It's not just potluck anymore…

Archive for the ‘Recipe Index’ Category

Christmas Pig Feast and the Molasses Cookie Recipe

What an amazing crowd of about 650 people at dinner last night!  We feasted on smoked pig and whole boneless pork loins, spinach salad with mandarin oranges, scalloped potatoes, apples, rice pudding and molasses cookies.  Tony Balay graciously offered to volunteer his time and BBQ expertise to prepare all the meat for us, which involved quite a lot of preparation.  Tony picked up the pig, a 220 pound Duroc, from a ranch in Scenic on Monday.  He prepped the pig and started smoking it on his grill at 10pm on Tuesday.  19 hours later, the Christmas pig was ready for display and within an hour and a half it was nothing but bare bones!  The volunteers in the kitchen prepped the 200 pounds of pork loin with a beer and butter marinade that was injected and allowed to absorb overnight in the refrigerator.  At noon on Wednesday, the loins were covered with seasonings and strips of bacon, then went into the smoker to cook for 4 hours.  Meanwhile, our hard-working volunteers made 100 dozen cookies, 24 crockpots of rice pudding, 18 pans of scalloped potatoes, and the salad with 36 pounds of spinach and 24 pounds of romaine lettuce.  Very few leftovers tonight!

 

Tony prepares the pig for display and carving.

Tony prepares the pig for display and carving.

 

All dressed up and ready for dinner.

All dressed up and ready for dinner.

 

Isn't she lovely.

Isn’t she lovely.

 

It's time to eat!

It’s time to eat!

Apples sauteed in butter with brown sugar and cinnamon goes great with roast pork.

Apples sauteed in butter with brown sugar and cinnamon goes great with roast pork.

Spinach salad with mandarin oranges, celery, green onions, sugared almonds, and an orange juice vinaigrette

Spinach salad with mandarin oranges, celery, green onions, sugared almonds, and an orange juice vinaigrette

 

Molasses cookies, look for the recipe at the end of this post.

Molasses cookies, look for the recipe at the end of this post.

Tony finally gets to eat dinner! Thanks for all your hard work Tony!

Thank you Tony for all your hard work. Now you can have dinner too!

 

We made pretty quick work of this little piggy.

We made pretty quick work of this little piggy.

And then after dinner...a wonderful celebration of the season with our children singing songs of baby Jesus and Christmas Joy!

And then after dinner…a wonderful celebration of the season with our children singing songs of baby Jesus and Christmas Joy!

Molasses Cookies,  7 dozen made with small scoop

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup shortening

1 ½ cup sugar

½ cup molasses

2 eggs, lightly beaten

4 cups flour

2 ¼ tsp baking  soda

2 ¼ tsp ground ginger

1 ½ tsp ground cloves

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

½   tsp salt

granulated sugar for coating

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Cream butter and shortening, then beat in sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in molasses and eggs until thoroughly combined.  Whisk dry ingredients together and add gradually to butter mixture until smooth and blended.  Drop by small scoops into sugar to coat, rolling into balls.  Put on ungreased cookie sheets or parchment paper to bake.  Bake for 7 or 8 minutes.  Cookies flatten as they bake.  Remove from oven and move to wire rack to cool.

 

We’re taking a little break from our Wednesday night programing from now until January 16th.  The menu for the 16th will be posted the week before, so check back here or on the Calvary Lutheran Church website http://www.calvaryrapidcity.org/events/ if you want to know what’s for dinner.  Thanks to all the many volunteers who have helped out in the kitchen and dining room for the first 13 weeks.  Looking forward to 14 more weeks in the coming new year before the break for summer!

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St. Nick and the Lasagna Recipe

Christmas is certainly in the air now!  St. Nicholas came to visit Calvary Lutheran Church last night.  Children at the worship service each threw one shoe into St Nick’s giant bag, then waited with joyous anticipation for church to be over so they could run out into the narthex and locate their very own candy filled shoe.IMG_1327

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St Nick gets a little help from Confirmation Elves to round up all those shoes

 

For dinner tonight, we served a four cheese with Italian sausage lasagna, a few pans of vegetarian lasagna (by special request), Italian garden salad with an Olive Garden Italian style dressing, bread, and two choices of cake, coconut cream or caramel chocolate.  We served 470 for dinner tonight, a little less than the usual crowd, with some of the Confirmation groups out on mission projects.  Due to popular request, I’ll post the recipe for the lasagna at the end of this post.  Here are a few photos from dinner:

 

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Tuscan Bread loaves from La Brea Bakery (ordered through Sysco) filled the dining room with the smell of fresh baked bread.

