New Residents Dinner at The Highlands of Westminster Place

This month we held our quarterly dinner for our assisted living residents.  The menu consisted of a six courses including shrimp Marie Rose a classic cocktail, intermezzo, and baked Alaska.

Residents really enjoyed the menu and look forward to the next event.

 

Christopher Moore|Morrison Community Living|

System Executive Chef|The Presbyterian Homes

 APPETIZER
Shrimp Marie Rose
lemon poached shrimp | lettuce | tomato dressing | buttered brown bread
SOUP
Classic French Onion
caramelized onions | rosemary | beef broth | Gruyere crouton
SALAD
Grapefruit and Avocado
Belgian endive | grape fruit sections | diced avocado | toasted walnuts |
Champagne-honey vinaigrette
INTERMEZZO
Lime and Basil
ENTREE
Filet of Beef Bourguignonne
filet mignon | red wine-mushroom sauce | roasted tri colored fingerling
potatoes | spinach stuffed tomato
DESSERT
Baked Alaska
pound cake | vanilla ice cream | browned meringue

St. Nicholas Day at James King Home

On December 6th there was a St. Nicholas Sighting!

The holidays can be a lonely time for many of our residents, so we teamed up with the Director of Social Services to secretly stuff St. Nicholas stockings and hang them on each residents' door. Residents were surprised and happy to get a little something. All stockings consisted of an ornament, goody bag and clementines. One of the residents went to the wellness nurse to ask who put the stockings out (we didn't tell) and began crying happy tears because he remembered getting the clementines as a little boy.

Brian Kempf | Chef Manager | James King Home & Ten Twenty Grove

Holiday Market Stand at Villa St Benedict

The holiday market stand at Villa St. Benedict advertises special promotions in the Bistro. Throughout the month of December, we will be featuring baked holiday goods such as Christmas cookies, cupcakes, pies, and truffles along with wine gift baskets, Hot Cocoa Bar, and holiday catering information. The residents love the stand and it attracts many of our guests as well as residents to our special events and promotions.

Katie Kunkel, MS, RDN, LDN | Director of Culinary Services | Morrison Community Living |­ Villa St. Benedict

November Heirloom

For November's Heirloom submission, we selected resident Betty Hutchinson's Pumpkin Mushroom soup!  It was inspired by the plentiful pumpkin and the mushrooms that were grown by many in her native state of Delaware. The soup was a perfect blend of sweet and savory and Betty had rave reviews after we served it.

               
Megg Geiger| Hospitality Manager| Morrison Community Living|

Brecon Village, Evangelical Homes

Upscale Experience at the Fountains at Bronson Place

Beginning on December 1st, our culinary team backed by Chef Emily and DDS Andrew have rolled out to the residents a new upscale featured item for Thursday's dinner. Each week, Chef Emily will prepare a special entrée in addition to what is already offered. To start, she prepared "Haystack Tenderloin". This consisted of slow-roasted beef tenderloin with a red wine reduction ladled over top, followed by grilled portabella mushrooms, golden-fried onions and garnished with diced red peppers. Residents have enjoyed tonight's meal very much and are already looking forward to next week's upscale entrée!

DavidAnsel | Assistant Director of Dining Services | Morrison Community Living| The Fountains at Bronson Place

Heirloom Recipes at The Fountains at Franklin

For our Thanksgiving Brunch celebration, we incorporated November's Heirloom recipes into our meal.  The Heirloom Cornbread Stuffing was a big hit, as well as the traditional green bean casserole and sweet potatoes. 

Chef Austin hand-carved the turkey in the dining room to the resident's delight.  Sweet potato and pecan pies rounded out the feast for those who have room left for dessert.

  Cheryl Naftel, CDM| Director Dining Services | Morrison Community Living| The Fountains at Franklin

Polish Themed Meal at Smith Crossing

Smith Crossing hosted a Polish themed dinner for residents in Independent Living. Kara Superczynski, hospitality manager/former Morrison sous chef, made homemade spinach and potato pierogis and Chef Davis Knight wowed them with his hand-made Polish sausage, a recipe he learned from his grandmother. 

The residents really enjoyed this home cooked meal and enjoyed seeing what Smith Crossing’s staff is made of!

Kara Superczynski

Dining Manager
Smith Crossing

Getting our gobble on!

Chef Caitlin created these delicious treats for our Residents in Independent Living.  What a great way to start the Thanksgiving Holiday!

