Monastery Recipe Cookbook

A Taste of Heaven is a recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beers, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries.

Taste of Heaven author Madeline Scherb also launched Heaven Gourmet on Facebook, where you can shop for food & drink made by monks and nuns; a percent of profits helps support the monasteries. And stay tuned for the launch of the Compassionate Consumer Guild, a group of volunteers who help monasteries with repairs, planting and painting.

Now available in paperback, Kindle and at Heaven Gourmet on Facebook, A Taste of Heaven is the only recipe cook book and budget travel guide of its kind that talks about Belgian beers, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries.

My parents cooked from Cordon Bleu chef Henri-Paul Pellaprat’s cookbook, Modern French Culinary Art, rather than Julia Child. You can still find copies of it online and the color photos are a hoot. No one cooks like this anymore, with super rich sauces and elaborate presentation. However, the book is also chock-full of recipes that manage to balance ease with sophistication. To me, that is the mark of a great chef.

My favorites include a simple sponge cake that never fails to please and a Mexican cake, which is a denser version of the sponge cake made with cocoa and layered with cocoa butter frosting and apricot jam.

I realized while making these recipes that many of them lend themselves to using monastery ingredients, just like the recipes in my book, A Taste of Heaven: A Guide to Food and Drink Made by Monks and Nuns (Penguin). So why not try blogging my efforts to cook from Pellaprat while using monastery ingredients? Not all of his recipes will work but I’ll find the best ones and share them here.

I invite you to take this recipe blogging journey with me.

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beers, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

http://av.madisondiocese.org/madisonspp/aa/audio.html#

Follow the link to listen to me recorded live talking about A Taste of Heaven, now available as a Nook book, Kindle book  and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

Monastic Chronicle 2011                           
Our Lady of the Resurrection Monastery
La Grangeville, NY 12540

16 December, 2011

At your first coming to us, O Christ,

Your will was to save the children of Adam’s race;

When You come again to judge us,

Show mercy to those who honor today your holy Nativity.

                                                          - Canon from the Prefeast of the Nativity

 Dear friends:

We are past the mid point of our Advent journey and now are walking steadily, almost hastily towards Bethlehem. It is indeed the time for us Christians to break free from our otherwise busy lives and concentrate our inner energies into the mystery that is to be revealed at Christmas. Like

 all journeys, our Advent/Christmas pilgrimage probably had its ups and downs, and yet we were never alone, for God’s grace was there at all times accompanying us, giving us the incentive to go forward in our eagerness to encounter the Lord. All along, our goal has been to arrive to Bethlehem on time and there witness God’s wonder in the humble birth of His only Son, born of a maiden virgin, in a poor stable in the company of angels, shepherds, and beasts. A truly humble birth for the Son of God, but what a glorious one! I am sure, he would not have traded it  for any other!

As usual, our 2011 monastic year was a busy one with various elements and events. During the spring semester we hosted the participation of 4 Vassar students in the Monastic Land/Conservation program. They were excellent help in the care of the land, the farm, the gardens, and the production of our monastic industries, especially the task that goes into the preparation of the vinegars. Their weekly help is deeply appreciated here, by Vassar, and by the students themselves. Of course, they have the extra incentive that Vassar gives them credit for their work. Some of them have since graduated and left the area. We sincerely miss them, but it is consoling to hear from them through email occasionally. They wish to keep a link to the monastery and on occasion they come back to give us a hand, as they did this summer for the monastery Vinegar Festival. Prof. Kane brought his class for an afternoon of monastic experience and worship this past April. Prof, Jemiolo and Prof. Rossi brought theirs subsequently. Later on, we usually get some interns from these classes. During the present semester we have one intern, Chelsea Greenwood, a gifted student  from near Seattle, WA, majoring in religious studies. Chelsea is very helpful with the typing and editing of our manuscripts among other things. She will be returning, hopefully with other interns, for next spring semester.

2011 was also a busy one in the book production/publication department. Countryman Press

( Norton Books ) published some cookbooks of mine that were out of print in a updated form, with new recipes and new presentation. Their titles are: The Monastery Garden Cookbook and This Good Food. Liguori Pub. brought out in October ‘A Monastery Journey to Christmas’ whose first edition sold rapidly and almost entirely in its first month. A surprise to us all!

Our annual Monastery Vinegar festival in late July was a successful one though the attendance was not as large as the previous years. We offered  the attending public a taste of a new vinegar, an aromatic/organic apple cider/honey vinegar. It is the first time we produced a vinegar in which honey is an essential element. It has become very popular since it was first introduced, for many people acquired the habit of taking a daily teaspoon of it for health reasons. The Culinary Institute of America continues to buy our vinegars monthly for usage in their restaurant/kitchens. And several food stores in NYC, Dutchess and Orange Counties, as well in Great Barrington, MA supply our artisanal vinegars to their customers. The latest one is a place called ‘The Hub” in Beacon, NY, which shall open in late January 2012 by graduates from the Culinary.

