A Taste of the Everglades compiled by Everglades City School PTO 1994 Everglades City, Florida
There is no indication of what the book’s proceeds went toward, but I’m guessing it was to the Parents Teacher Organization general fund since it was dedicated to them by James E. Hall, principal and it seems like they collected the recipes.
The book opens with a chapter of “local favorites” which is always fun to see. Avocado, stone crab, guava, seagrape, coconut, calamondin (calamansi), snook, surinam cherries, oranges, tamarind, and conch are all represented.
I love it when a cookbook really leans into food that makes their community unique. Some community cookbooks don’t and could be from anywhere but this one is very clearly and firmly rooted in southern Florida. It’s a full 30 pages long! Even in other other sections there are some recipes, like Corliss Balkun’s Guava and Dumplings, that are clearly regional in nature.
Most recipes have a named contributor but there are a few that are missing names.
Some of the recipe names, like Kathy Doster’s Not Like Golf Ball Hush Puppies seemed to have a backstory I’d want to hear more about!
Outside of the regional recipes, there are also a lot of classic and familiar community cookbook dishes like Hazel Mitchell’s M & M Cookies, Cheryl Poyner’s New Ranch Dip, and Pauline Reeve’s Chicken and Rice Casserole.
No head notes but a few contributors snuck some tips in at the bottom of a recipe or in the ingredients list. Linda Penzo’s Overnight French Toast calls for “5 eggs (or use Egg Beaters or something like that)”. Other recipes are extremely simple–Cindy Krieder’s Soy Chops is literally just “Fry pork chops in soy sauce. Yum!” along with an unspecified amount of pork chops and soy sauce as the sole ingredients.
I updated and adapted Linda Penzo’s Buttermint Tuck-Ins from this book.