| | |
St. Nicholas and Nicholas recipes
From
Cooking with the Saints: An Illustrated Treasury of Authentic Recipes, Old and Modern by Ernst Schuegraf.
Nicholas lived in the fourth century and was bishop of
Myra, now in southwestern Turkey. Nothing else is of historic certainty, although his veneration in the
East can be traced to the sixth century. A fictitious biography written by Methodius in the ninth century
contains all the miracles and legends we now associate with St. Nicholas. The legend of Santa Claus can be
traced back to St. Nicholas, and his legend is particularly strong in Holland and Belgium and throughout
Europe. In Holland, St. Nicholas has a helper who hands out cookies before the arrival of St. Nicholas
on December 6.
Here is a recipe for Speculaas, a cookie handed out by St. Nicholas and eaten between December 6 and Christmas Day.
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup condensed milk
4 tbsp cinnamon
1 pinch each nutmeg, cloves, salt
4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup slivered almonds, crushed
Mix together the sugars, the shortening and the butter. Add the condensed milk and spices and gradually
blend in the flour and baking soda. Crush the almonds with a rolling pin and mix in. The dough will be
somewhat stiff. Roll into logs covered with plastic or waxed paper.
Leave in refrigerator overnight.
Cut into slices and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake in preheated oven at 375 degrees F
for around 10 minutes. Traditionally Speculaas are imprinted with some pattern created by a wooden mold
(before baking). If you imprint the cookies with a mold, they will look better.
Makes about 80 cookies.
| | |
|
|
|
|
Dogma And Preaching: Applying Christian Doctrine to
Daily Life (2nd Ed)
by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
This volume is an unabridged edition of Dogma and Preaching, a work that appeared in a much-reduced form in English, in 1985. The new book contains twice as much material as first
English edition. "Dogma", for many people, is a bad word. For the well-informed believer, it shouldn't be. Dogmas are truths revealed by God, which should enlighten the minds,
guide the choices, and gladden the hearts of Jesus' disciples, including pastors, deacons, and lay teachers. But, as Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), notes in the foreword
to this book, "The path from dogma to proclamation or preaching has become very troublesome." Finding ways to relate the content of the Church's dogmas to everyday life can be
challenging for today's preachers and teachers. Some people find the task so daunting that they leave dogma out. As a result, they wind up presenting something other than the
Church's faith and speak in their own name, offering perhaps unwittingly merely their own, subjective ideas, rather than the Word of God. In Dogma and Preaching, the theologian
and priest Joseph Ratzinger provides (1) a theory of preaching for today; (2) application of this theory to some themes for preaching drawn from the Church's dogmas; (3) meditations
and sermons based on the liturgical year and the communion of saints; and (4) some thoughts regarding the decade after the Second Vatican and Christianity's seeming irrelevance.
Ratzinger insists that sound preaching should rest on three pillars... Read more!
|
|
| |
