Serving others - and themselves

There's a sophisticated air at the annual chowder cook-off in Newport, R.I., and a down-home feel at the West Texas barbecue cook-off in Lubbock.

But here in the City of Brotherly Love, you'd better stand back when local church ladies compete in the annual Soup Kitchen Cook-Off.

Last week's contest, sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger, challenged volunteers from the nearly 100 member soup kitchens and food pantries to compete for bragging rights.

Year-round, these church ladies (and a few gentlemen) prepare large quantities of meat-and-potatoes meals using donated ingredients, or they distribute bags of groceries to families in their communities.

But last week they took time out to put their personal best to the test at Resurrection Baptist in Parkside. From North, South and West Philadelphia they came; from Mount Airy and from Germantown, bearing main dishes, salads and desserts.

Pat Davis of the Open Door Sanctuary Kitchen brought a vegetarian taco salad made with seitan; and Curtis Robinson Sr. of Mount Carmel Baptist Church in West Philadelphia brought the shrimp scampi that has made him especially welcome at all sorts of gatherings.

Marlene Harley of Living Water United Church of Christ in North Philadelphia set a new record: In the salads category, her signature chicken salad won first place and her potato salad took second.

Renai Ellison, of the MyPHL17 television program Better Philly, judged the first two categories while chef and cookbook author Delilah Winder, of Delilah's Southern Cuisine, judged the desserts.

After that, the contest entries were served for lunch.

There was sweet potato pie, beef tenderloin, honey-barbecue chicken, raspberry pasta, mango salad, fruit pie, double chocolate cake and Doris Shepard's prize-winning Six Layer Coconut Cake. (See recipe.)

No broccoli, no spinach, not even any collards.

As they ate, the volunteers chatted about the way eating together and rejoicing in traditional recipes bound their families together - as the lack of food splits today's families apart.

As a girl, Rose Stephens, 87, cooked while her parents and older siblings worked their North Carolina farm. That's where she perfected her rum cake, her chopped barbecue and her sweet potato jacks.

"Not flapjacks. These were jacks," she says, describing a sort of pancake that was folded over like a stromboli and then deep fried. Not a low-cal/low-carb dish, but . . .

"I didn't feel burdened," Stephens said. "It was an honor to cook for the family."

Marlene Felton's corn pudding took first place in the main dish category and her cream cheese pound cake won second place in desserts. (See both recipes.)

Felton, 56, and her husband Derek, 58, left their day jobs a few years ago to make serving the hungry the family's full-time occupation. Fresh Start, the nonprofit the Feltons founded in Overbrook, gives groceries to 400 families a month.

But Fresh Start is also a resource center, says Derek Felton, who grew up in poverty and remembers going to school without breakfast. He went on to become a chef for Sheraton Inns. Each of Fresh Start's monthly hot breakfasts features a self-help workshop directed at matching individual needs with existing resources. That way, Felton says, Fresh Start helps get people off drugs, into safe housing, and prepared for new careers.

Pat Davis of the Open Door Sanctuary said she sees more and more families in need of clothing too. It's sobering, she says.

After lunch, coalition officials distributed $140,000 in checks to 98 member food pantries and soup kitchens - a portion of the $250,000 raised at the Coalition's Walk Against Hunger in April. The $140,000 will be used for food, equipment or supplies at each program. The remainder of the money will expand the capacity of the feeding programs and perhaps bring more of the estimated 500 similar Philadelphia-based programs into the coalition.

Each dollar is needed, said Anne Ayella, who chairs the coalition's board of directors. This year the hunger walk netted only about half of what it had in 2008. At the same time, demand for food at Philadelphia pantries is up 33 percent and food costs are up 20 percent.

"People told me: 'We can't do all that we used to do,' " said Esther McCall, 64, a captain of the hunger walk for 10 years.

Erskine Dale, 72, of St. Philip's Evangelical Lutheran Church in West Philadelphia, said it breaks his heart when his program gets calls from sick shut-ins who need food in between their scheduled monthly deliveries.

"The worst is when we run out of food and have to turn people away," he said. "And that happens."

"To us, it's not an obligation. It's a privilege and it's a pleasure to help people."

Makes 8 to 12 servings

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10 medium sweet potatoes

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 sticks butter (12 tablespoons)

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon coconut flavor

1/2 teaspoon vanilla nut flavor

1/3 cup evaporated milk

2 eggs

1 prebaked pie crust

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1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Mix all the ingredients together and put in a prebaked pie crust.

3. Bake for one hour or until brown.

Per serving (based on 12): 362 calories, 4 grams protein, 46 grams carbohydrates, 21 grams sugar, 18 grams fat, 68 milligrams cholesterol, 242 milligrams sodium, 3 grams dietary fiber.

