Today is the feast of the guardian angel. Joanna Bogle tells us to make angel whispers... these are cup cakes.

I made angel cakes - the one where you cut off the top and add a dash of butter cream and put the top back like angel wings, I hope she has changed it in her new book. I gave some to James to take to work, he said "what if they think I am trying to force my beliefs on them?"... with cake? really James! (I think he wanted them all for himself!)

It is a nice opportunity to think of our guardian angel and how they manage to keep us out of harms way, and if your thinking 'oh but this and that' well just think... that is AFTER your angel has sorted a few problems out!

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me... three french hens... no wait. It's not Christmas. Saturday was an important feast however - michaelmas. The feast of St. Michael and all Angels. This Michaelmas we skipped the french hens and had instead a Chicken, a Duck, and a Goose.

It sounds like a joke, a Chicken, a Duck and a Goose walk in to a bar and the barman says... um... something about having a lot of birds in tonight?

It all began (as many a fine adventure in tradition has done so) with Joanna Bogles book A Book of Feasts and Seasons. The entry for Michaelmas prescribes the consumption of Roast Goose and something they apparently call Blackberries in the south - Brambles to us northern folk. A fine plan, let's buy a goose and have bramble crumble for desert. Mmmmm. So we set the date and invited friends and fambly to attend the approaching feast.

Ella went to P Imison, our local butchers, and ordered a goose (on the way to Bradford as it happens) and we cracked jokes along the lines of "our goose is booked". We were set.

But life, alas, is never simple. Hull City have a football match and Hull FC have a rugby match, all on Michaelmas day. Ella's Dad, Brother and Grandad all have tickets and so they cannot go. No matter, let's have the meal on the sunday... alas... Michelle has a youth mass to attend. What to do? What to do? How about both?

...and so it was, at the last minute, that Michelle went shopping for a second Goose. You can't buy gooses, ahem, I mean geese so Michelle went for a Duck instead - Duck is surely practically the same, I expect they both taste of small pieces of pond soaked bread anyway.

We collected the Goose from P Imison's where the man cleverly remembered our name (not Price... not Priest...) and gave us instructions for cooking it. The, when the time came, we headed over to Fr Massie's.

Fr Massie's? Why yes. Fr Massie has a way bigger house than ours and plates enough for any number of people, which he generously allowed us to use. I've heard any number of stories of frumpy prelates who resent laypeople entering their nice rooms. None of that here, Fr Massie allowed us to use his kitchen, dining room, plates, chairs.. everything really. A very kind thing to do, I'm not sure how I would feel letting people loose in my house unsupervised but he did. Thankyou.

Roasting the duck went okay - we followed the instructions and it seemed to work. Alas, I never can get everything ready at the same time. The duck was ready but the potatoes were not. By the time everything was ready things were cold and then warmed up and then cold again... none of this does anything to enhance the flavour. We gathered around the table and, on Mrs Bogle's advice, we sang "We plough the fields and scatter..." which Fr. Massie said bought back memories of his methodist days.

On the table we had a Pineapple plant which Mr Bashing Secularism rather resented having in his face and we also had a small bowl of chillies. Cyene Chilli Peppers and Pineapple Plants are not usually associated with Michaelmas but the instructions were to have something we grew throughout the year.

Everyone politely didn't mention that the duck was cold and then we had a truly marvelous bramble and apple pie made by Michelle. Mmmmm.

Our Michaelmas tale doesn't end with only one day, however. For the next day it began again. In the morning at Mass, Fr Massie heroically introduced the Missa de Angelis - many have said such things cannot be done with regular run of the mill non-rad-trad congregations but it was and it worked. The Mass of the Angels, on the weekend of Michaelmass. Appropriate indeed.

Straight after mass it was off to the kitchen, this time to cook the goose. Geese are biiiiig and ours took five (!) hours in the oven. In the meantime I popped home and roasted a chicken while Ella went to the Opus Dei day of recollection for women. We rendezvoused at 'put the roast potatoes in' time and left Leona in Ryan Day's capable hands while we cooked.

Midway through cooking I took the goose out to check on it and, disaster, the pan it was in was full of liquid goosefat. I wasn't prepared for a heavy sloshing pan and I spilled about a pint of it all over the floor, the rest of it I poured in to a pint jug, and another two pint jug. Geese produce a lot of fat (which we used to roast the potatoes).

This meal suffered all the problems of the last, I can never get things ready at the same time. However, having learned my lesson yesterday I warmed all the serving dishes so that after we made assorted Family sing "We plough the fields and scatter" all was still (relatively) warm. Goose really is a heavenly meat and joins the ranks of the Berfs and the Lambses. If you haven't had goose I urge you to give it a go. Ella's mum was so impressed she is considering it for Christmas this year.

