Last week we made Jambalaya in celebration of Mardi Gras and the beginning of the Lenten season. For dessert we made our version of the King Cake, using a cream cake mix and adding glaze and decorative sugars. Here’s the recipe for making Jambalaya for a crowd. You can use a spicy Andouille sausage, or just a good smoked link sausage if you want to keep it less spicy for a big crowd, or make some of each. Adding shrimp can also be an option, but since there are so many people out there with shellfish allergies we chose not to add it. We made our batch this time with just chicken and mild smoked sausage.
Sausage and Chicken Jambalaya for 500
Make in 10 full size 4” deep steamtable pans, 50 servings per pan
Per pan: Total:
(4#) 40 pounds cooked chicken, white or dark meat, shredded or chopped
(#4) 40 pounds andouille or mild smoked link rope sausage, sliced
(10 cups) 100 cups diced onions
(5 cups) 50 cups chopped celery
(5 cups) 50 cups chopped green peppers
(1/3 cup) 3 1/3 cups chopped garlic
(8 cups) 80 cups (40 pounds) long grain rice
(46 oz or 5 ¾ cup) 57 ½ cups Bloody Mary Mix or use V-8 juice (10 46 oz cans)
(46 oz) 10 46 oz cans Chicken Stock
(2 TBSP) 1 ¼ cup Creole or Cajun seasoning
(1/2 can) 5 #10 cans diced tomatoes
Saute sausage over medium high heat, add shredded or chopped chicken to brown. Divide into steamtable pans.
Saute onions, celery, green pepper and garlic until tender. Mix with chicken and sausage. Refrigerate in pans overnight or proceed to finish recipe.
Add liquids, seasoning, tomatoes and rice to pans. Cover with foil. Cook at 350* convection for 1 ½ hours, stirring halfway. Add additional liquid as needed after stirring halfway through cooking (may need up to 2 more cups of either tomato juice or chicken broth if rice isn’t tender and all liquid has been absorbed.) Cooking time will be longer if pans were refrigerated overnight. When rice is done, remove foil and continue to bake pans for an additional 20 minutes if a light brown crust on top is desired.
We made 24 King Cakes in bundt pans, glazed with powdered sugar frosting. We opted not to hide the babies in the cakes to avoid a choking hazard. You can see them hiding in the decorations on the dessert table if you look closely.
December was a busy month at Calvary Lutheran, with advent services filled with all kinds of music, a live nativity, a visit from St. Nick, Christmas Eve services, and meals on Wednesdays the first 3 weeks of December. We took a few weeks off for the holiday, and now are ready to resume Wednesday programming as usual on January 8th. Please join us! All Calvary members and visitors are welcome to come for dinner and stay for worship afterward.
It’s October already, can you believe it! The forecast for tomorrow is cold and rainy with a chance of snow in the morning, a perfect day for some German comfort food. Did you know that kuchen is the official state dessert of South Dakota? We order our kuchen from Pietz’s Kuchen Kitchen in Scotland, SD. http://www.kuchenkitchen.com/ Tomorrow we’ll be serving their blueberry, strawberry rhubarb, cherry, peach and cottage cheese flavors.
Mix together dry cake mix, eggs, extract, pie filling and chocolate chips, and stir until just combined. Pour batter into greased pan.
Bake at 325* convection for 45 minutes or until center of cake springs back or toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool.
Glaze:
Melt chocolate with butter and milk, either in double boiler or in microwave (about 1 1/2 minutes on high). Stir in sifted powdered sugar and beat until well blended. Spread over cooled cake. (It’s best to do one cake at a time, because glaze will be difficult to spread on cake as it cools.)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 cups)
2 Tbsp butter (Total: 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup milk (Total: 3 cups)
1 cup powdered sugar (Total: 12 cups)
Top cakes with cool whip or whipped cream and a maraschino cherry to serve.
Join us this week for Sloppy Joes, French Fries, Salad Bar, Rice Krispie Treats
Dinner service is from 4:45 to 6:15 pm, followed by a contemporary worship service lead by the praise band in the sanctuary. All members and visitors are welcome to join us for dinner. Please donate what you can to help cover the cost of the meal. We suggest $5 for adults and $3 for children.