Thanks to kind friends who offered to stay here and help care for our animals and gardens, I was able to return to France this past September after a long 5 years absence.. It was most gratifying and challenging at the same time….I was able to visit with family and friends many of whom thought I was never coming back there.  I was also able to visit some monasteries with which I am closely connected. I was deeply moved by their fraternal welcome, also by their  deep faith and magnanimity as they face a very uncertain future with the shortage of vocations. The fact is that monasteries and religious houses are closing their doors faster than expected. To share the common burden brought by this stark reality many monasteries and religious institutions are consolidating their communities and resources. In some cases there is much anguish at losing their particular identity or moving from their beloved homes, some beautiful old monasteries with lots of history, art,  and tradition,  today totally impractical for the small surviving communities. Some monks and nuns see it as the final act of detachment…Their future, like that of all of us, is in God’s hands. In manus Dei sumus!

Our gardens produced enough for a normal consumption here. The tomato harvest which usually provides much of our winter sauces was smaller than usual, also the potato harvest. However, we had a large and extended harvest of swiss chards, beans, and other vegetables. The herbs harvest which is an important aspect of our cuisine and a staple at the Atelier St. Joseph where it gets sold for cooking and as herbal tea was very good, especially the mint and the basil which are used to produce pesto and tapenade.. During the late fall season, after my return from France, time was spent doing some publicity via radio, interviews, and book signing sessions for the latest books, in particular for the Advent/Christmas Monastery Journey. There were also the multiple preparations for the annual Monastery Christmas Craft fair, in particular the creches to be made and mounted from scratch. Quite a few of them, besides icons, cook and religious books, vinegars, Trappist jams and Trappistine candies,  were sold during the well attended traditional fair. Our friends come from far and near every year looking for monastic products. Deo gratias! We are grateful to our friends and volunteers who manage both the yearly Vinegar festival and the Christmas craft fair. These events could not be held without their active help and participation. We are also grateful to the friends who help with many of the chores, especially house repairs including planning the future chicken coop for our chickens and ducks. The early October snow storm totally destroyed our last, an already fragile one. Wishing you one and all, Christmas blessings and a healthy / fruitful year 2012.

In communion of prayer with everyone of you.  Christ is born! Glorify Him!

- Br. Victor-Antoine

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

One of the nuns I met at Bonneval abbey in France told me that none of the nuns there were supported in their calling by their parents. The same was true of St. Ita, whose father at first resisted her desire to be a nun. What strikes me most about St. Ita is that, when offered a large tract of land near present-day Killeedy on which to build her convent, she said she would only accept four acres–just enough to support the nuns. That is the same spirit in which the monks and nuns work today, only enough to support their monasteries and never for profit’s sake.

Brendan once asked St. Ita what are the three things that most please and displease God. She replied: a pure heart with faith in God, a simple spiritual life, and generous acts of charity most please God, while the things that most displease God are a mouth that spews hate, a heart filled with resentment and worship of material things. Words to live by even to this day.

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

I also love Ganagobie monastery, near Sisteron, where the monks make olive oil from their own orchard, which includes an olive tree that is about 600 years old! See one of the monastery’s famous mosaics here http://www.ndganagobie.com/mosaique/popupmos/fleurs.JPG

And last but not least, St. Madeleine in the Vaucluse (exactly where A Year in Provence is set) makes the most amazing French bread.

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

Adapted from a recipe donated by Alain Coumont.

Belgian Brownies a la mode

8 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3 tablespoons pastry flour or 2 tablespoons cake flour plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 cup plus 1 ½ tablespoons superfine sugar

4 large egg plus 1 egg yolk, beaten

walnut halves (optional)

vanilla ice cream or lightly sweetened whipped cream

Mississippi Abbey Trappistine Creamy Caramel Sauce

In a double boiler or a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter together, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Transfer the chocolate mixture to a large bowl. Let cool slightly. Meanwhile, sift the flour into the sugar and stir to combine. Whisk into the eggs. Fold the egg mixture into the chocolate mixture with a spatula. Set aside and let rest for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 275-degrees. Stir the walnuts into the batter, if using. Divide the batter among 12 to 15 paper-lined muffin tin holes and bake in the center of the oven until the edges are firm and the tops have formed a thin wrinkled crust, about 40- minutes. Cool the brownies in the tins on a rack.

