Day 6 :: Happy St. David's Day!

I've been posting some recipes this week over at Catholic Cuisine to celebrate St. David's Day today. My husband's Welsh ancestry has sparked a little devotion in our family to this sometimes forgotten saint. (St. Patrick gets all the press, you know! :)

First up was our simple version of a Daffodil Cake.

Next was this delicious Potato Leek Soup with Roasted Butternut Squash "Croutons".

And finally these delicious Welsh Cakes! I tested them earlier in the week and my children begged me to make some more today. They taste like a scone and a biscuit got married and had delicious little babies! 

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant!

Happy St. David's Day!

{p,h,f,r} It's not Thursday yet?

UPDATE... Now it's Thursday!!!! 
No, it's not Thursday yet but since tomorrow is shaping up to be an extra busy day (on top of the usual busy Thursdayness, we threw in an ortho consult for the oldest three...just for fun!), I'm posting today and hoping that I have the brain power to remember to link up tomorrow.

{pretty}

My pretty girl playing outside! Her favorite thing to do in the whole wide world.

{happy}

This was our daffodil cake for St. David's Day. I served it upside down because the big kids said it actually looked like a daffodil this way, especially with the center of the cake pushing up higher than the edge (which you can't really see in this picture, so... neeeeeeh-ver mind).

It was marbled on the inside but I forgot to take a picture post baking. We only used a tiny bit of glaze frosting to help some sparkles stick, so it wasn't an overly sweet treat but made for a very happy St. David's Day!

{funny}

Shortcake recorded this video of Cupcake sitting on BigBoy's bed playing pat-a-cake with one of her stuffed animals. She loves playing pat-a-cake with us but this was the first time she had done it with one of the stuffed animals. I was working on dinner so Shortcake filmed it. (That's her very excited voice you hear at the end, not mine! :)

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

{real}

Cupcake loves the stars and the moon. She has to say goodnight to them every night before she is ready for bed. "Goonight, moon. Goonight, byoofull sars. Goonight, byoofull trees." She also loves her cookies. So, I made her a batch of stars and moon cookies. Yes, I know they are Star of David cookies, but that's the only star cookie cutter I have right now.

Cookie Heaven! 

Or should that be... Cookie heavens? Celestial Cookies?

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~ with the lovely ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter

7QT: Dydd Gŵyl Dewi edition

-1-

The first quick take on March the 1st! Happy St. David's Day! Sunshine (with the lovely Welsh middle name) crocheted little leeks for those who wanted to wear them in their caps, like the good little Welshmen they are (just a few generations removed).

-2-

We will be having our traditional potato leek soup for dinner and Daffodil Cake. You can find my recipes and past St. David's Day posts here.

-3-

Yesterday was an historic day for Catholics and quite a unique opportunity. I am so thankful that my husband is in the technology industry and we had the means to mirror play the live stream of all the events yesterday on our TV and watch all that history in the making. Who needs cable?

-4-

I fully expected to cry. I didn't put on any makeup because I thought, "What's the point? It's just going to end up on a tissue" but then I read what Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said to the College of Cardinals before leaving for his retirement. I posted this on FB:

I was totally prepared to weep today, seeing him leave, hearing the bells, listening to the Catholic pundits talk about how alone and sad we should all feel, but then I read what he had to say to the College of Cardinals...

"I want to tell you that I will continue to be close to you in prayer, especially in the next few days, so that you may all be fully docile to the action of the Holy Spirit in the election of the new Pope. May the Lord show you what is willed by Him. And among you, among the College of Cardinals, there is also the future Pope, to whom, here to today, I already promise my unconditional reverence and obedience."

We are not alone. The Pope Emeritus is prayerful tending to the Church and the future Pope is already among us! We will pray that God's will be done and that that Pope is elected quickly and decisively.

And we might just have something special tonight. Everyone gets a retirement cake, right?