My mum brought a bramble crumble which was v nice but the custard was a bit stressful. We forgot ours but Fr Massie had some in his cupboard with a best before date of November 2005... I had to run to Beals to get some milk and then when I made the custard up... disaster! It was nothing like custard. Not yellow, not think, not gloopy. I asked my mum for help (I asked Ella but she was no use) any my mum said the custard was fine. Unconvinced I set it on the table. Nobody complained, so maybe mother knows best after all.

After the crumble we had coffee and then port with a variety of cheeses and crackers, around about this time Michelle and Jessica arrived after having been to the youth mass at St. Charles which by all accounts was a success. Eventually the time came to go our separate ways so we waved off the fambly and (with the help of the heroic michelle) we tidied the kitchen.

There was bound to be some kind of problem somewhere along the line and there was... silly James smashed a pot - just as Fr. Massie arrived home. Fortunately it wasn't the one his great grandfather hand crafted from his own kneebone at the battle of trafalgar (I made that up) else I would have been in trouble.

All in all we had a great (if highly stressful) weekend. Thanks to Joanna Bogle for suggesting the thing (via her book) in the first place! Thanks again to Fr. Massie for the use of his house, Thanks to everyone who came the first night for not mentioning that the food was cold and thanks to everyone who came the second night for being patient when everything took hours longer than expected.

I look forward to the next feast day, guardian angels, on 2nd October. We get angel cales (if we're lucky).

Time flies, only friday it was the feast of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More, today we celebrate the feast of St. John the Baptist.

This morning was something of a curiosity really. The feast of John the Baptist falls on the 24th of June which can be any day of the week. It's not often it falls on a Sunday and when it does unfortunate music group organizing types like Ella have to try and find Hymns about John the Baptist. Thats not easy. How many John the Baptist hymns do you know?

We thought about singing carols with the name Jesus replaced with John (John the Baptist sweetly sleep, do not stir, we shall lend a coat of fur etc). Ella thought that was a bad idea so we scoured the hymnal and found this (which we sang to the tune of 'the Churches one foundation'):

Commissioned and anointed,
the holy prophet came,
to brighten all the nations,
with hope's eternal flame.
The word, which filled and quickened
the darkness of the womb,
from primal days foreshadowed
the breaching of the tomb.

The poor with joy are singing,
the barren have conceived,
who heard the gracious promise
and, full of hope, believed.
In desert places sounding,
the voice of judgment cries,
by God's own word commissioned
to challenge and baptise.

The prophet still announces
the coming of the Word,
whose message of salvation
the centuries have heard.
From David's line descended,
Christ comes to reign in peace;
the poor shall be exalted,
and justice never cease.

Ella had mentioned that Joanna Bogle recommended a picnic on this special day and Michelle miraculously produced a feast in a hamper so a picnic we had to have. But where to go? I could only think of one tasteless joke...

Heads Lane leads to Hessle Foreshore (otherwise known as Hull Beach) so we parked up there. My joke was so tasteless that it made the angels cry and it rained all the way through our picnic and we were stuck in the car. The view of the Humber Bridge was stunning.

We thought about how the Humber Bridge was symbolic of John the Baptist and how he bridges the old and new testaments by being an old time prophet in the new testament times. We thought about eating.

We had Brie and Chicken on sticks and Grapes and Michelle even provided those of us who weren't driving with Wine. Unfortunately, the silver platter has somewhat tarnished over the years...

Michelle's daughter Jessica tried to fit as many grapes in to her mouth as possible and hilariously managed to reach a point where there were too many to swallow but the way they were wedged in she couldn't get them out. There was a slingshot in Michelle's glove compartment and Michelle had a go at sling shotting grapes over the river.

A few cheesy Doritos later and we were ready for ice creams. The sun came out (briefly) and we wandered down on to the shale beach and skimmed some stones.

I don't know if it's some kind of parent magic but I was able to skim stones. Until today I have had no stone skimming skills but today I managed two full bounces.

A marvelous time was had by all and we thank Michelle for the wonderful food.

Ella and I were feeling a little peckish this evening. We fancied something to eat. But what to have? Somehow the thought of pancakes came to mind.

Now I know how to make Pancakes, but just to be sure I thought I would check the quantities in a cookbook. How handy, just laying around on the table in front of me was Joanna Bogles: A Book of Feasts and Seasons. Despite our previous experience with the Trinity Cake I decided to give it a go...