Serve slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream and drizzle with caramel sauce (available at trappistine.com). As the butter and chocolate content of these brownies is very high, they keep perfectly for a week if stored in a metal tin at room temperature of for up to 2 months in the freezer in an air-tight bag.

There you go. The  best brownie recipe ever.

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

A Taste of Heaven: An Evening of Abbey-Style Beers & Cheeses

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm Lecture and Tasting, $25

Discover the fascinating world of artisanal monastery products, made by monks and nuns and served to pilgrims from the Middle Ages to the present. Author Madeline Scherb hosts a heavenly sampling of Belgian-style, Abbey-style beers from Brewery Ommegang, while Whole Foods Market Fromagerie’s own Paul Price provides his own divine cheese pairings.
On the Menu: A selection of assorted Trappist-style cheeses from Belgium and France, paired with beers from Brewery Ommegang; Savory Cheese Melt.

Instructors: Madeline Scherb, Author, A Taste of Heaven: A Guide to Food and Drink Made by Monks and Nuns (Tarcher/Penguin); Paul Price, Whole Foods Market Fromagerie; AJ Eckstein, Brewery Ommegang

So there’s the scoop.

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

http://www.wzzm13.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=79773814001

My friend Judy drove me all the way there and back. Thanks, Judy! It was a really fun trip.

When I watched the clip after the interview, I learned that I wave my hands around when I talk. Maybe it’s because I once lived in Italy?

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

How good was the tasting dinner? Let’s just say that after five Belgian beers, all Trappist beers, (known for their high alcohol content) my friend and I got lost driving in circles around and around the Capitol Square (a mistake that is only possible when you are tipsy).

But we didn’t even care because while we kept searching for the right exit we had time to chat about the great food, drink and company.

The evening began with a divine goat cheese appetizer. It was so delicious that I thought the appetizer might be the highlight of the evening, but then they served us the applewood smoked ham.

The Merchant du Vin rep sitting next to me confirmed that this was the best ham either of us had ever tasted. The Haze smoked the pig at the restaurant the night before. The ham was topped with a fat-poached egg, and I just wish I could have this for breakfast every day.

Just as good, and perhaps the most inventive entree, were the amazing brisket-stuffed cabbage rolls with fried leeks.

This was also my favorite food-beer pairing (Rochefort 8).

If I were dictator for a day, I would order fried leeks sprinkled on every dish, including for breakfast.

Or maybe I would just ride around on horseback shouting, “My Kingdom for a fried leek!” (How DID they get those leeks shaved so small?)

The seafood entree also had the potential to be great–the sauce was heavenly–but there was a rogue mussel or two that tried singing sea shanties while on my palate. Still, I think it was the prettiest dish.

No worries, I’m sure a place under Chef Shinji Muramoto’s watchful eye will find the right source for mussels even here in landlocked Wisconsin.

Speaking of Shinji, here he is pictured with Chef Justin Carlisle and Pastry Chef Dan Almquist. I like that everyone is basically relaxed and having fun at this point in the dinner, confident that it has been a success. I can honestly say I haven’t had so much fun in Madison in years, at least since I was living in New York.

By the way, I was too busy swooning over dessert,  a sponge pudding with Beer Caramel, to take a photo of it. It had texture, color, taste, inventiveness…You’ll just have to hope they put it on the menu!

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

The abbey gift shop is as humble as can be, and yet like all monastic architecture it somehow speaks to the soul. But don’t expect to find the abbey’s famous beers here–Rochefort 6, Rochefort 8 and Rochefort 10. The monks felt that selling beer would disturb the contemplative atmosphere.

I’ll bet they were right. These dark, malty, sweet and smoky beers are so delicious that it’s tempting to overindulge. Just remember, Rochefort 8 and Rochefort 10 are strong beers with the latter being about 10 percent alcohol by volume. It doesn’t take much to overindulge!

Rochefort has what is unquestionably one of the world’s most beautiful breweries. As soon as I got my first look at it its gleaming copper kettles and gentle stained glass windows, I never wanted to leave. Leave I must, however, as the monks do not allow women as overnight guests! (I wonder if there’s a monastery where nuns make beer? I just might join that one.)

Alas, the abbey’s famous church was under renovation when I visited. I can only say that the glimpse I got of the interior was enough to convince me that there is another trip to Belgium in my future, if only to make a pilgrimage to see the church again.

The interior is austere and white, with white columns and walls and even a white floor. Immediately beneath your feet as you enter there is a beautiful labyrinth. Labyrinths are meditative tools that have been walked by pilgrims for centuries, and this is surely one of the most charming. Many thanks to photographer Luca Galuzzi for this stunning photo. View more of his work at http://www.galuzzi.it/

The best place to sip Rochefort beer is at Chef Vincent Wauthy’s restaurant, Couleur Basilic, in the nearby town of Rochefort. Like the abbey itself, Vincent’s restaurant is simply a gem–cozy, inviting, inspiring and superb. Just ask the locals to point you toward it. They like to eat there, too.

