It’s time to get your appetites ready for HAVEN’s 8th annual Men in the Kitchen event to be held Thursday, April 4 at St. Stephen’s United Church of Christ in Merrill. This year HAVEN welcomes five new cooks as well as one returnee from 2011. Each volunteer chef has created a distinctive menu including soup, salad or appetizer, a specialty entree with side dishes, and a grand finale dessert. The cooks purchase all their ingredients and prepare their menus to serve a table of eight people. Reservations are taken according to the menu each diner selects. This year’s menus represent a variety of cuisines including Greek, Italian, Polish, Southern, and seafood.
The event begins at 5 p.m. with a social hour, during which diners will enjoy live music and have time to browse through the display of silent auction items and make bids if they would like. Over 30 businesses from throughout Lincoln County have generously donated products, services and gift certificates, providing a wide selection for bidders. Dinner will be served starting at 6 p.m. with a short program to follow, along with the announcement of silent auction winners.
HAVEN gratefully acknowledges this year’s chefs and presents their menus:
• Gerald Hersil serving a cheese appetizer, parmesan chicken, pasta, Italian salad, cheese garlic bread, and his famous chocolate chip/peanut butter cookies.
• Scott Hass serving Santa Fe corn chowder, pulled pork tacos with apple salsa, shrimp and andouille jambalaya, cornbread, and peach cobbler.
• Father Mike serving tossed salad, dinner rolls, marinated pork chops, pierogies with mashed potato filling, asparagus and corn, and a fruit cup medley in a white chocolate ganache.
• Jim Becker serving a relish tray, garden salad, Italian bread, Italian sausage and peppers, four cheese and meat lasagna, and lemon dream dessert.
• Buck Kipper serving crab cakes, cream of mushroom soup, salad, salmon in lime butter sauce, asparagus and wild rice, and flan.
• Tony Kusserow serving a Grecian meal of chickpea keftedes with mint, crusty country bread, new Greek salad, Grecian stuffed pork loin, and Greek honey puffs along with Greek coffee.
Tickets for Men In The Kitchen are $35 per person, and group reservations for your favorite cook are welcomed. Please call HAVEN at 715-536-1300 for tickets or more details.
HAVEN (Household Abuse Victims Emergency Network) is a non-profit, United Way affiliate serving Lincoln County and providing help for those affected by personal violence including domestic abuse, sexual assault, child abuse and elder abuse. For help or more information, please call 715-536-1300. Calls are answered 24 hours.