A Hearty Meal

We served 237 meals today at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's Wednesday Community Meal and even had some extra food that we packaged up for our guests to take with them.

When I asked one guest if he wanted extra food to go he said, "I'm feeling nice and full but I would like to have extra for later." It was a hearty meal today and I'm not surprised it left guests satisfied.

Here's what we served:

Hot soup garnished with bread and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. The soup was donated to us by Good Samaritan Hospital.

Green salad with apples, grapes, nuts and dried fruit. The apples and grapes came from The Oregon Food Bank.

Chicken, rice pilaf, roasted vegetables and cheddar biscuits. The chicken and rice came from Good Samaritan Hospital. The biscuit mix came from The Oregon Food Bank. Trinity Episcopal Cathedral purchased the cheese that we added to the biscuits. We decided to add the cheese because we didn't have any butter to serve with them. The vegetables came from Food Front Cooperative Grocery in Hillsdale and The Oregon Food Bank.

Strawberry shortcake. Trinity Episcopal Cathedral provided the ingredients to make the homemade dessert.

Cherry Almond Cream Cake

This cherry almond cream cake is pretty and elegant which is why it's perfect for my friend Linda's birthday.

The flavors of cherry and almond go so well together and are enhanced even more by the creamy vanilla buttercream.

The buttercream is piped in a rose pattern and is a simple design element that adds lots of texture and interest.  I added the tiniest drop of pink coloring to tint the frosting and and added a few fresh ripe cherries to decorate the top of the cake.

Almond Cake
(makes 3 layers)
3/4 cup butter, unsalted
2 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
3/4 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease, flour and line with parchment paper three round 8 -inch cake pans.

Greasing and flouring the cake pans as well as adding a parchment round to the bottoms will ensure that your cakes won't stick.

Beat the butter with the almond extract. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, milk and yogurt or sour cream.

Add the baking powder and salt and mix. Finally, add the flour and beat until thoroughly combined.

Pour the batter evenly into the three cake pans and bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until done and toothpick inserted comes out clean.


Cherry Filling
1 pound (16 ounces) bag frozen cherries
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Heat the frozen cherries, sugar and almond extract in a saucepan over medium heat until simmering. Use a potato masher to smash them and break them apart. Keep a watch over them and periodically give them a stir.

In a small bowl whisk together the cream and cornstarch. When the cherry  mixture is simmering, add the cream mixture and whisk constantly over medium heat for two to three minutes until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and let cool completely before using.

Remove the filling from the heat and let it cool completely before using.

Vanilla Cream Buttercream
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons vanilla
3 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
one tiny drop of pink coloring


*Note: The frosting base can be made a day in advance since it needs to cool to room temperature before the butter is added.

In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the milk and half of the sugar until simmering.

In the meantime, in a small bowl combine the cream, the other half of the sugar and cornstarch. Mix well with a whisk.

When the milk is simmering,  pour about half of it into the cream mixture and whisk well. Add it back to the milk in the saucepan and heat, stirring constantly until the mixture becomes very thick.

Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla. Put the mixture into a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the mixture cool completely.

When the buttercream base is cool, transfer it to a mixer and whip until smooth, add the butter a tablespoon at a time and whip until light and fluffy.  Add the tiny drop of pink coloring and whip again.

Just a tiny drop of pink food coloring is all you need.

To Assemble:
Place one cooled cake layer on a cake plate. Top with 1/2 of the cherry filling. Add a layer of buttercream.

Add the second cooled cake layer and top with the remaining cherry filling and another layer of buttercream.

The second layer just needs a coating of buttercream before it's ready for the final cake layer.

Add the final layer and add a thin coat of buttercream to the entire cake to seal in the cherry filling.
This coat is called a crumb coat and won't look pretty, but don't worry. Put the cake in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes to firm up before adding more buttercream.

The first layer of buttercream isn't so pretty but it seals in the cherry filling.

Remove the cake from the refrigerator and add another thin coat of buttercream to the entire cake to better cover where the cherry filling is showing through.

