At long last and just in time for Advent, our ebook, Feast! Real Food, Reflections, and Simple Living for the Christian Year, is here! Thank you so much, Carrots readers, for all of your encouragement and excitement about this project. I can’t believe that we FINALLY get to share it with you! I’m thrilled and a little nervous to finally send this book out into the world.
We’re having a special release sale from 11/20 to Thanksgiving Day. The book will be on sale for $4.99. Yay!
(And it’s an ebook, not a print book, so after purchasing, you can download the PDF.)
Here’s ALL about it:
Interested in learning about the seasons of the Christian Year and special saints’ days, but don’t know where to begin? Want to delve deeper into living liturgically? Looking for simple real food recipes to celebrate both feasts and liturgical seasons of fasting?
Feast! is the book we wish we had when we first started observing the Christian Year. It is 125 pages of real food to celebrate the liturgical year and lives of the saints and reflections on the seasons of the Christian calendar and simple traditions. Feast! features 23 simple real food recipes for the liturgical seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter, and well-known saints’ days like St. George’s Day, St. Rose of Lima’s Day, and St. Thomas Aquinas’ Day as well as less familiar saints like St. Charles Lwanga and St. Raymond Nonnatus.
Most recipes are main dishes, but we also included recipes for side dishes, cocktails, and a Christmas dessert.
Feast! includes introductory reflections about observing the liturgical year: “What Is the Liturgical Year?”, “Feasting with the Saints and Martyrs”, and “How Do I Get Started?” and 6 reflections on the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter, as well as some practical tips for observing these seasons in your home.
With produce grown in our front yard urban garden, recipes created in our kitchen, and photographs taken in our dining room, we wanted to honor the food traditions of Christians around the world and provide nourishing meals made from real, wholesome ingredients. All recipes are gluten-free or have gluten-free variations.
Some recipes are inspired by the culinary traditions of the culture of a saint’s homeland (Ugandan Chicken Stew and Ugali for St. Charles Lwanga), the location of their ministry (Simple Garden Curry for Blessed Mother Theresa), a region particularly devoted to them (Shepherd’s Pie for St. George), or a meal that’s seasonal for their feast day (Stuffed Butternut for St. Martin of Tours).
Feast! also features sections on simple gift-giving and simple meals and traditions for the quiet and reflective seasons of Advent and Lent.
Featured saints days: St. Andrew, St. Nicholas, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Turibius of Mongrovejo, St. George, the Mexican Martyrs, St. Michael Ho-Dinh Hy, St. Charles Lwanga, St. Maria Goretti, Sts. Anne and Joachim, St. Michael and the Archangels (Michaelmas), The Chinese Martyrs, St. Raymond Nonnatus, St. Francis Borgia, St. Rose of Lima, Blessed Mother Theresa, St. Ignatius of Antioch, and St. Martin of Tours (Martinmas).
I think I have the ordering process all set up, but this is the first time we’ve done anything like this, so I apologize in advance if there are glitches! Be sure to let me know if you have trouble with downloading the PDF!
Betsy Poepping says
Are books available for purchase locally or must we go through PayPal?
Haley says
Hi Betsy! It’s an ebook in PDF format, not a print book, so we don’t have copies available locally. So you will have to go through paypal 🙂
Kara @SimpleKids.net says
Hooray! Congratulations! This looks wonderful and I love that it is “homegrown” 🙂
Can’t wait to dive into my copy and wish you SO much success with this! I know it was a labor of love <3
Haley says
Thank you so much, Kara! 🙂
Micaela @ California to Korea says
Haley, it’s GORGEOUS!! Can’t wait to read it and eat! The food, not the book. Congrats!
Haley says
Thank you, Micaela!!
Michele Boda says
Congratulations, Stewart family!! Can’t wait to dig in. Blessings!
Haley says
Thanks, Michele! Can’t wait for you guys to try out the recipes!
sarahkeith says
The book looks great! Congrats!
What is the picture of those cool-looking shoes?
Haley says
Thank you! The pic of the shoes is for St. Nicholas Day. We always get new shoes for the kids and stuff them full of treats and exchange gifts on that day 🙂
Jennifer says
I LOVE the idea of gifting the children with new shoes along with the treats that fill them! St. Nicholas Day has become a very important feast day for our family, and we always celebrate it, but I had never thought of the new shoe approach – and perfect timing, as they all need new shoes to go with their fancy Christmas outfits.
So many congratulations on the book. I can’t wait to procure a copy. And the new blog theme? Looks fantastic, but have I been out of the loop for a while? Did you just update? Beautiful all around!
Haley says
JUST updated last night/this morning. Isn’t it pretty!? Santa Clara Design did it for me and I’m gonna do a post about how much I love them because they are awesome!
sarahkeith says
Those shoes are super cool. Can you tell me who makes them?
Haley says
They’re by a company called “Lilfut”
My very favorite shoes for toddlers learning to walk.
