By the time Cathy Stewart and her husband Jack arrived at the Bryson Catholic Women’s league’s annual Valentine’s Day breakfast at 11 a.m. Sunday, the kitchen was down to the last scoops of beans Stewart had prepared for the feast.
Stewart, herself a CWL member, had cooked up eight pounds of her husband’s uncle’s bean recipe as her contribution.
“When you’re making it for somebody else, you just never know if they’re going to like it,” Stewart said, hearing that breakfast-goers seemed to be fans of the family recipe. “The recipe is Jack’s uncle’s, he’s 85 and a pretty good cook.”
Diners, gathered in the basement of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, were treated to pancakes, bacon, sausages, potatoes, eggs, toast and coffee.
Lucienne La Salle is the CWL’s secretary and helped to organize the kitchen during the breakfast. She said the CWL purchases the meat but asks for donations for the other items.
“Lots of people donate and sometimes people donate more than we ask for,” she said.
Before the breakfast officially started Sunday morning, the CWL volunteers brought take-out meals to the residents of the retirement home next door.
“We figure they can’t come out, so we started that service,” La Salle said. “And sometimes we have some people in town that ask us to bring the meal.”
This year, the CWL sold almost 100 breakfasts and raised $128.50 from the 50/50 for local organizations.
CWL president Sheila Racine said that the money raised will go towards donations for groups like Bouffe Pontiac and school breakfast programs.
