St. Joseph Altar

It is our first St. Joseph's Day in our new house. Last year we were in the midst of moving and selling the Laburnum Bungalow and had buried a St. Joseph statue in our yard in the hopes that he would intercede on our behalf. We certainly had good fortune during the whole process considering we were only on the market 5 weeks before we had a signed contract. So this year I did not want to skip out out on honoring him.

Traditionally the altar should have 3 levels, which I have never been able to achieve. This year I managed to add a second tier by sticking the silver chest under the table cloth. It certainly looks much nicer having some height. I need to plan more next year to get all 3 tiers. We have most of the symbolic items: candles, St. Joseph statue, fava beans, wine, fruits, breads, special pastries, and for flowers this year I added lilies. We had to say goodbye to all our lovely Lenten Roses I had planted at the old house, also we are so close upon Easter that I figured I can manage to keep these plants alive for at least a week. Missing are breadcrumbs, fish, and palms.
 
 
 I went back to Di Prima Dolci to get an assortment of breads and some canolli. When I walked in I noticed they had made some special St. Joseph pastries so I was very excited.  They were offering Sfinci, fried cream puffs, which I had just been reading about in the Italian Holiday Cooking by Michele Scicolone while reviewing the dinner recipe. I knew I wasn't going to attempt to make cream puffs, so this was literally a nice treat. They didn't have a huge assortment of breads by the time I arrived; I was secretly hoping they would have some breads shaped like St. Joseph's staff or ladders or something. Every year I have good intentions to bake bread, but it hasn't happened yet.
Look at how pretty and delicious these cream puffs are!

As usual I made the St. Joseph's Day Soup which is a meatless bean and lentil soup flavored with fennel. It is always so much tastier than I expect it to be.
 
The other day MLH told me that his favorite soup was my carrot soup, but tonight he told me that this "Jesus soup" was his favorite. That was nice to hear. Certainly having a plate of sfinci helps to motivate little boys to finish their dinner.
 
Baby Boy was not at all interested in the soup, he only had eyes for those sfinci.
 
 We have so much fun putting this together and I enjoy seeing what other families are doing in their homes too.