Looking much better after a second coat of buttercream. Now it's ready for the roses.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a #30 Wilton star tip with buttercream and pipe roses over the entire cake starting at the bottom and working up to the top of the cake. Don't overfill your piping bag. It's better to just refill it a few times.

To form a rose just go around in a circle to form the rose and end in the center. It's surprisingly easy.

Go around the cake and fill in any open spaces with buttercream.

There's a blank spot on the top edge of the cake.

Filled in and looking much better.

Top your cake with a few stemmed fresh cherries.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

An oatmeal raisin cookie is one sweet divisive treat. I've found when I serve them at events people either absolutely love them or won't touch them, and I think it's about fifty-fifty.

I personally am pro oatmeal raisin — I like them because they are hearty and I like the chewy texture of a cooked raisin. It's nature's gummy bear.

This recipe calls for shortening instead of butter because it makes a chewier cookie. There are four full cups of oatmeal in one batch and lots of chewy raisins. Yum!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
(makes 4 dozen cookies)

1 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1 1/2 cups raisins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl cream together the shortening, sugars and vanilla.  Add the eggs, baking soda and salt. Mix well. Add the flour and mix again. Finally stir in the oatmeal and raisins.

Scoop 1-inch balls and place 1-inch apart on lightly greased or parchment lined sheetpans. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Let the cookies cool a bit on the sheetpan before transferring them to cooling racks.

Strawberry Shortcake

The strawberry shortcake assembly line.

The strawberry shortcake fundraiser for Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's Food Ministries was a success thanks to the volunteers who made it, those who purchased it and a foolproof recipe from my friend and fellow volunteer Linda.

When I was trying to decided what recipe to use (I needed a simple recipe that could be multiplied and would be easy to serve), Linda brought her Southern Living Cookbook to show me her favorite recipe. Just looking at the cookbook and recipe, there were telltale signs that it was the one for our fundraiser.

Linda's treasured cookbook.

The best strawberry shortcake recipe. When I'm not making shortcake for a crowd, I'd like to assemble the cake like the one in the book. Linda says it's a cake that always impresses her guests.

For one, the cookbook opened right to the strawberry shortcake page which let me know it was the most used recipe in the book. And two, the page was spattered which is a definite sign of a hit recipe.

Perfect looking cookbooks don't impress me one bit because that means nothing was ever made from them. I prefer cookbooks with worn spines, torn pages and notes scribbled in the margins because that means they have the best recipes.

We made nine hotel pans of shortcake, each filled with a double recipe. The resulting shortcake was a wonderful combination of a biscuit and a cake. It held up against the juicy strawberries and it had just a hint of nutmeg which I thought was a nice addition.

The Southern Living recipe calls for beating egg whites, brushing them onto the top of the shortcake and then adding a sprinkle of granulated sugar just before baking. Linda says this step adds a nice sweet crunch to the top of the shortcake. Because of a shortage of time though, we decided to skip the egg whites and just added a sprinkle of sugar. Our shortcut worked well but I still would like to make the recipe again using the egg whites.

Here's the original recipe from Southern Living:

Strawberry Shortcake
1 quart strawberries, sliced
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened and divided
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
dash nutmeg
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs separated
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup sifted powdered sugar
whole strawberries

Combine sliced strawberries with 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup sugar. Stir gently and chill 1 to 2 hours. Drain.

Butter two 9-inch cake pans with 1/2 tablespoon butter each; set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, 1/4 cup sugar and nutmeg in a large mixing bowl.  Cut in remaining butter until it resembles coarse meal.

Combine milk, egg yolks. Beat well.  Add to flour mixture and stir with fork til soft dough forms.

Pat out dough evenly into greased cake pans. The dough will be sticky so moisten fingers with water as necessary to help. 

Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry.  Brush surfaces of dough with egg whites and sprinkle with 1/4 cup sugar.

Bake at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until layers are golden brown. The layers will be thin.