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Coconut Cream Cake, made with a basic yellow cake mix, infused with cream of coconut and topped with crushed pineapple and a white frosting and toasted coconut.

chocolate

Chocolate Caramel Cake, made from a basic devil’s food cake mix, infused with sweetened condensed milk, caramel and chocolate ice cream toppings, and frosted with a chocolate non-dairy icing.

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A well balanced plate…Thanks for sharing Tom!

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A lettuce blend with the addition of Kalamata black olives, banana peppers, tomatoes, red onions, parmesan cheese, croutons and a homemade Italian dressing.

Four Cheese Lasagna  Serves 12  

 

 (adapted from Southern Living Cookbook)

 
                                      1.5 pounds lean ground beef
                                      1.5 pounds Italian sausage
                   1 1/2 cups (about 20 oz) chopped onions
                                              24 oz tomato sauce
                                              18 oz tomato paste
                                           3/4 cup water
                                  3 tablespoons dried parsley
                                  2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
                                    1 tablespoon Beef bouillion
                                               1 tsp garlic powder
                                              24 oz cream cheese
                                              24 oz cottage cheese
                                              12 oz sour cream
                                           6 whole eggs
                                              24 oz lasagna noodles, dried
                                              12 oz sliced pepperoni
                                              24 oz Mozzarella cheese
                                              16 oz parmesan cheese, shredded

Saute onion in heavy skillet with olive or vegetable oil until tender.  Brown ground beef and sausage.

Stir in tomato sauce, paste, water, parsley, Italian seasoning, bouillion, and garlic powder. Bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Combine cream cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream and eggs; stir well.

Cook lasagna noodles and drain.  Spoon small amount meat sauce in bottom of greased 9×13 pan.

Layer noodles, cream cheese mixture, pepperoni, meat sauce, and mozzarella; repeat layers.  Sprinkle top with parmesan.

Cover and bake at 350 for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

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Main Dish Recipes

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Thanksgiving Dinner and Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe

Happy Thanksgiving from the Wednesday meal team! We hope you enjoyed our turkey and that you will enjoy some family time next week. See you back in the church dining room on Nov. 28th.

Well, another great turnout for dinner, education and worship at Calvary Lutheran Church last night.  We served 600 meals of turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans and cupcakes in four flavors.  What goes into preparing a Thanksgiving feast for 600 people?  Here’s a short synopsis:

On Monday morning the Sysco order arrives on the delivery truck and the cooking begins.  120 pounds of sweet potatoes are washed, baked, peeled and mashed.  These go into the refrigerator to await becoming a casserole on Wednesday.  Also on Monday, chicken breasts are cooked and shredded for the dressing and the broth is saved for making gravy.

On Tuesday morning, a volunteer group of 10 show up at 9:30 ready to cook.  By 1:00 they have prepared 14 large pans of homemade cornbread, 74 dozen cupcakes, rinsed and brined all the turkeys, and  set up the serving tables in the dining room.

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20 boneless turkey breasts and 12 whole turkeys are ready to spend the night in the refrigerator in buckets and pans of seasoned brine on Tuesday morning.

Lemon, vanilla, chocolate and pumpkin cupcakes are baked on Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning at 7am, the smoker gets fired up with wood and charcoal by Kim Balay, and the turkeys get seasoned and buttered and go into the smoker for about 7 hours.  Thanks to Dan Ferber for manning the smoker from 8am to noon.  At 1:00, more volunteers arrive and the many recipes are divided up.  The dressing is mixed up by hand and put into the oven to bake for an hour and a half, the sweet potato casserole is whipped up in the mixer and it goes into the oven too.  The gravy is made and put into roasters to keep warm.

Cornbread dressing ingredients lined up and ready to be mixed.

The frosting is made and the cupcake extravaganza begins…

888 cupcakes frosted in under an hour!

A fine team of turkey carvers made short work of all that turkey just before dinnertime on Wednesday…

A little break from turkey carving before dinner starts

The cupcakes are ready to go

 

At 4:15, Connie has the water boiling and she begins cooking 96 pounds of green beans.  The potato pearls are mixed with hot water, cream cheese and sour cream and put into the insulated warmers.  And then dinner is served:

Recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole for 6 servings:

Sweet Potato Casserole:  6 servings

3 cups baked, peeled and mashed sweet potatoes (about 1 ½#)

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup melted butter

 

Topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

 

Combine first 6 ingredients.  Pour into a buttered 2 qt. casserole dish.  Mix remaining ingredients together and sprinkle over top.  Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until hot and browned.