-5-

Well, we decided to skip the retirement cake but we did have brats for dinner with cream of veggie soup and pretzels. I wish I'd thought to pick up some German wine to toast with. :(

-6-

If you haven't seen this yet, please go look at it. It's a lovely virtual picture book of the Pope Emeritus with quotes from his writing. The internet design snobs will tell you that the parchment background and comic sans font makes it hard to take seriously, but just ignore them. It's a very sweet tribute.

-7-

For all you UD fans... never have I been so proud to be a former Spring Romer!

From the University of Dallas FB page

More than 100 UD students dressed in multi-colored togas took a break from the Geek Olympics to send a message to Pope Benedict XVI, as he flew within 300 yards of the UD Rome campus on his way to Castel Gandolfo.

AWESOME!!!

St. David's Day Links

Here are some posts from the past with ideas for celebrating St. David (coming up on March 1) and his beloved Wales!

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant! (2010)

Daffodil Cake for St. David's Day  (2009)

Hylo; sut mae? (2007)

Coffee, Tea and Thee (2007)

Recipes can also be found over at Catholic Cuisine.

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant!

That's Welsh for Happy St. David's Day, I'm told. Sure hope someone here can confirm that so that I don't worry that I accidentally told you to stick a leek up your nose.

Some of Husband's ancestors hail from Wales (Sunshine's middle name is even a Welsh form of Mary that I fell in love with) and so today, we are celebrating good St. David with Potato Leek Soup and my version of Daffodil Cake as has become our tradition it seems.

I was putting this post together last night so that I could just add pictures today and then post. Husband heard me lamenting the fact that our winter has been so unseasonably cold that we don't have any daffodils coming up in the flower beds. What is St. David's Day without daffodils? I can't tell you how cute the smile on his face was when he came back through the door after having left for work a few minutes before announcing that St. David had indeed come through!

 He sure did.

If you have given up treats as your Lenten sacrifice, maybe Daffodil corn bread would compliment your meal. Try lightly swirling a batch of white corn bread batter and yellow corn bread batter in a pan and see what happens. Let me know if it works.

Daffodil Cake for St. David's Day

As a whole, our family abstains from treats during Lent but since St. David's day fell on a Sunday this year, we decided to celebrate in a small way this patron saint of Wales. Husband's father's family is from Wales so we like to have fun with St. David even if we are many times removed from those ancestors. In the past, we have enjoyed a traditional Welsh treat called a bara brith which means "speckled bread". This year we opted for a Daffodil Cake, mentioned by Dawn in this post. You knew I would be intrigued by the phrase "daffodil cake" didn't you? Oh, Dawn, I hope your cake was sunny and bright even if your weather wasn't!

Being low on egg whites, we opted for a simpler version. I made a white cake but set aside about a cup and a half of batter, flavored it with lemon extract and mixed in some yellow food coloring. Then using a standard marbling technique, I swirled the dark yellow batter into the other batter already in the bundt pan. It is hard to see in the picture above, but the marbled affect was really striking. Simple cream cheese frosting topped it off.

If you prefer to eat your leeks instead of wear them, like we do, you can head on over to Catholic Cuisine for some of our favorite leek recipes. Or check out Wikipedia for more information on celebrating St. David's Day.

Coffee, Tea and Thee

Happy St. David's Day! We had a lot of fun learning about Wales today. We looked at all of the castle websites at The Professor's insistence (not because Husband told him that Grandpa was 16th in line to inherit one of them) but because ...well, he is a nine year old boy.

Our favorite site turned out to be one that wasn't found on any of the sites I linked to earlier but rather one that The Professor found in his book What Were Castles For? by Phil Roxbee Cox. This book offers internet links that allow you to further explore castles. Our favorite was this one at National Geographic. One of the "ghosts" you meet in the castle is in the chapel and he says the Ave Maria.

The picture above shows the lovely daffodil windmills that the girls made and the Welsh flag that The Professor willingly colored, in fact, he volunteered to color it. Have I mentioned how he feels about coloring? HATES it! I know, I know... a fierce red dragon might have had something to do with his change of heart.

Everyone pitched in to help glue some part of poor St. David to his body. I say poor because at one point each part of him was in a different room of the house.

