Collection: March

This warm, hearty, comforting pub dish was a favorite of my family on our pilgrimage to Ireland.

There are plenty of great options for a New Orleans-style Mardi Gras dinner: gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice, po-boy sandwiches . . . but we always have shrimp etouffee. “Etouffee” is French for “smothered” and in this recipe our shrimp get smothered in a tasty sauce of butter, flour, red and yellow bell peppers, sweet onion, and tomato. We make sure to serve it over rice too so we can enjoy every last drop of sauce!

Our Fat Tuesday menu is all about celebrating a New Orleans-style Mardi Gras. And you can’t do that without a king cake. Named for the Three Kings aka the Three Wise Men and enjoyed around the world, all the variations are served on or before Fat Tuesday and have something hidden inside to represent the baby Jesus. Depending on where you are in the world, it might be a bean or a nut or a ring, but in New Orleans it’s a little plastic baby Jesus—so that's what we're going to do!

The hurricane, which originated in the 1940s at a French Quarter bar called Pat O’Brien’s, is the quintessential New Orleans beverage. Although this is traditionally a rum cocktail, we just do the juice part in our house. But both versions are absolutely delicious! And of course, make sure to serve your drinks in a glass shaped like a hurricane lamp.

Ss. Perpetua and Felicity were arrested and imprisoned in the year 203. They refused to renounce their faith and were thrown to wild beasts in games celebrating the birthday of the emperor. But they remained steadfast, and before they suffered gruesome injury by a line of gladiators, a boar, a bear, a leopard, and finally a “savage cow,” St. Perpetua fixed her hair so she could present herself to God looking beautiful, for “it was not meet that a martyr should suffer with hair disheveled, lest she should seem to grieve in her glory.” So today, we choose to celebrate their courageous martyrdom with fancy updos and beautiful braided bread!

Perfect for Lent, homemade pretzels are a great way to jump into bread making. Pretzels are historically associated with Lent, as their traditional shape is meant to look like arms folded in prayer ( with a twist!). This easy recipe makes chewy, yeasty homemade soft pretzels in only 40 minutes. My kids love to make the Lenten pretzels, even if the ones they make don’t necessarily end up looking pretzel-like. Don’t be scared of the baking soda bath. That’s what gives the pretzels their dark brown color and distinctive chewy texture. You can do it!

Between Epiphany and Lent we celebrate Carnival, a little season of Ordinary Time. One popular tradition from this medieval European celebration is the King Cake, named for the Three Wise Men, and decorated with colored sprinkles: purple for justice, green for faith, and gold for power. Save time without compromising flavor with this cheater recipe. Serve warm for breakfast—and make sure someone finds baby Jesus!

Irish cream is a liqueur that features whiskey, cocoa, espresso, and vanilla. It makes the perfect addition to your coffee, cocktails, or desserts, and takes a St. Patrick’s Day celebration over the top!

I was pretty excited to learn that there was in fact a traditional pastry meant to be eaten on Good Friday, and considered so Catholic that their sale was forbidden by decree of Elizabeth I (not a fan of Catholics). When I first looked up the recipe, they seemed awfully sweet and tasty for such a somber day. However, my love of tradition won out and now, I actually think their deliciousness adds to the mortification of having them for a collation. We WANT to eat ten of them, but we only eat two (and they are small). If you prefer, you can omit the icing cross and instead cut a cross into the top of each bun before baking.

Your calendar medallions for the month of March!

Pretzels are more fun when you have something to dip them in! While your pretzels bake, throw together this quick and tasty sauce featuring two main ingredients: beer and cheese. Historically cheese and other animal products were given up during Lent, but—perhaps surprisingly—beer was traditionally part of a Lenten diet. Some orders of monks fasted on beer only, with the express permission of the pope! This recipe combines the two into a tasty (and meat-free) Lenten snack!

A breastplate is a heavy piece of armor covering the chest to protect from injury. In this case, it is a symbol for divine protection. This prayer is traditionally sung on Saint Patrick’s Day and is a powerful hymn of hope for God’s help in adversity. Christ be with us!

These tasty flatbreads are quick and easy and make an excellent side for curries and any meal that needs a “pusher.” They’re great with dips or folded and filled with sandwich fixins. They are relatively flat, but allowed to rise (chametz again). A more authentic addition to a Passover meal would be store-bought or homemade matzo bread (more like crackers).

Saint Katharine Drexel was born in 1858. She was a wealthy Philadelphia socialite before renouncing the world and dedicating her fortune to the founding an order of nuns devoted to the service of black and Native American people in the American southwest and Haiti. Philadelphians Pat and Harry Olivieri are credited with inventing what’s now known as the Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich in the early 1930s. Mother Katharine lived to the ripe old age of 96 and died in 1955, but I don’t have any information about whether she ever enjoyed a Philly Cheesesteak herself.

King cake gets eaten for breakfast at our house, so we need a dessert after dinner. And in our family we’re going to be giving up all treats and desserts throughout Lent except for special treats on Sundays and solemnities, so we need to get all that stuff out of the house. To kill both of those Fat Tuesday birds with one stone, we have Boeuf Gras (boof grah), or “fattened ox”, Sundaes.

This is the beloved Tierney Family Irish Soda Bread recipe, perfected on the Southside of Chicago and enjoyed at many a Saint Paddy’s Day Hooley. Enjoy it slathered with Irish butter.