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Makes 8 to 10 servings

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For the cake:

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 cups cake flour, sifted

1 tablespoon baking powder

4 eggs, separated

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the filling:

1 small box of LEM pie filling, prepared a day in advance (or substitute Jell-o brand lemon pie filling)

For the cream cheese frosting:

3 tablespoons butter, softened

2 (3-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tablespoon lemon flavoring

Grated zest of one lemon

Small package shredded coconut

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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease and flour 3 (9-inch) cake pans.

2. Cream butter. Gradually add sugar, and beat 1 to 2 minutes with electric mixer until light and fluffy.

3. In a separate bowl, sift the flour with the baking powder and set aside.

4. Add egg yolks one at a time to the creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.

5. Add flour mixture, milk and vanilla, alternating a bit of each into the creamed mixture and beating after each addition until smooth.

6. Beat egg whites and fold in the batter.

7. Pour batter into the three prepared pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove from pans and finish cooling on racks.

8. Meanwhile, make the frosting: Put butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and lemon flavoring in bowl and beat until smooth. Stir in lemon zest.

9. Put the filling on the cakes and assemble: Spread a coating of LEM filling on each cake. Let sit. Add a second coating, covering the edges of the cake as well as the top.

10. Assemble layer, frost, and sprinkle top and sides of cake with coconut.

Note: Doris Shepard uses only Swans Down Cake Flour. She starts with the 1-2-3-4 Cake recipe on the back of the box and makes it her own.

Per serving (based on 10): 809 calories, 8 grams protein, 120 grams carbohydrates, 76 grams sugar, 34 grams fat, 164 milligrams cholesterol, 361 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber EndText

Makes 6 to 8 servings

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2 pounds jumbo shrimp (fresh or frozen), deveined

1 pound spaghetti

Extra virgin olive oil for saute

1 small onion, chopped

4 to 5 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon basil, fresh or dried

Salt and black pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Oregano to taste

Pecorino Romano cheese, grated, to taste

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1. Remove shells from shrimp and boil the shells in a medium pot of water for 15 or 20 minutes to create stock. If using frozen shrimp, thaw and pat dry.

2. Fill a large pot of fresh water for spaghetti, add a dash of salt and a sprinkle of olive oil to the water, bring to a boil and cook the spaghetti.

3. Meanwhile, saute onion and garlic in oil, add shrimp and cook briefly. Add about 4 ounces of drained stock, add salt and pepper to taste. Add basil, red pepper and oregano. Add cheese to the pan and stir.

4. Drain the pasta well and put on a serving platter or individual warmed plates. Top pasta with scampi, serve with additional cheese.

Per serving (based on 8): 424 calories, 32 grams protein, 45 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram sugar, 12 grams fat, 176 milligrams cholesterol, 209 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary fiber EndText

Makes 12 servings

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2 large (15 ounce) cans creamed corn

1 (15 ounce) can whole corn, drained

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 heaping tablespoons cornstarch

1 stick butter

1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk

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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix creamed and whole corn in a large bowl. Add the sugar and set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, mix two eggs and two heaping tablespoons of cornstarch and beat until well blended, creamy and smooth.

4. Fold the egg mixture into the corn mixture.

5. Melt one stick of butter in a medium-sized rectangular Pyrex pan (approximately 9-by-11) in the microwave or the oven. (Do not use Pyrex on the stovetop.) Pour most, but not all of the melted butter into the batter. Leave a coating of butter in the pan.

6. Add the evaporated milk to the batter and blend.

7. Pour the batter into the pan. The butter will rise to the top and when that happens, very gently distribute it across the top of the pudding. Do not stir. The butter on the top will give the pudding a golden brown color.

8. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 50 to 65 minutes, until the pudding is brown at the edges and bubbles on the top. The pudding will continue to cook as it cools, but the middle should not be too loose.

Per serving: 225 calories, 5 grams protein, 29 grams carbohydrates, 17 grams sugar, 11 grams fat, 64 milligrams cholesterol, 273 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber.

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Makes 10 servings

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3 sticks butter

1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese

3 cups sugar

5 eggs

3 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

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1. Grease and flour a tube pan; preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Put the butter and the cream cheese in a bowl and let them come to room temperature.

3. Using a hand mixer, whip the butter and cheese together with the sugar until fluffy. Add the 5 eggs one at a time to the batter, mixing well after each addition.

4. In a separate bowl, combine flour with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add that mixture to the batter and blend well, scraping the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla and stir.

5. Put batter in the prepared tube pan. Batter will be thick at this point because there is no liquid in the recipe, so use a rubber spatula or wide wooden spoon and gently spread the batter evenly in the pan.

6. Bake at 325 for about 90 minutes, until the top of the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

7. Remove cake from oven and let cool on a rack in the pan for at least 10 minutes. Then remove cake from pan and continue to cool.

Per serving: 722 calories, 9 grams protein, 87 grams carbohydrates, 58 grams sugar, 38 grams fat, 204 milligrams cholesterol, 357 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber.

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