This is a blog for sharing photos, recipes and stories about the Wednesday Evening Meal ministry at Calvary Lutheran Church, coordinated by Karen Schleusener. After searching the internet for countless hours over the last four years, I have not found many other sources who share information about the highs and lows of church supper cooking for such large crowds. My hope is to show you some things we have learned along the way, and maybe find other churches out there who have nuggets of knowledge to share with us. I also want our own congregation to see some of the details that make these dinners come together, and hopefully inspire the volunteer spirit in them to come and join us in the kitchen.
It's not just potluck anymore…
Tag Cloud
- menu
- Sysco
- Calvary Lutheran Church Rapid City
- Broccoli Rice Casserole
- BBQ menu
- Sweet Potato Casserole for a Crowd
- Broccoli Salad for a Crowd
- sloppy joe sandwich
- turkey
- mashed potatoes
- Chocolate Cream Pie
- Lemon Meringue Pie
- Fruit Pizza
- baked beans
- beef tacos
- snickerdoodles
- Carrot Cake recipe
- Carrot Cake for a Crowd
- Roast Beef
- chili
- Christmas
- Rice Pudding
- french dip
- Roast beef for a crowd
- S'mores Bars for a Crowd
- Chili for a Crowd
- Apple Crisp for a Crowd
- Caramel Apple Bread Pudding
- Cheesy Church Potatoes for a Crowd
- Brownies for a crowd
- big batch brownies
- Meatloaf for a Crowd
- Black Forest Cake for a Crowd
- contemporary worship service
- jello salads
- Chicken
- appetizers
- loaves and fishes
- Pasta Salad Recipe
- Cookie Recipes
- Meat loaf
- potato casserole
- roasted carrots
- dijon green beans
- chocolate cake
- pineapple coconut cake
- asparagus
- sweet potatoes
- pumpkin spice cake
- Vegetable Soup
- tomato soup
- Wild Rice with Chicken Soup
- Ash Wednesday Supper
- grilled cheese sandwiches
- Italian Garden Salad
- Olive Garden
- Garlic Bread
- La Brea Bakery
- Spaghetti
- Lemon Chicken Breasts
- Greek Salad
- Roasted Lemon Potatoes
- Greek Roasted Potatoes
- Cooking for a Crowd
- Sweet Potato Casserole
- Southern Baked Beans
- Angel Food Cake and Strawberry Parfaits
- Fried Chicken Dinner
- Biscuits
- Chocolate Cherry Cake
- hamburgers
- Hamburger Dinner
- Rhubarb Apple Crisp
- Recipes
- Mexican Food menu
- mexican food
- chicken tacos
- cilantro lime rice
- black beans
- brownies
- lemon bars
- Beef taco recipe
- Brownie Recipe
- cilantro lime rice recipe
- Rice for a crowd
- meatloaf recipe
- kid friendly dinner menu
- Worship Services
- Bible
- ice cream sundaes
- bratwurst
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
- Ham Dinner
- White Pie
- Sweet potato
- Thanksgiving
- Mashed potato
- Sandwiches
- coleslaw
- Lasagna
- Lasagne
- Italian Dinner
- Christmas Pig roast
- Ormie the Pig
- Molasses Cookies
- Calvary Lutheran Church
- Molasses Cookies Recipe
- Christmas Pig
- Pig Roast
- Spinach Salad
- Hot Fudge Sauce
- French Dip Sandwiches
- French Dip for a Crowd
- Hot Fudge for a Crowd
- S'mores Bars
- Large Quantity Recipes
- pork roast
- Ash Wednesday Soup Supper
- Ham
- Jeruselem Road Bluegrass
- Feeding South Dakota
- MEATLOAF
- Apple Pie
- Blueberry Cake
- chinese food church menu
- spaghetti dinner
- Edamame Salad
- BBQ chicken
- Sloppy joe
- Snow Day!