Christina Bodanza, Director of Dining Services, Christian Rest Home

Pumpkin Spice Lattes

Today at NorthPointe Woods we featured Pumpkin Spice Lattes in our café. Such a quick and easy recipe and we completely sold out. Happy Fall everyone!

1 quart and 1 1/3 cup of Whole Milk

1 1/3  cup of pumpkin

2/3 cup of granulated sugar

1 tbsp and 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice

2 tsp vanilla

1 quart & 1 1/3 cup of coffee

In a saucepan combine milk, pumpkin and sugar. Heat until hot (do not boil).

Remove from heat and add pumpkin pie spice and vanilla- stir and add to coffee! Garnish with whipped cream and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice!

Katie VanderStraaten

Dining Services Director I NorthPointe Woods

Pumkpin Contest at Cedars of Dexter

The stakes were a bit higher this year at the Cedars, our pumpkin decorating contest had some desirable prizes; 1st place was 2 tickets to our November Reserve dinner, featuring a wild game menu, 2nd prize was a gourmet gift basket shaped like the lower peninsula of the state of Michigan with all Michigan products in it, and 3rd prize was free desserts for a week.

1st Place Winner

2nd Place Winner

3rd Place Winner

We thank all of our residents who participated in the contest, great job!

We also had a great time with the Halloween Song Scramble, staff and residents alike were encouraged to descramble the titles of Halloween songs, cheating and collaboration were encouraged, just so long as people had fun, there were also cookies at stake.

Caleb L Cook | Chef Director | Morrison Community Living  | The Cedars of Dexter

HCMCF Haunting

HCMCF opens its door each year for a public trick-or-treating to our residents. The haunting this year was conducted a little differently, by inviting visiting ghouls and goblins to each resident’s doorway as opposed to a common meeting room. This meant the entire building was open to the public and staff wanted to show their Halloween spirit. So a decorating contest was held.

Each nursing unit or department was assigned an area to decorate and then the board members came and judged each area. Many of the units created a theme to their decorating. One floor’s theme was Monster Mash, another was Harry Potter and Dining Services’ theme was Creepy Café. To participate in the contest each unit was also assigned a section of the HCMCF’s Haunted Park. The admission fee for this park was a donation and proceeds went into the resident council fund. It was one of the largest trick-or-treating attendance with over 300 super heroes, witches and ghosts haunting the hallways.

Dining Services took home the grand prize with their “Creepy Café” in the employee dining room. The Dining Services decorating team created a nightmarish café by creating a creepy menu board, a cackling witch as the head chef, and gross food on display. This Creepy Café theme was carried out in their section of the haunted park as well. Much to the delight of the Dining Services team, they were able to have their boss’ head on a platter as she was featured as an entrée!  The winning team received bragging rights for the year with their names placed on a special pumpkin trophy and a pizza party.

The best part of the month was the improved morale for all staff who work at HCMCF and the residents really enjoyed having their home reflect the spooky spirit of the season. The Halloween event was such a success that it is the start of a new tradition at HCMCF.

Andra Shier| Assistant Director of Dining Services | Huron County Medical Care Facility

NorthPointe Woods Reserve Dinner

We had a fabulous Reserve Dinner last night at NorthPointe Woods. The residents and guests who attended loved how unique some of the menu items were. Most of those who attended have never tried items like Quail and Elk Tenderloin, but they LOVED it.

Katie VanderStraaten

Dining Services Director I NorthPointe Woods

Farmers Market at Villa St Benedict

Villa St. Benedict hosted a Farmers Market for residents, families, and employees to welcome in the fall season. Residents enjoyed samples of butternut squash soup, apple slices with dipping sauces, kumquats, and delicious treats from our baked goods table. 

Guests walked around the piazza from station to station purchasing fresh produce, warm apple cider, pumpkin spiced coffee, hand dipped caramel apples, home made apple butter/jams, and many more baked goods. Residents enjoyed picking out their own pumpkins and bouquets of fall flowers to decorate their homes. A fun time was had by all who attended and next years market is already being talked about!

