Jesse Tea

The Jesse Tea is very special to us. It was one of the first liturgical things we added to our home when studying to become Catholic. But I really think it would be valuable to anyone who enjoys the Jesse Tree tradition. We tried some paper ornaments last year along with the readings each night. I would like to try for some sturdier ornaments next year. These felted ones are gorgeous and by the price, time consuming! But hey, I have a whole year. I may do a combination of wood, felt and yarn ornaments.

The place where I learned about it was Catholic Cuisine. I love their blog. So many ideas for making our feast days and celebrations just a bit more special. The original idea came from Cottage Blessings. If you are interested in trying out a Jesse Tea, check out both posts and then you can personalize it to your family.

The first year, I made a blueberry cobbler for Mary. This year, the boys wanted to do it all themselves. I did help with the deviled eggs and toasting the bread. We used Cranberry Pomegranate Green Tea. When I poured it, James said, "It's the Red Sea!" Cool!







I will need to come up with some different ideas for next year. I like eating good 80% of the time in theory but the difference between a normal gluten free diet for us anyhow is that you can cheat several times before you really feel the effects of it. With a somewhat clean eating, mostly gluten free diet that has sped up our metabolism and digestion, we feel the effects immediately. I don't feel it eating biscuits at home or even wheat tortillas, but store-bought cookies, bread and pasta make me feel very sluggish and bloated the next day. It's got to be some combination of gluten and processed food along with our digestion abilities.

I did have some healthy dishes with broccoli, apples, honey and the deviled eggs. I made the deviled egg filling simply with salt, pepper, a heaping tablespoon of Bubbies relish and enough Spectrum Omega 3 mayo to make it creamy. This was for 8 eggs. I don't bother with piping the filling. Boys are more interested in getting it to the table fast than making it pretty. I just use the same fork that I mashed up the yolks with to fill the whites. They were delicious!