Campfires and Cleats: May 2014

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Easter Dessert ~ Tomb Brownies and Our Lord's Resurrection

Welcome!
Well, halfway through Lent....thinking about your Easter dessert yet?
I'd love to share the "tomb dessert" which graced our table on Easter Sunday last year! Life's been full here. So full that I've stopped in only briefly to chronicle confirmation day, festive foods and decor at the gathering and a wonderful boy's 14th birthday. Since then, homeschooling, family and life's details have occupied me such that I'm not quite sure when I'll be hitting that "publish" button on the handful of drafts I've begun here. Hopefully before too awfully long. But while I find calm in writing and 'scrap booking' here, I find I need balance in this space. Despite it all, I of course, find not only enjoyment, but calm and sanity too, communicating with all of you is the best part of blogging......!

I've seen clever and cute Easter desserts out there and even tried a couple ( here's last year's Peep Cake) but I knew I had to attempt Jennifer's Resurrection Cookie Display, when I saw how easy and festive she made it look! So go to a peek and then come on back for my adaptation...

So here we go...it couldn't be easier!

Resurrection Tomb Brownies:

Ingredients

*Favorite brownie recipe ( As you can see, I took a shortcut, thanks to Pillsbury)

* Shredded coconut and green food color ( for grassy area around tomb)

* printed sketch of our Lord, resurrected

(The one you'll see in my dessert was printed from Jennifer's post. )

* Marshmallow peeps, to decorate tomb area ( a last minute thought and not pictured here)

Here's the finished product:

And here's the quick how-to:

1.Bake brownies, let cool and then cut to desired "tomb" sizes.

2. Mix green food color into whatever amount of coconut you'd like to place

around the tomb.

3. Assemble brownies as boulders/ rocks/ pebbles, along with green coconut and peeps.

(Completely out of place, but who doesn't like a peep in an Easter dessert?)

4. Place our resurrected Lord among the rubble.

(I taped the picture to a game piece and its stand so that it was secure enough until we had dessert.)

A shot of my hubby assembling the concoction.

He loves a kitchen "challenge!"

Enjoy!!

Thank you for spending some of your precious time today

here at my home on the web!

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~Chris

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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

WW ~ Cuddly Reptile Break

..And both shots taken with my brand new

Mother's Day gift !

A Nikon camera/video camera!

I'm thinking I love it, but I'm still trying to figure it all out!

As you know, this is Tootles, sweetest turtle ever.

She's our baby.

Friends, as always,

thank you for stopping over and
spending some of your precious time here at my home on the web!

Don't forget to subscribe to Campfires and Cleats

by scrolling to the subscribe button at the top left sidebar.

Please join us on Facebook as well!

I'd love to stay in touch regularly.

Until next time,

~Chris

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation ~ Dinner, Dessert, Decor ~ Festive Recipes and Ideas

Welcome friends!

As you know, my oldest son
received the sacrament of confirmation

earlier this week, the final of the

three sacraments of initiation in our Catholic faith.

The story of our big day, in photos, is here

if you have a minute ( or five) to click over.
And it IS our big day.......
The spiritual prep that culminated in his anointing
with chrism was truly emotional and overwhelming

Love to have you for a visit to my scrapbook of the day!

We're still talking about how beautiful the mass was,

how gorgeous the weather,

how fitting the bishop's homily,

how happy my son was to have received the Holy Spirit.

Yes, he does feel different!

Now, for the nitty gritty practical side of things~~~

There are several dishes,
treats and ideas I created or adapted

that I'd like to share here,
which made my son's day a touch more special and festive.

Here we go:

~Dinner~

I took no pictures of these courses - drat )

but we served shrimp appetizers after the mass,

followed by leg of lamb as the entree..
Fitting, right?...

along with potatoes and veggies.
A table setting photo:

Can't for the life of me get the picture right side up!
Sorry!!
In the little cordial glass is a chocolate cross,
whose mold I bought yeeeeeeeears ago in a chocolate shop
in Queens. I've used that mold for every Easter
and every sacrament for the past 35 years!
I little chocolate cross at each setting makes a nice added touch,
I've found, for adults or kids....

~Decor~

Before the mass, a quick get together in the kitchen....

we also tied balloons to the front door lanterns.

Present at the mass and celebration were my son's Godmother,

to whom he gave flowers and his sponsor/uncle,

to whom he gave a boutonniere....

a white carnation, representing purity,

with a spray of red,

representing the Holy Spirit!

And here's the dinner table.~~~

as well as one place setting to get an up close look.

(It's amazing the slabs you can request be

formed into an

4 by 8 table with a base from "scraps" in Cancos's yard!!)

My hubby is a sort-of geologist and actually,

this is gneiss, not granite.

