Cookbook Project

Our regional cuisine is a process of culinary remembrance and transformation bringing forward in time the heart of our family, community, and cultural histories. If you cook, or hang out in the kitchen watching the cooks in your family perform that special mix of chemistry, magic, and love, you probably have stories to tell. Do you have your Irish Grandmother’s perfect recipe for Soda Bread carried through the gates of Ellis Island? What about that Tex-Mex Chili that your Dad has made for years? Are you willing to share with the world the name of your Mom’s “secret ingredient” that makes your dessert at the potluck the one everyone is raving over? Well, it’s time to dish!

You experienced interpreters have no doubt teased the theme of the cookbook from the introduction. The interpretive story behind the food is just as important as the recipe. The story you contribute will be handled with the care and consideration that a treasured personal remembrance deserves. Any editing in your story for length or typos will be referred back to you for review and your acceptance before we go to print. Please keep the gist of the story in 250 words or fewer (that’s about 1 page double spaced).

The responsibilities of contributing will be that you may be asked to perform “test kitchen” duties and you will have a voice in coming up with the name for the cookbook. Contributions may be in the form of artwork as well as story/recipes. Line drawings will be easier to incorporate within the pages as sidebars (margin art), cooking method illustrations, and watermarks. Katie Saylor, the creator of our Region 10 Rendezvous 2006 logo, has very kindly agreed to do the cover artwork. All contributors will be acknowledged in the cookbook.

The proposed timeline for the project is completion before March 2007. It will be great to have the cookbook ready as a Region 10 fundraiser at the regional/international workshop in Vancouver, BC. The planned format of the cookbook is 8.5”X11” heavy gauge, water resistant, coated paper cover, spiral bound (for ease of use in the kitchen), and high quality recycled paper pages.
Contributions using WordPerfect, MSWord, MSExcel, rich text files, notepad files, .jpeg and .pdf files will be accepted via email attachment. You may submit computer memory discs, 3.5” floppies, typed or hand written sheets and drawings on napkins -- via USPS, UPS, FEDX and PONY EXPRESS . . . in other words, just about any way you have to send your recipe/story and/or artwork is an option.

Would you like to contribute to the Region 10 cookbook project? Please send in your story/recipe and/or artwork as soon as possible. The process is underway. Here is the contact information:

Paula Cline-Jones
P.O. Box 381
10361 NW Ray St.
Seal Rock, Oregon 97376
wrabbit@pioneer.net
541-563-2178