 

 

Sweet Potato Casserole for a Crowd:

Sweet Potato Casserole  300 servings

12 half size disposable pans, ½ cup per serving, approx 24 servings per pan

 

140 cups mashed sweet potatoes (120# sweet potatoes, baked and peeled)

15 cups brown sugar  (5#, lightly packed)

80 eggs lightly beaten (6 dozen plus 8)

15 TBSP vanilla

12 1/2 cups whole milk (or more if needed)

5#  melted butter

 

Divide into 5 batches to combine in mixer.  Beat until smooth.

28 cups sweet potatoes

3 cups brown sugar

16 eggs, lightly beaten

3 TBSP vanilla

2 ½ cups whole milk

1# melted butter

 

Pour into a buttered  pans.  Bake at 325 for 45 min until hot.   Mix topping ingredients together and sprinkle over top.  Bake an additional 30 minutes to brown.

Topping:  (Add after 45 min of cooking so top doesn’t burn)

8 cups brown sugar (5 1/3# lightly packed)

4 cup flour

1 1/2# melted butter

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Roast Beef Dinner and White Pie Recipe

Great turnout for the roast beef dinner last night!  We served 600 people using 300 pounds of eye of round roasts, 72 pounds of fresh broccoli, 600 baked potatoes, 720 dinner rolls, and 80 pies.  There were hardly any leftovers!  Glad you could come to dinner and stay around for worship and education classes afterward.  That’s what this dinner ministry is all about:  serving food and fellowship in the midst of praising and worshiping God.

We can always use more volunteers, both in the dining room on Wednesdays, and in the kitchen on Tuesday mornings (9:30-12:30) and Wednesdays (1:00-8:00).

 No experience necessary!

Cooking is Fun! If you can stir a pot or chop an onion you’re qualified! Sign up today. Call Karen at 484-4858 or email at kschleusener@gmail.com

I’ve had recipe requests for the chocolate pie and the white pie we served this week.  The chocolate pie recipe is on a previous post, so go to the link and find it there:  Ash Wednesday Meal Recipes

Here’s the recipe for “White Pie”.  It may have other names, but it’s Uncle Rick’s favorite, and it’s always been called White Pie in our family.

WHITE PIE

1 9″ graham cracker crumb crust
1 8 oz package cream cheese
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whip it up in the mixer! Pour into the crust. Refrigerate at least 3 hours (if you can wait that long!)  Top with coolwhip if desired.

Sorry, no photos available (I was too busy cooking on Wednesday!)

 

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Calvary Carrot Cake Recipe

Who doesn’t love a great carrot cake with cream cheese frosting?  We made this for dinner last week and had lots of requests for the recipe, so here you go.  We made 600 pieces of cake (using 15 cake pans, 12x2x20 inch size), but I pared down the recipe to just one cake with 20 servings if you want to make this at home.  The large quantity recipe is below.  This recipe is definitely the best way I know of to eat your carrots!

Calvary Carrot Cake:  Makes 1 9×13 cake, cut 4×5 for 20 servings

1 1/3 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

3 eggs

1 1/3 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 1/3 cups grated carrots

½ cup crushed pineapple, drained

 

Sift together dry ingredients, set aside.

Beat eggs, add the sugar and oil, and beat until combined.

Stir in the flour mixture.  Fold in carrots and pineapple.  Mix well.  Turn into greased pans (flour pan if you want to remove from the pan before frosting).  Bake at 325* for 45 minutes.

 

Cream cheese frosting

4 oz butter, softened

8 oz cream cheese, softened

2 tsp vanilla

1 pound powdered sugar

Beat together butter, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth.  Add sugar gradually, beating until well mixed.

 

Recipe for 600 servings of Calvary Carrot Cake:

Make the recipe (5) times for 600 servings in 15 pans, 12x20x2 inch, cut each cake 5 x 8 into 40 pieces.

This recipe makes (3) 20 x 12 x 2 inch cakes.

8 cups flour

8 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp baking soda

4 tsp salt

8 tsp cinnamon

16 eggs

8 cups sugar

6 cups vegetable oil

8 cups grated carrots

3 cups crushed pineapple, drained (for 4x recipe, use 2 #10 cans)

 

Sift together dry ingredients. Beat eggs in large mixer, add the sugar and oil and beat until combined.  Stir in flour mixture.  Fold in carrots and pineapple.  Mix well.  Turn into greased  pans.  Bake at 325* for 45 minutes.