Pancakes

• 2 eggs
• 4 ozs wholemeal flour
• one pint of creamy milk
• a good pinch of salt
• you can multiply the ingredients as you need for the numbers of people

Hmm. I thought. Those quantities are not what I was expecting. My list was 2 eggs, 8oz flour and a pint of milk. I decided to check it out. Student Grub agreed. Though being frugal they listed 1 egg, 4oz flour and a half pint of milk.

There I was, all ready to write another blog entry about Joanna Bogle's rare case of flour quantity halving brain disease when I decided to check out that other Catholic Cookbook Author. Delia Smith on the BBC website...

For the pancake mixture:

• 110g/4oz plain flour, sifted
• pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water
• 50g/2oz butter

Delia agrees with Joanna on the flour and eggs but... what's this? Instead of a pint of milk (creamy milk, no less) Delia wants me to add water to my milk. Watery pancakes!? Has she gone mad?

I can only conclude that Catholic Cookbook authors do not know how to make pancakes. So, I will share with you my pancake method.

Simple Pancake Recipe

• 8oz plain flour
• 2 eggs
• a pint of milk
• cooking oil

Now, remember these important steps. Firstly you must sift the flour, this helps mix a smoother batter. Joanna doesn't mention the sifting but it is crucial. Delia says to sift your flour in to a large mixing bowl but she is sorely mistaken. Use a measuring jug, then batter mixture won't slosh up over the sides as you whisk and it's easier to pour the batter in to the pan.

The mixing of the batter should be done as follows. Put your flour in your jug and add the two eggs (you will need to remove the shells). Next, try in vain to whisk the eggs in to the flour. It won't work of course, you will end up with a ball of dough on the end of your whisk. Get a second measuring jug (the James method requires two measuring jugs) and put a pint of milk in it. Joanna is correct to say that creamy milk is better. If Delia tries to put any water in your milk then you should probably bray er eddin.

Add a little milk to your doughy ball on the end of a whisk and whisk some more. Then add a little more milk. Whisk then add milk then whisk then add milk etc. You doughy ball will gradually become a wetter sloppier ball and you will gradually find you are no longer banging a sloppy ball of dough around the bottom of a jug but are instead whisking a smooth batter. This method is great because you don't get bits of flour stuck to the edges at the end as the sloppy ball gathers them all up in the early stages and you don't get lumps because there is never a large quantity of milk with bits in.

Now, Delia says to get the pan "really hot" while Joanna says "very hot". If you are like me then you will follow these instructions literally and your pan will be too hot. You need your pan hot enough that when the batter hits the pan if makes a 'pishhhhh' noise as you swirl. Put some oil in the pan, I use standard vegetable oil. Delia actually suggests melting butter in a separate pan and spooning it over. What?

How much oil? I use the same amount for everything I cook. Just do a splosh on to the pan, your aiming for a blob about the size of a digestive biscuit. Now for the pouring of the batter...

Delia says some nonsense about using a ladle to put batter in the pan, that's because she made that error earlier with the mixing bowl. If you made your batter in a jug then just pour away. If you are ambidextrous you can pour with one hand and swirl the pan with the other. Who said making pancakes was easy? Pouring and swirling is important because it helps spread the oil across the underside of the pancake.

Pour in just enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan nicely. There is no correct amount, because pans come in different sizes. Delia finds 2tbsp is right for an 18cm pan. Friends don't let friends measure pans (cake tins is different).

Use some kind of flat implement (we've got a wooden fish slice but you could use a palette knife as Delia suggests) to lift the edges as it cooks. The top will turn from batter colour (pretty much white) to pancake colour (also pretty white but slightly browner). Let the pancake be, don't prod it too much. Occasionally give the pan a little shuffle side to side to see if you can slide the pancake around.

The next part Joanna Bogle gets nearly right and Delia gets wrong wrong wrong. Delia says: "Flip the pancake over with a pan slice or palette knife". What??? Joanna is right when she says "Everyone who wants to do so should be allowed to take his turn at tossing his own pancake. The object of tossing, of course, is to make sure it is cooked on both sides. It is no mean feat to flip over a half-cooked pancake by tossing it into the air: some people get the knack straight away and some never make it happen properly.

Joanna is only nearly right. What is this "Everyone who wants to do so"? Pancake flipping is compulsory (except for babies). If you follow Delia's advice and use a pan slice or palette knife to flip your pancake then you are in a sorry state indeed.

If you throw your pancake on the floor, just start again. The eggs, milk and batter cost you about £1.50 and this wholesome family fun is much cheaper than a trip to the pictures. Once you get the hang of tossing you will find no sooner have you tossed your pancake than the pancake is finished and ready for eating.

