Saints, Feast, Family
- Traditions passed down with Cooking, Crafting, & Caring -
October 16
Saint of the day:
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque’s Story
Margaret Mary was chosen by Christ to arouse the Church to a realization of the love of God symbolized by the heart of Jesus.
Her early years were marked by sickness and a painful home situation. “The heaviest of my crosses was that I could do nothing to lighten the cross my mother was suffering.” After considering marriage for some time, Margaret Mary entered the Order of the Visitation nuns at the age of 24.
A Visitation nun was “not to be extraordinary except by being ordinary,” but the young nun was not to enjoy this anonymity. A fellow novice termed Margaret Mary humble, simple, and frank, but above all, kind and patient under sharp criticism and correction. She could not meditate in the formal way expected, though she tried her best to give up her “prayer of simplicity.” Slow, quiet, and clumsy, she was assigned to help an infirmarian who was a bundle of energy.
On December 21, 1674, three years a nun, she received the first of her revelations. She felt “invested” with the presence of God, though always afraid of deceiving herself in such matters. The request of Christ was that his love for humankind be made evident through her.
During the next 13 months, Christ appeared to her at intervals. His human heart was to be the symbol of his divine-human love. By her own love Margaret Mary was to make up for the coldness and ingratitude of the world—by frequent and loving Holy Communion, especially on the first Friday of each month, and by an hour’s vigil of prayer every Thursday night in memory of his agony and isolation in Gethsemane. He also asked that a feast of reparation be instituted.
Like all saints, Margaret Mary had to pay for her gift of holiness. Some of her own sisters were hostile. Theologians who were called in declared her visions delusions and suggested that she eat more heartily. Later, parents of children she taught called her an impostor, an unorthodox innovator. A new confessor, the Jesuit Claude de la Colombière, recognized her genuineness and supported her. Against her great resistance, Christ called her to be a sacrificial victim for the shortcomings of her own sisters, and to make this known.
After serving as novice mistress and assistant superior, Margaret Mary died at the age of 43, while being anointed. She said: “I need nothing but God, and to lose myself in the heart of Jesus.”
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-margaret-mary-alacoque/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mary_Alacoque
Prayer:
Prayer:
![St Margaret Mary (1)_thumb[2].jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9c2964_6e14b4d0d2be47b791917af4ca5e1666~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_10,y_0,w_245,h_430/fill/w_74,h_129,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/St%20Margaret%20Mary%20(1)_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg)
Visit:
Monastery of the Visitation, Paray-le-Monial, Saône-et-Loire, France
Recipes:
Two-color Heart Cookies
Recipe of two-color cookies at heart
Ingredients for about 22 large biscuits
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180 g of AP flour
100 g of almond flour -
1 egg
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1 yolk
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120 g of cold butter
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100 g of sugar
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20 g of cocoa powder
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25 g of potato starch
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1 pinch of salt
Directions:
(preparation: 20 minutes rest: 30 minutes cooking time: 15 minutes)
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To prepare the two-color biscuits to heart, start by preparing the shortcrust pastry with almonds, which you then divide to create the two doughs of two colors: put in a mixer the cold butter of a refrigerator in pieces, together with a pinch of salt and flour ( or the corn and rice flours).
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Blend for a few seconds, until a sandy mixture is obtained.
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Add then: the egg, the yolk, the sugar and the almond flour.
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Blend again for 20-30 seconds, until the mixture in the mixer starts to pile up.
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Then turn it over on the work surface and knead it quickly, until you get a homogeneous and still quite soft dough.
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Divide the dough into two equal parts.
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Add the starch to one of the two halves, while in the other add the cocoa.
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Mix the two dough separately, until the starch and cocoa are well mixed.
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Wrap them separately in two sheets of film and let them rest in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.
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Once the rest time has elapsed, spread the two cakes in two layers of 3-4 mm thick sheets (10) separately.
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With two heart-shaped molds of two different sizes made of biscuits one inside the other: one will be the frame, the other the center of your two-tone biscuits, naturally combining the two different colors.
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On a baking sheet lined with baking paper place a cocoa heart inside each white frame and a small white heart inside each cocoa frame, keeping them well spaced.
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There is no need to crush them or to compact them with your fingers, while cooking they will grow enough to weld. Bake the two-color heart biscuits in the preheated oven at 180 ° (static) for 12-15 minutes or until the edges start to brown.
