Our Famous Church Suppers

really are "All You Can Eat"

 Have you ever been to a church supper? Well this is where you can have great home cooked food, and “yes, all you can eat!” We have three resident chefs who usually head up these suppers, each with their own unique styles. (Chef Luanne, Chef Annie, Chef Chris). It truly is a lot of work to put one of these suppers together. If you are in charge of the dining room, it takes about 6-8 people to help serve and clean up, and it takes at least that many to work in the kitchen to help prepare this wonderful bounty of food. Let me give you a sample of what you might enjoy when you join us…Bake stuffed chicken breast, Baked Ham, Roast Pork, a great Italian night of pasta and soup. All of these menus come with all the fixings (potatoes, vegetable, salad or coleslaw, all types of homemade breads and the desserts are to die for!) At our last supper, Chef Luanne made the most incredible creamy rice pudding served warm with whipped cream and that dash of cinnamon to finish it off. We’ve had apple crisp, strawberry shortcake, apple knobby cake, Brownies and Ice Cream just to mention a few. There are two suppers that we put on that take at least three days to prepare. I’ll never forget the time we decided to put on a “Polish Supper”. Chef Chris and Kathy Peura were not quite sure how much rice to make for the three hundred golumpki’s we had to roll. Well, we had enough rice left over to help feed the Community Meal Program twice and we usually feed anywhere from 35-60 people. Since then we’ve learned how to measure and make rice! I think our most famous supper is our “Sugar on Snow”. I believe we (the Church) have been serving and preparing this supper for the last 60 years. As far as I know, the menu has always been the same…..Corned Beef Hash, Harvard Beets, Baked Beans, Coleslaw, breads and then that wonderful Sugar on Snow. If you aren’t familiar to what this is, let me explain as my mouth waters. First the process may start months before the supper. Mark and Annie Fisk wait for just the right type of snow to scoop up and put in large plastic bags and put in any freezer they can find. The wonderful rich maple syrup comes from the Ripley Farm in Montague. The syrup is heated up to a certain temperature. Everyone at the supper gets a bowl of nice white clean snow and a cup of hot maple syrup. Most people pour a small amount at a time and this syrup turns into golden brown taffy that you slowly lick off the spoon. The other option is to make a well in the snow, put the cup in the snow and stir till you get a creamy maple cream. Either way, you’re a winner when you have this sweet delicacy. You cannot serve Sugar on Snow without the wonderful homemade donuts the ladies of the church make. Five of us get to church early on the morning of the supper and start rolling the dough for the donuts. We have a very special recipe for these donuts with a secret ingredient that was passed down to us by our beloved Aggie Williams (we hope we are making her proud)! We usually make around 60 dozen donuts to serve and to sell for everyone to enjoy later. Our prices for our suppers are reasonable (usually around $9), and back in the 50’s they were 25 cents, so inflation has risen our prices, but not too bad for 60 years later! So I hope I’ve given you all food for thought! Enjoy!

Fondly,

Jackie Beauchesne