St. Martha's Breakfast Bistro "Autumn"

I belong to a women's group at church that is associated with Episcopal Church Women (ECW). This group was so lively and vigorous when I moved to the parish I attend. It is still going, but so many of the women who came fifteen years ago have either moved away, "retired" from the group, or even died. Not enough women have joined to make up the difference, either.

The main focus of our group is gathering funds to provide outreach to both our local community, and to the wider world. Some ways of doing this seem unchangeable - we have our three rummage sales a year, which garner our group money for our outreach ministry, provide a way for parishioners to winnow out serviceable clothing and household goods they no longer use, and offer a way for bargain hunters and bargain needers to purchase a wide variety of items. Other fundraisers have come and gone, or, in some cases, just gone.

Someone commented about our parish once that it was the catering center for the diocese. An interesting way of saying that we have a lot of great cooks in our church and a generously sized parish hall to seat diners. The ECW holds bake sales 5 times a year, including one in February that features soups and dips for football fans, and everyone else, of course. We used to have a spaghetti dinner in the fall, but we dropped that for lack of diners, and we likewise ended our spring potluck supper, which went through a couple of morphs (dinner theater, Italian night, sub sale) before dying away altogether.

We tried a new food-fest yesterday, serving a brunch after church. It was certainly not the fanciest brunch in town, but it was good, real food (no Franken-food), and fairly priced, and I don't think anyone went away hungry. There were even a good number of requests for follow-up, so I think this one will be seen again, maybe twice a year. It is a lot of work, but in deference to our aging and shrinking membership, we made this one as disposable as possible to minimize clean-up.

Since I did the menu, and had a number of requests, I am posting links to the recipes for the food that was served.

Bon Appetit!

Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole (I substituted turkey sausage, don't eat pork)
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=554787

Vegetable-and-Cheese Strata (I upped the artichokes, decreased the mushrooms)
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=520191

Cherry-Chocolate Muffins (baked mini-muffins, 375F for 15 minutes)
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1875321

Mini Spicy Cheese Muffins
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1911319

Cranberry-Orange Muffins (baked mini-muffins, 375F for 15 minutes)
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1120336

Lemon Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins (baked mini-muffins, 375F for 15 minutes)
http://www.quakeroats.com/cooking-and-recipes/content/recipes/recipe-detail.aspx?recipeId=546

Autumn Fruit Salad (I omitted the banana, in deference to my sister)
http://fp.enter.net/~rburk/salads/fruitsalads/autumnfr.txt