 

Villa St. Benedict

Nikki Beckus, Culinary Manager

December Promotional Ideas

Weekly
1-7: Cookie Cutter Week
4-10: National Hand Washing Awareness Week
4-10: Recipe Greetings for the Holidays Week

Daily
1: National Christmas Tree Lighting (DC)
4: National Cookie Day
10: Gingerbread Decorating Day
12: National Cocoa Day - facts and ideas to celebrate
12: Poinsettia Day - decorate cupcakes in celebration
15: National Cupcake Day
16: National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day
20: National Sangria Day - easy, fun recipes
21: Crossword Puzzle Day - make your own crossword puzzle
24 - 1/1: Chanukah
24: Christmas Eve
24: Egg Nog Day
25: Christmas Day
25: Christmas Pudding Day
26: National Candy Cane Day
26-1/1: Kwanzaa
27: Free Balloon Day
30: Bacon Day
31: National Champagne Day
31: New Years Eve
31: World Peace Meditation Day

Smoothies for Dining Delights

Smoothies are always very popular with our Dining Delights group! To throw in a fall spin, we made Apple Cider Smoothies! Most residents have never had a smoothie like this and they loved the fall spin on a favorite drink!  

Ingredients:

8 ounces apple cider, chilled

1 cup vanilla yogurt

1 small apple, cored & diced

2 Tablespoons honey

2 cups of ice

Place all ingredients in the jar of your blender. Secure lid & blend until smooth! Serve immediately!

Katie VanderStraaten

Dining Services Director I NorthPointe Woods

EHM 440 Dinner

Let me start out by saying this was a fun meal for me to prepare, since I myself come from a large Polish family. I took my dad on a road trip to downtown Hamtramck to pick up some supplies; it was nice to hear him speak the language of his mother’s birth place which I’ve haven’t heard for a number of years.  I thought it would be nice to serve this meal family style in light of my heritage and remembering growing up and learning from my Babcia (grandmother).

Our residents and guests started the night off with potato cake topped with a chive sour cream as an appetizer. Additionally, I prepared Pierogis filled with farmer’s cheese, Golabkis (stuffed cabbage), fresh Sauerkraut with potatoes, Kielbasa (fresh and smoked), brussels sprouts with dill cream sauce, rye and pumpernickel bread, and for dessert Faworki chrust (Angel wings) sweet crisp cake in a shape of a bow with powdered sugar. Residents and guests also had the option of enjoying polish beer as well. 

It was very well received by our residents and family members/guests and great time was had by all. I like to thank my staff and coworkers, because I am nothing without their hard work. Na zdrowie (for a good health).

-Chef Todd Stapnowski

Ashley Aughton | Assistant Director | Evangelical Homes of Michigan

Western Home Communities Cook's Cook Off

The month of October brought us a donation of pumpkin and our cooks got creative.  We gave them the option of using canned or fresh, savory or sweet.  They blew us away with their creativity.  We had 5 enter the contest and here is what they made:

1. Baked Ziti A la Pumpkin
2. Pepita Brittle
3. Homemade pumpkin sage ravioli with candied pecan buerre noisette
4. Pumpkin Stew with Pumpkin Grilled Cheese
5. Pumpkin Chili and Pumpkin pull apart bread
6. Savory Pumpkin Autumn Salad

The winner for the month of October was Stephanie Berky and her Pumpkin Chili, followed with a 1 point difference by the pumpkin stew and pumpkin grilled cheese.  We continue to encourage creativity in our cooks to help them grow into leaders and enjoy their fulfilling jobs.  Amazing food from an amazing group of people being lead by Executive Chef Norman Grant.

Randy Husted

General Manager of Dining Services

Western Home Communities

African Retreat at Villa St Benedict

Villa St. Benedict's server, Rebecca Zouvas, recently took a Church Retreat to Africa for 2 weeks to help with renovations for children and families. She held a program for independent and assisted living residents to come and hear about her trip. The residents loved seeing the slides of pictures and handmade souvenirs that Rebecca brought back. Rebecca's family now supports and funds a teenage girl over in Africa to help her reach her dreams of attending college in America. Go Rebecca, we are so proud!

Villa St. Benedict
Nikki Beckus, Culinary Manager

Pumpkin Contest at Villa St Benedict

During the October festivities, Villa St. Benedict hosted a department pumpkin carving contest. The residents attended a Halloween party where they each voted for the pumpkin that they liked the most. Out of the 7 different departments, Culinary won 1st place! Culinary got crafty and had the pumpkin "making" little pumpkin pies!

Villa St. Benedict
Nikki Beckus, Culinary Manager

Halloween Party at Smith Crossing

This year’s Halloween party at Smith Crossing was a blast!  Our Smith Crossing Resident’s Choir performed spooky hits like “The Monster Mash” and “Ding Dong the Wicked Witch is Dead.”  As they watched the performance, the residents sipped on Morgue-a-Ritas, our take on a cherry-lime margarita.  Everyone enjoyed dressing up and celebrating the holiday.

Kara Superczynski

Dining Manager
Smith Crossing