Before it’s even visible, the scent of cinnamon and butter wafts through a King County Housing Authority conference room in Tukwila. Evoking the feeling of autumn and warm yummy goodness, this is the aroma of Pat Porter’s bread pudding.
Porter, director of KCHA’s AmeriCorps program, has graciously shared her family recipe, which she calls a Midwest comfort food.
Born in Iowa, but half-Irish and half-Italian, Porter said the Irish side of her goes for the bread pudding.
“It’s not for the faint of heart as far as calories are concerned,” she said laughing.
The bread pudding is decadent, yet buoyed by the addition of fruit, some dried, which doesn’t make it seem quite as heavy.
Porter makes the recipe because it makes her house smell good.
She also makes it because “my AmeriCorps members are always hungry, so bread pudding is one of the things I’ll make for a team meeting or something.”
Porter has 14 AmeriCorps members who go out and work in housing authority sites all over the county. In Tukwila, members are working in classrooms and after school programs through Communities In Schools, another community organization.
Porter has been working with KCHA for 15 years on the AmeriCorps program.
It is a program designed to allow people from all across the country to volunteer for community service work in exchange for a small monthly stipend and eligibility for an education award to pay off student loans or for college tuition and expenses. Members serve for 10 1/2 months.
KCHA is a partner of the Washington Service Corps, the umbrella organization under which AmeriCorps serves in the state.
Porter has members at food banks, as interpretive specialists, at schools, at an infant clothing recycling agency, at community centers and apartment complexes.
She just received word that AmeriCorps will be continuing with the housing authority for another three years and they will divide the program into childhood nutrition and environmental stewardship. They will provide the link between those two programs mostly with community gardens, which Porter said they will involve kids.
“The primary function of AmeriCorps is to enhance programs,” Porter said.
This has become even more crucial with the economy the way that it is, she said, with so many cut backs in services.
“So AmeriCorps members are able to provide that little extra,” Porter said. “And I don’t like the word ‘extra’ because we’re providing basic services that just simply would not be there.”
In the time that she has been working with AmeriCorps, Porter said that of the graduates of her program, more than 40 are teachers, nine doctors, one a federal prosecutor, 14 architects, four volunteer coordinators, three that are currently in medical school and the list goes on.
PAT PORTER’S BREAD PUDDING
This is a great way to use up left over bread, rolls, etc from Thanksgiving dinner. I use fat free half and half and one percent milk because it cuts some of the fat from the recipe but it’s ok to use the regular if you prefer.
The bread pudding takes close to an hour to bake and you can make it the night before and bake it in the morning but because it has dairy in it you should refrigerate it if you’re not going to bake it right away.
8 cups of dried bread – sourdough, Italian or some kind of rustic bread works best (never use plain white bread, it’s too soft)
1-1/2 cups of fat free half and half (12 ounces)
¾ cup of 1% milk (6 ounces)
4 whole eggs
1 stick of butter (cut in half and melt one portion)
¾ cup of raw sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup dried cranberries or raisins
½ cup chopped dried apricots
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Slice or tear bread into small pieces and place in a large bowl
Mix in cranberries, apricots and nuts
In a separate bowl, mix milk, eggs, egg whites, melted butter, sugar and cinnamon until well blended and the mixture is slightly frothy.
Add the milk and egg mixture to the bread and mix well. You may have to use your hands to make sure that it is well absorbed and the fruit and nuts are mixed in.
Pour into a large buttered cooking pan, dot the top with pieces of the half stick of butter that was not melted and sprinkle some more raw sugar on top of the pudding.
Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes. If your pan is deep it may take a bit longer, if it’s shallow a bit less time will be necessary. A knife inserted in the middle should come out clean when it is done.