These amazing meatballs are one of the kids’ favorite things to cook with Gramma. They’re great with a toothpick in them as an appetizer alongside Pasta Alla Tavola, in soups, with sweet and sour sauce and veggies over rice, with marinara sauce in a meatball sub, or on spaghetti for any of the hundreds (thousands?) of Italian saints, or—for a Swedish saint—with a yummy cream sauce and served over egg noodles or mashed potatoes. If you’re going Swedish, don’t forget the lingonberry jam! They can be cooked in the oven or pan-fried on the stove. I always make triple what we’ll need. I freeze them flat on a cookie sheet, then dump them in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer. They reheat beautifully in the oven, in a pan on the stove, or right in a sauce or soup.

As the old Irish rhyme goes, “Boxty on the griddle, boxty on the pan, if you can’t make boxty, you’ll never get a man.” Maybe irrelevant by today’s standards, but what remains important is that it’s a popular dish across Ireland. So what exactly is it? Boxty are fluffy potato cakes that are pan-fried like pancakes and served at breakfast. Perfect for St. Patrick’s Day–or any day, really! Just grab some freshly made or leftover mashed potatoes to get started.

In the Compendium, I named this recipe as one I’ve always wanted to try . . . so we finally did! It’s not as hard as it looks, and it makes for a visually stunning and delicious Easter brunch addition. You’ll need dyed NON-boiled eggs for this recipe, so make some in advance! The eggs will bake until soft-boiled in the oven with the bread. It’s yummy to break the eggs and dip the bread right in!

In a Jewish Passover seder meal, haroset (an applesauce-like mixture with wine, nuts, apples, etc.) represents the mortar used by the Jews in Egypt. Recipes for haroset are available, of course, but my family prefers to go the straight-up homemade applesauce route. Any apples will work. Golden Delicious apples are traditional. But I like to use a mix of sweet Honeycrisp and tart Granny Smith. It doesn’t even need added sugar. But you can add a bit, depending on the sweetness of your apples and your tooth.

These tasty cream puffs made with Choux pastry dough are traditionally served in Italy on the solemnity of St. Joseph. This Sicilian version is filled with whipped cream. A Neapolitan version is filled with custard cream instead. They are sure to impress, just resist the urge to open the oven while cooking.

Perfect for Gaudete or Laetare Sunday, this frosting is ALL-NATURALLY flavored and colored to be the most amazing pink. Oops, I mean, rose. We’ve yet to find a flavor of cake that this frosting doesn’t deliciously top. Use fresh or (defrosted) frozen berries. It will match the priest’s vestments and be a yummy (and pretty) feast day treat!

Traditional cream cheese and cucumber tea sandwiches get an open-faced Saint Patrick’s Day twist for a feast day tea party. These can also be made as a traditional closed sandwich.

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 . . .

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

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!

My mom grew up in Memphis, TN, and her crispy, crunchy, tender, flaky fried catfish is my very favorite thing she cooks. It’s a great meal for any Friday, especially if you’re entertaining. At our annual Good Friday backyard Stations of the Cross, my mom fries up mountains of catfish for family and friends. We keep the spread simple with just coleslaw and cornbread on the side, and water to drink. It’s a mouth-watering full meal for a fasting day. Deep-frying is really a very straightforward process. A deep-frying or candy thermometer helps ensure your oil is at the right temperature, to avoid oil-soaked or under-cooked fish. You can also choose to fake-fry-bake them in the oven.

Because St. Joseph worked with his hands, we like to highlight finger foods on his feast day! Get the whole family involved with making these easy appetizer skewers and then enjoy the delicious fruit of your labors at dinner time!

A perfect meal for the feast of Saints Perpetua and Felicity—especially since it usually falls during Lent—is Stracciatella alla Romana: Roman egg drop soup. It’s quick and easy and has only a few ingredients. It’s Roman, as were they. The eggs highlight the motherhood of these martyrs. Stracciare means “to rip to shreds” in Italian. In this soup, it refers to the process of whisking in the eggs, and . . . I’m just going to stop there and not make any wild beast parallels. Homemade chicken stock is lovely in this recipe, but I’ve also used chicken stock paste with success. It’s also a great choice for Lenten Friday Soup & Stations.

Lamb rib chops make for an impressive presentation with their long handle, and kids like to pick them up and eat them like an ice cream on a stick. But this recipe also works with the little triangular lamb loin chops.

The surprise is that these sugar cookies get their lovely green color from . . . spinach! You really can’t taste it, honest.

Saint Joseph models the holiness of labor to us. Pope Pius XII emphasized this when he said, “. . . no worker was ever more completely and profoundly penetrated by [the spirit] than the foster father of Jesus, who lived with Him in closest intimacy and community of family life and work.” This crossword highlights his pursuit of virtue and dedication to work!

This traditional Brazilian dish uses canned hearts of palm, which is convenient if you don’t want to harvest the inner core of a palm tree stem yourself. The flash of red from the tomatoes and red onions makes it especially appropriate for the day!

What to do with all that lovely stock you just made? Turn it into a simple and infinitely customizable soup. For a quick dinner option, I use two 10-12 ounce packages of frozen seasoned vegetables, and a 1 pound bag of frozen meatballs. It’s also great with fresh or leftover veggies and leftover chicken or other meat. Leftover rice, pasta, or mashed potatoes can be mixed in. Use fish, shrimp, shellfish, or a mix of canned beans for a meat-free soup for Friday Soup & Stations.