Last week we kicked off the fall session of Wednesday school on September 11th, honoring the day of remembrance with a red, white and blue themed dinner. Here are a few photos of the meal:
First of all, I apologize for the lack of menu postings the last 2 weeks due to illness and travel. I probably need to get a blog assistance to keep things current when I can’t get to it. I heard they had about 300 in attendance for each of the last 2 weeks. Sometimes it’s hard to get out when the weather is so cold and icy, but the Wednesday meals and services still go on unless school is cancelled. The church website archives the videos of services that you can watch if you want to see what you missed when you can’t get there in person. Here’s the link to the service last week. The Wednesday school kids sang and Pastor David’s message focused on building relationships within the church https://vimeo.com/318734666
Menu for February 27, 2019
Chicken Pot Pie, Fruit Salad and Salad Bar
Chocolate and Vanilla Marble Cake
Here’s the recipe we made for the cakes. We will frost them with pre-made vanilla and chocolate frosting.
Chocolate Marble Sheet Cake
This recipe makes 4 half sheet
pans for 120 servings. Cut 5×6 for 30 pieces per pan.
Make recipe 3 times for 360 servings in 12 half sheet pans.
6 cups butter (3#),
softened
9 cups sugar
Beat butter and sugar in mixer until creamy.
Add 12 eggs, a
few at a time, just until blended after each addition.
Add 4 Tablespoons vanilla
Whisk dry ingredients together:
15 cups flour
6 Tablespoons baking
powder
1 Tablespoon salt
Add flour mixture alternately with 6 cups half and half, at low speed, just until blended.
Divide 8 cups of the batter into a separate bowl. Stir in 1
½ cups unsweetened cocoa, 1 cup hot water and 1 ½ cups sugar.
Spread vanilla batter into 4 greased half sheet pans. Spoon chocolate batter on top and swirl into
vanilla batter with a knife.
Bake at 300* convection for 25-30 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.
Dinner is served from 4:45 pm to 6:15 pm. All are welcome! Please bring your friends and neighbors, enjoy dinner together and stay for worship afterwards from 6:30-7:15.
We ask that you help us cover the food costs of our meals by contributing whatever you can to our donation jar when you sign in. Our suggested donation is $5 for adults and $3 for children. Thank you for helping us keep this ministry going.
At the last meal before our Christmas break, we served over 500 people lasagna, salad, garlic bread and black forest cake. The live nativity worship service that followed dinner was outstanding, thanks to our staff and worship team. All of the Wednesday school preschoolers up through 5th graders sang beautifully for us as we heard the Christmas story and watched the angel, the shepherds, the holy family and the wise men gather near the altar. It was a wonderful reminder of why we come each week to learn and worship together.
We had some good help in the dining room too, as we welcomed home some of our college students who pitched in to serve.
The black forest cake was a favorite, rich and chocolatey with cherry pie filling mixed in, topped with whipped cream and a cherry.
Here’s the recipe:
Black Forest Cake
440
servings: 11 cakes 12x20x2 inch pans.
Cut each in 40 pieces (8×5)
Each Cake: (Make 11 times)
2
pkg (18.25 oz each) devil’s food cake mix with pudding (Total: 22 pkg)
6
eggs (Total: 5 ½ dozen)
2
Tbsp almond extract (Total: 22 Tbsp)
2
21 oz cans cherry pie filling (Total: 462 oz, about 5 #10 cans)
Mix
together cake mix, eggs, extract, pie filling and chocolate chips, and stir
until just combined. Pour batter into
greased pan.
Bake
at 325* convection for 45 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center
comes out clean. Remove from oven and
cool.
Glaze: Melt chocolate with butter and milk. Stir in powdered sugar. Spread over cooled cake. For each cake, make 1x. For 11 cakes, make the total in parentheses.
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (11 cups)
2
Tbsp butter (Total: 22 Tbsp)
4
Tbsp milk (Total: 2 ¾ cups)
1
cup powdered sugar (Total: 11 cups)
Top with cool whip or whipped cream and a cherry.
You gotta love Pastor Becky’s Christmas spirit!
Last week we made a meal that kids really loved, and the grown-ups didn’t seem to mind either: chicken strips, mac and cheese, salad and pudding dirt cups.
Here’s the ingredients you need to make 400 Dirt Cups:
Dirt Cups
10 gallons cold milk, 2% or whole
5 28 oz pkgs Chocolate Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
If you need to serve a big crowd, here’s the recipe in large quantities.
Mean and Lean Meat Loaf, adapted from Disney’s Family Cookbook
For 480 servings, make the recipe 12 times, divided into 15 shallow steam table pans, lined with pansavers to make clean-up easy, or use disposable full size pans. Press 3/4ths of each batch into each pan flat like a cake. Combine the other 1/4 from each batch to make 3 extra pans. (We did this because the full 10# batch seemed too thick for the shallow steam table pans. (If you want, go ahead and make them thicker and just use 12 pans, but they may need to cook a little longer.) When done, cut into 32 pieces (8×4) for the 15 pans, or 40 pieces (8×5) if using 12 pans.
