Yesterday was the Octave Day of Easter, St. Thomas Sunday, Low Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday, and also the beatification day of Pope John Paul II not to mention the feast day of St. Joseph the Worker. Whew! It was also our first Good Shepherd Garden Party! We pared down some of the menu items, preferring to combine a few items in favor of streamlining. Saturday was a busy day with golf lessons, the Community Garden official opening celebration and a piano recital so Sunday needed to be a much simpler day. The beautiful 50 degree rainy weather made it a day to enjoy at home, tucked under a blanket with the windows open. Our Garden Party finished off the weekend perfectly! Head over to Catholic Cuisine for the link-up!
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| Unfortunately, our overcast skies were not conducive to picture taking. It's a little blurry. |
Here are some closeups with better lighting:
I made mini shepherd's pies with a biscuit crust and shepherds crooks on top. They were filled with some leftover garlic chicken and cheese. This is proof that I am not Martha Stewart perfect!
The kids wondered why some of their pies had slugs on them.
A bowl of mashed potatoes to represent the sheep in the sheepfold. (My kids didn't want the potatoes on top of their shepherd's pies so we put them on the side.)
This also represented the gate, the sheepfold, the ewe, ram and lamb. Streamlined, didn't I tell you! The children enjoy building their own graham cracker gates at the table, so this one was just for show.
Wolf's Paw cookies ~ yet again, I could not find the Voortman's Iced Almonettes even though I remember seeing them somewhere around here.
To celebrate the beatification of our beloved Pope John Paul II, we made an easy version of his favorite childhood dessert which is now called Kremówka Papieska, or Papal Cream Cake. It was delicious! Jessica has linked to several options over at Catholic Cuisine, but I made my own using store bought puffed pastry and a cream filling from another recipe. We spent the rest of dinner sharing our memories and stories of Blessed John Paul II with the children.
O Holy Trinity,
we thank you for having given to the Church
Pope John Paul II,
and for having made him shine with your fatherly tenderness,
the glory of the Cross of Christ and the splendor of the Spirit of love
He, trusting completely in your infinite mercy
and in the maternal intercession of Mary, has shown himself
in the likeness of Jesus the Good Shepherd
and has pointed out to us holiness
as the path to reach eternal communion with You.
Grant us, through his intercession,
according to your will, the grace that we implore,
in the hope that he will soon be numbered among your saints.
Amen.
We love you, dear Holy Father! Please intercede for us that we may more intimately know the Divine Mercy that you championed here on earth.
what a lovely party. We had opur first ever Good Shepherd Garden Party yesterday, ytes, on a day full of so many other celebrations, including the beginning of our Lady's month!! I wasn't sure I'd squeeze everything in. I had a lot of fun preparing for the party, but at the end of the day, I said, phew, how do Jessica and Charlotte do this!
ReplyDeleteGardenia,
ReplyDeleteJessica is going to put a linky up over at Catholic Cuisine later today.
How fun! I hope to have our first garden party tomorrow. I've had the sticker set for a couple of years. I just got around to laminating the symbols, which are working out great with the mounting putty! Anyway, we've been helping out as much as possible at the Churches donation drive for the tornado victims. Still praising Our Lord for His Divine Mercy!
ReplyDeletePeace and Blessings,
Lori
Simple is still great. It looks like your family had a nice party.
ReplyDeleteThough we are going along with the readings and adding our stickers to the board; I just couldn't get the party together.
It looks like there were a lot of busy families over the weekend.
Looking forward to the rest of the weeks :)
What a lovely celebration! We had a full day yesterday as well. Our boys received their First Holy Communion on Sunday and it was our little girl's 4th birthday as well, so we haven't had our first Good Shepherd garden party yet. But I did make the Papal Cream Cake for the boys' cake. I, too, used the frozen puff pastry dough. I forgot to dock it though, so the presentation wasn't so great. It still tasted delicious though! I can see why it was JPII favorite. :)
ReplyDeleteBtw, Charlotte, I need to thank you. For the party afterward I made your mini Denver omelet quiches (yum!), smoked salmon spread with bagel chips (yum!), the sparkling white punch and the cappuccino mousse (heavenly!).
ReplyDeleteIf it wasn't for you I wouldn't have had a menu, lol. My children and husband thanks you as well! ;)
That cappuccino mousse is SO delicious! It was worth every calorie.
Lori,
ReplyDeleteI finally got mine laminated this year and I like the way they turned out too! Still praying for you all as you recover.
Elizabeth C.,
Feel free to join in at any time!
Kelly,
That does sound like a busy weekend! So glad you enjoyed the recipes. With the strawberries coming in season, that cappuccino mousse is definitely on my mind!
Everything turned out lovely Charlotte, and I cracked up at your children's comment about the slugs! How funny!! I love your sheepfolds, too! I decided to use up the chow mein noodles we had, leftover from Easter, but next year I think I am going to keep your idea in mind. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd how were you able to put so much filling into your Papal Cream Cake, without it running all over the place?? Your filling recipe must turn out thicker than the one I ended up using.
Thanks Jessica! I'm glad we did it!
ReplyDeleteMy cream is not really any thicker than a custard, but what I did was, instead of scoring the puffed pastry and assembling it as one big cake, I cut the pieces separately and assembled each slice.
your custard cake looks delicious. please share your custard recipe. thanks for the tips with the puff pastry. I ended up making more meal foods and not this cake, but I'll have to try it some time. You feeling good?
ReplyDeleteHow lovely!!
ReplyDeleteHi Charlotte~ Thank you for your continued inspiration! I had hoped to participate but couldn't pull it off after Easter and First Communion prep. Maybe next week!? Love your addition of shepherd crooks on your minis. God Bless your week and Mother's Day!
ReplyDeleteCharlotte,
ReplyDeleteWe are joining the Garden parties this year - but were out of town the first weekend. This is rehabilitative for me as I have embarked on a remedial homemaking course here to really try to bless my family more with these feminine arts. So thank you for the many inspirations! You are making me laugh with the Martha Stewart reference because I was of that mindset for a while. Just because my talent is so lacking in this area! I think it is all beautiful and a blessing.
Happy Mother's Day!
Margaret J.