Wednesday Evening Meal
March 7, 2012
4:45-6:15 pm
Cuisine of Greece
Baked Lemon Chicken
Greek Salad with Tomatoes, Cucumber, Feta Cheese and Kalamata Olives
Greek Roasted Potatoes
Pita Bread
Hummus and Tzatziki
Assorted flavors of Sorbet
The sun was shining and the snow was melting yesterday as we spent the afternoon in the kitchen preparing for our Italian dinner. 80 pounds of spaghetti noodles were precooked, rinsed, then drizzled with a little olive oil. Just before serving, the noodles required only a 1-2 minute dunk in boiling water to heat up again. This is the best way to feed a huge crowd in a short amount of time. The spaghetti sauce started with 20 pounds of 90% lean ground beef that we browned on the griddle, then added to 60 pounds of leftover meatloaf that was in the freezer from dinner a few weeks ago. To the meat mixture we added 24 #10 cans of Contadina Deluxe Spaghetti Sauce, and used seven 22 quart roasters to warm it up in. We planned for 500 servings, but only served 450 last night, so leftovers will be shared with the WAVI women’s shelter today.
The recipe for the Italian Garden Salad we served was one that I adapted from a recipe I found online for a copycat version of the Italian salad at Olive Garden. Here’s the recipe if you have a big crowd to feed:
Italian Garden Salad: 400 servings
40# American Salad Blend (Iceberg, Romaine, Radish, Red cabbage, carrots)
5 red onions, thinly sliced
1 gallon banana peppers
10# small vine ripened tomatoes, cut in quarters
1 #10 can sliced black olives
50 cups large croutons
6 cups grated parmesan cheese
Dressing:
16 cups olive oil
6 cups white vinegar
1 1/2 cups Miracle Whip
3 ¾ cups lemon juice
8 cups grated parmesan cheese
5 TBSP garlic salt
¾ cup dried Italian Seasoning
3 ¾ cups water
Puree ingredients in blender until smooth.
Add croutons and dressing to salad just before serving.
We served 2 kinds of bread that was ordered through Sysco: Baker Boy Garlic Toast and Tuscan Loaf from La Brea Bakery. The garlic toast comes frozen with 125 pieces per case. Last night we used 4 1/2 cases. It requires about 3 minutes on a hot griddle to get it warm and toasty. The Tuscan Loaves come frozen with twelve 28 oz loaves per case. These are thawed, heated and sliced and have a really great homemade flavor. We used 10 loaves for dinner as an alternative for those who don’t care for the strong garlic flavor in the toast.
For dessert we made fruit pizza that I adapted from a recipe given to me by my friend Deb Fredrich. Thanks for sharing Deb! We used kiwis, strawberries, blueberries and bananas as our toppings, but any fruits will do (unless they are too juicy.)
24 pounds of fresh strawberries, 4 1/2 pounds fresh blueberries, and 50 kiwi were chopped and mixed together. 15 pounds of bananas were sliced and layered on the pizza crust separately.
Fruit Pizza: Makes 48 squares, when cut 4 x 6. Use 2 half size sheet pans (13″ x 18″ x 1″)
3 cups butter (softened not melted)
2 cups powdered sugar
6 cups flour
Mix and pat into 2 half size pans. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper first. Bake 20 minutes @ 300 degrees in convection oven. Cool.
24 oz. White chocolate chips
4 1/2 ounces whipping cream
Melt chips and cream together in microwave and add:
16 ounces softened cream cheese
Beat all together and spread on cooled crust. Make sure the cream cheese mixture seals against the sides of the pan, otherwise the fruit will seep to the crust and make it soggy. It is not a good idea to cut the pizza ahead of time, it will also make the crust soggy.
Refrigerate a couple of hours or overnight for the cream cheese mixture to harden.
Add your favorite fruit: Cut fruit in small pieces and spread on cream cheese topping. Don’t use frozen fruit because it will be too juicy.
To make the glaze to go on top of the fruit, mix together in a saucepan:
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp plus 1 tsp corn starch
1 cup pineapple juice
1 tsp lemon juice
Cook on stovetop until thick, stirring constantly. Cool, spoon over fruit.
