In Good Taste

Wed Nov 7 19:02:22 CST 2001
Food preservation
By Alma Gaul / QUAD-CITY TIMES

Atkinson, Ill., is poised for national exposure.

A new cookbook published by St. Anthony's Catholic Church will be featured in the April issue of Home Cooking, a Better Homes & Gardens publication with a nation-wide distribution of about 350,000.

The story began last January when a seven-member committee of the church decided to compile a cookbook as a fund-raiser. The church is 130 years old and has never had a cookbook, so the group figured it was about time.

Committee members worked like mad for more than six months, soliciting and compiling recipes from the church's 300 households and others in the community.

"We didn't just put a notice in the bulletin, and leave it to luck," committee member Joann Vandemore said. "We personally called everybody."

When the final product was in their hands, committee member Mary Helen Claeys mailed a copy off to the Des Moines-based magazine on the off chance that it might be featured. Home Cooking features three community cookbooks every issue.

In September she got a call, and on Oct. 29 a five-member crew came to town to do reporting and photographing for the book, which is titled "Recipes and Recollections." Crew members intended to give the story an Easter angle, so they had Easter lilies and tulips special-ordered and shipped in to use as props, as pumpkins and mums don't go with Easter.

"We are just in awe," Vandemore says. "This is a national magazine - it's just too much!"

The magazine crew took photos in committee member Renee Hamer's kitchen and in the church. The ladies were asked to send in photos of their kitchens beforehand and Hamer's was picked because it is the biggest.

"After seeing everything they brought with them - the lighting and the cameras and everything - they really needed that space!" committee member Mary Helen Claeys said.

Why was their book chosen?

One of the deciding factors "in addition to the recipes, was the concern for maintaining recipes that are important in their community," Diane Yanney, Home Cooking food editor, said.

"These good cooks aren't going to be around forever and this is a format to preserve" their recipes and thus the community's food heritage, she said.

"It's a culinary history of the town," Yanney said of the book. "People won't have to wonder, 'How did Aunt Mary make that?'"

In addition to the usual categories of "Salads" and "Desserts," there are chapters called "Belgian Recipes" - the town's heritage is 80-90 percent Belgian, Vandemore said - and "Atkinson Chefs and Caterers," which is a compilation of community favorites.

These include the Barbecue Sandwich from the old Atkinson High School cafeteria and the Creamy Spinach Bake still served by the Cattle Club Cafe.

The Belgian dishes include Arthur Holevoet's Speculaas (St. Nicholas Cookies) and the Hutsepot (Belgian Dish) served at Atkinson's Heritage Days.

You'll also find Head Cheese, which calls for one pig's head, and Blood Sausage, which calls for one gallon of blood (beef and pork mixed is very good, it says.)

In today's climate these recipes likely sound repulsive to most people, but years ago, they were treats. Still, not even Holevoet, who is "first-generation born in America," has seen these made for two or three years. What with various regulations, about the only place to obtain such ingredients is from a home butcher, he said. The recipes make interesting reading, though, and they are a record of the community's heritage, as the magazine food editor pointed out.

Home Cooking debuted in October 1999 and about half its content is devoted to community cookbooks.

The other two books that will be featured with Atkinson in April are a book from Calaway Gardens, Georgia, and one from a public school in Sacramento, Calif., with an after-school treat theme, Yanney said.

The magazine will feature 12 Atkinson recipes, including Vandemore's Apricot Crown Roast; Holevoet's Belgian Waffles; and Laura Bulens' Raisin Bread, which was made into Hot Cross Buns for the season.

(You'll find a selection of recipes on Page XX.)

In addition to taking pictures on Hamer's kitchen, the magazine's photographer took a photo of the entire committee beside a stained glass window in the church, and numerous shots of the Louis and Theresa Granato family of Geneseo, Ill., which includes seven children, ages six months to 14 years. The photographer posed the family in the church with Easter lilies.

"Recipes and Recollections" is now in its third printing of 750 copies; previous printings were for 1,750.

About the Book

"Recipes and Recollections" is a hefty 444-page spiral-bound book (good spirals - not the bad kind that pull apart) with nearly 1,000 recipes.

The "recollections" part of the title refers to old photos sprinkled throughout, including a hotel that doesn't exist anymore, the Midland Coal Co. tipple and the Atkinson Stockyard.

The cover is a painting by Anton Pieck, a Belgian artist who died in 1987. It depicts a street scene with a woman making lace, a dog of Flanders pulling a milk wagon and a statue of St. Nicholas.

Recipe categories include appetizers, dips and beverages; breads; breakfast ideas; cakes and frostings; candy, cookies and bars; casseroles; desserts; meats and meat casseroles; pies; salads; soups and sandwiches; Belgium recipes; diabetic recipes; Atkinson chefs and caterers; kids in the kitchen; and "whatever."

Proceeds benefit the church.

To Purchase

The book is available by mail for $17. Send a check made payable to St. Anthony Parish Cookbook to: Recipes and Recollections, Mary Helen Claeys, 401 W. Henry St., Atkinson, Ill. 61254

The book also may be purchased for $14 at various businesses including The Flemish Lion, 740 18th Ave., Moline: The Emporium Bookstore, Kewanee, Ill.: Guzzardo's card shop, Kewanee and Geneseo, Ill., and Emma's Bloomers, Annawan, Ill.

The seven women who put together the cookbook are, from left: Joyce Minnaert, Renee Hamer, Audith Burton, Joann Vandemore, Lucille Doubler, Mary Helen Claeys and Norma Gillbraith.