"Cooking with the Saints" an excerpt
- ALEXANDRA GREELEY AND FERNANDO FLORES
"With lively photos of enticing dishes to inspire families to live in union with the Church and her Saints throughout the year, "Cooking with the Saints" is a delightful celebration of food from around the world and through time." - Leila Lawler
As the former pastor of St. Veronica Catholic Church in Chantilly, Virginia, I was fortunate to play a small role in the launching and growth of Cooking with Our Saints, a vibrant parish-based apostolate. Since its inception in 2010, Cooking with Our Saints has continued to grow in popularity and has nourished the bodies, souls, and minds of many people of all ages. This book is a beautiful snapshot of the apostolate and a wonderful reference for anyone interested in food, faith, fellowship, and fun.
Through the Incarnation, God came to dwell among us in a particular and profound way in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who was and is truly God and truly man. Scripture records the exercise of His divinity through miraculous healings, walking on water, the Transfiguration, and ultimately the Resurrection. Scripture also details concrete examples of Jesus’ humanity: He was born and grew up in a family; grew tired; wept; experienced hunger and thirst. He experienced firsthand what it is to be human. Overand over again, Jesus acknowledged our human, bodily needs.
Now the day began to wear away; and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the crowd away, to go into the villages and country round about, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a lonely place.” But he said to them, “You give them something to eat." (Luke 9:12-13)
Cooking with Our Saints is an original, delightful apostolate that echoes that exhortation, “Give them something to eat,” while teaching about the lives of many saints. Saints are those heroic men and women who have completed the journey of life on earth, lived it well, and serve as our models and inspiration. The saints and the recipes in this volume call to mind the diverse cultures that were the earthly homes of the saints. They likewise serve as a reminder that, no matter where or when we live, God calls us all to be saints.
This book is a lovely way for everyone to experience the triple nourishment — body, soul, and mind — that Cooking with Our Saints brought to one little Washington metropolitan-area suburb. The recipes here are delicious, authentic, tested, and easily mastered. They come from Alexandra Greeley, a professional chef and author of thirty-five cookbooks! Her partner in many aspects of the apostolate, Fernando Flores, is a tireless world traveler and an advocate of all things relating to food and faith.
I have no doubt that this book will be treasured by many. It is a compilation of delicious recipes, an approachable volume on the lives of saints, and, as the recipes are arranged chronologically according to feast days, it is a wonderful companion to enrich your liturgical year. I expect that this volume will be put to many good uses: by parishes to launch a similar apostolate, by families as a catechetical tool, or by neighbors wanting to start a fun supper club and practice hospitality. I encourage you to dig in, to try out the tasty recipes, and to take time to learn from the rich lives of so many saints.
Very Reverend Edward C. Hathaway
Rector, Basilica of St. Mary Alexandria, Virginia
This is Meaghen Gonzalez, Editor of CERC. I hope you appreciated this piece. We curate these articles especially for believers like you.
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Acknowledgement
Alexandra Greeley and Fernando Flores "Cooking with the Saints." (Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2019): 9-11, 298-299.
Reprinted with permission of Sophia Institute Press.
The Author
Food writer/editor, cookbook author, and restaurant critic, Alexandra (Sandy) Greeley lives in Northern Virginia, where she cooks, eats, dreams about food from other cultures, and writes about food from every angle and from every culture. She has had published 35 cookbooks, and has copyedited more than 20 cookbooks for major publishing houses. She was the co-founder of Washington, DC, Slow Food’s chapter and is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier’s Washington chapter.
Fernando Flores is a life-long foodie, who once dreamed of attending the famed cooking school, Le Cordon Bleu. Being invited to co-present a Cooking with our Saints (CWOS) class was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. CWOS was a natural progression in Fernando Flores leadership in developing "fellowship through food” activities within the St. Veronica parish community and school, where his two children attended. Through apostolates, like the Knights of Columbus, the parish school and the Food, Farm and Faith Annual Dinner, Flores believes that food can be a key to open a little door to the soul, were faith and fellowship can follow.
Copyright © 2019 Sophia Institute Press