If you happen to come over and mistake the rocks,

well, be prepared for a

30 minute talk on the differences between the two!

He does love talking rock formation~~ !

Anyway, I do love this room, especially for celebrating special events,

such as our sacraments!

~Desserts~

The "centerpiece" of the table is the framed picture of

our hero, Pope Saint John Paul II,

our Karol.

This is my son's favorite photo of him;

so we had it printed and framed for the canonization

two weeks ago and for his special day.

I'll detail each dessert below~~

Again, not sure how to flip this pic....

I've tried everything.

If anyone knows, I'm grateful for a tip.

Thank you!

~The Cake~

Preparation:
So simple, it's crazy!
Boxed cake mix, canned icing~~

I found a Pentecost cake at Catholic Cuisine with a dove atop and I was all set,
especially after some encouraging words about its arrangement
from my friend and fellow faith/ homeschool /cake/ family blogger, Tracy

Off I went to simply draw a dove and then trace it onto a

Wilton sugar sheet, which I got at Michael's.

You can also just pick it up online right here.

Then I wrote my son's confirmation name in red icing writer

on the cake platter........

Which, as you all know by now from reading it nine million times

in my excitement and pride,

is Karol.

When I stumbled on birthday candles in the cake creation aisle at Michael's,
I decided it would be appropriate and fitting to buy RED so that my
confirmandus ( is that correct?)
could say a silent prayer of thanks before blowing out
seven flames, representing the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit,
which blessed him that day.

Wisdom

Counsel

Fortitude

Piety

Knowledge

Understanding

Fear of God

"Dove" Chocolates

Hey, a play on words around the Holy Spirit involving chocolate?
I'm in.
Nice and easy ordering online!

"Keys to the Kingdom"

Another beautiful idea I adapted from Catholic Cuisine

All the details are over there...but this is a lovely, simple and festive

touch to any Catholic celebration, is it not?

Here's what we did to create the papal Keys to the Kingdom,

as seen on the papal flag

I clicked through to amazon for the key candy mold,

then picked up a bag of yellow chocolate at Walmart...

(nice and cheap) Or those chocolates can be easily obtained here at amazon.

We melted and molded the keys so easily and quickly,

then displayed them as they are seen on the flag.

One bag of chocolate made 8 key candies.

Enjoy!!

Papal Cream Cake

The enchanting story behind Kremowska,
Pope Saint John Paul II's
favorite dessert is right here.

We made the Papal Cream Cakes for JPII's canonization on April 27th

and again for our confirmation celebration this week.

The super easy how-to, as well as our major adaptation to the recipe

is in my post

of last week, right here.

Enjoy!!

Thank YOU, friends, for stopping by and sharing in

The Big Day!
I hope you might find some of these ideas
adaptable to your own sacramental celebrations!

We were graced to be in the pontiff's presence a number of times.

Here, in America, twice.....once, in Rome.
AND---- we were blessed to see our current Holy Father in NYC in 2015!

Previously, I've written about our JPII and Pope Francis here:
My Pope, My Shepherd: Mercy IS Divine

JPII's Letter to Artists

Happy Birthday, JPII!

In the Presence of the Holy Father

Papa Rocks The Garden!

Join Us in The Big Apple As We Relive Pope Francis's Historic Visit

Also, friends, if you are not Catholic and you'd like to learn more about

this beautiful Faith,

if you are Catholic and have not been involved in the

practice of the Faith but would like to come home,

there is nothing that would make your Church happier!

Please do not hesitate to contact me~~

I'll put you in touch with
a priest who can assist you!

Thank you for spending some of your precious time today

here at my home on the web!

Have you signed up to receive my posts in your email inbox?

If not, just click here to

subscribe to Campfires and Cleats by email

quickly and easily so we can be in touch regularly!

You might wish to follow on Facebook as well.....

This post contains amazon affiliate links....

If you are shopping at amazon and Target.

why not consider clicking through my link?

In this way, I will receive a small commission on the purchase.....

at no cost to you.

THANK YOU!

Until next time,

~Chris

Friday, May 9, 2014

Artful Friday~ A Servant's Monologue in "Comedy!"

Hi there friends and welcome to Artful Friday!
As you guys know, my kids do a lot of community theater...
my younger son just came off a truly wonderful show...
the Bard's very first,
staged in honor of his 450th birthday!
What a cast. What an experience.
He's very lucky to have landed a role with this talented theater company~~

Here are a few shots ~~

.....as well as one of my son's monologues
from Act 5 scene 1:

...and the curtain call~~~

We always use No Fear Shakespeare .
The easy translation is perfect.
Here's the link to the Comedy script.
Mistaken identity and hilarious at that!
The Bard is simply too funny.....