How to Make Capirotada for Good Friday (Recipe)

(Originally posted on EpicPew, March 30, 2018.)

When my late father was alive, he used to make a delicious dessert called capirotada. I never realized the significance of it or its ties to the Lenten season until after he passed away. While this traditional Mexican dish is served throughout Lent, it’s most appropriate to on Good Friday. “Why?” you may ask. Because each of the ingredients is symbolic of what we commemorate on Good Friday.

Capirotada reminds us of Christ’s suffering on the cross. The cloves used in the recipe reminds us of the nails used to crucify Christ on the cross and the cinnamon sticks represent the cross. The syrup is symbolic of the precious blood and the melted cheese reminds us of the Holy Shroud used to cover his body when taken down from the cross.

While there are many different recipes floating out on the internet, I found out that closely resembles the one my own father used.

Here is the recipe (taken from Mexican In My Kitchen) you can use to make for yourself:

Ingredients

• 12 Ounces About 1 1/4 cup of piloncillo or dark brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cup of water
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• 2 cloves
• 3 Tablespoons of melted butter
• 3 Tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 16 slices 1/3” thick of Bolillo (French bread)
• 3/4 cup of Cotija Cheese
• 1/4 cup of roasted peanut
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 2 tablespoons of butter cut in small cubes

Instructions

Preheat oven at 350F. In a medium-size pot place the Piloncillo, cinnamon stick, cloves, and water. Place in the stove and melt in medium heat. ( If you have a hard time cutting the piloncillo for the amount needed, place it in your microwave for intervals of 30 seconds until it is softened enough to cut. Be careful while removing it out of the microwave since it gets extremely hot.)

Mix the melted butter with the oil and brush over the slices of bread. Place in a baking tray and bake 8 minutes and then turn over to bake 5 more minutes. The bread should have a deep golden color.
Start assembling the slices of bread in a round ovenproof dish. With the help of a ladle slowly pour syrup over the bread making sure the bread absorbs the syrup, do not let it go to the bottom of the dish in order to have enough syrup to moist all the bread pieces. Better yet dip the bread into the syrup to get an even moist crumb.

Top the first layer of bread with cheese, raisins, and peanut or any other fruit or nuts you would like to add according to the suggestions given above or your own.

Place another layer or bread and continue the process as in step 4.

Pour the remaining syrup over the last layer of bread and top with the cheese, raisins, and peanut. Dot with the 2 tablespoons of butter cut in small cubes. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in your preheated oven for 45 minutes until the top crust is golden and the lower layers are moist. Serve warm or cold.

Recipe Notes
some variations to this recipe:
• Fruits are also found in some recipes, the most common are fried plantain, bananas and apples.
• Prunes, cranberries, or other dried fruit are also used instead of the raisins, even shredded coconut.
• The same applies to the peanuts, any other nuts like almonds, pecans, walnuts, pine nuts are used.
• Other cheeses used as a substitute are Mexican Manchego, Monterrey Jack, and Mild White Cheddar and even parmesan mixed with Mexican Queso Fresco.

Divine Mercy Novena, Day One

First Day
"Today bring to Me all mankind, especially all sinners,

and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. In this way you will console Me in the bitter grief into which the loss of souls plunges Me."

Most Merciful Jesus, whose very nature it is to have compassion on us and to forgive us, do not look upon our sins but upon our trust which we place in Your infinite goodness. Receive us all into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart, and never let us escape from It. We beg this of You by Your love which unites You to the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon all mankind and especially upon poor sinners, all enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion show us Your mercy, that we may praise the omnipotence of Your mercy for ever and ever. Amen.

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What I Learned Wednesday (On a Thursday) #13

Been really busy and sick (which explains the lack of posts) but I finally have a chance to write so... here's my list of things learned on Wednesday...

This week I'm tackling myths that many people (especially Hispanics and Filipinos from what I've seen) have regarding Holy Week and especially Good Friday. This post was inspired by my mother's insistence on doing everything today because it's "bad luck" to do things tomorrow. This is also a taste of a bigger series on Catholicism and myths surrounding it that I will be starting after Lent.

1) You can't bathe, wash clothing, or (really) do anything on Good Friday: superstition. As I said, my mom brought this up last night. She said she was doing the laundry today because we're not supposed to wash clothing tomorrow. I Googled it (just to make sure that I wasn't missing some legit custom) but it seems to be as bogus as the Twitter question I tweeted earlier this week (whether it was true that you couldn't cut your hair during Holy Week). I asked about other Good Friday superstitions and she mentioned that we shouldn't bathe tomorrow because it was like bathing in Christ's blood. I have never heard of that and some Google searching came up as more superstitious bunk. I don't think I need to remind y'all that we shouldn't be superstitious (and, in fact, it's one of the items on my iConfess app before I head into the confessional).
which is being written on Holy Thursday.

