Feast of St. Dominic - August 8, 2011

St. Dominic is the patron saint of one of my children, and as such, we celebrate his feast day in our house.  In past years, I've been stumped for what food to prepare.  We've gone the 'colors of the Dominican habit' route, by having black-and-white cookies, or dark-chocolate covered cannolli.  Just today, though (two days late!), I stumbled across a reference to St. Dominic associated with oranges.  Oranges?  Really?  From this site we read:

The orange tree pictured is at Santa Sabina and is said to be a direct descendant of the one planted in Rome by Our holy Father Dominic in 1220. Apparently this was the first of its type to be planted in Italy. The Villa Sciarra in Rome has an orange grove grown in commemoration of the bringing of the plant to Italy by St. Dominic.

Apparently, the Dominicans claims that their patron was the one who introduced this variety orange to Italian soil.  I'll have to keep this in mind the next time I watch 'The Godfather'; did you ever notice how many times oranges play a prominent role in that movie?  Maybe that's just my observation.  At any rate, next year, maybe I'll have a Mimosa or a Bellini along with my cannolli.