My first photo for Renee's Scenes from a Summer's Day Challenge.



Tiny hot roses that I picked up for St. Elizabeth of Portugal's Feast Day, she's also known as St. Isabella of Portugal. What I love about cooking liturgically are the connections we're making. St. Isabella of Portugal is the great-niece of another very famous saint, St. Elizabeth of Hungary! Inspired by her aunt, also a great queen, St. Isabella cared for both the rich and the poor within her realm, which incidently might be Marianna's favorite part of this biography, as Isabella grew up a Princess of Aragon. :)

Why the roses though? Isabella of Portugal was not just a pretty praying queen, she was a highly talented architect and engineer. She built many buildings and churches, developing her own unique style, now known as the Isabeline style of architecture. While visiting one of her construction sites she gave each workman a single rose blossom in appreciation for their dedicated work. They tucked them away reverently in their satchels and upon completion of the work that day, they found, not the rosebuds but a gold coin instead!

So I kept the connections super simple for this busy weekday dinner, bread and roses and gold coins for a new-to-us incorruptible saint. I'd love to tell you that I slaved over a Portugese feast fit for a queen, but I didn't. We had spaghetti.


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Now I was asked where I go for my info and planning, three great sites for Isabella are the
Patron Saint Index, EWTN's Isabella of Portugal and a general selection that is easy to use for dates in calendar form that I use all the time -
Catholic Culture's Liturgical Year section.
And never forget Google, takes time to sort through, but it is like a treasure hunt, you'll never know what you'll find!



Finally, you'll be thrilled to see that Marianna has finally had a moment to post her recipe from Saint John the Baptist's Feast for Grasshopper Pie on her blog, Rising Phoenix. Easy and delicious, especially the next morning with a cup of coffee!