Beat whipping cream until foamy, add powdered sugar and beat until soft peaks form. 

To assemble:
Place one cake layer on a serving plate and top with half of the whipped cream. Arrange half of the sliced strawberries on top.

Repeat the procedure by topping with the second layer, adding whipped cream (reserve a bit for the top of the cake) and the remaining berries. Add the reserved whipped cream to the very top and garnish with whole strawberries.

Apple Cinnamon Bread

This classic cinnamon bread is spiked with chunks of apple and will make your house smell oh so good as it bakes.

It's also a real treat to eat. I especially enjoy eating a slice in the morning, hot out of the oven and with a cup of coffee.

If you don't have a loaf pan, you can bake the bread free-form on a sheetpan lined with parchment. I prefer Pyrex glass loaf pans to metal pans for baking bread. They are inexpensive, bake evenly, never rust and wash up beautifully.

Apple Cinnamon Bread
(makes one very large loaf or two medium-sized loafs)

1 1/4 cups warm water
1 package yeast
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
4 plus cups flour
2 cups diced apple
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add the 2 tablespoons of sugar and the oil.

In a large bowl mix 2 cups of the flour with the salt. Add the yeast mixture and stir. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time until a soft dough forms.  Add the diced apple and knead the dough, adding additional flour as necessary.

Let the dough rise covered in a warm spot for 1 hour or until it's double in bulk.

The dough before rising.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease a loaf pan. Mix the 1/4 cup of sugar with the tablespoon of cinnamon.

On a floured board, pat the dough (if making two loafs, divide in the dough in half) into a rectangle and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. Roll the dough up to form a loaf and pinch the edges to seal.

Pat the dough into a rectangle and sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar.

Roll the dough to form a loaf.

Pinch the edges together and place in a greased loaf pan.

Place the dough in the loaf pan and let rise for 15 to 20 minutes. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until done and golden brown.

A large loaf just out of the oven.

Strawberry Shortcake Social

This Sunday, May 5, volunteers from the Wednesday Community Meal will sell just-baked homemade strawberry shortcake at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (147 NW 19th Ave, Portland, OR 97209) after the 10 a.m. service. 

It's a great time to enjoy a fresh strawberry treat, socialize and support feeding the hungry in our community.

The strawberry shortcake will cost $3 a serving and every penny made goes to support the Cathedral's food ministries. 

Since January 2013,  4,332 lunches have been served at the Wednesday Community Meal and 2,503 bags of food have been handed out (Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.). 

What I love most about the program is that everyone is welcome and treated with kindness and respect. 

Besides being a place to get a hot nutritious meal, the Wednesday lunch is a comfortable place to relax and socialize. The meal feeds the spirit as well as the body and that is true for both the volunteers and the guests. 

Please join us this Sunday.

Quick Enchiladas

Today's meal of quick enchiladas, grapes (from the Oregon Food Bank), chips and salsa.

With just hours to get a meal ready for hundreds at the Wednesday Community Meal, we have learned that sometimes we have to take shortcuts to keep our sanity. Today was one of those days.

Enchiladas are one of our most popular meals but rolling each one takes way too much time and focus.  Our solution today was to make quick enchiladas by layering the ingredients in a hotel pan just like a lasagne.

We began by putting a bit of salsa on the bottom of the pans and adding a layer of flour tortillas, seasoned refried beans, black olives and cheese.

Then we added another layer of tortillas and a rice, beef and black bean filling.

Adding the second layer of rice, beef and black bean filling to build our enchiladas. The pan in the back has the first layer of refried beans, cheese and olives.

Finally, we added more tortillas, a homemade enchilada sauce, cheese and black olives.

Just 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven and they were ready to cut and serve with a dollop of sour cream and a side of chips and salsa. Delicioso!

I do have to give a special shout out to dedicated volunteer Rieko who cut the enchiladas into perfect even-sized squares.  That kind of care and attention makes a huge difference and means so much to our guests.

We served 290 meals in the dining room today along with soup, salad and dessert.