Sunday Dinner (Communion Season 2011)

What a great way to end our Annual Communion Season with a thought provoking sermon by Dr. James Baird followed by a good ol' Southern pork barbeque! I chose the barbeque because it is so tasty and very inexpensive option to serve my large church family.


I purchases 13 pork shoulders which already smoked/grilled from my local Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Pooler, GA for $17 each(7-8 pounder). OK, I'm a food snob and very picky when it comes to purchasing already cooked foods. But Mr. Marvin at Pooler Piggly Wiggly does a fantastic job grilling these pork shoulders and I am always very confident to serve these. If you don 't grill or don't have the time to grill, look for a place who can do the job for you.

These shoulders are double wrapped in foil, then baked for additional 4-5hours in low heat for easy chopping.


Cheryl, my young kitchen staff is a great softball player, and I am so happy to have her arm strength to chop 13 of these. That's 90 pounds of meat. Yeah, don't mess with Cheryl when she has the cleaver in her hand.



Working in a commercial kitchen is not for the weak. And this is one of many ways I get my daily exercise. These canned beans are opened upside down for a reason. At the grocery store the cans are stored right side up, which causes the beans to settle to the bottom and liquid on top. It's easier to pour the beans out of the cans when bottom lid is opened.


Along with canned baked beans, I added sauteed onions, bacon bits, cooked black and red kidney beans and extra sauce made with ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and brown sugar. Click here for the recipe.


Simple Lemon Coleslaw made with white cabbages and tri-colored peppers. Here is the recipe.


And for dessert, we made simple caramel cakes. I adore caramel sauce; butter, heavy cream, and brown sugar, what's not to like?


Simple yellow cake drizzled, no, swimming in caramel sauce was so delicious!


Thanks to Dr. James Baird's great teaching and preaching this weekend, our souls were well fed! And it was an honor for my kitchen staff and I to be part of serving Dr. Baird and this wonderful congregation.

Sunday Fellowship Dinner Menu
For 300

Pork BBQ (13 pork shoulders, 90 pounds); 1 1/2 gallons of BBQ sauce (Cattleman's Tangy Gold)
Lemon Coleslaw (25 lbs of cabbage, 12 tricolor peppers); shallots omitted
Three Bean Casserole (5-#10 cans canned beans, 6 lbs dried black beans cooked, 4 lbs dried kidney beans cooked, 6 lbs of bacon cooked & chopped, 4 large onions sauteed)
Garden Salad with Ranch Dressing (30 heads of Romaine, 4 lbs of cherry tomatoes, 4 English Cucumbers, 12 cups of ranch dressing)
Watermelon slices (4 large melons, sliced)
Caramel Cake (5 full size pans = 225 pieces)
Chicken Nuggets for babies (8 lbs frozen nuggets heated)
**since we have so many babies/toddlers, we always serve either chicken nuggets or corn dogs

General Prep List

A week prior:
Order pork shoulders
Make cakes and freeze (only the cake, caramel sauce is made later)

3 days prior
Julienne cabbages, store in zip lock baggies, refrigerate
Bell peppers, halved, cored, store in zip lock baggies, refrigerate
Make Ranch Dressing
Cook black beans, red beans (soak them the day before)
Slice bacon and cook until crisp, cool and store in baggies then refrigerate
Saute chopped onions in a little bacon fat, cool, store in baggies, refrigerate
Make bean sauce, baggie, then refrigerate
Measure caramel sauce ingredients store in fridge or leave room temperature covered
Juice and zest lemons, bag and store in fridge

On the day of event:
7 hours prior
Bake pork shoulders in oven 325 degrees F. until well heated through and shoulder bone fall off the meat
Lightly salt sliced cabbages with salt, set it in colander for about an hour
Make coleslaw dressing
Assemble baked beans, add sauce
Wash and julienne colored peppers
Thaw cakes


4 hours prior
Wash cabbage in cold water, let water drain completely, paper towel dry, add dressing and toss with peppers, let flavor meld for several hours
Make caramel sauce
Cut cake and drizzle caramel sauce; let cool
Make tea concentrate

2-3 hours prior
Bake bean casserole
Cut and wash romaine, prep salad
Chop pork shoulder, cover with foil and keep warm
Slice watermelon, cover with plastic wrap

1 hour to serving
Heat BBQ sauce
Toss coleslaw a few times
Toss salad (15 minutes before serving)
Table set up

Note: Every group, depending on the age, will eat more or less than my church family. You will need to adjust the amount for your own group you are serving. For more info on cooking for a big group, read "Event Planning" and "Cooking Tips" in this blog. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me. :)