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Let them cool completely before removing them from the pan.
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Sacred Heart Oreo Truffles
These beautiful Oreo truffles are a sweet way to commemorate
the Feast of the Sacred Heart or for today.
Ingredients
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15 red velvet Oreos
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2 oz cream cheese, cut into cubes
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1 bag red Wilton candy melts (12 oz)
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1 bag white Wilton candy melts (12 oz)
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a 1¾" heart cookie cutter
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brown icing
Directions:
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Twist the Oreos in half (this will help them blend more easily) and place them in a food processor. Process on high for 1-2 minutes or until the cookies make a fine powder with intermittent clumps of cream.
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Add the cream cheese to the processor and process on high for 1-2 minutes until the cream cheese is evenly incorporated and the mix gathers together in one big lump. You may need to stop the processor a couple times and mix with a spatula to make sure the crumbs at the bottom of the bowl make it to the top.
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Line an 8X8 pan with wax paper and press the mix into the bottom of the pan, keeping it at about ½" thickness (it's ok if it doesn't spread all the way to the edges of the pan). Cover and freeze for 30 minutes. While you wait, line a baking sheet with wax paper.
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When the filling is firm to the touch, remove it from the freezer and cut hearts out of it with the cookie cutter. Place the hearts on the baking sheet, and place the baking sheet in the fridge.
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Melt the red candy melts according to package instructions. Remove the hearts from the fridge and dip them one at a time into the candy coating, holding each heart over the bowl for about 30 seconds after dipping to allow excess coating to run off. Place each heart back on the wax paper after dipping.
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Allow the hearts to set for 5-10 minutes. While you wait, melt your white candy melts according to package instructions. Fit a piping bag with your choice of piping tip and pour the white candy coating into the piping bag.
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When the hearts are firm to the touch, pipe three white loops at the top of each heart, making sure that the bottoms of the loops are touching the heart (otherwise they won't stick together when cooled). Allow the loops to set for 5-10 minutes.
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When the loops are firm, use your brown icing to pipe a cross at the top of each heart. For the crown of thorns, pipe a squiggly line across the middle of each heart, then double back and draw a line over it squiggling in the opposite direction.
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Serve to commemorate the Feast of the Sacred Heart!
Notes
When choosing a tip for the piping bag, try to avoid fine writing tips, since the coating will be too thick to push through. I used a Wilton #24 star tip.
You can use orange candy melts instead of white to mimic the flames of the Sacred Heart, but orange melts can be a little harder to find. I wouldn't recommend using orange food coloring to dye the white melts, since the coloring can make the candy seize, making it hard to pipe.
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A pumpkin treat!
Spiced Pumpkin Pudding with Creamy Pears
Ingredients
You can also make this hearty, but soft-textured pudding with butternut squash which, out of Halloween time, can be easier to find. It is served from the dish in which it is cooked.
FOR THE PUDDING:
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1.4 kg pumpkin or butternut squash, seeds scooped out, cut into wedges
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4 free-range, organic, large eggs
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150ml whipping cream
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100g soft brown sugar
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70g caster sugar (or 25g if using butternut squash, which is naturally sweeter)
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75g self-raising flour
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30g melted butter
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1 teaspoon vanilla extract
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1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
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½ teaspoon ground allspice
FOR THE CREAMY PEARS:
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4 ripe pears, peeled, cored and diced
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20g unsalted butter
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55g caster sugar
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400ml double cream
Directions:
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Heat the oven to 350 F/ 180 C/mark 4. Place the pumpkin or squash on a non-stick baking tray and roast in the oven for 1 hour, until tender. Cool, then scoop the flesh into a food processor. Process until smooth, then add the remaining pudding ingredients. Process again until everything is evenly mixed together. Butter a large serving dish and pour in the batter. (I use a gratin dish, but you could use 2 smaller dishes, or even individual ones, so long as they are ovenproof.) Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, until just firm (if you are using smaller dishes, bake for about 20 minutes.)
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Meanwhile, make the creamy pears: put the diced pears in a frying pan and add the butter and sugar. Cook over a high heat until the sugar is starting to turn golden, about 10 minutes. Take off the heat and stir in the cream. I serve everything together but you can serve the pears on the side if you prefer.
Also, if wished, you could also fry a few slices of pear in butter and use for garnish.
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