Mary's Feast of Feasts and Non-Dairy Lemon Lusciousness!

Ave Maria!

Last year we had a tea party in honor of our Lady's Assumption- this year, we had a pot-luck dinner! Mostly the reason was that I wanted families to come- I love spending time with my friends, but their families are so cool that I can't stand to leave them out.

I had three men at my service the entire day (not to mention our Blessed Mother...) and we accomplished a great deal. Though we weren't exactly done by the time the party started the lawn was mowed, the cakes were baked, 9 loaves of french bread were made, 24 egg-shells were washed and crushed for the compost pile, the lights were up, the side walks and driveway were immaculate, vespers was prayed and the tater-tot hot dish was in the oven. I am heartily grateful for the service of these men- besides there's something so satisfying about serving soup and biscuits to hungry men that work for you. Pope John Paul II says that all of mankind is entrusted to women- it is our vocation! And of course the best kind of ruler is humble and rich in love that is strong as death- like...hmm... Mary?

The highlighted dessert was the Assumption cake- it is a double decker angel food cake (I'll explain how to stack angel food cakes without fancy equipment if anyone wants to know) with a cloud of whipped cream and of course, Blessed Mother being taken up on top. Legions of angels bearing up Our Lady on the clouds of heaven!

The little pastries next to the Assumption cake are filled with non-dairy lemon curd (2 angel food cakes=24 egg whites= 24 lonely egg yolks!) which is delicious- who needs butter? This is a single recipe and maybe makes a cup or so- I, of course, octupled (is that a word?) the recipe and ended up with- a lot.

6 tablespoons of sugar

2 teaspoons corn starch

Zest of half a lemon

3 egg yolks

1/4 cup lemon juice (don't use the yucky store-bought kind! SQUEEZE YOUR OWN LEMONS!)

Combine sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan and whisk it so there are no cornstarch clumps. Add zest and egg yolks and whisk until everything is wet and yellow. Stir in your lemon juice and fire up the stove to medium heat. Cook until the mixture starts to get thick like yogurt (it will get thicker as it cools don't worry) making sure you're stirring pretty much all the time so that it doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan. Remove it from the heat and cool! Experiment by adding some soy or rice milk to try to bulk out the recipe (in the original butter filled recipe it makes more because there's a whole stick of butter in it...) and just cook it a little longer. I would NOT recommend using margarine or shortening of any kind. Not only is it horrible for your health but it will make an absolute mess of your luscious lemon curd. Butter can do things that margarine just will never be able to do- that's the way it is. Some things are simply inferior to others.

So at the end of the day, Mary is body and soul in heaven, and we await the joyful day of our death and the reunion of our souls with our glorified bodies in the new Jerusalem. Sigh, God is good.

Late Birthday and Googles!

Benjamin's birthday is in May- but we were preparing for a wedding this year and he never had a birthday party so we decided to have one now- at the end of August. Benjamin's request was to go bowling- and we could see why, he played two games and his total for the day was 202! It was almost the top score of the day if it hadn't been for his best friend who beat Benjamin with a score of 212.

You can see how elated he was most of the time. When he broke 100 he grabbed my Mom's face (twice) and screamed "I GOT 100!!!" I think he had a good time.

The theme of the party was, of course, googles (couldn't have seen that one coming). If you don't know what a google is, here are a few pictures. Googles show up everywhere and come in many forms. The way Benjamin always describes a google is as "a duck with no hands"- a google is one of the many "Webkinz" stuffed animals you can puchase and play games online with it- a total scam but I think Benjamin has gotten a lot of ware out of his googles.

This is an actual google stuffed animal,

but they often show up other places such as...

Walls:

School work (army of googles on the left side of the shield of virtues):

Vacation Bible School work (why the google was necessary on the St. Joseph window I've no idea..):

Drawn for fun (this is a "chocolate google", a very fat one, and his name is "Halupeno"- kudos to Benjamin for sounding out the word "Jalepeno" by himself) (this particular google picture resides next to Benjamin's bed):

And even in disguise (this is a snowman google- no hands!)

He draws them on his body, he signs them next to his name, I find them scribbled in the steam on the bathroom mirror when I get out of the shower, he bikes with them, makes up stories about them, has written the rule book about what googles can and cannot do and anything else one would want to know about them...

...So it was no surprise when he requested a google cake:

We also played pin the beak on the google. I think he had a good time.

Ave Maria!

This year we decided to celebrate the Assuption of the Blessed Virgin by having a tea party- and seeing as it wasn't even a holy day of obligation this year, I think it was quite appropriate to put a little extra feasting in the day. The wall was plastered with some (not even all!) of the pictures of Mary that I posses:

We ate real tea party food like chicken salad, cucumber sandwiches, lady fingers, strawberry sorbet- and of course, plenty of tea and iced tea. One of the guests provided a copious amount of fresh mint from his own plant for the iced tea and pretty little garnishes for the desserts.

We also made garlands of stars- of course each one had 12- everything had to have marian signifiance- she was our guest of honor!

After we feasted we went for a rosary walk and sang hymns in front of the Mary statue at church. The Blessed Mother really let us share in her joy that day!

It really was a wonderful day- and it's a small triumph for Catholic culture in our silly world that separates God and everday life. It's nice to have a party for people like the Blessed Mother too- she doesn't allow you to get stressed out or have any kind of worldly focus. One night I was supposed to be practicing snare drum but I was planning instead and she wouldn't stop bothering me until I practiced. Such a mom. I'm definitely hoping to celebrate other feast days this way. Ave Maria!