First Church Fare

First Church Fare compiled by First Presbyterian Church, Bel Air, Maryland 1990

I was happy to come across this book because it is from the church where we rent rooms for my weaving guild meetings and our guild library! It’s fun to find books where you have a personal connection even if it’s small.

This one opens with a note from the Marjorie Gaines Circle thanking those who contributed in any way to the book. My guess is it was a woman’s group of church members. As always if you are reading this and have a clue let me know! Nothing comes up when I google it.

The book opens with a strange “cook’s prayer” about praying that the Lord will keep them from being too talkative. There is also the recipe for “elephant stew” and a couple of other novelty recipes.

No illustrations, I’m not even sure that is the church on the cover and just stock photos on the section dividers. The recipes are all credited by name with a few by what seems to be a social group or family. There are a number of recipes by what appears to be men (Larry Fuerst’s Blueberry Corn Muffins looks legit) which is fairly unusual for community cookbooks.

The recipes look fairly solid, there are a few helpful hints buried in the directions of some of them, which I always appreciate. The dessert section is robust and has some regional favorites like Sydney Reynold’s Black Bottoms and some slightly unusual fare like Margaret Kuyendall’s Pumpkin Orange Delight which reads to me to be some sort of pumpkin icebox pie with a pecan crust.

We adapted Ann Edie’s Disappearing Marshmallow Brownies from this book.