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

Saint Apollonia is the patron saint against tooth pain and fear of the dentist. Let’s try to avoid both of those with this perfected recipe for that quintessential party treat: popcorn balls. Still sticky and sweet with even more flavor, these popcorn balls are softer and more chewable than the standard version.

Weckmänn means “watchman.” These little bread men have been keeping watch over the celebration of Martinmas in Germany since the Middle Ages and make a lovely accompaniment to Six-Can Soup.

I first saw this recipe in one of those parish fundraiser cookbooks at my grandmother’s house in Memphis, TN. It was called six-can soup, because each of the ingredients comes in a can. I like it as a simple, tasty, easy-to-assemble meal that’s all non-perishable. It can all be stored in a cupboard in case of unexpected guests or days when all of a sudden it’s 5:15pm and I haven’t planned dinner. It’s perfect for Saint Martin’s Day because all those cans can be put to good use as punched-tin lanterns. Just combine all the ingredients in a soup pot or the insert of a slow-cooker or instant pot the day before. Keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to heat it for your meal. Fill all the empty cans with water and put them in the freezer overnight. Then the next day, remove a can and place it on a large folded towel to keep it steady and protect your surface. Freehand or following a pattern, use a hammer, chisel, & awl (or nail) to create a pattern of holes in the can through which candle light can shine. Be sure to punch two holes at the top so you can secure a handle. Remove the ice by soaking in hot water when you’re done. Add a handle of wire or string and a tealight or votive candle and enjoy a traditional Martinmas lantern walk and a warm soup dinner in honor of the good bishop Saint Martin of Tours.

November 20 is often colloquially called “Christ the King,” but I prefer the longer, more of an absolute title “The Solemnity of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.” It’s a name that seems deserving of quite a celebration, right? Right! Because it also marks the end of the liturgical year; Advent starts the new Church calendar. For this feast, a king cake seems appropriate, but Mardi Gras season has dibs on that recipe. So, we like this deliciously tart lemon cake, made in mini bundt molds to look like little crowns. I’d like to add some universe-y decorations some day, like star sprinkles, but I haven’t tried it yet - bonus points if you do!

The “dragged through the garden” style of the classic Chicago hot dog was an inexpensive way for working-class Chicagoans to get protein and vegetables during the Great Depression, and it still is! To this day, the people of Chicago are very particular about their hot dogs. It has to be exactly these ingredients in exactly this order. And NO KETCHUP. I’d encourage you to give it a try, though. It really is a taste sensation. My plain-ketchup-dog-loving kiddos all give them two thumbs up.

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?

Enjoy grapes and herbs sprinkled with holy water this month!

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.

Names are important and Jesus’ name is the most important of all. To celebrate the day, I like to make this tasty alphabet soup, and then . . . let the kids play with it! The kids get to scoop letters out with their spoons to build their names—and Jesus’ name of course—on the edge of their plates. You can pull the bay leaf and thyme sprigs out before serving, or you can just tell your family that whoever gets them in his bowl is king/queen/duke/princess/etc. of dinner. That’s what we do. For a heartier meal, add prepared meatballs, cooked chicken, or diced ham. The soup makes great leftovers, just add some water and reheat.

In Sweden, Saint Lucy saffron buns (also known as lussekatter) are eaten throughout Advent and especially on the feast of Saint Lucy. The curled S-shape with two raisins, reminds us of St. Lucy’s eyes. This dough comes together easily with a stand mixer, or by hand if you’re willing to work for it! If you don’t have vodka on hand to soak the saffron threads, just add them to the milk instead. All-purpose flour can be substituted. Kids love to help roll the dough, shape the curled-S eyes, and add the raisins.

This prayer was composed by Pope John Paul II and included in Ecclesia in Oceania, a post-synodal apostolic exhortation published in 2001!

Saint Bridget’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land marked a turning point in her spiritual journey. Guide her pilgrimage through the maze and help her reach the Holy Land!

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!

This cake, which features many traditional Spanish ingredients, is said to have been offered as a celebratory reward to pilgrims who had just finished the Camino de Santiago, the long, prayerful walk to the grave site of St. James. Many pilgrims walk over 62 miles over several days to complete this journey, so I think a cake like this is a fitting greeting! Use a stencil of the traditional cross of St. James to give this cake its signature flair.

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.

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 . . .

Our Lady promised to give a sign that could be seen by others, and boy did she deliver! To a crowd of tens of thousands of onlookers, it’s reported that the sun broke through rain clouds and began to dance across the sky. This creamy smoothie is liquid sunshine, encapsulating the splendor of the amazing “Miracle of the Sun” that happened back in 1917!

Popovers are a favorite Sunday breakfast for our family, served with strawberry butter, and bacon on the side. But they are also a lovely accompaniment to meat and soups. I especially love them for the feast of the Ascension. The kids all standing at the oven watching them rise heavenward is liturgical cooking at its finest! These popovers REALLY rise—to about three inches above the pan—so if you’re making multiple batches, use the bottom and middle rack only, and be sure you have enough room between them.

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!

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!

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!

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!

For the crime of being a Christian, Saint Sebastian was sentenced to death by an archer firing squad. He survived. Emperor Diocletian wasn’t impressed, though, and had him put to death again, this time successfully. In the saint’s honor, these mini-skewers are best made on arrow-shaped food picks (included in the box) but also work on toothpicks or longer wooden skewers, and are tasty as an appetizer or a meal. Put them together before serving or let kids skewer cooked ingredients themselves. Other fruits, meats, and/or vegetables can be added or substituted.

Your calendar medallions for the month of December!

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

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.