Recipes are typically the key ingredient in a cookbook, but when Ellery Penner and Rachael Peters put together one to celebrate their church’s anniversary, including stories was equally important.
The longtime friends created The Cookbook Project: Celebrating 75 Years of Meals and Memories as part of the festivities surrounding the 75th anniversary of Niagara United Mennonite Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. The duo released the book late last year, and have sold 600 copies so far.
The 186-page book includes more than 150 recipes submitted by members of the church, including recipes for everything from yerba mate to buffalo wings, as well as various soups, stews, quiches, cookies and cakes. Penner and Peters, who are both 23, chose to divide the sections not by recipes, but according to the stories people submitted. They are labelled “Heritage,” “Journeys,” “Friends,” “Family,” “Seasons” and “Community,” with related recipes, stories and photos filling the pages.
“We wanted to do something that reflected the stories we received, because, for us, the stories were just as important as the recipes,” Peters explains.
Penner says that serving with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) for six months in Indonesia, as well as taking a course at Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ont., called “Food, Culture and History” during her final undergraduate term, helped her appreciate food in new ways.
“Food can divide us, but I believe that more often it unites us,” Penner writes in the cookbook’s preface. “Food opens opportunities for conversation as it is prepared, served, eaten and cleared. It helps us understand others, relate to others and be in community with others. It is a medium through which to extend and receive generosity and hospitality. Food nourishes our bodies, but just as important, it nourishes our souls.”
“All of us, at some point or another, have experienced a meal from an oma’s kitchen, a potluck in the church gym, or the rollkuchen and platz served at springfest,” she adds later. “We don’t have to think very hard to come up with examples of how food connects us as Mennonites, as a body of believers and as a church family.”
Penner and Peters insisted on eating whenever they met together to work on the project, and spent countless mornings eating pancakes as they edited recipes, formatted pages, brainstormed ideas and coordinated photo-shoots. It was a six-month process that ended up being more work than they had initially expected, but it strengthened their friendship and gave them a new appreciation for their brothers and sisters at Niagara United Mennonite.
“Having the support of our community at church was really incredible, especially as people pre-ordered the book and shared with us how excited they were,” Peters says.
“It was a community project,” Penner adds, noting that more than 200 people contributed to the book in some way. . . . It couldn’t have happened without people contributing. We’re so grateful that it turned out how we wanted—as not just a cookbook, but a memoir of our community.”
Proceeds from the sale of The Cookbook Project: Celebrating 75 Years of Meals and Memories go to Mennonite Central Committee. To order a copy, e-mail ellery.penner@gmail.com or rachaelpeters@live.ca.
--Posted April 9, 2014
Add new comment
Canadian Mennonite invites comments and encourages constructive discussion about our content. Actual full names (first and last) are required. Comments are moderated and may be edited. They will not appear online until approved and will be posted during business hours. Some comments may be reproduced in print.