Librarians' cookbook the perfect holiday gift for foodies
Everybody loves cookbooks. They're not just guidebooks for preparing foods.
Cookbooks are portals to dreams of wonderful tastes, warm or cooling comforts and even longed for ways of life.
The best cookbook I've seen this season, and the one I'll be giving as a holiday gift, is "Food, Friends and Libraries Matter: A Compendium of Concoctions from Libraries and Friends."
It was put together by staffers at the Alliance Library System in East Peoria.
One of the reasons I like this cookbook so much is that it evokes the best of cookbooks of the past. The cover features old recipe cards and clippings of recipes. The pages are vanilla colored and as I turn them I can almost smell something good baking.
For ready reference, the inside of the front and back covers have helpful information, such as a listing of standard abbreviations, an equivalents chart and common cooking substitutions.
I love cookbooks put together by real cooks working in kitchens somewhat like mine.
Since the book is a loose-leaf binder, it is very easy to use and stays open on your counter top.
The book is divided into sections: appetizers and beverages, entrees, side dishes, soups, salads and bread, desserts, cookies, bars and candies. I also like the idea that these recipes have crowd appeal. Every recipe in this book has prompted compliments to the cook and some have been handed down in the family from several generations past. These are tested recipes and represent the best of the best.
A unique feature of "Food, Friends and Libraries Matter" is a section of recipes for kids and pets. Here I found five different playdough recipes and a good number of recipes with kid appeal, such as Chocolate Popcorn and Grandma's Dirt Cups. There are also recipes for treats for birds and dogs.
Kitty Pope, executive director of the Alliance Library System, and a member of the Cookbook Committee, told me that assembling the cookbook was a labor of love.
"Seven ALS staffers spearheaded the project," she said. "We were so excited and it must have been contagious because as we talked about the project to others, the recipes just flew in. Many were contributed by people connected to libraries in our area, but we had contributors from as far away as Calgary and Abu Dhabi."
The cookbook is a fundraising project with a goal of contributing $15,000 to a permanent endowment for the continuing education of librarians in central Illinois. It's the latest in a series of such projects that began in 2005 with ALS's blue "Libraries Matter" bracelets campaign. More than one million bracelets were sold in that effort.
To obtain your copy of "Food, Friends and Libraries Matter" send $20 (check or money order payable to Alliance Library System) to: Alliance Library System, 600 High Point Lane, East Peoria, IL, 61611. For information, call (309) 694-9200, ext. 2115, or e-mail kpope@alliancelibrarysystem.com. Listen to my podcast interview with Kitty Pope at librarybeat.org for more fascinating details about the production of this beautiful cookbook.