Cobbled-together home recipe collections were once the province of church groups and Scout troops, but now they’re uniting Americans of all stripes.
The chef and artist Krystal Mack’s favorite cookbook has no beautiful photos of food. Its recipes aren’t professionally tested. Its authors aren’t food writers or restaurateurs.
It’s a 1988 community cookbook called “Naparima Girls’ High School Diamond Jubilee 1912-1987,” filled with contributions from students and staff of a school in Trinidad and Tobago that she has never visited. The paperback has a loud magenta cover, and the recipes are basic: Caribbean rice and peas, teriyaki chicken, vanilla poundcake.
Now, isolating at home in Baltimore, Ms. Mack is making a community cookbook of her own, “How To Take Care,” that includes poetry and activities. The book, released last week as a digital edition, costs $5, with all proceeds going to national organizations supporting victims of domestic violence.
The more than 25 recipes, gathered from fellow artists and chefs, are simple and inexpensive to make, like a savory fruit salad and a ginger-tea recipe that asks readers to “sing or chant, so that those vibrations are also infused into the brew…”
To read the entire article from The New York Times, click https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/dining/community-cookbooks-coronavirus.html
