9th Ward Cookbooks
Some time ago, I pitched the idea to Nita of using recipes from old Relief Society cookbooks for a ward Christmas dinner. Last year as we were thinking about menu ideas for that event, the bishop mentioned that he would like to have a 70-year-anniversary party for the ward. We decided that would be the perfect event to implement my idea.
Thus started a search for 9th Ward cookbooks. Nita and I don't have any personally, so we started to ask ward members if they had any. To our surprise, we located five of them. If there are more out there, please let us know.
Today, we are used to finding recipes online. It may come as a shock to some that before the internet was widely available, people had recipe books and recipe cards in their homes that they could reference to help them cook delicious food.
My mom graduated in home economics from BYU in the 1950s. I treasure a class cookbook that she created as a student there. She once said to me, "The best cookbooks out there are Relief Society cookbooks. The contributor's know that they will be judged on the recipe they submitted. They'll make sure it's a good one."
Food is sacred. Not only does it give us energy to live, it tastes delicious and creates community. It is right that we pause before each meal and express gratitude to God that we have food to eat that day. It is a gift that perhaps we sometimes take for granted.
We have the opportunity to use these cookbooks, and the recipes found in them, to help us nourish our ward community. As people see the names of contributors in these books, I believe that their hearts might be drawn out to their friends, past and present, found on the pages. Perhaps a smile will creep across their face as they remember them.
I would like to offer a challenge to those reading this post. Have fun with the recipes in these cookbooks. Try one of these recipes out and take some to your neighbor. Tell them where you found it and who contributed it to the cookbook. Invite some friends to dinner and have each of them bring food connected to recipes from the ward. One can bring a salad, one the main meal, one some bread, and one some dessert, for example. Food is better when it is shared.
I had the idea of identifying the families who lived in our home before we arrived and see if we can find recipes contributed by them. We would then go to FamilySearch and learn what we could about that person, hopefully print out their photo, and prepare some of the foods they had contributed. Leah asked me if I was crazy. Such an activity seemed like a certain invitation for someone from the other side to come back and haunt us. She might have a point.
Below are links to the contents of the five 9th Ward cookbooks that I've been able to locate. I'd like to thank those who shared their cookbooks, or offered to share them. Again, if we are missing any, please let us know.
If you would like to try out the recipes, please reach out to me and I'll share what I've found.
And if you come across delicious recipes that would work well for our anniversary party on March 25, please send them our way. We want to put together a fun display to highlight them.
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