The other best place to sip Rochefort, in case like me you’re in Wisconsin instead of Belgium, is at The Haze (on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Madison-WI/The-Haze/190426292109?ref=nf) which is hosting its first-ever Heaven & Earth Trappist Beer Tasting Dinner on March 21, 2010 at 5pm. The chefs are playing up Rochefort’s sweet and smoky flavors and aromas by pairing it with smoked beef brisket (Rochefort 8)  and sticky toffee pudding with beer caramel (Rochefort 6). Here’s the full description from the menu:

4TH COURSE PAIRED WITH ROCHEFORT 8
A SMOKED BEEF BRISKET CABBAGE ROLL W/ SAUCE GRIBICHE AND FRIED LEEKS

5TH COURSE PAIRED WITH ROCHEFORT 6
STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING W/ BEER CARAMEL AND A MOLASSES SPONGE

Your’e a stronger-willed person than I am if you are able to resist such divine dishes. (The Haze has since closed.)

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

When I first visited Orval, I tried to “listen” to the abbey with the ear of my heart, as St. Benedict tells us to do. I did this at each of the abbeys I went to, spending my retreats in silence and on hikes, waiting to hear what each place had to say. I’ll never forget the moment that Orval crystallized for me. It was after the last prayer of the day, Compline, as I strolled out of church and onto the grounds. When Compline ends, the monks retire to their rooms and the time of night called Grand Silence settles on the monastery.

That night, Grand Silence fell like a velvet cloak. The sky had cleared after days of rain and the stars simply took my breath away. I paused by the abbey’s reflecting pool and was suddenly humbled by the perfection of the place.

Later, I wrote in my book that it’s at times like these that one can count one’s sins and one’s blessings, and if the former outweigh the latter, not to fret–the abbey’s beer helps take the edge off of your woes.

Orval beer is perhaps the most unusual Trappist brew. Trappist beers are commonly thought of as being dark, malty and often sweet thanks to candy sugar (think Chimay blue or Rochefort 6), but Orval is neither. It is golden and hoppy, with a refreshing aroma that you may find ‘floral’ or even ‘grassy’.

On my tour of the abbey brewery, a young monk pointed out hops that were steeping in a batch of fermenting beer, in a process that is incongruously called “dry hopping” (read more here http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/05/21/dry-hopping-enhanced-hops-aroma/).

Monks don’t actually do the brewing at Orval, although the young monk I mentioned is always on site and acts as a general manager. The abbey also makes cheese. The brewery was only built in the 20th century, but the abbey goes back much farther to the Middle Ages. The original abbey was sacked and fell into ruins, which are still visible on the grounds. In fact, one of my favorite things to do at Orval on a rainy day was to explore the medieval ruins, where I found an empty rose window framing the forlorn sky. It was magical to sense monks past and present in the same place.

Orval will be one of the five beers on the menu this Sunday, March 21, 2010, when The Haze hosts its “Heaven & Earth: Trappist Beer Tasting Dinner.” The Haze (now closed) is pairing  Orval with Applewood Smoked Ham, a fat-poached egg and a pear/red onion slaw. Now that sounds like a dinner that just may be humbling in its perfection.

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

Then, as I was moving it to make space for other things, it turned on for no apparent reason. For a cash-strapped writer who desperately needs her computer to work, I felt for a brief instant as if I were holding the Ark in my hands.

Here’s my screensaver, which I would miss more than anything else in the event of my computer’s demise.

I’ll be back to blogging the countdown to the Heaven & Earth: Trappist Beer Dinner on Monday. The remaining Belgian beers (Orval, Westvleteren, Rochefort, Chimay and Koeningshoeven) should take us right through to next Sunday and the dinner itself.

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

For the next week I’m going to be sharing some stories about monks who brew. As you may know, we are counting down the days until the “Heaven & Earth: Trappist Beer Tasting Dinner” at The Haze restaurant in Madison on March 21, 2010 at 5pm. There are fewer than 40 tickets left now, so be sure to make your reservation soon!

The dinner is just $65 for five courses, each paired with a Trappist beer. Given that a Trappist beer can cost $6 per bottle, this is one meal you won’t want to miss both for the value and the extraordinary food. Did I mention that dessert is Sticky Toffee Pudding with Beer Caramel? I’d attend for that alone.

