Church Cookbooks...Praise the Lord!

If you have lived in the south for more than 10 minutes then you know every church has printed a cookbook at one time or another.  Doesn't matter the size of the congregation, it can be a small or mega.  But a cookbook is in their library!

First thing about it that strikes me as funny is that the women will actually share their recipes. I mean, when Miss Whoever shows up at the Church Social with the best homemade chocolate cake anyone ever ate she is beaming!  Then Mrs. Whats Her Name is asked every time there is someone in the church who needs a meal to prepare her famous chicken and dumplings.  Of course she does.  Southern women like to guard their recipes like Fort Knox guards gold!  They are handed down from generation to generation.  Mothers get their daughters in the kitchen and say "Grandmama taught me to make this now I am gonna show you too."  It is more than a cooking lesson it is part of those Southern roots I spoke about taking hold and growing just a little deeper.

 But, when it comes to the church cookbook they all come through with recipes.  Now, I am not saying they give up the gold, but they do bring in some winners.  So the "Cookbook Committee" gets busy sorting and proofing all the recipes, then they type them out neat and send them to the company for printing.  (Now it can all be done on our computers!)  Then the cookbooks arrive and everyone gets to purchase a copy.  It is done over and over in small and large churches, year after year.  When you are fortunate enough to own one of these treasures you hold onto it and use it often.  Mine is dogeared and stained - that shows how much I love it.  

So often when I use it for a recipe, I think of the ladies that are no longer with us. The recipes they shared in our little cookbook is a link to them to help us remember how blessed we were to know them.

 Since I am writing about these cookbooks I will share a couple of the treasures inside.  Not only the words of the dedication page but one of the best recipes.  This is the go to pound cake my mom bakes and has for years.  I hope you enjoy it.


Almond Pound Cake - from my mom, Betty.
1 cup margarine 
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (we all know that means Crisco)
3 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
5 eggs 
3 1/2 cups plain flour -sifted
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup milk
Cream margarine, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add extracts.  Add eggs one at a time and beat well.  Alternately add the measured flour and baking powder with the milk.  Begin with flour and end with flour.  Bake in large tube pan for 1 1/2 hrs. at 325 degrees.

If you have a church cookbook of your own, then you are blessed.  The women who shared those recipes were sharing more than cooking with you...they shared their knowledge of cooking and a little about their life.


Think I will bake a cake today.