Somerville Reads is a project that promotes literacy and community by encouraging people all over the City to read and discuss books on the same theme. For our third annual program, the subject is food—local, sustainable, delicious!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Recipes Wanted for Community Cook Book

One of our most exciting projects for Somerville Reads 2012 is the creation of a community cook book! Nothing brings people together quite like food, so we're asking all of our neighbors to share some favorite recipes. Maybe you have a specialty that people always want you to bring to parties, or a recipe for something that the kids ask you to make over and over. Or it might be a treasured family recipe from your culture, or a favorite that features local ingredients. Whatever you choose, we're looking forward to your contribution. We don't know if we'll be able to print all of the recipes - it depends on how many submissions we get and whether there are duplicates - but we'll use as many as we can. If you didn't invent the recipe yourself, please make sure that you include credit where it's due (ie: "found this recipe in my mother's old Fanny Farmer" or "clipped this out of the Globe Sunday magazine years ago".)

There are three ways to submit a recipe:
  • drop it off at any Somerville Public Library location, care of Ellen Jacobs or
  • mail it to:
    Somerville Public Library
    79 Highland Avenue
    Somerville, MA 02143
    Attention: Ellen Jacobs
The deadline for submitting recipes is March 1st.

Once we've compiled all of the recipes, we're going to print copies of the cook book and sell them at our kickoff event, a potluck meal at the Central Library on Saturday, March 31st beginning at 1:00 p.m. We hope that people will bring lots of the dishes featured in the cookbook, but anything you'd like to contribute will be welcome! (Please make sure to list the ingredients so that people with allergies or other food restrictions can be informed.) Everyone who comes will have a chance to vote for their favorite dish, and five lucky winners will receive prizes of gift certificates donated by local businesses that are sponsoring the event: Dave's Fresh Pasta, Guru, Highland Kitchen, India Palace, and Sherman Café. Proceeds from the sale of the cook books will go toward future programming at the Libraries.

So what are you waiting for - send in your recipe today!