I just heard today that Malt House Madison owner Bill Rogers will be joining us at the dinner! Malt House is home to Trappist Tuesdays, a very fun event for anyone who loves Trappist beer. And if you’ve been following my musings on Twitter, you know I tried Duchesse de Bourgogne last time I was at Malt House. One of the most unusual beers I’ve ever had, more like a wine really, and I loved it.

There are only seven Trappist abbeys in the vicinity of Belgium (including one in the Netherlands) that make Trappist beers. In no particular order they are: Westmalle, Chimay, Orval, Achel, Rochefort, Westvleteren and Koeningshoeven (the Dutch one).

I love them all, which only presents a problem when I want to cook with Trappist beer and find I have drunk too much of the bottle to continue on with the recipe, thus giving me an incentive to drink the rest of the bottle! Part of the secret to what makes these beers so great is that they use the best ingredients, like real hops. (The hops in this photo are actually from Westmalle abbey, but you get the idea).

Achel is the youngest monastic brewery but it’s fast gaining on the others for reputation and popularity (although if you ask seven different beer lovers to name their favorite Trappist brew, you will get seven different answers).

One thing that sets Achel apart is that the Master Brewer there is still a monk while many of the other abbeys now use secular employees. This is not all bad, since it means that if you feel you have a calling to make beer but not to be a monk, you can still seek work at an abbey.

The first thing you notice at Achel are the bikes, even in winter. The border between Belgium and the Netherlands runs right through the abbey, and lots of thirsty Dutch folks hop on their bikes and ride over for a beer at the abbey brew pub. I dream of someday living close enough to the abbey to do this on a regular basis, maybe when I am retired. That would sure beat sitting around playing bingo (at least for me, anyways, nothing against people who love bingo–I hear it’s all the rage in London).

Achel brews a special beer that is slightly lower in alcohol than a typical Trappist beer, and serves it only in the abbey brew pub. This works especially well for the bikers. If you’re sipping at home, you can try Achel’s other beers, including one that comes in a wine-size bottle (interestingly, beer ages differently depending on the size of the bottle it is stored in so do try Achel in both the regular bottle and the larger size if you can).

Achel and other Trappist beers are widely available these days at better beer stores and at Whole Foods. I find that Whole Foods does a great job of sourcing these beers from dependable distributors and storing them properly for sale. Here are some of my favorite photos from my retreat at Achel. Enjoy, and we hope to see you at the Heaven & Earth: Trappist Beer Dinner on Mar 21!

********************************

These weary monks stand in front of the Achel Abbey guest house, where guests stay when they are on retreat. They represent the monks who walked all the way from Westmalle Abbey to found Achel Abbey (Achel was once a hermitage before it became an abbey).

If you stay as a guest, you can use the abbey’s bikes for free. All you have to do is cross the road in front of the abbey and you are in a national park in the Netherlands. There are miles of biking and hiking trails.

The abbey brew pub is on the monastery grounds, so that’s obviously another great thing you can do on retreat.

The countryside around Achel is very pretty, if very flat. It’s perfect for biking, although I must be the only person who has ever managed to ride off the path into one of the drainage ditches that help keep the Netherlands dry (at least that’s what I think they are for?).

Fortunately, I only got a few scratches from a raspberry bush. And no, I wasn’t drinking. I simply turned my head in one direction and thought the bike was still moving in a straight line and then found myself in the ditch. Maybe the countryside is a little too pretty!

This fellow is fake, but he announces in no uncertain terms that you are near the Netherlands. He watches over the entrance to the inner courtyard that houses the abbey brew pub and also the abbey’s general store, where you can stock up on Achel beers.

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

And in case you’re wondering what’s on the menu (as if sticky toffee pudding with beer caramel  isn’t enough reason to come), here’s the official press release with the delicious details.

Press Release

Contact: Kyle Wood or Christopher Pax – 608-260-2680

THE HAZE RESTAURANT PRESENTS:

HEAVEN & EARTH: TRAPPIST BEER TASTING DINNER

WITH SPECIAL GUEST AUTHOR MADELINE SCHERB

The Haze
106 King Street
Madison, WI 53703
Sunday, March 21
5-8pm
$65 + tax
Reservations Required – 608-260-2680

1^ST COURSE PAIRED WITH ACHEL BLONDE

GOAT CHEESE AND ROASTED FENNEL SAVORY TART W/ A TARRAGON-HONEY VINAGRETTE

2^ND COURSE PAIRED WITH WESTMALLE TRIPPEL

SEAFOOD CIOPPINO W/ CORIANDER, HOUSE-MADE LARDONS, AND SALMON-SKIN CRACKLINS

3^RD COURSE PAIRED WITH ORVAL

APPLEWOOD SMOKED HAM ON A LAVASH CRACKER W/ A FAT-POACHED EGG AND PEAR/RED ONION SLAW

4^TH COURSE PAIRED WITH ROCHEFORT 8

A SMOKED BEEF BRISKET CABBAGE ROLL W/ SAUCE GRIBICHE AND FRIED LEEKS

5^TH COURSE PAIRED WITH ROCHEFORT 6

STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING W/ BEER CARAMEL AND A MOLASSES SPONGE

The Haze

The Haze is an American and Asian BBQ Joint at 106 King St., just off the Capital Square in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. Owners Justin and Cory Carlisle, Daniel Almquist and Shinji Muramoto bring you barbeque from around the globe. Local powerhouse Christopher Pax oversees the day-to-day operations of the restaurant. The Haze opened on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009.

