had looked better in my head. Less oozy. Then, my four year old daughter walked in, took one look at it, and literally gasped in wonder at its beauty. She called the other kids in to see it. They agreed that it was awesome, but could use some whipped cream. So that’s what we did. We put some whipped cream on it. Over dinner, we talked about St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and her visions. We talked about the burning love that Jesus has for each one of us, and the pain that he suffers because of the sin and the ingratitude of mankind. Then we ate the weepy heart. And now my kids can’t imagine a feast of the Sacred Heart without one. That’s what living the liturgical year looks like in our home.

One of the best parts of my high school career was eating at the home of a friend who came from an Italian-American family. Every meal his mom cooked was amazing, but the most fun were the days when they would invite big groups of kids for what we called Pasta Alla Tavola or “Pasta on the Table.” Mrs. Vitale would dump pots of pasta with butter and parmesan cheese in the middle of the “table.” Then we would all eat it . . . with our hands. It was the BEST. It’s perfect for the feast of St. Joseph. As a carpenter, Joseph worked with his hands. In honor of his day, we eat with our hands! It’s not much of a “recipe,” per se, but here it is . . .

This Mexican “three milks” cake is light, moist, and not overly sweet, and no feast of the Mexican Martyrs would be complete without one! Can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator, covered, for 3-5 days.

While no analogy will ever actually explain or actually help us understand the Trinity (so we should probably quit trying) . . . symbols of the Trinity can help us remember and devote ourselves to the mystery of three persons in one God. A three leaf clover has long been used as a symbol of the Trinity, and these tasty three piece rolls are a fun dinner table reminder of this unknowable mystery. Rolling and dunking the dough balls is a good job for kid-helpers.

This old-fashioned dessert is easy for kids to help put together and makes a great addition to a meal delivery for the feast of the Visitation, or any time. It keeps in the fridge for weeks, so your recipients can enjoy it at their convenience! Substitute the dried fruits of your choice.

What better way to celebrate Jesus ascending into the heavens than with fluffy, cloud-topped cupcakes! This recipe uses real vanilla beans, right in the batter, which is so cool. For the best effect, top with Jesus cupcake toppers (for all the oohs and ahhs from children and adults alike).

This smooth, natural, homemade playdough is fun to make, long lasting, and smells amazing. For the feast day, I let my kids go at it with real tools (on a protected surface, with supervision).

Grab a copy of St. Catherine’s "Dialogue" and enjoy this light and fresh mocktail as you read over 300 letters dictated under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and discover something new about the faith from this Doctor of the Church!

This classic British pub meal makes for a tasty celebration of St. George of Merrie England. “Bangers” is slang for sausages. The “bang” comes from the fact that during WWII when meat rations were low, sausages had to be made with other inexpensive fillers like rusk or breadcrumbs and a large ratio of water that would result in the sausages bursting with a “bang” when fried. True English bangers are a whitish pork sausage with a tasty smoothness that my family really enjoys. We can sometimes find them at our local grocery store. In a pinch, any white pork sausage will do!

Paglia e fieno or “straw and hay” is a traditional dish from the Siena region of Italy. It’s a delicious combination of pasta, prosciutto, cream, peas, and Parmesan cheese. To make it look like, well, straw and hay, it’s usually made with an equal combination of spinach fettuccine and egg fettuccine. However, if spinach fettuccine isn’t readily available, you could always do just hay, or substitute a tricolor bowtie or rotini mix. Bacon can be substituted for the prosciutto.

Saint Mark is described in the Bible as a naked guy. . .his origin story involves him being an unclothed robber who fled the Garden of Gethsemane before he changed his ways and helped write the Gospels. Since it’s sort of hard to politely include that imagery in liturgical cooking, we prefer to celebrate him by remembering his symbolic creature – a winged lion! This lion’s head bread ends up being a pretty spectacular snack. If you think of a way to add wings, let us know!

These hearty and delicious doughy-potato-y bundles are a traditional Jewish delicacy. However, full-disclosure, they wouldn’t be served at an observant Passover meal, because chametz (anything containing grain that has come into contact with water and risen) must be avoided at Passover. However, since we are not attempting an observant Passover meal, and they are amazing, we like to have these. They are great with applesauce, sour cream, or spicy mustard. A more authentic, chametz-free choice would be potato latkes.

Because of a medieval Swedish liturgical food pun, the solemnity of the Annunciation is associated with . . . waffles! In Europe, this important feast day was known as “Our Lady’s Day” in honor of Mary. In Swedish “Our Lady’s Day” is “Vårfrudagen,” which sounds a lot like “Våffeldagen” which means “Waffle Day.” So they went for it. And now, five hundred years later and five thousand miles away, the Tierneys always have waffles for dinner on the Annunciation.

All the saint of the day images for the month of March!

You could make a lamb cake . . . but those turn out creepy, like, 90% of the time. That’s kind of their charm. But you can make a slightly-less-weird-looking Rice Krispie Lamb in a fraction of the time. Everyone wins! Let a kid do the sculpting and then you won’t have to take credit for your lamb’s looks. #momhack Note: I use a large canning pot for this recipe. If you don’t have a VERY large pot, but you do have a very large mixing bowl you can pour the hot marshmallow mixture over your cereal in a very large mixing bowl. Or, halve the recipe and make a smaller lamb

In the original Latin, “Ember Days” are called “Quatuor Tempora,” or “four times” of the year. In the 16th century, Jesuit missionaries from Portugal settled in Nagasaki. As a meatless meal, they introduced what we now call “tempura”: battered shrimp and/or vegetables fried in a traditional Portuguese-style. It’s perfect for Ember Days, Fridays, and the Feast of the Japanese Martyrs on February 6. You’ll get the best results using big shrimp or prawns from the seafood counter. 16-20 count per lb are great. Smaller shrimp will also be delicious, they just won’t look as much like restaurant tempura. This batter is also often used on veggies like broccoli florets, baby corn, green beans, mushrooms, and slices of onion, sweet potato, and eggplant.

In Matthew 17:24–27 we find the story of the miracle known as the “coin in the fish’s mouth.” Jesus tells Peter to go catch a fish in the Sea of Galilee, in which he will find a coin with which he is to pay the temple tax. Galilean tradition tells us that the fish was a tilapia and so tilapia are known there as St. Peter’s Fish. A popular dish in the region is St. Peter’s fish served whole and fried, with chips (that’s fries to Americans). This is the dish I serve on the feast of St. Blaise, as we laugh in the face of dangerous fish bones after getting our throats blessed at Mass. But if you’re not feeling that vibe, this recipe can be prepared with fish filets. The cooking time is the same. For the seasoning, combine dried oregano, basil, garlic powder, paprika, chili powder, etc. or use a seasoning mix like Old Bay, Tony’s, taco, Mrs. Dash, or Italian. Or omit this and instead top with 2 Tablespoons of chopped fresh herbs like basil, cilantro, and parsley after cooking. Or do both!