 

 Cream cheese frosting, For 15 cakes:

7 1/2# butter softened

15# cream cheese softened

10 Tbsp vanilla

26 1/4# powdered sugar

Beat together butter, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth.  Add sugar gradually, beating until well mixed.

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Meatloaf Dinner and Recipe

This week we served 470 for dinner at Calvary Lutheran.  It was a blustery, cold night and the presidential debate was on tv which possibly kept a few of our regulars home tonight.  The kitchen crew made 70 meatloaves (using 140 pounds of 90% lean ground beef), 12 full size pans of mashed potatoes, 60 pounds of peas, 36 pounds of lettuce for a big tossed salad, 40 dozen chocolate chip cookies, and 12 pans of pumpkin bars (cut into 480 bars).

“Mean and Lean Meatloaf” adapted from the Disney Family Cookbook

Here’s the recipe for 4 to 6 servings:

2# lean ground beef

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cups chopped onions

1/4 cup chopped green pepper

2 Tbsp steak sauce

1/2 cups catsup

1 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

½ tsp basil

½ tsp garlic powder

Whisk together for Sauce: (double this for extra thick sauce on top of your meatloaf)

1/2 cups catsup

3 Tbsp packed brown sugar

1 tsp ground mustard

Mix ingredients well, form into 1 loaf in a 8 1/2 inch loaf pan, or into smaller loaves on a baking sheet.  Bake at 325* convection, or 350* in regular oven, for 1 hour, covered with foil.  Top with sauce and bake an additional 15-30 minutes uncovered, until internal temp reaches 160*.  Let sit for 10 min. before slicing.

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Main Dish Recipes

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Cilantro Lime Rice Recipe

English: Fresh Cilantro (Coriander) Deutsch: V...

English: Fresh Cilantro (Coriander) (Wikipedia)

We had a special request to share the rice recipe from dinner this week:  “Supper was great. Thanks to everyone! The rice was awesome. Any chance we could get the recipe for it?”  Here you go:

Cilantro Lime Rice

About 40 servings per full size steamtable pan.

Make recipe 9 times for 360 servings.

 9 cups long grain white rice (about 4 ½#)  Total rice: 40 ½# or 81 cups

18 cups boiling water

 Bake rice at 350* for 45 minutes, covered.

 After cooking rice, add to each pan:

2 TBSP Lime Zest

½ cup Fresh lime juice

2 cups chopped cilantro

2 TBSP salt, or more, to taste

Cilantro Lime Rice:  8 servings:

Cook 2 cups of long grain rice (not minute rice) according to package directions

After cooking rice, add:

1 1/2 teaspoons grated lime zest

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Salt to taste

 

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Mexican Fiesta 9-26-12

HOORAY FOR TACOS!

I hope everyone enjoyed the taco buffet last night.  We had 530 at dinner, including 55 visitors.  The buffet line included marinated grilled chicken breast, ground beef with taco seasonings, and lots of accompaniments on the side to build your own soft tacos or nachos: rice, beans, diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, salsa, sliced black olives, sour cream, jalapenos, nacho cheese sauce, and tortilla chips.  8 big seedless watermelons were cut up and tossed with a little lime zest.

Here’s the recipe we used for the ground beef if you ever need to serve tacos to a really big crowd:

Ground Beef Soft Tacos (makes 400)

3 oz taco meat per taco

400 flour tortillas

80 pounds  85% lean ground beef

8# chopped frozen or fresh onions (Saute onions with the ground beef)

Combine seasoning mix and add to beef after browning:

1 cup dried minced garlic

3  cups chili powder

¾ cup ground cumin

1 cup dried oregano

1 TBSP cayenne pepper

¾ cup salt (add more to taste if needed after combining with meat)

 

And now for dessert ladies and gentlemen:

Brownies, Snickerdoodles and Lemon Bars

 

Calvary Lutheran Church Brownies

Makes 2 half size sheet pans, 60 brownies.   Make the recipe 6 times for 360 brownies

1# 8 oz unsweetened chocolate (Total: 9#)

2# 4 oz butter  (Total: 13 ½ #)

1# 14 oz eggs, or about 17 eggs   (Total: 8 ½ dozen)

4# 8 oz sugar  (Total: 27#)

1 oz vanilla  (Total: 6 oz)

1# 8 oz flour, sifted  (Total:  9#)

Melt chocolate and butter carefully over a pan of simmering water.  Do not exceed 110*.  Remove from heat and cool to room temp.

Combine eggs, sugar and vanilla and whip on high speed until thick and light in color.

Blend 1/3 of the egg mixture into the chocolate/butter to temper it, then fold in the remaining egg mixture.

