Evora Wheeler has a winner
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Kathy O’Mara came in to the Gazette last week with some excellent news: Evora Wheeler was a winner in a Wichita food contest.
“The Church Basement Ladies” is being presented by the Crown Uptown Dinner Theater, which incidentally, is owned by ESU alumnus Ted Morris. As a promotion, they did a recipe contest inviting all the churches in the Wichita area to submit a recipe for a hot dish casserole recipe (which goes along with the theme of the play). Winning dishes would be served by a professional chef each week of the play’s run.
Evora said that each year her First Congregational Church ladies plan a spring trip and they decided to go to the Crown Uptown and see the play. So the theater sent information to First Congregational on the recipe contest. Each church could only submit one recipe, so Kathy O’Mara took the names of those who were interested, put them in a hat, and one lucky participant — Evora — was drawn. She decided to make her Bierock Casserole.
Evora and Kathy showed up at the theater at 2:15 p.m. that Saturday afternoon. Evora said, “It was a frantic day for me, because I had Kiwanis pancake day from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., then I went home, cooked the casserole and at 11:30 we went on down.”
The judges were from Wichita television stations, newspapers and the Convention and Visitors Bureau. The theater’s executive chef presented each dish, which was judged on visual appeal as well as taste. Ten of the 20 finalists were chosen to be featured during the play. Evora’s hot dish will be served from April 21 through April 27.
Other winning recipes were Super Pepperoni Dish, Hot Chicken Salad, Funeral Potatoes, Chicken Fajita Casserole, Zucchini Parmesan Casserole, Hamburger Casserole, Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole, Ground Beef Casserole and Chicken Bruschetta Casserole.
Evora will get a cookbook with all the recipes in it. These cookbooks will be for sale at the show. She also received complimentary tickets to a matinee lunch and performance. “It was a fun thing ... very interesting ... and nice to meet the other church ladies,” she said.
EVORA’S BIEROCK
CASSEROLE
2 pkgs. crescent rolls
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. sausage
1 can cream of chicken soup
4 cups cabbage
1 cup sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 inch chunk of Velveeta, cubed
Cook the ground beef and sausage and drain. Shred the cabbage in a food processor. Add soup and cabbage and heat through.
Spread one package of crescent rolls over the bottom of a 9-x-13-inch baking dish or pan. Pour the meat and cabbage mixture over this crust and spread it out. Sprinkle with the cheeses.
Make a top crust by covering with the second package of crescent rolls. Evora rolls them with a rolling pin to remove the perforation marks.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until light brown. Serve piping hot.
“Church Basement Ladies” is a musical about the “steel magnolias” in every congregation, where behind-the-scenes women work tirelessly to keep stomachs full and coffee hot for everything from weddings to pot lucks to funerals. According to the Crown Uptown Theater Web site, “Church Basement Ladies” is full of good clean laughs, memorable and hysterical characters, wonderful clever music, and nostalgia.
Performances are Thursday through Sunday evenings with select matinees starting April 10 and running 10 weeks. Ticket information is available at (316) 681-1566. They also have special rates for motorcoach tours.
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