Cookbook offers comfort food recipes and support to Naperville food pantry
Anyone craving comfort food on a wintry afternoon might want to head over to Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville.
The store is hosting a reception at 1 p.m. Sunday for chefs and other contributors to "Culinary Comforts: Soups, Stews and More," a fundraising cookbook put together by Loaves and Fishes Community Pantry in Naperville.
Visitors will have three kinds of chili to sample along with other foods made from recipes contributed by local restaurants and residents.
"The book is 50 percent restaurants and 50 percent local residents," said Laura Stanley Thomas, a member of Loaves and Fishes' cookbook team. "We were looking for those soup recipes and comfort food recipes we thought would be great to have."
Contributing Naperville restaurants include Catch 35, Meson Sabika, Hugo's Frog Bar and Fish House, The White Chocolate Grill and Tango.
The approximately 70 recipes include soups, stews, chili and accompaniments, such as cornbread.
Longtime Loaves and Fishes volunteer Peggy Beata contributed her mother's recipe for sloppy joes. Beata made enough to serve to 110 people for the cookbook's kickoff event and it was the first dish to run out, she said.
"I guess word got around it was delicious," she said.
Beata said she's found other recipes in the book she wants to try and already has made Naperville Mayor George Pradel's chicken divan with excellent results.
"It's not Julia Child's recipes. These are things people could make from ingredients they have in the house," she said.
The cookbook sells for $18 and all proceeds go to the food pantry.
"It would make a great gift," Thomas said.
Loaves and Fishes was looking for a fundraising project to do this year when in February someone suggested a cookbook, Thomas said. A cookbook committee was formed in April and the comfort food theme was chosen.
"I thought it was very in keeping with the pantry," said Thomas, a volunteer with Loaves and Fishes.
The committee decided to include recipes from restaurants to broaden the appeal, Thomas said.
The cookbook was completed in early November so it would be out for the holidays.
The pantry hopes cookbook sales will help it meet the increased demands on its resources that have come with the difficult economic times. Jody Bender, Loaves and Fishes' community relations director, said the pantry enrolled about 1,200 new families in 2009.
Total enrollment is more than 3,200 families, or 12,000 individuals. About half are children under 18, Bender said.
The pantry's tax-exempt status and cooperative buying power allows it to convert a dollar into $10 worth of food, according to the Loaves and Fishes' Web site.
<p class="factboxheadblack">If you go</p> <p class="News"><b>What:</b> Reception for Loaves and Fishes' cookbook, "Culinary Comforts: Soups, Stews and More"</p> <p class="News"><b>When:</b> 1 p.m. Sunday</p> <p class="News"><b>Where:</b> Anderson's Bookshop, 123 W. Jefferson Ave., Naperville</p> <p class="News"><b>Cost:</b> Free for reception; $18 for cookbook</p> <p class="News"><b>Info:</b> (630) 355-2665</p>