Our bara brith turned out OK. It was very tasty but I had to bake it for a long time to get it to set up completely so some of the edges were
burntvery well done. We served it with amaretto coffee for no reason whatsoever other than it. was. yummy! (I made the Welsh Rarebit for lunch instead of tea.)

We spent the rest of the time reading selections of Wales: Enchantment of the World Series and looking at the banner that usually hangs in the boys' room but was brought to the table for added decoration. It was a gift from their uncle who visited the UK.

It was a good day despite the fact that Husband came home early with a nasty cold he thought he was getting over. Maybe my lower fat version of the Potato and Leek Soup will knock it out. What is the old adage...feed a cold, starve a fever? The girls liked the soup but the boys merely tolerated it. Ah well, you can't please everyone!

Hylo; sut mae?

(Hello! How are you?) St. David's Day is on March 1 and we are planning on having Coffee, Tea & Thee time to honor him. Husband's family has some Welsh in their ancestry (Sunshine's middle name is actually a Welsh version of Mary) and I love any reason to make a quiche! Not that the Welsh are particularly fond of quiche, but I have a great recipe for Leek and Cheese Quiche and since the Welsh do have a fondness for that scallion on steroids, it works! I was looking for some St. David's Day crafts and found some really great websites that (taking my cue from the ever-generous Dawn) I thought I would share in case anyone else wants join in the fun.

• First checkout this website packed with fun for St. David's Day. Everything from castles to dragons, legends and folklore. Packed I tell you! We will probably spend most of our time pouring over all the great resources here.
• You can find out a little more about the customs and history of St. David's Day by visiting St. Fagan's National History Museum. Be sure to click on the links at the bottom of the article to find out more about the Welsh national emblem and costumes.
• I found some leeks to color here and here. I think we might cut them out when we are done and wear them around the house!
• Oh, there is a daffodil windmill craft found on the first website I linked to but here it is on it's own. I did a trial one using a 5 inch square and a brass brad for the connecting piece. It doesn't spin like a windmill, but makes a very pretty flower.
• I am always trying to force encourage my kiddos to try new foods and I find that a special feast day celebration usually puts them in a more receptive mood. This Potato Leek Soup gets rave reviews over at Allrecipes!
• Since the children have given up treats for Lent, I want to serve some Welsh Rarebit for Coffee, Tea and Thee time. I haven't decided which recipe I will use, but I thought I would share a few with you all. I think Alton Brown's might be a bit too foreign for my children's palate. These look promising. This one seems the most simple.
• You can find a few more Welsh recipes here and here. And you can peruse 127 of them here!
• The Wales Wide Web has some recipes posted with their traditional names and some added information like this note at the bottom of the rarebit recipe:

  There is an English abomination of this recipe in which beer is used. If you must use beer, keep it for washing your hair!

• I found this website just now but haven't had a chance to look it over. Tell me if you find something good!

Anyway, I hope you have fun poking around some of these websites whether you speak Cymraeg or not. I will leave you with the quiche recipe I mentioned earlier. The recipe for the crust is included, but I have also made my own or used a pre-made crust. Da boch chi ffrind! (Goodbye, friend!)

Cheese and Leek Quiche

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 1/2 C. all purpose flour
6 Tbl. butter
ice cold water
Filling:
4 oz. trimmed leek, thinly sliced
3 oz. Stilton cheese
2 Tbl. butter
3 eggs
3/4 C. milk
pinch of paprika
salt and pepper

Put the flour in a bowl with a pinch of salt. Cut the butter into pieces and rub into flour with your fingertips until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Mix to a smooth dough with 6 -7 tsp. chilled water, knead lightly and roll out thinly on a floured surface. Use to line pie pan, trimming excess. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375. Melt the butter in a small skillet and saute the leek for 4-5 minutes, until soft but not brown, stirring frequently. Spoon into a bowl, stir in diced Stilton, then spread over the crust.

Beat the eggs and milk together in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper. Pour over the leek and cheese mixture and sprinkle with paprika. Cook for 30-35 minutes. Let sit before serving.