St. Anne's Feast

It's hard for us to really celebrate St. Anne's feast day on the day since it is Husband's birthday although he is more than willing to share. This year, the 26th falls on a Sunday which means that the Sunday should take precedence so we made the decision to celebrate early. We already have our St. Anne's Family Album but the girls have asked if they could make a smaller version for their holy cards.

According to My Nameday: Come For Dessert, the traditional colors you will find St. Anne dressed in are shades of red and green. In fact, it used to be a tradition for girls named after St. Anne to wear red and green ribbons in their hair on her feast day. It doesn't have to be Christmas red and green. A light green or a pale pink is a lovely variation of color to honor St. Anne. No one here is named for St. Anne (yet!) but we made some hair pretties anyway. We simply slipped the thin ribbon through the back of a tiny little alligator clip and tied on the wider ones. A stitch or two with a needle and thread will secure it so that the bow doesn't come out. The French have a very strong devotion to St. Anne so many recipes suggested for her special day will involve seafood. You might consider making your favorite seafood meal for dinner. Since it is summer time, when we think of red and green, we think of watermelons! That's where our inspiration began.
We found some seashells in the clearance section of our local craft store to use for decorating the table and also this watermelon clip which was just too cute to pass up. A light green table cloth and bright red plates were a nice combination of St. Anne's colors. Watermelon cookies and watermelon lemonade make a perfect summertime treat.

Watermelon Cookies

I used Betty Crocker's Sugar Cookie Mix. Mix sugar cookies using cut-out cookie recipe and red food coloring. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out circles with a cookie cutter or other round object, such as a glass or round plastic container. Place circles on ungreased cookie sheet. (I used parchment paper.) With a knife, carefully slice circle in half and separate by at least 1/2 inch to allow for expansion during baking. Gently press miniature semi sweet morsels into each semicircle. (Little ones can do this just know that the mini morsels melt quickly if handled too much. Refrigerating them beforehand helps. I sprinkled them onto the unbaked cookies and then let the kids push them into place where they fell.)

Bake for 6-8 minutes, checking after 6 minutes. Cookies will be done when edges are lightly browned. Do not allow cookies to get too brown. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes. Remove from cookies sheets to aluminum foil on a flat surface and allow to cool completely.

Glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbsp water
15-20 drops green food coloring

In a small bowl mix together all ingredients to form a glaze. You may add drops of water to thin glaze if it is too thick. To decorate the cookies, roll the round end of the cookie in the glaze, allow excess to drip off into bowl. Place cookies back on foil until glaze dries.

Like this!

Watermelon Lemonade

• 2 (12-ounce) cans frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
• 15 cups seeded and cubed watermelon
• *2 sprigs mint (optional)
Process watermelon, in batches, in a blender or food processor until smooth. Combine concentrate and 2 mint sprigs, and cook in a saucepan over medium-high heat 10 minutes. Stir together watermelon puree and lemonade mixture; cover and chill 8 hours. Remove and discard mint. Stir and serve over ice.

*If you are not going to add the mint, then skip the stove top step.

I made half of this recipe and I strained my watermelon puree through cheesecloth so there wouldn't be much pulp. 10 cups of watermelon made about 8 cups of puree which made 5 1/2 C. of watermelon juice once it was strained. I mixed those 5 1/2 C. with one can of frozen lemonade.