Jen says
Yaaaay! I just emailed this to my husband has a “hint”. 🙂 The themed dishes according to the celebrated saint are SO cool, I love that. And the food looks so delicious; the dishes are right up our alley for the things we like to try!
It’s so neat that you’ve created something you would have loved to have, and in such a personal, special way. Seeing this made me so excited for you guys, congratulations!
Haley says
Thanks so much, Jen! It was so fun to create with Daniel 🙂
Sarah O @ Two Os Plus More says
So excited for you Haley! Congratulations! Loving my copy and already planning to implement some new recipes into the coming Seasons!
Haley says
🙂
Heather says
I just bought the book and skimmed it. I love it and can’t wait to take a closer look! The recipes look so yummy and manageable. I absolutely love the idea of celebrating the Saints with meals from their culture, especially since we don’t have so many standing traditions of what to eat on what feast day in our culture.
It’s also lovely to have spiritual reflections in the book. I get a little bit to wrapped up in business and the reflections being right there is such an asset to a busy mom.
Beautifully done!
Heather says
I obviously meant to write asset and I don’t know how to edit my comment. My sincere apologies!
Haley says
haha! just saw that, Heather. I fixed it for you. Too funny!
Erin says
I’m so excited to be able to order your book on opening day! I want to jump right in to reading and cooking in time for St. Andrew’s feast, the tahini tilapia sounds delish!
Haley says
Yay! Thanks, Erin! I hope you enjoy it!
Caitlin E. says
Yay! I’m a mom who (gasp!) hates planning meals and struggles finding ways to incorporate the liturgical year into our family life.
Insert your book.
ahhhhhhh *sigh of relief.
Thanks for this Haley!
Haley says
I hope you like it, Caitlin! 🙂
Kelly says
Hi Haley!
I am looking forward to checking this out! One question, we have two dairy free eaters in our family. I can usually adapt recipes as long as they aren’t super dairy heavy. Do you think your recipes might be adaptable for me?
Thanks and congrats on finishing this exciting project!
Haley says
Yes! Almost all the recipes would be easily adaptable. Most actually don’t contain dairy, but the ones that do have butter or yogurt that can be substituted out. The only two that would be tricky to adapt are the two with cream sauces.
Michelle M. says
Congratulations! I’ve downloaded it, and it looks wonderful!! I can’t wait to get back to cooking again so I can try out the recipes. I have a three week old, so it may be a few more weeks 🙂
Haley says
Thank you so much! I hope you’re getting lots of meals brought to you, Mama! 🙂
Danielle says
This is so perfect! My “new liturgical year resolution” ….. Live a deeper, more purposeful Christian calendar year 🙂 thanks for all your work!
Haley says
Yay! 🙂
Lois says
yay! congrats.
also, new logo/layout for the blog?! i really love it.
Haley says
Yes! New today! Thanks 🙂
Jennifer @ Little Silly Goose says
Haley, I’m so excited for you and your family! I have started to read the book and so far it is just as wonderful as your blog is. Love it already! Also, the website looks great! Congratulations!
Haley says
Thank you, Jennifer! That is so encouraging!
Rosa Patterson says
Downloaded the book and can’t wait to start reading!
Rosa Patterson says
I can’t open the links!?!
Haley says
Can’t open the PDF you downloaded? Or, when you click on links within the PDF they don’t open up a page in your browser? Feel free to email me if you’re having trouble! haley.s.stewart@gmail.com
Haley says
Ah! I see that the links within the PDF aren’t opening. Somehow they didn’t carry over like they should have when the word doc was converted to PDF. I will figure out how to get them to carry over and see you a new PDF 🙂
Serena says
This sounds great! Any chance it will be available on kindle, via Amazon? That way I could have it on my phone! 🙂
Haley says
We might set it up for Amazon at some point, but if you have the kindle app on your phone, you can open the PDF from your email and open it in the kindle app. Hope that helps! 🙂
Meg says
Congratulations, Haley and Daniel!!! Your blog has helped so much to inspire us to think about living with the liturgical year (I’m pretty new to this whole ancient tradition part of Christianity), and I can’t wait to dive into your book to get it all started this advent!
also… I love the new logo, simple and sweet.
Haley says
Aw, thank you, Meg!!!
Jeni says
It’s so great you guys! Absolutely loving it. Congrats on all your hard work!
Haley says
Thanks, Jeni! 🙂
Carolyn says
Purchased! I’m so excited to read it! Love the new website look too!
Haley says
Thank you, Carolyn!
Janet in Toronto says
Visiting from This Ain’t the Lyceum. Excited to cook from your book!
Haley says
Hi Janet! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you love the book 🙂
KimT says
Congratulations on your ebook! I just purchased it and am so looking forward to celebrating the liturgical year with it. So proud of you and your husband. Thank you so much for all your efforts and for just doing this!!!
Haley says
Thank you so much, KimT!
Mary says
Ah, it looks beautiful!!! Congratulations!! Can’t wait to read through! Do you have any plans for there being a print version for technophobes like me??
Haley says
There’s been some interest so I think we’ll look into an affordable way to do it, but not sure how soon it will be!