Faith Lutheran Academy's community cookbook is available through the school office.
Photos by Gary Thompson.
"Family Treasures" is on sale at Fountain of Hope AME Church.
“Las Vegas Glitter to Gourmet” by the Junior League of Las Vegas is available through local bookstores and on the Internet.
Illustrations by the students of Faith Lutheran Academy decorate the cover and some pages of the school's community cookbook.
When Faith Lutheran Academy decided to produce a cookbook, organizers ordered 300 copies, had them published with a plastic comb-style binding and sold them mainly to the school's families and friends.
When the Junior League of Las Vegas decided to produce a cookbook, organizers ordered 20,000 copies, had them published with full-color photography and a hard-back binding and sold them through local bookstores and via the Internet.
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Welcome to the world of community cookbooks, where the only commonality is that the finished products, like the groups behind them, frequently have little in common.
Except, of course, for the legacies of recipes being shared and handed down.
"It's a history," said Mary Margaret Andrews, director of marketing for Favorite Recipes Press, a Nashville, Tenn.-based company that publishes 30 to 40 community cookbooks a year.
"If you look back over the years at community cookbooks, you get a history of how people were living over that period of time by the foods they were eating and cooking," she said.
"There's a lot more than just cooking in there," said Paul McIlhenny, president and chief executive officer of McIlhenny Co., maker of Tabasco and sponsor of the annual Tabasco Community Cookbook Awards. "It's the tradition, the history, the people, but usually isolated to a pretty narrow area -- whether a church book or community activist book, like the Junior League. I think it appeals to our continued reverence for our own locale."
The books' appeal to their many collectors is "very much about the recipes that are from that particular region and the people that eat the foods from that region," Andrews said. "We have found a lot of people who purchase these books don't even purchase them to use the books, but purchase them to read the books. We call them armchair cooks."
Of course, some do use them.
"I bought one myself," said the Rev. Willie Adams, pastor of Fountain of Hope African Methodist Episcopal Church, of the member-produced cookbook that's available for $15 in the church office. "I'm a cook myself. There are some interesting recipes in there."
Adams said many AME churches do the books, "especially the missionary department." He recently moved here from Georgia, and noted that his church there did one.
"It's sort of like a project that some of the missionaries take on because we have a variety of people from different parts of the country and their ideas of cooking are different from others," he said. "So we just combined them together and put them in a book."
Dana Mayo, who was co-chairwoman of the Faith Lutheran Academy project with Susie Busskohl, said the committee decided to do the book "for tons of reasons." Among them: as a fundraiser for the school and to boost school involvement.
When the project was launched, Mayo said, the committee didn't know if there were a lot of good cooks among school parents.
"There wasn't a special desire to tap into anybody. But we did find out that a lot of people had a lot of great recipes to give us," she said.
The schools' students contributed the illustrations.
"By adding the kids' artwork, it really involved the kids in the process as well," she said. "It's a small school, so everybody knows everybody. That makes it fun."
Mayo said about half of the $15 books have been sold, and "we're in the profit part now." More editions may be in the works, she added.
"We would love to do a Volume II to involve the next group of students who come into the school, instead of just reproducing this one with a couple of new recipes," she said.
Kellie Guild, Junior League president and committee chairman when the book was published in 2000, said 17,000 copies of "Las Vegas Glitter to Gourmet" have been sold, but there are currently no plans to produce another.
"We were led to believe that the tourist industry would buy it," Guild said. She blames slower-than-expected sales on restrictions on air-travelers' carry-ons, which she said eliminated airport sales.
"Most of our market is not in Las Vegas," she said. "It's nationwide."
That may be because community cookbooks are more popular in other parts of the country, particularly the South and Midwest, said Mike Surabian of Hunter Public Relations in New York, which represents the 18-year-old Tabasco awards program (to enter, go to www.tabasco.com).
"I would say that isn't a freak thing, like over one or two years," he said. "Almost consistently, we get more entries from those areas."
"It's kind of a long-standing tradition in the South," McIlhenny agreed. "I think they started in Charleston (S.C.) during or right after the Civil War."
"I just think there's a richer tradition in food, history," in the South, Andrews said. "There seems to be more people that hand recipes down to families over the years."
Community cookbooks may be a little tougher to find in Las Vegas, because with the exception of the Junior League book, most bookstores don't carry them. But a check with a publisher found books produced by local elementary schools, church groups and social organizations. And they contain a wealth of recipes. Here's a sampling:
SWEET SANTA FE SPREAD
1 pound cream cheese, softened
1 8-ounce can pineapple, well drained
1/2 cup dry-roasted peanuts, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
Thoroughly combine the cream cheese and pineapple and add the peanuts, garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. Blend well; chill for 1 hour and serve with cut celery or sesame cocktail sauce.