Coming next week…Cuisine of Greece. Menu will be posted soon!
With no education classes last night, our Ash Wednesday Soup and Pie Supper was a little smaller, quieter and less frantic than the usual Wednesday meal. We served 345 last night with 36 gallons of soup, 33 loaves of artisan bread, 330 grilled cheese sandwiches, 25 chocolate cream pies and 25 lemon meringue pies.
The first soup was a homemade vegetable soup that I adapted from a Weight Watchers cookbook recipe. Here’s the recipe for 100 servings:
Pistou: A Hearty French Vegetable Soup
100 servings
25 cups diced onions
25 cups sliced carrots
25 potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 TBSP salt, add more before serving if needed
2 TBSP pepper
9 ½ gallons water
25 medium zucchini, sliced
25 cups chopped, trimmed green beans
25 cups corn
1 #10 can beans, kidney, navy or black
3 cups grated Parmesan cheese
6 cups minced basil, fresh
1 ½ cups tomato paste
25 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups olive oil
Divide among large pots, the onions, carrots, potatoes, salt, pepper and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally about 30 minutes.
Stir in zucchini, green beans, corn and beans. Simmer for another 30 minutes.
In separate bowl, whisk the cheese, basil, tomato paste and garlic. Whisk in the oil. Stir about 12 cups of the hot broth into the mixture, then gradually add the basil mixture into the soup. Continue to simmer until ready to serve.
The second soup selection was a Creamy Tomato Bisque that I ordered from Sysco, made by Block and Barrel Classic. Whole milk is added to the concentrated frozen soup and we warmed it slowly in roasters. The grilled cheese sandwiches were assembled in advance with sandwich bread, American cheese, and a little margarine on the outsides of the bread. We used the griddle on the stove and 2 extra portable griddles in order to keep up with the demand.
Who doesn’t love a grilled cheese sandwich with a bowl of tomato soup!
The third kind of soup was a Block and Barrel Classic from Sysco, Wild Rice with Chicken. It was also a frozen concentrate to which we added 2% milk and warmed up in the roasters. Great flavor!
The three varieties of breads we served were a Focaccia Bread made by Rotella, Asiago Cheese Batard and Olive Rosemary Batard made by BKRSIMP (I don’t know what that stands for). All the breads were ordered from Sysco. We warmed them up and sliced them to serve.
And now for the PIES! We made 25 chocolate pies on Tuesday and refrigerated them overnight. On Wednesday we added a coolwhip layer on top and shaved on some milk chocolate.
Here’s the recipe for 5 pies:
Chocolate Cream Pies Recipe for 5 pies: Use 1 large pot
Mix together in large bowl, whisk until blended, and set aside:
4 cups sugar
2 cups unsweetened cocoa
1 cup plus 2 TBSP cornstarch
¾ tsp salt
6 eggs
3 cups skim milk
In heavy pot, heat 9 cups skim milk, until tiny bubbles form around edges, to 180* but not to boiling. Remove from heat.
Gradually add hot milk to sugar mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Return milk mixture to pot. Add 12 oz semisweet chocolate. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and add 2 TBSP Vanilla. Pour into 5 prepared crusts. Cover surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Chill completely, at least 3 hours. Top each pie with 8 oz coolwhip and shaved chocolate.
For each pie crust:
4 ½ oz graham cracker crumbs (about 1 cups)
2 oz sugar
3 oz melted butter
Combine all ingredients, pat into pie pan. Bake at 375* for 5 minutes.
(Filling for 25 pies: Total milk is 3 ¾ gallon, cocoa 10 cups, 30 eggs, 20 cups sugar)
(Crusts for 25 pies, use 7 pounds graham cracker crumbs, 4 2/3# butter, 3# sugar)
I Love Pie!
We also made 25 lemon pies on Tuesday and added the meringue on Wednesday. The meringue is better on the day you serve it.
Meringue Madness!