- Brown Sugar Cookies
- Baked Ham Dinner
- Trunk or Treat
- Large quantity recipe
- Casserole for a crowd
- Lasagna menu
- Breakfast
- Apple Slab Pie
- Apple Pie for a Crowd
- Church Apple Pie
- Apple Pie for a Potluck
- Pasta Bar Menu
- Pancakes for a Crowd
- Mexican Quiche for a Crowd
- Egg Casserole
- Breakfast Casserole for a Crowd
- Enchiladas
- Red Velvet Cupcakes
- Large Quantity cupcake recipe
- Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp Recipe
- Dessert for a crowd
- sloppy joes for a crowd
- churro photo
- Coleslaw for a crowd
- church chicken dinner
- Strawberry Cheesecake recipe
- Cheesecake recipe for a crowd
- dirt cups
- Retro Dinner Menu
- Retro Church Meal
- Chili recipe
- breakfast for a crowd
- Fruit Salad for a Crowd
- Egg Casserole for a Crowd
- vanilla bean cupcake recipe for a crowd
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Toffee Bits Recipes
- Toffee Apple Crisp
- Cookies for a Crowd
- Baked Lemon Chicken
- Greek Baked Chicken
- Chicken for a Crowd
- Chocolate sheet cake
- vanilla cream frosting
- Roast Pork Loin
- Roast Pork for a Crowd
- Crispy Orange Chicken
- Mandarin Orange Cake
- Recipes for a Crowd
- Oriental Coleslaw
- Orange Chicken for a Crowd
- white chicken chili
- Pizza Ranch Chicken
- italian dinner menu
- banana cake for a crowd
- Italian Supper for a Crowd
- Pasta dinner for a crowd
- Bratwurst dinner for a crowd
- Kuchen
- Strudel
- Cornbread Dressing for a crowd
- Chocolate caramel cake for a crowd
- chicken fried steak menu
- Chicken fried steak for a crowd
- chicken strips for a crowd
- Salisbury Steak for a crowd
- Angel Food Cake Roll recipe for a crowd
- chinese church dinner
- Jambalaya Recipe for a crowd
- Reuben casserole
- Banana Cream Pie for a crowd
- Hamburgers for a crowd
- Church supper
- Chocolate chip cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Calico Baked Beans Recipe
- Pumpkin Pies for a crowd
- Tiramisu Bars for a crowd
- Cheesecake for a Crowd
- Pork Roast for a Crowd
- Lean Meatloaf
- chicken pot pie for a crowd
- oven roasted potato recipes
- Lasagna for a Crowd
- Italian Garden Salad for a Crowd
- Jello Poke Cake
- Bread pudding for a crowd
- White Chicken chili for a crowd
- White Chocolate Candy Cane Cheesecake
- pudding dirt cups for a crowd
- German Potato Salad for a crowd
- Tater Tot Casserole for a Crowd
thenewchurchsupper 
Comments on: "About" (33)
Karen, Wonderful idea! I’m sure many people will enjoy learning about the back round, of our Wednesday dinners.** I’m not sure want to many people how much fun is to work behind the scenes. ** It will be standing room only in the kitchen, wouldn’t that be wonderful
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Hi Karen
Just wanted to let you know you had a great idea here and you did a good job with all the information. When do you sleep?
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Dear Karen!
So happy to connect with you. I can see that we share the same heart and spirit for food and for God’s people! Looking forward to getting to know you better. 🙂
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This is a fun blog! I’m the coordinator for the Wednesday night meals at our church in Omaha. I love finding new ideas and recipes for large groups! Blessings to you and your kitchen crew!
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Lisa, I’m glad you like my blog! It’s always fun to hear from someone out there who is doing the same thing. How many people to do serve for dinner and what are some of your favorite meals? I’d love to know. You can reply here on the blog, or send me an email to kschleusener@gmail.com
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So glad to find this blog! I’ve been working alongside our Wednesday Night Cook for awhile now, but just recently took her place as the head cook. It’s great to find these ideas, pics, and recipes! I live in Baton Rouge, LA.
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Good luck to you in your new job. If you have any questions or have any ideas for meals that you’d like to share with me, I would love to hear from you. Feel free to email me directly at kschleusener@gmail.com
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Hello Karen! I assist a wonderful cook at our church, Emmanuel Episcopal in Webster Groves, MO. We are on our third year of Wednesday night dinners and they have become quite popular with our congregation. Last Wednesday, we served 143 diners–a record for us–but I am amazed at the amount of people that you serve! I’m looking over your recipes for more ideas! Peace, Pam
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Welcome to the blog, Pam. At Calvary Lutheran in Rapid City, we’re going on our 8th year of Wednesday meals and still going strong. Our first year we averaged 287 per week and we’ve almost doubled that average now. Our largest crowd so far was 640 for the dinner the week before Christmas last year. This is a wonderful ministry that brings people of the congregation together, although it’s a lot of work and takes some careful planning. I hope you can find some helpful hints and recipes here that you can use. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Happy Cooking! Karen
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do you have a recipe book for large volume church meals that can be purchased or downloaded? it is the one item that I can not find– to get just feeding our own church for a meal. I am a professionally trained chef and have many cook books but I am faced with a lot of untrained older cooks who would like to start feeding our own —-but do not have big recipes to do this with as all my mass recipes are for high end dining and are not within our budget requirements to feed our members much less for community service meals. ?????
arthur Tice @ juno.com
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I’ve used 2 cookbooks for some of my recipes, Food for Fifty by Mary Molt, and Large Quantity Recipes by Terrell and Headlund. Most of the time I just adapt regular recipes that I’ve tried and liked. Maybe someday we’ll publish a Calvary Lutheran Church Cookbook with recipes for feeding 500.