Growing up with lukewarm Catholic parents (one of whom was very superstitious; seriously, getting dad to break his superstitions at the end of his life took a lot of prayer), I had to break a lot of my superstitious beliefs when I returned to the Church and learnt this. If you're saying that superstitions are harmless, I will remind you (and you should really check out this New Advent article for a more thorough explanation) that to believe in superstition is believing that YOU can control the outcome of something by doing something you believe will bring out your desired outcome instead of trusting God and doing His will. Dangerous territory, y'all. I know it's hard when our (in my case, Hispanic) cultures are saturated with these beliefs but it's worth keep your souls safe to break them.

2) Things that make sense to not do on Good Friday: listen to music, have any type of big celebration, and, of course, eating meat. These are more common sense and out of respect for the day. We're in mourning. I will admit that I did listen to music during our mourning period right after my father died but music is how I express myself when I can't use words... and it's also comforting for me. I didn't do it the day he died or the day after but the following week I did. I didn't even think about how I wasn't supposed to because, like I said, it made me feel less depressed but I definitely won't be doing from tonight until Sunday. Music is/was my first love (St. Cecilia would be proud; there's a reason why I took her name as a middle name) but this is the exception. Jesus suffered and died for our sins and to not honor his sacrifice by giving up these little things is just one little way to pay our respects for what he did for us. Obviously, not eating meat (which, I can now thankfully abstain from since my stomach has been on the mend) is another but I think we all know that tomorrow is a day of fasting and abstinence. I can't fast (genetic hypoglycemic thing I inherited from my mom) but I am abstaining from meat, sweets, and other things. I'll also be wearing my black mantilla (chapel veil) when I attend the Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross) tomorrow.

3) Friendly reminder that the Divine Mercy novena starts tomorrow. As I did 2 years ago, I will post the novena prayer for the day on a daily basis during the 9 days for those who wish to pray along. Either check out this blog directly, check out my Twitter feed (or the FB page feed), or subscribe to get emails of new blog posts so you don't miss a single day. I'm going to schedule them so they post around noon PST (3 p.m. EST) every day. If you're in the middle of another novena (like I am; St. Thomas Aquinas for grad school), you can still begin the Divine Mercy novena, no problem. :D

And that is it for now. So that there isn't any post overload, if I end up writing during the 9 days the novena post will be posted early and whatever I write in addition will be posted late at night. :D

I hope you all have a prayerful and fruitful (you would be surprised how much a person can grow spiritually during these next couple of days) Paschal Triduum.

As always, thanks for reading and God bless! :D

Good Friday, Fr. Leo and St. Teresa of Avila, and Old Friends.

Happy Good Friday to all! I hope everyone who wasn't stuck at home (like me) had a chance to attend Mass today or at least thought of what today symbolized. I, unfortunately, didn't get a chance to get out today but I did spend (and will spend more) time contemplating about what the meaning of Lent is and why Easter is a great day. It's actually one of my favorite "holidays". Because I am a bit out of it today (lack of sleep yesterday and part of today makes one a bit loopy), I won't write more on the subject but hopefully I will be able to write something worth reading for Easter. I am making no promises though.

One thing that isn't helping how "blah" I am feeling is the summer weather we've been having lately. Spring has just begun but it's already pretty hot. It reminds me of late May, it's so warm. It's expected to be around the mid-80s this weekend. Yeah, it's crazy. Hopefully, the weather we've been experiencing isn't wreaking havoc of people's allergies. It's not exactly causing me too much problems but it might be what's causing me so feel so out of it. I am blaming lack of sleep, first and foremost, but I think the high pollen or hot weather might be causing me some fatigue. Sunny California sometimes is too sunny. lol.

I don't really have much going on lately. I am, more than ever, ready to go back to school. I'm going to take a few days to soul search about things that are going on in my life... which all comes back to how strong my faith is and thinking of ways I can strengthen it. As I continue to read St. Teresa of Avila's autobiography, and especially after my chat with Fr. Leo, I came to a fork in the road. I thought that I could take the road I was taking before -- feeling like I really can't do anything because the anxiety has been debilitating me. Or, if I take Fr. Leo's advice and a cue from St. Teresa, I could quit thinking that I will never get better and do something about it. I've decided to take the second road -- the one which is harder but will be more worthwhile. And, I've actually started down the road.

For the first time in a very long time, I had friends over. Well, technically one friend that I hadn't seen in about 2 and a half years. She is the first friend I've had over to simply hang out (I'm not counting the friends I had over one evening last Spring but that was to do an English Lit project). It was absolutely wonderful to see her again. Whoever said that having a solid support system behind you, especially when you're sick, was absolutely right. I felt like my old self and for that, I was and am truly grateful. :) This single event has made me realize just how blessed I am to have the friends I have now and I feel like I have even more excuses to get better -- physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I highly recommend surrounding yourself with friends, it's wonderful. :)

Alright, well, that's it for tonight. As I've said, I'm a bit out of it (darn the wacky sleep schedule), super tired and I have too much going on in my mind due to the big creative kick I am on (lots of writing for my novel) so I should get to it. As always, thanks for reading and God Bless.

P.S. Have I ever recommended reading St. Teresa's autobiography? If I haven't, I do now! If you can, I encourage you to read it. It's an amazing book. :)