And into the oven it goes…
Here’s the recipe for one pie:
BEST EVER LEMON MERINGUE PIE
□ 1 baked 10 inch pie shell
□ 1 1/2 c. sugar
□ 1 1/2 c. water
□ 1/2 tsp. salt
□ 1/2 c. cornstarch
□ 1/3 c. water
□ 4 eggs, separated
□ 1/2 c. lemon juice
□ 3 tbsp. butter
□ 1 tsp. grated lemon peel
□ 1 tsp. vanilla
Combine sugar and water with salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Mix cornstarch with 1/3 cup water to make a paste; add to the boiling mixture slowly, stirring constantly; cook until thick and clear. Remove from heat.
Beat egg yolks, add lemon juice and stir into thickened mixture. Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture bubbles. Remove from heat and add lemon peel, butter and vanilla. Cool.
MERINGUE:
Combine and cook in saucepan until thick, stirring constantly:
½ cup water
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
Beat 4 egg whites at high speed, gradually adding 6 Tbsp sugar until stiff peaks form. Add the cooled, cooked mixture and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.
Pour filling into baked pie shell and top with meringue, making sure it goes to edges. Bake in a slow oven, 350 degrees F. about 12-15 minutes, until lightly brown on top.
Spaghetti Dinner next week, details coming soon!
In my last post I shared the recipe for the meatloaf we make at Calvary. Here’s a look at the work it took today to turn 140 pounds of lean ground beef into 700 slices of meatloaf deliciousness:
Fourteen batches mixed by hand
Making meatloaf can also be great for therapeutic stress relief!
70 loaves, hand sculpted and ready for the oven…350 for an hour, then add the secret sauce on top, then another 30 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes, slice into 10 pieces per loaf and then it’s time to eat…
For a side dish we made 80 pounds of fresh sliced carrots, tossed in a glaze of honey, lemon juice, melted butter, salt and pepper, then roasted in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Even cooked carrot haters like myself have to admit these are delicious. We were careful not to overcook them and left them a little crunchy.
Our other side dishes were cheesy potato casserole and steamed green beans with a red wine vinegar/dijon mustard vinegrette and sauted red onions.
Cheesy Church Potatoes with a crunchy crushed cornflake topping… Not a single serving leftover.
One diner told the kitchen crew tonight that these were “the best green beans I have ever had.” Thanks for the encouraging words!
And now for dessert: We call these cakes “Decadent Devil’s Food” and “Heavenly Angels”
This is super easy: Bake a white cake from a mix according to the directions on the box. While still hot, use a knife or the handle of a wooden spoon to poke holes all over the top of the cake. Mix together 1/2 of a 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk with 8 oz cream of coconut and spread over the hot cake. Top with 20 oz of crushed pineapple, drained. Chill cake overnight (if you can stand not to eat it right away), then top with 8 oz cool whip and toasted coconut.
Use the same method with the devil’s food cake, except substitute 6 oz of either butterscotch or caramel ice cream topping for the cream of coconut. And substitute 6 oz of chocolate ice cream topping for the pineapple. No chocolate cake left tonight!
Tom tries to get the cake servers to look up so he can take another helping. It’s not working Tom!
430 diners signed in and ate with us tonight and that means a lot of dirty dishes. Lucky for us we have some super cheerful workers:
Welcome back from vacation Peg!
Thanks for reading the blog. Share it with your friends. Please feel free to post any comments or suggestions you have. If there is a particular recipe you’d like to see posted, let me know and I’ll get it on here for you.
See you at Calvary Lutheran Church next Wednesday for turkey, mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, dinner rolls, and pumpkin spice cake. Any day is a good day for a Thanksgiving dinner.
The cookie buffet was a big hit at dinner last night. We went through most of the 42 dozen Oreo Cheesecake cookies, 40 dozen chocolate chippers, 26 dozen Oatmeal Raisin, and 34 dozen Lemon cookies. About 22 dozen are now in the freezer… you may see these at dinner again in the near future.
476 diners were signed in to eat last night for the baked potato supper. A crew of 10 hard working women spent 5 1/2 hours in the kitchen baking cookies, prepping the potatoes to bake, chopping salad ingredients, and getting all the potato toppings ready to go (chili, cheddar cheese sauce, diced ham, broccoli, sour cream, shredded cheese).
