A community cookbook with a cause

Feb 03, 2011

Photo: Nancy Lansdell, John McDougall and Louise Day

In an effort to raise awareness and funds for the Verona and area Find-a-Doc Campaign, the committee of the same name has published a community cookbook. Aptly named “Our Community Cookbook”, the collection offers cooks a plethora of tried, tested and true recipes as well as a history of the local area. All profits generated from its sales will be used by the Verona and District Health Services committee as part of their campaign to purchase the Verona Medical Clinic, which they hope will be an incentive to attract a new doctor to the community.

Edited by Nancy Lansdell, assisted by June Goodberry, and with photos by Louise Day and Barb Stewart, Lansdell describes the book as” much more than a cookbook.”

The book opens with a look back to dining out in Verona and includes a copy of the menu from Browns Lunch, the old pool hall/restaurant run by Alfreda and Ben Lappen from 1948- 1963 where five cents could buy you a burger. 

The books also includes factual histories of Verona,  Godfrey and Hartington as well as historic photos of specific area landmarks like Doc Goodfellow’s house and the White Pines Pavilion.

Interspersed throughout the book are helpful charts and kitchen guides like: How to test an oven without a thermometer.

Nancy stands by the recipes. “When people attach their name to a recipe, you can bet that it’s going to be good.”

Lansdell had the book typeset, printed and bound by the Rasmussen Company of Winnipeg, who specialize in printing cookbooks. Like all good cookbooks the contents are sorted into manageable sections that include salads, soups, veggies, breads, main dishes and desserts, and there is a handy index at the back.

Certain recipes shout “Try Me”, with names like Love Salad, a rice salad that combines select veggies in a cashew, shallot soy sauce dressing.

Others like Cole Lake Catfish Soup, submitted by Ioma Robinson, appears simple to make, calling for just four ingredients  and a dozen catfish. According to Ioma's note the soup was a popular one and  “was made when the Piccadilly Sunday School picnic used to be held at the Shultz picnic ground on Cole Lake.”

Other recipes seem the perfect comfort food for winter’s coldest days, like Nancy's own French Onion Soup, which calls for wine and whiskey or Betty Revell’s Brocolli Onion Deluxe, which sounds like it might be hard to share. Others like Lynn Wilson’s Guinness Beef Stew sounds like the perfect after-ski or skate meal when a piping hot and heavy stew is the only thing that will do.

You can also find good old Canadiana here with Vera Brown's recipe for beaver tails.

Also on the sweet side, “Wacky Cake” a submission made in memory of both Emily Goodberry and Marlene Cousins, sounds intriguing as does Faye Asselstine's Ruby Slipper Cake, which sounds like something kids would love to both make and eat.

There is also a canning section that offers countless pickle recipes and a bonus section called “Extra Special”, offering candied nuts, peppermint patties, peanut brittle and my all time favorite- poppycock. Lansdell also included a Wild Game section that includes Charles Stewart’s recipe for Venison Salami, and a recipe for Roast Skunk submitted by Nancy, which harkens back to depression-era days when “rugged individuals were too proud to accept welfare and ate anything that they could shoot or trap.”

This cookbook is a historical community keepsake and it is no wonder that sales have been brisk. To date roughly 450 of the 500 copies printed have sold and Nancy is already planning a second printing. The cookbook is available at Local Family Farms, Nicole's Gifts, Main Street Mercantile & Tea Room, Leonards Fuels,  Willows Feed Store, Chris' Hairport and also from June Goodberry, 613-374-2019, and Nancy Lansdell at 613-374-3225.