Each year the United Methodist Women of the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake host an Advent by Candlelight dinner in Wesley Hall.

It’s held on the first Friday night of December.

Gourmet cook Don Penn prepares the meal with the help of United Methodist Men, who then, dressed in black pants, white shirts with red bow ties, serve the meal.

This year the meal consisted of apple and walnut wild rice dressing with cranberry raspberry salad and raspberry chicken.

Afterwards, there was scripture reading and songs.

“Quite lovely,” my wife reports.

So, how does one make raspberry chicken?

Don writes,

Chicken breasts are marinated with spices and fruit in this easy and very flavorful dish. I pour the marinade over the chicken in a freezer bad, then freeze them from one week to one month for future use.

Take out of freezer the night before you serve them and thaw in the refrigerator. By dinner time, they are ready to bake, making a quick and easy delicious meal.

Incredients:

1/2 cup raspberry preserves,

1/2 cup frozen pineapple juice concentrate, thawed,

1/2 cup soy sauce,

2 tablespoons of raspberry vinaigrette dressing,

1/2 teaspoon chili powder,

1/2 teaspoon curry powder,

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder,

6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves,

1/4 cup whole raspberries.

Whisk together raspberry preserves, pineapple juice concentrate, soy sauce, vinaigrette dressing. Stir in chili powder, curry powder and garlic powder’ pour over chicken breasts in a resealable plastic bag. Marinate chicken in refrigerator at least overnight or freeze for future use.

Bake in preheated over to 350 degrees F. Place chicken into a baking disk and pour remaining marinade over the chicken. Cover the dish with a lid or alumninum foil.

Bake in preheated over until the chicken juices run clear, 30 to 40 minutes. Transfer to a serving platter and garnish with fresh raspberries and a twig of parsley.

Serves 6.

Enjoy.

Don Penn

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And, how about the cranberry raspberry salad?

Here are the ingredients:

3 (0.3 ouince) packages of sugar-free cherry or cranberry gelatin,

2 cups of boiling water,

1 (15 1/4 ounce) can crushed pineapple in pineapple juice,

2 table spoons lemon juice,

2 1/2 cups fresh cranberries,

1 large navel orange,

2 cups finely chopped celery,

1/2 cup chopped walnuts,

Lettuce leaves,

Nonstick cooking spray.

And the directions?

Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Drain pineapple, reserving liquid. Set pineapple aside. Add water to reserved pineapple juice to equal one cup. Stir in lemon juice. Stir juice mixture into gelatin; chill until consistency of unbeaten egg whites.

While gelatin is chilling, place cranberries in food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Set aside. Trim ends off orange and halve; remove seeds. Place unpealed orange in food processor and pulse until coarsely ground.

Stir cranberries, oranges, celery and walnuts into gelatin and mix well. Spray a 10 cup mold (or bundt pan) with nonstick cooking spray. Pour gelatin mixture into mold. Chill until set. Unmold and server on lettuce leaves.

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I arrived looking for my wife, who was setting up a table with Nancy Bland. They had already finished and headed home to get dressed.

So, I took pictures of the completed tables and some that were “in process.”

You can see the layout in the top picture and the photographs third and fourth from the bottom photographs.

Think of what it must have looked like when the room was lit only by candlelight and the Christmas lights.

The kitchen activity was captured at the same time–about 5 o’clock.

I returned about nine, but the festivities were all over but the final putting away of the tables.

This year, leaders asked for volunteer hosts for next year’s Advent by Candlelight.

All in all, a wonderful tradition.

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All photos may be enlarged by clicking on them.