We scrubbed the 600 russet potatoes on Tuesday morning, running them twice through the dishwasher (with the soap and sanitizer turned off). On Wednesday we rubbed the potatoes with olive oil and salt, cut off the bad spots, and baked them at 375 degrees in the convection oven for about 1 1/4 hours. We then held them in the warming oven at 175 degrees until time to eat.
48 large heads of romaine lettuce were chopped, washed and spun dry in the giant salad spinner. The extra lettuce not used last night will be shared with the Cornerstone Mission today. The tossed salad for 500 servings also included 30 sliced cucumbers, 20 pints of grape tomatoes, 5 pounds of shredded carrots, 1/2 gallon banana peppers, and 3 large bags of croutons. On the side we served the salad dressings: 1 gallon Dorothy Lynch french, 1 1/2 gallons Ranch, 1 gallon Blue Cheese, 1 gallon Golden Italian.
Meatloaf next week…the menu will be posted here soon.
If you missed last night’s camp dinner, here’s a few photo highlights of the 500 who came for sloppy joes, BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, fresh veggies, chips and ice cream:
The sign in table…we ask that everyone sign in so we can get a close count for planning.
We also have money jars here to collect donations…we suggest $4 per person, but we’ll take whatever you can or want to donate.
We made 5 roasters full of sloppy joes (using McCormick’s sloppy joe mix. Last year I made Jamie Oliver’s recipe for sloppy joes with beans, but I got a lot of feedback saying “don’t bean the sloppy joes!” I’d love to try a new recipe next time since the mix was a little too salty and tomatoey. Feel free to email me at kschleusener@gmail.com with your favorite recipe for sloppy joes, aka “taverns” or “steamburgers” or “yum yums” or “slushburgers” and we’ll try something new next time. We also served some BBQ pulled pork which we had leftover from a dinner in December. The porkloins were roasted in the oven after marinating overnight with a spice rub mix of paprika, garlic powder, brown sugar, dry mustard and salt. We added Cattleman’s BBQ sauce after pulling the pork.
Here’s a fun fact: The Original Sloppy Joe Sandwich was invented by a cook named Joe at a cafe in Sioux City, Iowa (from Wikipedia)
You ate 5# of snow peas, 15# baby carrots, 6 large bunches of celery, 10# broccoli florets, 12# cauliflower florets, 14# English cucumbers and 20# of ranch dip!
Build your own banana splits for dessert! We sure love our ice cream… we used 30 gallons of ice cream (vanilla, chocolate and strawberry), 30# of sliced strawberries, 40# of bananas, and lots of toppings: crushed M&M’s, Hot fudge, butterscotch, pineapple, whipped cream and cherries.
At 5:30 the room is filling up, plus there are 6 full tables out in the narthex
Can’t wait for dessert!
Dedicated ice cream scoopers…vanilla, chocolate or strawberry?
That’s why they’re called “sloppy joes”
Part of the fun is the creative process in banana split building
Mmmm…..good!
5:45…music class is over and the rush is on!
Sharing is what it’s all about.
A great time to visit with friends and family
Look what I made! Yum!
And a more simple approach…vanilla ice cream, strawberry ice cream, topped with a tiny drizzle of butterscotch.
Being cool at all times…high school boys hanging out by the youth room
Even scraping dishes can be fun on Wednesday nights!
When is my grandma coming back from vacation to wash dishes?
Larry proves that he can do the job while Peg is gone!
Dirty dishes in, clean dishes out. “Marilyn”, our American Dish Service dishmachine, can wash 2 racks of dishes every 90 seconds. We’d couldn’t do this without her!
And then we went to church for a presentation on Lutheran Outdoors and sang camp songs along with the Praise Team…
Next week’s menu post coming soon!