Justin, Dan and Shinji’s keen palates and expert execution, combined with local farmers’ meat and produce, deliver one of Madison’s outstanding dining experiences. Daily specialties range from traditional Kansas City ribs to Vietnamese Bahn Mi sandwiches and house-made sausages. In fact, The Haze is so dedicated to supporting local farmers that you’ll find their pictures hanging on the restaurant’s walls!

Madeline Scherb

Madison native Madeline Scherb is author of a monastery recipe cookbook and specialty travel guide, A Taste of Heaven. The only guide of its kind, A Taste of Heaven talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries. 

So there’s the scoop.

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

I sat down with the chefs at The Haze to do a pre-dinner beer tasting and talk food-pairings. These guys really know their stuff.

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

It all started with a dog named Riley. What, you may wonder, does a dog have to do with monks, nuns and food (the theme of this blog)? You’ll soon find out.

It was the Christmas season of 2009. I was done writing my book, A Taste of Heaven: A Guide to Food and Drink Made by Monks and Nuns, and my best friend needed a dog-sitter for six weeks in London. Sure, I said, no problem. I had met her dog, Riley, when he was just a puppy, and had even taken care of him once before along with his older pal, Indie.

Indie and Riley are both miniature Australian shepherds, but they were like day and night. Indie was dignified, serious, even a touch sombre. Riley, on the other hand, was kinetic. High-energy, slightly obsessive, and always, but always, trying to steal Indie’s toys away in a show of mock top-dog moxie. Or else he was lounging in a happy stupor on the couch.

Little did I know at the time that the Riley I looked after for one week in his home state of Wisconsin would be a very different Riley than the one who awaited me in London. For six weeks. Six. Long. Weeks.

Now, a little background is required at this point in the story. London is just about my favorite large city in the whole world. I fell in love with London as soon as I discovered the vast depth and breadth of its bookstores, thanks to my friend Emma Richler, a novelist who lives in Camden Town. More on Emma in a minute.

Another reason I love London is the parks. Here, however, is where the dog story gets interesting. My best friend also lives in Camden and Regent’s Park is within easy walking distance of her flat. She introduced me to Emma, who owns a sleek Black Labrador named Captain.

So, the stage has now been set for the dog drama that ensued. Emma and I met up in Camden and then walked Riley and Captain in Regent’s Park every day. This sounds pleasant enough at first, but what I didn’t know before living in London was that Regent’s Park is one of the Queen’s parks.

So what, you ask? Ah, you coddled American dog lover, you. I remember when I, too, thought all dogs were basically harmless even as they were towing their suburban owners headlong down the street.

It is in the Queen’s parks where all resemblance to dog walking in the U.S. and dog walking in London ends, and the dogs you encounter suddenly morph into characters straight out of Dickens. The Queen, you see, doesn’t believe that dogs should be on a leash.

Of course, this is not a problem for the Queen. The Queen has corgies. Something like 25 million corgies at last count. All off-leash of course, and all reasonably well behaved, and even if they aren’t she can just scoop one up if she must (or order someone who is paid to do such things for the Queen to scoop one up–or scoop up after one, as the case may be).

For everyone else however, the no-leash idea sounds good in theory until…you get to the park. Did I mention that the Brits also don’t believe in neutering? That’s right. Not only are all the dogs off-leash, but many of them are, ahem, very manly dogs off-leash.  Let the games begin. (Stay tuned for Part II in which Riley misbehaves, monks come to the rescue and the writer discovers that coffee and polenta cake can compensate for almost anything a dog wishes to throw your way.)

In Memoriam. Kat Mandu, we all miss you.

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback. 

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

While blogging about my monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide, A Taste of Heaven, I’ve realized a couple of things. First, you are supposed to go to Paris, eat lots of chocolate, write about it, build an audience and then get a book contract. Voila! You’re an instant celebrity. Paris and chocolate, chocolate and Paris…maybe if I mention those words often enough in my blog I will make up for all the entries I could have, but didn’t, write while working on my book, A Taste of Heaven.