Mix ingredients well. Don’t over mix or the resulting meatloaf will be too dense and dry. Bake at 325* convection for 1 hour, covered with foil. Mix total ingredients for the sauce and divide evenly on top of partially baked meatloaves. Bake an additional 30 minutes, or until internal temp reaches 160*. Let sit for 10 min. before slicing.
See you in church! Volunteers are always welcome in the kitchen and dining room. Just stop in and ask how you can help.
This Wednesday night, please join us for dinner at Calvary Lutheran Church in the fellowship hall from 4:45 to 6:15 pm. After dinner, make your way into the sanctuary for a special advent treat. The Christmas story will be told using a live Nativity and music from all the preschool through 5th grade children. This will be the last Wednesday for education and meals until 2019. We will resume on January 9th and continue every week through April 10th.
Here’s what’s for dinner this week:
Lasagna and Garlic Toast
Salad Bar
Black Forest Cake
Last week we made White Chicken Chili and White Chocolate Candy Cane Cheesecake. I’ll share the recipes with you.
White Chocolate Candy Cane Cheesecake
1 9 inch cheesecake = 12-14 servings
Crust:
1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs
3 Tbsp sugar
7 Tbsp melted butter
Grease a 9 inch springform pan with butter. Combine ingredients well and press into bottom and about 1 inch up the sides of pan. Place in refrigerator and chill until ready to use.
Filling:
1 ½ pounds cream cheese, softened
¾ cup sugar
2 Tbsp flour
3 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
¼ cup heavy cream
4 oz white baking chocolate, melted
¼ tsp peppermint extract
Beat cream cheese until soft and creamy. Add the flour and sugar slowly until incorporated. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Mix peppermint extract with the cream and add it to the cream cheese mixture. Stir in melted chocolate. Pour filling over crust.
Bake 50 minutes at 300* convection or until center is almost set. Cool before removing rim. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.
Serve with cool whip or whipped cream and chopped candy canes.
If you want to make 6 cheesecakes at a time like we did, here you go…
6 cheesecakes at a time:
Make 6 times for 36 cheesecakes. Cut into 12 pieces = 432 or cut into 14 pieces = 504.
(This amount will fit in our big mixer at one time.)
Last Wednesday, we had a good crowd of 400 for our hamburger cookout. Here’s a look at the dining room scene. We hope to see you again next week. Bring your friends!
The S’mores Bars were a pretty big hit. They are really gooey and rich (and a pain to cut), but worth the trouble I think. Here’s the recipe for 1 pan. We made 12!
S’mores Bars Servings: 576
12 pans/ 48 bars per pan: Make in 12x18x2 inch pans. Cut 6×8
To make 1 pan at a time:
Crust layer:
4 cup graham cracker crumbs
6 TBSP sugar
1/2 tsp salt
12 TBSP butter, melted
Combine ingredients and press into bottom of pan and along sides. Refrigerate until chilled and set.
Brownie layer:
12 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped (or bittersweet chocolate chips, may use semi-sweet)
1 1/2 cup butter (12 oz)
6 eggs
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp salt
1 TBSP vanilla
Melt chocolate and butter in microwave about 1 minute, until melted. With hand mixer, beat sugar and eggs, then add melted chocolate and beat until smooth. Stir flour, salt and then vanilla into mixture. Spread brownie layer over graham cracker crust. Bake at 350* convection for 30 minutes, or until center is set when pressed with fingertip.
Topping:
7 oz marshmallow fluff (marshmallow cream)
2 TBSP milk
Whisk marshmallow cream and milk together, then spread over brownie layer.
8 oz miniature marshmallows
2 cup mini chocolate kisses
4 whole graham cracker boards, broken up
Sprinkle kisses and marshmallows over marshmallow topping, then scatter crumbled graham crackers over the top. Bake at 350* convection for 5 minutes, or until kisses are glossy and the marshmallow topping is set. Let cool in the pan, then cut into bars.
Total ingredients for 12 x recipe:
48 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 12# graham crackers)
72 TBSP (4.5 cups) sugar
6 tsp salt
4.5 # butter
144 oz (9 #) bittersweet chocolate
18 cups (9 #) butter
72 eggs (6 doz)
30 cups sugar
24 cups flour
24 tsp (8 TBSP) salt
12 TBSP vanilla
12 7 oz marshmallow cream jars
1 ½ cups milk
24 cups mini chocolate kisses
48 graham crackers
The worship service last week included a “Blessing of the Backpacks” for our kindergarteners. Here’s a look at those energetic and adorable Calvary kids:
thenewchurchsupper 