Southminster Presbyterian Church in Mt. Lebanon is serving up a banquet of Haitian foods this Sunday after the 11 a.m. worship service, with donations supporting earthquake-relief efforts in Haiti.

One of Southminster's young parishioners has a personal connection to Haiti. Five-year-old Esther Boyd spent the first 17 months of her life there.

The driving force behind the banquet is Elizabeth Boyd, Esther's adoptive mother, who traveled to Haiti in 2005 for the adoption.

Ms. Boyd owns Uptown Coffee in Mt. Lebanon. She spends much of her time in kitchens, baking goodies for her shop as well as for her family -- husband Don Morrison, who is a Carnegie Mellon University computer programmer, and Esther.

So when the earthquake-ravaged Haiti and Ms. Boyd longed to help, it made sense that she turned to cooking.

"Cooking is kind of what I do at the church -- it's my gift to the church. And it's what I do at work every day."

Her home kitchen has since turned into a Haitian food test kitchen, emanating savory smells. Esther is "excited," her mom said, and she has been tasting the banquet food trials, unable to remember eating Haitian food herself.

"She's been pretty upset about the earthquake," so her daycare program at Southminster also held a bake sale and donated proceeds to Haiti relief efforts.

Esther spent her babyhood at God's Littlest Angels in Petionville, Haiti, an orphanage run by an American nurse and her husband, a handyman who builds the babies' cribs and tends the physical plant. The orphanage building was not damaged in the earthquake. However, many staff members' homes and families suffered losses, and new babies have arrived at the orphanage recently following their parents' deaths in the earthquake.

Ms. Boyd said she chose to adopt from Haiti in part because she was impressed with this orphanage. She also wanted to adopt a child from a country that was close enough "that she would be able to have ties to it" and return as a volunteer when she grows up.

The family's current ties to Haiti are limited to Facebook posts, but the ties of the heart remain strong.

Volunteers from the church are helping Ms. Boyd to prepare the food, which will include griyo (pork marinated in oranges and spices), a chicken dish, red beans and rice, Haitian macaroni and cheese, bouyon (a Haitian soup), rice pudding, sweet potato pudding and limeade.

Ms. Boyd designed the menu by scouring websites and cookbooks, identifying recipes that use ingredients accessible to most Haitians. The menu, for example, does not include any type of bread because most Haitians don't own ovens. Most cooking in Haiti is done over hot coals.

The feast will be presented as a "tasting," with different stations featuring individual foods. The hall will be decorated in brilliant Haitian colors, and Haitian music will play in the background.

The church is paying for the groceries, so all proceeds raised through donations at the banquet will be contributed to Presbyterian Disaster Relief through the Presbyterian Church (USA) and earmarked for Haiti. The banquet is not limited to church members; visitors are encouraged to attend.

Sweet Potato Pudding (Pen Patat)

PG tested

• 2 pounds white sweet potato, peeled
• 1 large ripe banana, peeled and cut in 1-inch pieces
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 18 ounces evaporated milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 cloves, crushed
• Rind of 1 lemon, grated
• 1 1/2 cups coconut milk
• 3 teaspoons butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grate sweet potatoes into mixing bowl. Mash banana into sweet potatoes. Add all the ingredients (except 1 tablespoon brown sugar), mixing in 1 ingredient at a time until each is fully blended into the mix. Spread evenly into a 9-by-13-inch baking pan (I greased mine) and sprinkle reserved brown sugar over top of pudding. Bake for 11/2 hours or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden brown.

Serve warm or cold and refrigerate leftovers.

-- "A Taste of Haiti" by Mirta Yurnet-Thomas and the Thomas Family (Hippocrene, 2002)

Rice and Red Beans (Diri Kole Ak Pwa Rouj)

PG tested

I was not able to locate Scotch bonnet peppers in my store, so I subbed two jalapeno peppers, and the dish came out great.

-- Rebecca Sodergren

• 1 cup dried kidney beans (or 12-ounce can cooked beans)
• 3 teaspoons salt, or to taste, divided
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 scallion, finely chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
• 2 cups long-grain rice
• 2 whole cloves
• 1 green Scotch bonnet pepper, optional
• 1 thyme sprig
• 1 parsley sprig, optional

Wash beans and drain. Place in saucepan with 6 cups water and 1 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Lower heat and boil on medium-low heat, uncovered, for 1 to 11/2 hours. When their skins wrinkle, taste to see that they are fork tender. Drain and keep liquid for cooking the rice.

(If using canned, wash and drain beans.)

Heat oil in cast-iron pot on medium heat. Stir in garlic, onion, scallion, 2 teaspoons salt, and black pepper for 2 minutes. Add and stir the cooked or canned beans and fry for 5 minutes until the beans are crisp. Add 4 cups liquid from cooked beans (or use water if not using bean liquid) and bring to a boil. Add rice and cloves, stir, and boil until water evaporates. Lower heat, stir rice, and place the whole Scotch bonnet pepper, thyme and parsley on top of rice. Cover and let cook for 30 minutes. Remove hot pepper, thyme and parsley. Stir before serving.

Serves 6.

-- "A Taste of Haiti" by Mirta Yurnet-Thomas and the Thomas Family (Hippocrene, 2002)

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