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I just found your blog and love everything about your food ministry!
I am also a volunteer church cook and work with a group of volunteers (25 of them!) that help me prep and serve the food on Wednesday nights.
Thank you so much for all of the information you share so willingly.
God bless you! Nyeer
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Karen,
I have a question. I love your pot roast for a big crowd. I have been asked to do that for our fire hall. We don’t have convection ovens yet in our kitchen. That will come with the remodel but not for 2-5 years. I do have two very large ovens that fit a total of 8 large steamer pans. What would you suggest I do to get the meat to come out as nice as yours.
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Just turn the temperature up 25 degrees. You might need to rotate your pans every few hours so the ones on bottom don’t burn. The convection just keeps the heat more even in the whole oven. Good luck.
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Hi Karen,
Question for you. I have been asked to do pot roast for a crowd. I have not done it in many many years. We don’t have convection ovens yet at our hall. What would be your suggestion to accomplish this without them. I do have two huge ovens that between them hold 8 large steamer pans.
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Karen,
Thank you for such a quick reply. I think we are going to try this 🙂 I am going to follow you. I love your posts.
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Thanks. Ask questions any time.
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I attended tonight’s dinner and the chicken Alfredo lasagna was delicious! I’d love the recipe. Thank you!
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Karla said she’d get me the recipe for the chicken lasagna. I’ll post it as soon as I get it from her.
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Our congregation in South Carolina just started having Wednesday night suppers . I am so glad I found you! Your menus and ideas have been very helpful as I plan out our next few weeks meals.
Peace and Blessings!
Kim
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Good luck Kim. Email me if you have further questions as you go along. Kschleusener@gmail.com
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I am so happy to have stumbled upon your website. All of your recipes look delicious! Its amazing to see all of the volunteers working together to produce such wonderful meals for your church. I recently began work in kitchen and was looking for large quantity desserts. I would love to try out some of your recipes. When making your cakes in a 12x20x2 pan do you use any special techniques to make sure the cake cooks evenly? A heating core or baking strips?
Thank you for such great inspiration!
Angel K.
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Thank you for your comments, Angel. I also had trouble finding large quantity recipes, so that’s why I decided to share what I had tried. Cakes are a little tricky when you load up the convection oven with them. Sometimes we have to rotate them during baking so they cook more evenly. A good frosting always helps!
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Thank you so much for your quick reply! I will definitely rotate the cakes and use your frosting recipe 🙂
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This is my favorite go to place for large quantities and for ideas. I get so much help when I ask questions too!! I used the Taco idea for one of our raffles. HUGE hit!! Going to do it again this fall.
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Thanks for the great source of information.I’m cooking for 150 next week for all our ministry volunteers and plan to use the sweet potatoes casserole. Substituting yams, any changes you think?
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I would think yams and sweet potatoes would be interchangable in the recipe. Good luck!
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Love this blog and can’t wait to peruse it. But first, I have to get ready for a church luncheon tomorrow! We’re only cooking for 100 though. Sounds like that would be breeze for you. Thanks!!!!
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I do have a question…Do you have salad bar every time? Do you ever do a simple fruit salad?
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We do have the salad bar every week. We started a few years ago after many requests. Occasionally we have fruit salad, or just slices of a single fruit.
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Thank you SO much for sharing! I am in charge of our church kitchen and we are usually feeding around 200 for most events. Your menu ideas & recipes are a huge help to me! I sure wish you would publish a cookbook, it would be worth it’s weight in gold! But you probably don’t have much time after cooking! Thanks again & keep up the great work. Let us all know if you do print a cookbook. I sure will buy one!
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Thanks for your kind words of encouragement. I don’t know if a cookbook is in my future, but I’m glad the recipes and Ideas I’ve posted are helpful. If you have any recipes that work well for you, I’d love for you to share with us. Feel free to email any time kschleusener@gmail.com
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Thank you so much for the menu ideas & recipes. It sure helps me. I am in charge of our church kitchen & we usually feed 200 for most events. If you ever have the time to publish a cookbook, PLEASE let us know! I would love to buy one. Thanks again & keep up the great work!
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