Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of St. Scholastica, twin sister of St. Benedict. Her feast day is actually February 10th, but Wednesday wasn’t my day to cook (we live in community and take turns cooking, more on that some other time). So we celebrated late. I’m not sure that’s allowed, but at least I’m honest.
We used recipes from here:
And here:
Have I mentioned that I love these cookbooks? I love them.
I made St. Scholastica Soup from Twelve Months of Monastery Soups with stock made by boiling one of the chickens whose demise is explained in Chicken Doomsday of 2009. The chickens were too old for their meat to be tender but they make great stock and organic chicken stock isn’t cheap. I also made the bread pudding for the feast of St. Scholastica in Sacred Feasts. Yum.
Brandy, Heavy Whipping Cream, and Maple Syrup...How could it not be good?
My husband also taught me how to make Pain Ancienne which turned out pretty well. He is quite the breadmaker, I am not. It was a lovely evening. Roaring fire in the fireplace, sweet snuggly baby, warm bread, hot soup, tasty bread pudding, and a good friend as our guest. But best of all….IT SNOWED. In Texas. Not just a few measly flurries but lots of beautiful snow! Yes, I am overly excited about this, but as a Floridian turned Texan, snow is quite the novelty. So this morning, we played in the snow.
See how they're looking about in awe? We really don't see much snow.
Yes, that is our Christmas tree which we just took down. Please be distracted by the cute baby with blue bear ears on his hood.
Happy boys and the snowy back pasture.
I even braved the cold to take a walk down our country lane as the snow started melting.
Red barn, snowy lane.
Taking time to remark on the snowy weather with some neighbors, of course.
Like these guys.
And don't forget this guy.
Seriously, snow in our part of Texas is an event.
i am super interested in your community. you have animals? you cook together? more details, please. also, benjamin is the cutest!!
I’ll do a post, or a few, explaining in the near future. We live in community with five other folks and we had chickens and now have sheep. We do try to cook and eat together as much as our schedule’s allow. And thanks! We’re pretty taken with him 🙂
I loved this post–my idea of the perfect post, really, with so many elements together! Great job! The snow reminded me of my childhood Christmases in NC. How have I hosted Soup Group all these years, without those cookbooks?
You might want to Google “Monastery Greetings.” I saw their print catalog but they probably have an on-line catalog. Everything (greeting cards, your cookbooks mentioned above, votives, food items) from various monasteries.