Counting this week, we have made 115 Wednesday meals, ranging from burgers on the grill to turkey and dressing with mashed potatoes and gravy. Sometimes we have theme dinners: Chinese, Moroccan, Hawaiian Luau, Greek, Italian, or my personal favorite…Retro Night (complete with Pigs in a Blanket, Deviled Eggs, Jello Salads, Pimento Cheese Stuffed Celery, Chicken Hot Dish, and Gingerbread with Lemon Sauce). Add in the appropriate mood music in the background, decorate the tables as best you can on a shoestring budget, and you can create a little excitement on an otherwise ordinary Wednesday night.
Gotta love the Church Ladies on Retro Night!
We baked up 900 of these cute little Pigs in a Blanket that I purchased at Sam’s Club, and the kids where begging for more!
A Plethora of Jello! Lemon-lime jello salad with crushed pineapple and cream cheese, Cranberry-apple jello salad, and Orange Parfait jello salad with mandarin oranges.
Here’s a recipe for
Hot Chicken and Chips Retro
27 servings per pan, 18 pans 12x20x2. Total servings 486
60# cooked chicken breast strips, diced (3 1/3# per pan)
18 cups chopped green onion (1 cup)
18 cups chopped red bell pepper (1 cup)
9 cups chopped parsley (1/2 cup per pan)
648 oz water chestnuts (36 oz per pan), drained and chopped
36 cups mayo (2 cups per pan)
18 cups sour cream (1 cups per pan)
4 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice, (4 oz per pan)
3 1/3 cups Dijon mustard (3 Tbsp per pan)
13 Tbsp black pepper (2 ¼ tsp pepper per pan)
18# shredded cheddar cheese (1# per pan)
9# potato chips, crushed (1/2# per pan)
Combine chicken through water chestnuts. Whisk together mayo through pepper, and add to chicken mixture. Stir well to combine. Spoon into greased casserole dish. Bake at 375 until warm. Remove from oven and sprinkle with cheese. Top cheese evenly with chips and bake until filling is bubbling and chips are golden. May serve with buttered egg noodles.
Buttered Egg Noodles: Make 30# of dried noodles = 375 4 oz servings
(4#/50 servings = 50 4 oz cooked noodles)
Update on 9-25-16: Calvary Lutheran Church has a full time food coordinator, Karla Roberts, who started at Calvary last year after many years in a high school cafeteria kitchen. Karla manages the menus and a crew of volunteers to cook, serve and clean up after the Wednesday meals. She is also responsible for all the other dining needs of the congregation, including funerals, potlucks, council meetings, new member meals, and much more. I continue to help Karla as a volunteer in the kitchen most weeks, and keep this blog updated with the weekly menus. If anyone has any recipe requests, I can get them from Karla and post them here. Just send me a message to the blog or email me at kschleusener@gmail.com. Thanks to the 138 followers my blog has gained over the years, and thanks those of you who contributed to the 85,520 all time views to the blog as of today since I started it in 2012.
Karen Schleusener
This was my original blog description from when we started up our Wednesday meal ministry at Calvary 9 years ago:
Cook a meal for 500+ people? Feed them in the space of an hour and a half? 25 times a year? With no background in the culinary arts? With a crew of all volunteers in a church kitchen? Sure, count me in, I said. From humble beginnings of potlucks or hurried trips to pick up fast food on Wednesday education nights, Calvary Lutheran Church of Rapid City, SD embarked on a journey to bring the congregation closer together as a church family, one Wednesday evening meal at a time. Four years since it’s inception, the Wednesday Evening Meal has grown from an average attendance of 280 to 525. Wow, I say to myself every Thursday morning, when the frenzy of the cooking, dining and cleaning of the day before is done. What an experience, what a miracle, what a privilege it is to be involved in this ministry. Many people have asked me, as the coordinator of the meals, to share recipes, insights, and stories of how we manage to serve this many people every week, and on a budget of a suggested donation of $4 per person collected at each meal. So here you go…stories, photos, recipes and more. (The word might just get out now of how much fun we’re having in the kitchen, when everyone thinks we are just working so hard.) Hopefully, I’ll hear back from readers with suggestions for menus, recipes, cooking tips, etc.
I hope you enjoy the blog,
Karen Schleusener
35 Cheesecakes…Check!
thenewchurchsupper 