Instead, I spent an unusually rainy summer in Paris, ate chocolate in Aveyron, visited more than a dozen monasteries in America and Europe, made it to the abbeys on a shoestring budget (my bank account actually went negative acquiring my last train ticket to my  last abbey), and somehow failed to write about all of this until now! I guess that’s why I’m not a famous Parisian-chocolate blogger, although I did get that book contract.

Still, I have stories to tell about Paris. My summer in Paris began somewhat inauspiciously. I will never forget calling up a landlord (who turned out to be a Scottish opera singer) and asking, in what I can only describe as a profound ignorance of all things Parisian, where exactly was the 19th Arondissement?

Not to worry, he assured me, you’ll love it. While I am glad to say that I am still on friendly terms with the Scottish opera singer, loving the 19th Arondissement did not come easily. The apartment was a tiny bachelor pad in a run down walk-up on Rue de Belleville.  The driver of the first cab I entered at the Gare du Nord simply refused to take me to Rue de Belleville. It’s a street that is most famous for being the birthplace of Edith Piaf, but it is also uncomfortably close to the outer suburbs that had gone up in flames of protest over ethnic and economic tensions shortly before I arrived.

What I remember most about Rue de Belleville, however, are the kids. They were a group of little ruffians, some French, some Chinese (the 19th is home to a large Chinese population), and all armed with firecrackers. They would set them off outside the apartment, in the piazza across the street, at night, at dawn, with or without the tacit approval of their elders…At the time this drove me mad, as I treasure peace and quiet, but looking back I can’t help but think these are the same kids who in my Dad’s generation would have played streetball in the streets of New Jersey and New York. Immigrant kids. Poor kids. Bright kids.

The longer I lived on Rue de Belleville, the more it grew on me. The shop owners all up and down the street took me under their wing. One from Pakistan offered to take me to see a cricket game, another from Egypt sold me figs and dates, the Bengali store up the street was the place to go for housewares and the Chinese grocers did a brisk business at the foot of the street down by the metro.

The pharmacy, bakery and cafes remained almost the sole French outposts. The pharmacy was especially fascinating. I think French people feel that a drug simply won’t work if it doesn’t involve a potion of some kind, a mixing and shaking and stirring of some sort.

This also carried over into the realm of cosmetics. I don’t wear cosmetics except for sun protection and some powder to make me look less ghostly, but if I did wear cosmetics, I would wear only French cosmetics. Foundation was never just “foundation.” It was a fountain-of-youth potion that would relieve stress, reduce wrinkles, bring out your feminine mystique and magically transport you to a field of lavender somewhere in Provence. Oh, and you could get all this in a 1-oz. jar for just $100.

By far, the crowning glory of the 19th was the park. The Parc de Belleville is one of the largest parks in Paris and is known as the most dog-friendly park. It had a magnificent and surreal landscape molded entirely of concrete but not a bit ugly, that rose up in a great frothy mountain topped by a little temple and surrounded by a still lake. It always reminded me of a Chinese landscape painting, which seemed fitting given the number of Chinese residents in the neighborhood. Families flooded the park on weekends, lovers and teenagers claimed the hill overlooking Paris when school let out and runners thronged to the park for its challenging slopes.

My favorite pastime as a temporary resident of the 19th was to stroll up Rue de Belleville, grab a crepe sucree from the elderly French couple who ran the crepe stand just across the entrance to the park, take a long walk and meet a friend for a cafe noisette at one of the cafes girdling the park afterwards.

Sometime after I left Belleville for good, I stopped in Nancy on my way to an abbey. When the manager of the hotel I checked into found out I had been living in the 19th, he grimaced and made some disparaging remarks about the neighborhood. I have no idea if he had ever set foot in the 19th. I only know that this loathing of Belleville appears to be widespread (recall the cab driver who ushered me out of his cab). I am no expert on France but I have the lingering impression that the French are both more sexist and xenophobic than their otherwise charming reputation would suggest (notwithstanding the Parisian surliness that is  worn with a badge of honor).

Another of my fondest memories from a second, shorter stay in Paris has to do with a rose. A rose so beautiful that no other rose will ever compare. A rose whose scent, color and delicate explosion of petals painted my dreary little budget hotel room with color and life. A rose that I discovered by chance while wandering in the unmarked, tiny garden of a school of science. The rose was estimated by the resident gardener to be many decades old. But that is another story… Vive la France, vive la Rue de Belleville!

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

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Clafoutis is a classic French dessert that is a kind of custard with fruit in it. It’s traditionally made with whole cherries, but Br. Victor’s recipe uses pears and pear brandy (optional).

