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Seeking Recipes for New Edition of Taste and See Cookbook

The time has come to expand on the Taste & See cookbook and we’re looking for recipes to be included in the new cookbook!

The original cookbook, Taste & See: American Orthodox Cooking was published in 1999 by the Women of St. Ignatius Orthodox Church in Franklin, Tennessee. A couple thousand copies were sold, raising more than $8000 for the Antiochian Women's Orphanage Fund. It has become a favorite cookbook of Orthodox cooks all over America.

Now in 2011, three of the original cookbook committee members, along with several other contributors, attend a mission parish in Murfreesboro, Tennessee started by St. Ignatius Church.  Founded in 2005, St. Elizabeth Orthodox Christian Church ( http://www.stelizabethtn.org/) is the only Orthodox Church in Rutherford County, just outside Nashville and one of the largest and fastest-growing counties in the southeast.  The mission has outgrown its current rented space and needs its own building to continue to grow.  The Women of St. Ignatius have given the Women of St. Elizabeth their permission and blessing to revive the Taste & See project with a sequel cookbook to raise money for the mission's building fund.

The first cookbook, entitled "Taste & See: American Orthodox Cooking", was created to help American cooks prepare meals that conform to standard Orthodox fasting guidelines while appealing to an American palate. As a convert, I often had trouble finding fasting dishes that my family would eat.  Most Lenten cookbooks are full of recipes that are strange and foreign to us. Neither of us had ever eaten Greek, Arabic or Russian food until we became Orthodox. Our first Lent, I spent night after night combing through fasting and vegetarian cookbooks. Dinner was always a combination of scary adventure and hopefulness. Would I finally find something that we could all eat? The original Taste & See cookbook was a blessing to our family and many others like us.

It has been 12 years since that cookbook was published. Although the cookbook has been unavailable for several years, there is still a demand for it. Many people who have enjoyed this first cookbook have repeatedly requested a sequel cookbook. That’s where we need your help! As we did for the first cookbook, we are asking people across America to submit recipes for this all-American book. We are especially interested in recipes that are as "stress-free" as possible, simple and tasty. We want to spend more time praying during fasting periods and less time combing through dozens of cookbooks.

We are primarily looking for recipes that conform to standard Orthodox FASTING guidelines (no meat, dairy or fish with a backbone).  If a recipe requires oil or wine, we will note it as such.  We would prefer SIMPLE recipes that appeal to the great melting-pot of the American palate.  We are not excluding Greek, Arabic and Russian favorites, but we certainly would love to get Southern, Southwestern, Californian, Midwestern, Yankee, Soul Food, Italian, Mexican, Asian, and other non-traditionally Orthodox foods.  Yes, we will have a falallel recipe (and other favorites from traditionally Orthodox countries) but we will also have recipes such as Southwestern Stew, Homemade Salsa, Potato Soup, Taco Salad, Irish Stew, Ziti and Vegetables, Lentil "Sloppy Joes", Thai Spring Rolls, Seafood Gumbo, Baked Oatmeal, Pumpkin Apple Spice Bread, Strawberry Pie and even Fried Green Tomatoes.   In addition, we would like to include your favorite feasting recipes -- Pascha bread, Pentecost BBQ, etc. -- and recipes that are designed to serve a crowd.

Like the first one, this cookbook will be professionally produced. It will have a minimum of 300 recipes and come in a binder format that will allow more pages to be added. It will also have custom dividers, quotes from the Bible and the saints, cooking tips and other helpful features.

The categories will be:

  • Fasting Finger Foods, Appetizers and Beverages
  • Soups & Salads
  • Pasta & Rice
  • Beans & Vegetables
  • Spineless Seafood
  • TVP, Tofu & Other Meat Substitutes
  • Breads & Desserts
  • Cooking for a Crowd
  • Our Best Feasting Foods

We would love for you to be involved!!!!!!!

Here is the BEST WAY to submit recipes --

  1. Go to http://www.typensave.com/
  2. Click on Login.
  3. Use your name for Contributor.
  4. Use “tasteandsee” for Group Login.
  5. Use “buildachurch” for the password.
  6. Once you are in our section, click on “Add Recipe” on the left side of the screen.
  7. Add your recipes! In the section at the top that reads “List up to 2 additional Contributor Names”, please type in your parish, city and state. For instance: “St. Elizabeth Orthodox Church, Murfreesboro, TN.”
  8. In the recipe note section, please include any special information not related to the specific instructions. For example, if the recipe is gluten-free, good for freezing, a favorite of a particular saint, an age-old family recipe, etc.

Recipes can also be e-mailed to the committee: tasteandseecookbook@gmail.com or mailed to the church:

Cookbook Committee
St. Elizabeth Orthodox Church
321 W McKnight Dr.
Murfreesboro, TN 37129

VERY IMPORTANT!!!   When you have submitted a recipe, please send an e-mail to the cookbook committee at tasteandseecookbook@gmail.com with your name, parish, city & state, e-mail address, and phone number (or include this information with a paper copy of the recipe mailed to the parish). We need this information in case we have any questions about your recipe and to be able to inform you when the cookbook is available for purchase. You only need to do this once, no matter how many recipes you submit.

Also, please note that the recipes don't have to be completely original.  If you have a favorite recipe from another source, especially one that you have made major or minor changes to, please feel free to submit it as well.  Make sure that it is a recipe that you have fixed yourself, know the quality of it and have made a change -- even a minor one -- to the ingredients OR instructions. 

We hope to have the cookbook ready for purchase in June 2011.  We need to have all recipes submitted by THIS Sunday, March 20, 2011.  If you would like to be involved, please do not delay; submit your recipes TODAY!  Even if you do not wish to submit recipes, if you would like to be included in the email announcing when the cookbook is available for sale, please email us at tasteandseecookbook@gmail.com.

We greatly appreciate your help with this important project!  Please, send us your recipes and forward this e-mail to your friends. We also ask that you keep this project in your prayers.  With God being our Helper, may we be able to produce another cookbook that will relieve stress and be a blessing for thousands of American Orthodox cooks.

Thanks a bunch & peace be with y'all!

Your sister in Christ,

Angela Hays
Cookbook Committee Chairman
St. Elizabeth Orthodox Christian Church
Murfreesboro, Tennessee