Gently fold in the sifted flour.

Bake at 325* convection for 25-30 minutes or until firm to touch.

 

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Dessert Recipes, Main Dish Recipes

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Fried Chicken Dinner

Calvary Lutheran Church was lively last night!  The 3 year olds through 5th graders shared their songs they learned in Wednesday school with the congregation at 6:30 worship.  Special guests from Woyatan Lutheran Church came to have dinner with us and share their drum circle and dancing with the high school youth group.

Our fried chicken dinner was delicious, thanks to a little help from Family Thrift Center on Omaha Street, who fried up 1000 pieces of chicken and delivered it to us Wednesday afternoon.  We made mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, green beans, broccoli and chocolate cherry cake to go with the chicken, and there was not much left after serving 560 hungry people.  For the biscuits we used 4 cases (576 biscuits) of Sysco’s Bakerboy Butter flavored biscuit dough, which we put into the oven directly from the freezer and baked for 12 minutes.  We steamed the broccoli, boiled the green beans, and seasoned both with seasoned salt and a little melted butter.  Our mashed potatoes were mixed up using 22 packages of Excel Potato Pearls, hot water, and some cream cheese and sour cream added to each batch. Six gallons of gravy was mixed up in 2 large roasters using Sysco turkey gravy mix.  For dessert, we baked 14 chocolate cherry cakes in 12 x 20 x 2 inch cake pans on Tuesday morning.  We topped it with whipped cream or cool whip and a cherry (recipe below).

Chocolate Cherry Cake

560 servings: 14 cakes 12 x 20 x 2 inch pans.  Cut each in 40 pieces (8×5).  For one 9 x 13 cake, make 1/2 of the following recipe.

 

Each Cake: (Make 14 times)

2 pkg (18.25 oz each) devil’s food cake mix with pudding

6 eggs

2 Tbsp almond extract

2 21 oz cans cherry pie filling (use 5 1/2 #10 cans cherry pie filling)

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

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.  Spread glaze on cake while warm.

 

Glaze (for each cake): Melt chocolate with butter and milk.  Stir in sifted powdered sugar.

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 Tbsp butter

4 Tbsp milk

1 cup powdered sugar

Cut each cake into 40 pieces (8×5) and top with cool whip and a cherry.

Thanks for visiting us!

 

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BBQ Dinner Recap and Recipes

We had a good crowd of 410 for dinner this week.  With the weather getting nice and the church school year coming to a close, our attendance has dropped a little bit as it does every year at this time.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the BBQ sandwiches, baked beans, oriental coleslaw, and angel food cake with fresh strawberries and cream.  Here’s the recipe for the baked beans which is always a great side dish for a summer BBQ or potluck.

Southern Baked Beans (500 servings)

5 pounds bacon, cut into fourths (or 150 slices pre-cooked bacon)

18 #10 cans pork and beans or canned baked beans.  Drain most of juice off beans.

12 pounds finely chopped onions

16 cups  ketchup

16 cups  mustard

6 cups  molasses

Vegetable or olive oil for sauteing onions

Saute onions until caramelized. Mix ketchup, mustard, molasses and onions, then combine with pork and beans.  Pour into disposable foil roasting pans. 1 #10 can of beans will fit perfectly in a half size pan.  Top with bacon strips.

Bake at 325* for 1 hour until bacon is lightly browned. Stir beans well, stirring the bacon into the beans, and bake for at least 1 hour or longer until bubbly and juice is mostly evaporated.

Southern Baked Beans (12 servings)

4 slices bacon, cut in fourths

3 (16 oz) cans pork and beans

½ cup chopped onions

¼ cup ketchup

¼ cup mustard

2 tablespoons molasses

Vegetable oil for sautéing onions.

Saute onions until caramelized, then mix with remaining ingredients.  Pour into 9×13 casserole dish.  Bake at 300 degrees for 1 ½ hours.

 

For dessert we made angel food cake in 8 full size sheet pans, using 3 boxes of angel food cake mix per pan.  The pans were lined with parchment paper first, which made for easy removal from the pans after running a knife around the edges.

Angel Food Cake Parfaits with Fresh Strawberries and Cream (500 servings)

24 (15 oz) boxes angel food cake mix, prepared as directed for full sheet pans

32 quarts fresh strawberries, hulled and diced

3 gallons heavy whipping cream, whipped with powdered sugar added to taste (lightly sweetened)

Tear or cut angel food cake into small pieces, and layer with strawberries and whipped cream.  Delicious!

 

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Dessert Recipes, Side Dish Recipes

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