Feast of San Paschal Baylon

Yesterday was Ascension Day which trumped the Feast of St. Paschal Baylon on the Church Calendar. However, since St. Paschal is Nolan's confirmation saint we chose to have a little dual celebration meal. Above you can see the little St. Paschal that I had made for Nolan for Confirmation. There aren't any readily available statues or medals and one of our fellow parishioners makes these lovely little saints. Isn't he great? If you'd like to read a little about St. Paschal you can click here. This is the best summation of the religious and folklore that surrounds St. Paschal. Nolan loves him because he is the patron of cooks and kitchens. If you have younger children you may be familiar with his story by Tommie de Paola, Pascual and the Kitchen Angels.

For our culinary celebration I wanted to have something southwestern because although St. Paschal is from Spain, he is well known in Mexico and the south western U.S. Above you can see the Chimichangas and Spanish Rice we ate. I think I'm still full but it was decadent and delicious.

 In celebration of the Ascension, we had these Sopapillas (or little pillows). They puff up in the oil when cooked which I thought was sort of reminiscent of Christ rising to Heaven. Ok, that's kind of pathetic but Nolan loved making the dough and we all had fun eating them and it brought about some conversation. Works for us! Here's the web site I used to find the recipes. It was not the most healthy of meals but feast days are for celebrating, right?