One of the best Christmas presents I got this year was a book, “Cooking with the Saints” by Alexandra Greeley and Fernando Flores.
The book is a combination of history, biographies of saints and recipes from Scotland, Greece, Italy Spain, Israel and more countries around the world. The recipes include ideas for all kinds of great things to eat, from desserts and soups to a Native American lunch and a typical farm meal.
That food and faith go together is also explained in detail in a separate section of the book that talks about the Tree of Life, of course Adam and Eve’s story with the apple, and the fact that bread and wine are intricate parts of Christian religions.
The book, published by Sophia Institute Press in Manchester, NH., is dedicated to the Rev. Edward Hathaway rector of the Basilica of St. Mary in Alexandria, Virginia. The parish had a Cooking with Our Saints cooking class the rector supported, and it was those classes that inspired the book.
The book is divided into chapters by months of the feast days of the saints who inspired each recipe. For each of the Saints included, there is a biography of the Saint, a paragraph on the country and nature of the recipe, along the full recipe and many photographs.
Some of the Saints are well known, including Ireland’s St. Patrick, France’s Joan of Arc and Israel’s John the Baptist, but there are others including St Damian of Molokai, Junipero Serra of Mexico and Kateri Tekakwitha, that Native American lunch that includes Indian Corn soup, Native American baked bread, apple cobbler and maple syrup baked squash and honors the Lily of the Mohawks born near Lake Ontario.
With the feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas of Italy, scheduled to be celebrated on January 28, the Star-shaped cookie recipe is easy and ordinary enough and in this book is known as the ‘Holy Name of Mary cookie.
Ingredients:
3 ½ cups flour
2 tsps. Baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 Cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 Cup sugar
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp. lemon extract
¼ cup milk.
Preheat over to 400 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. In separate bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed, whip butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Stir in eggs, vanilla and lemon extract.
Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually add in flour mixture, being until well combined. Add milk and continue beating until dough clumps together.
Divide the dough in half. Sprinkle a work surface with flour and roll out dough to ¼ inch thickness. Using a star-shaped cookie cutter, cut the shapes and place them on baking sheet, leaving space between each. Repeat for all the dough.
Bake for 10 12 minutes or until the edges turn golden. Remove from the oven, cool on wire racks. Enjoy.
If adding any decorations, wait until cookies are completely cool.
