An elegant dining event that will feed hundreds on Saturday night also will feed and shelter homeless men, women and children for months as they recover from job loss, medical issues and other struggles.

The 2008 Bison & Bird Banquet will offer people the opportunity to support the Cornerstone Rescue Mission while enjoying an incredible meal.

Carrie Cisle of Canyon Lake Resort has had her chefs preparing for the April 26 banquet for weeks to ensure that there's enough food for the hungry crowd expected to fill Lacroix Hall at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.

"It's very inspirational," the chief operating officer said of the evening, which will benefit the men's mission, veteran's transitional housing program, Women & Children's Home, Cornerstone Apartments, Cornerstone Thrift Store and the Cornerstone Foundation.

The evening will include a silent auction, raffle and a program by special guest, Dwight Robertson, founder and president of Kingdom Building Ministries.

Cisle said the Canyon Lake Resort has volunteered to prepare the benefit's banquet food for five years. "We took a year off and it sort of tore at our heart," she said.

The menu promises a mix of simple and sophisticated dishes such as pulled bison barbecue with cornmeal cake, duck cassoulet with wild rice, pheasant pot pie, baked potato salad, honey-cinnamon carrots, sweet-and-sour-green beans, aloha coleslaw, dinner rolls and a mixed-fruit crisp topped with dollop of whipped cream.

On Mondays - their day off - Christina Tsitrian and Lee Butler of the resort have gathered in the kitchen along with Steve Ramsdell, food and beverage manager of the Spearfish Holiday Inn, to begin preparing ingredients for duck cassoulet for 600 people. They guarantee that none of the ducks from Canyon Lake were harmed in making of this recipe.

"We organize it this way because it would take us 20 hours to prepare everything on the day of the event," Butler said.

Last week, they had completed the pulled bison dish. This week, they were starting to prepare a delicious mix of onions, bacon, sausage, carrots, beans, tomatoes, seasoning, bay leaves with a splash of olive oil. All of this is tossed into a metal pan about as big as a large dresser drawer. Finally, the cleaned, commercially processed duck is added to the sauce, the final rich ingredient for a heavenly smelling, vegetable-laden dish.

Their first year of preparing the banquet, people arrived with boxes of dressed game that they wanted to donate, but the organizers couldn't accept them.

"We can't use wild game from the field," Ramsdell said of the banquet. It is a safety measure to ensure the best food experience of the season.

Yet, they do accept donations of canned goods and other food supplies.

"We have to use the food that's given to us; therefore, we have to get creative," Ramsdell said.

Ramsdell's grandmother allowed him into her kitchen to begin cooking about 40 years ago, and he never looked back. Over the years, he's developed a knack for cooking. He also has a few tips to heighten seasoning, such as browning bay leaves then adding several teaspoons of olive oil to bring back the leaves' bouquet.

Both he and Butler sampled the sauce continuously as it simmered, looking for the right moment to add an ingredient or to lower the fire. When the cassoulet is finished, Ramsdell said it would be an elegant dish with a variety of tastes to make your mouth water.

"Your tastebuds are going to sort things out," he said.

"It's going to tone down as it cooks. When the duck goes in there, its taste will stand out," Butler said.

They want the make sure the onion taste comes through along with the sweetness of the carrots. The duck meat will add a richness to the sauce, which will blend with the wild rice.

"If we don't get it where we want it, we may add some sugar at the end. It will take the acid taste out of the sauce but without making it sweet," Butler said.

Contact Jomay Steen at 394-8418 or jomay.steen@rapidcityjournal.com.