-- Recipe from "Faith Lutheran Academy Presents Take Your Pick Cookbook"
SQUASH STUFFED MANICOTTI
1 good-sized butternut squash
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup chopped onion
3 large garlic cloves
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 box manicotti shells
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey
1 small container fat-free ricotta cheese
1/4 to 1/2 cup vegetable stock or bouillon
Light marinara sauce or canned Italian-flavored tomatoes, to taste
Fresh-grated Parmesan cheese, to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut squash in half and scoop out seeds and stringy fibers. Lightly season with salt and pepper. Bake until inside is soft.
In saucepan, saute onion and chopped garlic cloves in olive oil until translucent. Set aside.
Boil manicotti shells in salted water until just al dente (about 10 minutes; you don't want them too soft, or they will tear during filling). When finished, rinse with cold water and lay on paper towels to air-dry just a bit.
Scoop cooked squash from shell into large bowl. With fork, blend and mash until smooth. Add soy sauce, honey, onion/garlic saute and ricotta. Use the vegetable stock as needed to form smooth, silky mixture, but be careful not to make it too runny. (If you don't seem to need the vegetable stock to obtain a smooth texture, it is not really needed for taste.)
Stuff manicotti shells with squash mixture. Take a 13-by-9-inch baking dish and pour in about 3 to 4 tablespoons of the tomatoes or marinara, just to cover bottom of pan to prevent pasta shells from sticking. Place the filled manicotti shells in the pan. Cover with the remaining marinara or tomatoes. Sprinkle with Parmesan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. Sprinkle just a bit more Parmesan on top just before serving.
Serve with garlic bread.
-- Recipe from "Faith Lutheran Academy Presents Take Your Pick Cookbook"
PORK AND SAUERKRAUT LOAF
1 1/2 pounds fresh ground pork
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 can sauerkraut
Mix well all ingredients except sauerkraut. On waxed paper, spread 1/2 inch thick. Drain sauerkraut and spread over meat. Roll like a jelly roll. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
-- Recipe from "Family Treasures" by Fountain of Hope AME Church
BUTTERSCOTCH ROLLS
1 package yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
2 tablespoons shortening
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup scalded milk
1 egg, slightly beaten
4 to 6 cups flour
Filling (butterscotch):
3 to 4 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped raisins
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
108 pecan halves
Dissolve yeast in water. Add shortening, sugar and salt to scalded milk. After mixture has cooled, add egg. Add dissolved yeast. Add flour until mixture is stiff. Let stand about 2 hours, until double in size.
Work dough until soft and pliable. Roll dough to about 1/4-inch thickness. Spread top of dough with melted butter, then filling of 1/2 cup brown sugar, chopped raisins and chopped pecans. Roll as for jelly roll. Squeeze corners and cut in about 1-inch pieces.
Grease muffin pans. Place 1 teaspoon butter, 1 teaspoon brown sugar and 3 pecan halves, in that order, in bottom of muffin pans. Place 1-inch cut pieces of dough on top of mixture. Let rise again for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Bake at 425 degrees for about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from pan upside-down.
Makes 3 dozen.
-- Recipe from "Family Treasures" by Fountain of Hope AME Church
NEVADA BARBECUED BEANS
1 pound pinto beans
10 cups cold water
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ounces bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup chili sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Sort and rinse the beans. Combine the beans and cold water in a Dutch oven. Let soak overnight. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt to the soaking beans and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until tender. Drain the beans, reserving 3 1/2 cups of the cooking liquid. Return the beans and reserved liquid to the Dutch oven and set aside.
Cook the bacon in a skillet until lightly browned. Drain off most of the drippings. Add the onion, celery and garlic to the skillet. Saute for 10 minutes, or until tender. Add the tomato paste, chili sauce, sugar, dry mustard, vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Add the vegetable mixture to the beans and stir to mix. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serves 6 to 8.
-- Recipe from "Las Vegas Glitter to Gourmet"
WALNUT RAISIN RISOTTO
1/3 cup golden raisins
1 cup white wine
2 tablespoons butter
2 shallots, chopped
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, or to taste
2 cups arborio rice
Juice of 1 orange
3 cups hot vegetable stock
1 to 2 large heads Belgian endive, sliced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Grated orange peel and chopped fresh oregano, for garnish
Place the raisins in a bowl and add the wine. Let soak for 30 minutes. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan. Add the shallots, walnuts, garlic, allspice and nutmeg. Saute for 4 minutes or until the shallots are tender.
Add the rice and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the raisins, half the soaking liquid and orange juice. Cook until the liquid is absorbed, stirring constantly. Add the remaining soaking liquid and cook until the liquid is absorbed, stirring constantly. Add 3/4 cup of the hot vegetable stock and cook until the stock is absorbed, stirring constantly. Add 1 1/2 cups of the stock 3/4 cup at a time, cooking until the stock is absorbed before adding more and stirring constantly. When 3/4 cup of the stock is remaining, add half of it and cook until absorbed, stirring constantly. Test the rice; it should be tender but firm. Add the remaining stock if needed. The total cooking time should be about 20 minutes.
Stir in the endive and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the oregano and Parmesan cheese. Garnish with grated orange peel and chopped fresh oregano.
Variation: Use dried cranberries in place of raisins and cranberry juice for the orange juice. Substitute almonds or pecans for the walnuts.
