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Monsignor John Bendik prepares \u201cMonsignor\u2019s Famous Carbonara.\u201d (COURTESY OF THE DIOCESE OF SCRANTON)<\/p>\nWith several days to go, zucchini quiche and spaghetti carbonara are edging out a comedic lineup of bedtime snacks in a cooking video contest among Roman Catholic priests. \u201cRectory, Set, Cook!\u201d raises money for hunger and homelessness causes and parishes.<\/p>\n
Northeast Pennsylvania priests recorded 25 videos that have brought in a total of $134,000 of the $185,678 goal as of noon Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The contest began in mid-February and goes through March 27 at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n
A team of retired priests who live at Villa St. Joseph in Dunmore and made a joint video are in the lead. The Rev. Phil Sladicka, a retired pastor of Queen of the Apostles Parish in Avoca, whipped up an easy zucchini quiche. Monsignor John Bendik, retired pastor of St. John the Evangelist in Pittston, made spaghetti carbonara. They have brought in $25,215 from 151 donors.<\/p>\n
Monsignor John Bendik prepares \u201cMonsignor\u2019s Famous Carbonara.\u201d (COURTESY OF THE DIOCESE OF SCRANTON)<\/p>\n
The money comes in at $10 per vote.<\/p>\n
Bendik said there are two keys to a good carbonara. One is to use slab bacon. The other is to take the pasta out of the water with tongs, rather than draining it. That keeps enough starchy water on the pasta to help create the sauce when raw eggs and cheese are combined with pasta and bacon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe spaghetti being hot cooks the eggs and the cheese. And the bacon is already cooked,\u201d he said. \u201cOh boy, it gives it a great taste.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the video, Bendik jokes about \u201ctongs of fire,\u201d a pun on the biblical \u201ctongues of fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bendik attributes part of his team\u2019s success to reaching out widely to people they know: \u201cOur people are very generous. And if they know it\u2019s for a good cause, they\u2019ll give it to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bendik has been making carbonara for decades. It was his \u201cItalian Night\u201d specialty when friends held themed dinners.<\/p>\n
The Rev. James Paisley, pastor of St. Ann\u2019s Basilica Parish\/Saints Peter & Paul Parish in Scranton, is in second place. He has surpassed his $20,000 goal by several hundred dollars, with gifts from 173 donors.<\/p>\n
His video is more comedy skit than cooking tutorial. Wearing a shower cap, bathrobe and pajamas, he takes the viewer through off-beat snacks for a night in front of the TV. He crushes Cheetos with a hammer before adding milk, makes a peanut butter and onion sandwich and pours balsamic vinegar salad dressing over ice cream.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything for \u2018Rectory, Set, Cook!\u2019\u201d he says before sipping hot chocolate flavored with mozzarella cheese.<\/p>\n
Snacks ready, he settles in to turn on the television. The show he watches? It is his own appearance as a much younger man on the game show \u201cMatch Game,\u201d when he bantered with Sally Struthers and other celebrity panelists.<\/p>\n
In Luzerne County, the Rev. Alex Roche of St. Maria Goretti Parish in Laflin made polenta parmigiana with porcini mushrooms.<\/p>\n
Several Hazleton-area churches are competing. Representing Our Lady of Peace Parish in Hazleton, youth group administrator Maureen Franzosa led the Rev. Anthony Generose and the Rev. Shawn Simchock in making her family\u2019s Italian manicotti. A team of priests and staff from St. Pius of Pietrelcina Parish in Hazleton made shrimp scampi and mofongo with chicharr\u00f3n.<\/p>\n
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The Rev. James Paisley films a video for Rectory, Set, Cook! (COURTESY OF THE DIOCESE OF SCRANTON)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With several days to go, zucchini quiche and spaghetti carbonara are edging out a comedic lineup of bedtime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,803,139,28,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-142257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}