Br. Victor is a monk at Our Lady of the Resurrection monastery in upstate New York. He’s also a renowned cookbook author! His latest book, Sacred Feasts: From a Monastery Kithcen, is a must-read for foodies. I also love to cook with his book, Twelve Months of Monastery Soups.

This pear clafoutis recipe from A Taste of Heaven is fun, easy and tastes best when it’s still warm from the oven. If you want the clafoutis to have a really rich quality, try using a high quality milk–like the milk from an Amish dairy cooperative that I found at Whole Foods–but I have used other brands of milk that work just fine.

I also suggest experimenting with different kinds of pears. I’ve even made the clafoutis without fruit, but still used caramels from Mississippi Abbey in Iowa, and it was delicious! If you leave out the fruit, just pour all of the custard into the pan at once, cook for about 15 minutes, then toss the caramels on top and continue cooking.

BROTHER VICTOR’S PEAR CLAFOUTIS

INGREDIENTS
Unsalted butter for the baking dish
6 small ripe Bosc pears
3 eggs
½ cup granulated sugar
2 tsps. Cornstarch
1 ½ cups whole milk
2 tablespoons cognac or pear brandy
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
12 to 14 vanilla caramels unwrapped

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Generously butter a large 9×13 baking dish and set aside. Peel, halve, and core the pears and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar and cornstarch. Add milk, cognac, and vanilla and mix until well combined.
3. Pour a thin layer, about 1 cup, of the custard into the baking dish, tilting the pan to spread it evenly over the bottom of the pan. Bake in the center of the oven until the custard thickens and sets about 5 minutes.
4. Remove the pan from the oven and carefully arrange the pears cut down over the set custard.
5. Pour the rest of the custard over the fruit and sprinkle the nutmeg lightly over the top.
6. Arrange the caramels about 2 inches apart on the top of the clafoutis.
7. Return to the oven and bake until the custard is firm and starts to brown around the edges a bit, 40 to 45 minutes.
8. Remove the clafoutis from the oven and serve warm.

Tip: For an extra taste of heaven, use caramels from Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey. These caramels, produced by nuns from fresh butter and cream from local farms, have been lauded by U.S. News & World Report and the Food Network. They can be purchased at Trappistine.com.

Source: A TASTE OF HEAVEN by Madeline Scherb

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe. are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

The Yoga & Spirituality retreats at Holy Spirit are brand new and you won’t find a more beautiful setting. I like to call the abbey’s church a “little Chartres on the bayou” for its beautiful stained glass.

Of course, you won’t be doing yoga in the church itself, but it’s a great place to stretch your spiritual muscles. The abbey also offers retreats for people who love crafts–knitting, crocheting, needlepoint, etc.–and spiritual retreats.

When you go, be sure to visit the monastery’s bonsai shop and greenhouse, where you can pick up beautiful tokoname pots and Chinese “mudmen.” You can also shop online at www.bonsaimonk.com.

A Taste of Heaven is now available as a Nook book, Kindle book and paperback.

Signed copies of A Taste of Heaven, a monastery recipe cookbook and budget travel guide that talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries and offers cheap tips for traveling to Europe, are available at www.madelinescherb.com.

I still daydream about the aroma of fresh hot cocoa that greeted me at breakfast every morning in the dining room at Bonneval. When I am not daydreaming about cocoa, I am wishing I had a box of Mt. St. Mary’s dark chocolate with almonds (available online). I don’t know how the nuns stay fit with chocolate that tastes this good available at their fingertips! My chocolate fervor only grew thanks to the lovely recipes that top chefs donated to the book.

Asking chefs for recipes was interesting, to say the least. Over time I learned that the chefs who contributed recipes all had a connection to the monasteries in one way or another. Some are simply fans of Trappist beers, like the ones that Westmalle abbey makes in Belgium, with sacks of real hops:

Others grew up near an abbey, especially in France, and had fond memories of eating Trappist cheese or chocolate. This is especially true of chefs from Savoy, who all know and love the Abbey of Tamie and its cheese. This is a view from the abbey’s guest house looking out toward the barns:

Perhaps the best story belongs to Chef Charlie Trotter, who once worked in a restaurant called The Monastery!

It has turned out to be a blessing in disguise that I am a humble cook, or I would never have asked chefs to contribute recipes. The book is divided into four sections, each with its own recipes: Celestial Spirits, Holy Cheese, Sweet Temptations and Other Edifying Edibles. Each recipe uses an ingredient made by a monastery.

One of my favorites is the brownie recipe contributed by Chef Alain Coumont of Le Pain Quotidien; take a bite and you just may hear angels sing!

My monastery recipe cookbook and specialty travel guidebook, A Taste of Heaven, talks about Belgian beer, desserts, fruitcake and other food and drink made by monasteries.