Taste of St. Patrick's focuses on food, family

By SEAN BARRON

news@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Mixing the right com-

bination of Jell-O, evaporated milk, lemon juice, cookie and vanilla-wafer crumbs for the right amount of time will bring you a lot closer to successfully preparing a prototype of Jill Chambers’ fluffy dessert, but you won’t be across the finish line.

Perhaps the biggest key ingredient that can’t be overlooked is an appreciation for the tradition behind the treat.

“It’s a nice tribute to my grandma. Family is very important to me,” the Boardman woman explained. “It’s just another way to carry on her memory and let people know about her.”

Chambers’ dessert, called “Grandma Elaine’s Fluff,” was named after her late grandmother, Elaine Losciewicz, who lived in Hollywood, Fla., before her death when Chambers was 8 years old.

It also was among the 24 dishes that made up Sunday’s inaugural Taste of St. Patrick’s fundraiser at St. Patrick’s Church, 1410 Oak Hill Ave., on the South Side.

The recipes fell into six categories: desserts, appetizers and bread, side dishes and specials, salads, soups and main dishes.

Besides showcasing the cooks’ kitchen talents, a primary goal of the 2½-hour family-friendly gathering was to raise $3,000 to go toward the church’s educational programs for children and adults, outreach efforts and community gardens, noted Marcy Fessler, event chairwoman.

The majority of the food preparers were church members and some were elected officials, but none was a professional chef, she said.

“We wanted the focus to be on the good food and the people we have right here,” Fessler continued.

Chambers, who attended a 130-year family reunion Saturday at Firestone Park in Columbiana, said her grandmother’s dessert takes a little more than an hour to prepare.

It requires allowing the Jell-O to sit for close to an hour, then whipping a can of evaporated milk that had been refrigerated, adding a cup of sugar and a quarter cup of lemon juice to it before topping it off with cookie and vanilla-wafer crumbs from a cookie sheet, she explained.

For Chambers, the event truly exuded family values, because her daughter, Teryn Ross, assisted her. Also, Chambers’ parents, Dale and Nancy Chambers, were on hand.

Another recipe steeped in family tradition was one for stuffed mushrooms that Ella Bevan came up with rather fortuitously.

“I make it for special occasions,” Bevan, a 21-year St. Patrick’s Church member, said about the side dish she prepares with white button mushrooms, stems, parsley, sweet Italian sausage, bread crumbs and Romano cheese that is baked for 20 to 25 minutes.

Years ago, Bevan and her husband attended a party and were asked to bring appetizers, which gave her the idea for the recipe, she remembered.

Assisting Bevan was her daughter, Christina Guzzo.

It’s probably a safe bet that no one left the social hall hungry, as they were also able to sample a wide variety of foods that included peach noodle kugel (a traditional Passover and Seder dish), Puerto Rican rice and beans, linguini salad, eggplant parmesan, chicken stir fry with rice and traditional macaroni and cheese.

Fessler, a three-year church member who came to the Mahoning Valley from Buffalo, N.Y., said she was pleased with the turnout, and that several pans of food sold out.

“This has exceeded all of our expectations,” she added.

The event also included a basket raffle.