Category Archives: St. Brigid

A Simple Meal for St. Brigid’s Day, February 1st

 Tomorrow is St. Brigid’s Day, so I wanted to share a post I wrote for our neglected real food liturgical year blog. Included is a simple recipe for a seasonal soup to be paired with bread and honey butter. It’s quick, easy, and as St. Brigid’s Day falls on a Friday this year, vegetarian. Enjoy!

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February 1st celebrates the Feast of St. Brigid (c. 451-525), a nun, abbess, and friend of St. Patrick’s in early Christian Ireland. St. Brigid founded the monastery of Kildare where the Book of Kildare, an illuminated Gospel manuscript was created. The art historian in me needs to follow a brief tangent to say that according to 12th century writer, Gerald of Wales, this manuscript was so wondrous that he believed the illuminators were assisted by angels. The Book of Kildare has since been lost but would perhaps have rivaled the Book of Kells in intricacy and beauty.

To celebrate this patron saint of Ireland, I made “St. Brigid’s Oaten Bread” from a recipe I found on the Catholic Cuisine blog. I used 3/4 whole wheat flour and 1/4 spelt flour and it turned out great.

It was so simple to make! We paired the bread with a simple chickpea soup inspired by a recipe in Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette. I made some substitutions, simplified, and added some seasonal veggies we already had.

Here’s my recipe:

2 cups dried chickpeas (soak them the night before)

1 onion, diced

olive oil

10 cups vegetable broth

chopped spinach

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 turnips, diced (you can substitute potatoes if you like, turnips were just ready in our garden)

seasonings: dried thyme, rosemary, oregano, salt, pepper and 1 bay leaf

Directions: Sauté the onion in olive oil then add the other ingredients. Bring to boil then cook for an hour.

Daniel concocted our favorite supplement to a dinner of soup and bread:honey butter. Just add some honey to some softened butter and bam! It makes a simple meal into a treat.

And we used our green dishes to celebrate this Irish saint! Pray for us, St. Brigid!

If you looking for more resources on how to celebrate St. Brigid’s Day, be sure to check out Sarah O’s recent Little Holydays post all about it!

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Mr. Cool Man

Just a quick note to say Happy St. Brigid’s Day! Here’s last year’s menu over at Feast!

I feel like this blog has been very Lucy heavy lately so here’s a few gems from the ever quotable Benjamin:

 

“What are taxes? Those spikey plants?”

“I think you’re thinking of cactus, Benjamin.”

 

“Did Jesus make gravity? Well, tell him to stop because I don’t like it when things fall down.”

 

His good idea of the week: “Star Wars reading nook.”

 

And on our way to the park yesterday he asked, “Can I wear Daddy’s bear hat so that I can be Mr. Cool Man?”

So many things about that statement crack me up. First of all, why does Daniel have that hat? Secondly, isn’t hilariously sad that Benjamin thinks it will up his cool factor? And thirdly, “Mr. Cool Man” just makes me think of Arrested Development when George Michael keeps calling himself Mr. Manager.

Oh, dear boy. With parents like us, it’s highly unlikely that you will ever be Mr. Cool Man.

 

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A Busy St. Brigid’s Day

Benjamin and I started out St. Brigid’s Day by coloring this picture I found here, at Waltzing Matilda. This Catholic blogger, Charlotte, makes these coloring pages for all sorts of saints and holy days. This is actually the second one we made. He sent the first one with Daddy so he could look at it at work.

After the Jr. Museum with a new friend and her little boy, Benjamin fell asleep in the car on the way home but never went back down for a nap. So, we just soldiered on with a long walk with Tryna and Baby Jonah, a trip to the grocery store, and started cooking our little feast.

Chickpea Soup, Irish Oat Bread, and Honey Butter. Yum. Read more about St. Brigid and see the recipes at Feast!

To remind me for next year, there are some children’s books about St. Brigid that I want to get to read to Benjamin. Titles: The Life of Saint Brigid: Abbess of Kildare, Saint Brigid’s Cloak, and Saint Brigid and the Cows.

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