Stack the pancakes between layer of greaseproof paper. I find they are quite hot and stay warm enough without any of that simmering water nonsense Delia would have you doing. She is now up to three pans (pancakes, butter and water), a mixing bowl, a measuring jug, a palette knife, a ladle, a teaspoon a tablespoon, and a pan slice. Whose going to do all that washing up. Using my method you have used one pan, two measuring jugs, a whisk and a fish slice.

When it comes to toppings, Joanna says Lemon Juice and Brown Sugar. Delia says Lemon Juice and Caster Sugar. They can argue that one out among themselves. When we visited Madonna House in Robin Hoods Bay they gave us pancakes with ice cream and cranberries and maple syrup. Mmmm. Now that was nice (if a little Canadian). I tend to go the Lemon Juice and Caster Sugar option myself though a little Golden Syrup is lovely.

If all that is a much to take in, just follow James' handy tips:

• 2 eggs, 8oz flour, milk.
• No water in the milk.
• Sift the flour.
• Mix in a jug.
• Start with flour, add eggs. Then Mix in the milk gradually.
• Don't overheat the pan.
• Don't skip the flipping.
• Have fun.

I leave you now, with a disturbing cartoon about pancakes.

A change of mind: Michelle was round and we made pancakes again. I told her my opinion of Delia and her watery pancakes and Michelle set me right. A little water (just a splash) in the batter actually does improve the pancakes! The batter runs in to the pan better and produces thinner crispier (not too crispy mind) more flavoursome pancakes. Still, I'm not convinced Delia is right to put replace a full third of her milk with water, but she's not entirely wrong.

Ella and I recently acquired a copy of A Book of Feasts and Seasons by Joanna Bogle. Unfortunately it arrived after Pentecost so we have been counting the days (not many) until the next feast in the book. Trinity Sunday. Joanna says...

Try a trinity pineapple cake. It's so called because you use three pineapple rings to make a symbol of the Trinity on the top of the cake.

You will need:

• 4 oz. butter or margarine
• 4 oz. castor or granulated sugar
• 4 oz. self-raising flour
• two beaten eggs

and for the filling:

• 3 oz. softened butter
• 5 oz. icing sugar
• one tin of pineapple slices (NOT chunks)

And so we amassed our ingredients and followed the instructions. All was well, er, ish... I asked Ella to write about it:

After having sorted a space in the kitchen from the night before I got going, whisked my butter and sugar, then added my whisked eggs and then the flour slowly. Yes, a Victoria sponge, now I have made Victoria sponges before but this one came out more like a biscuit (I naturally meant to produce it that way). I also had the fun of trying to remember what temperature you put a sponge in at as Joanna forgot to mention it. While my cake was "rising" I made the filling. Now it is customary, when adding the juice of the pineapple to remember to add it bit by bit, thus getting a correct thickness. I forgot to do this and it was more like a pineapple soup rather than filling, well there was no saving it... we tried. It is also helpful to buy pineapple rings, as Joanna says, rather than chunks which is what I had. Luckily we made them in to rings and it all worked. We invited my mother and brother round for some delicious trinity pineapple biscuit with interesting layering. Better luck last time, though it was rather nice.

The first problem we had was of Joanna's making. We are but poor humble inexperienced at cooking types and so we had no idea what temperature to heat the oven and unfortunately she neglected to tell us! Secondly, the quantities are far too small - the bottoms of our cake tins were barely covered. Twenty minutes later we had, as Ella put it, biscuits.

The best disaster was of Ella's making. Having produced a marvelous butter cream filling she then proceeded to dump an entire tin of pineapple juice in to it. Oops. We tried to save it by adding more icing sugar and butter but it was too late. We just had to spoon it on as best we could.

Another problem... when we went to the cupboard the tins of pineapple were all... chunks. Fortunately James was on hand with his artistic skills and saved the day with his marvelous pineapple rendition of a trinity symbol. Check out all it's majesty.

We had a great time and it was yummy. We're now looking forward to St. Alban's day (June 20th) when baby Leona will be miming his conversion story while we sing his hymn and then June 24th is the birthday of John the Baptist when we get Ginger Beer, Summer Pudding and Carob cake. Whatever that is... I'll keep you posted.

Update: Joanna kindly replied to my email with the following:

Well, you are absolutely RIGHT about the amounts....this is the first time anyone has pointed it out, but the amount of flour is all wrong!!! For that amount of butter, it needs EIGHT ounces of flour! No wonder the two halves of the cake came out as biscuits. Oh, gulp. That book has been in print for 20 years and the half-amount of flour has never, ever been noticed before....

Sorry!!

...and the oven temperature?

I would just say "moderate oven". Gas mark 5/6.

I am now producing a new book, and have worked to put all the amounts in both grammes and AND pounds and ounces. Oh, and I've had to add American measurements too....