There is a bookshelf in my kitchen, full to bursting with cookbooks. Old standards — Fanny Farmer, The Joy of Cooking, The Silver Palate, The Betty Crocker Cookie Book — alongside specific ethnic cuisines, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Indian. Several by Australian author Donna Hay (love her food photograghy!), books for cooking with small children, books inspired by the cuisine of fictional universes, a bunch of vintage books from the 60s and 70s, featuring such culinary delights as tuna encased in Jello, and oh so many canapés.

If you ever need a gift idea for me, a strange new cookbook is always welcome. This Christmas, my mother in law gifted me with a cookbook by noted chef Snoop Dogg. I love it.

There is little that compares, however, to the community recipe book. These collections of recipes submitted by community members, complied and bound, and generally sold as part of a fundraising effort. These fully hit my love of history and sociology, snapshots of a community in a place and time. An old friend recently told me how she was able to recover many of her Kansas grandmother’s recipes through these old books.

The other day, I received a text from Pat Shannon with a picture of the book Lincolnville, Maine: Treasure of Personal Recipes. She believes it was given to her by either Ruth Felton or Peg Miller, two of our dearly departed town matriarchs. Of course I needed to get my hands on it.

Published in 1962 for the Community Center Building Committee, it is a trove of old recipes and old names. The Community Center Building is now known simply as the Community Building, and is part of the Lincolnville UCC. In my day it served as the part time Lincolnville Central School gym, the place where Boy Scout Troop 244 met, and as probably the worst basketball venue in the Midcoast. Ask anyone who played for or against the LCS basketball team in the 1980s.

It has since been fully renovated, with a full kitchen and an upstairs bathroom (the ones in the basement always gave little Eddie the willies), and hosts AA meetings, dances, funerals, reunions, and, of course, the Strawberry Festival.

So the cookbook. The Treasure of Personal Recipes is absolutely wonderful. While the Community Center Building Committee in 1962 was evenly divided between men and women, with Gilbert Knight, Ruth Pottle, Arno Knight, Mary Libby, Janet Richards, and Ronald McIntyre making up the members, the recipes appear to have all been exclusively submitted by women. Millers, Beveridges, Clarks, Annises, Flaggs, Youngs… just to name a few from a couple pages.

No question who was doing the cooking in 1960s Lincolnville.

So many pickle recipes, a good handful of Jello based salads. Cookies and coffee cakes galore. Very little spice, and the few recipes that suggest ethnic origins seem dubious — not sure what makes “Indian Meatloaf” Indian. The addition of creamed corn? The “Hawaiian Spareribs” and “Shrimp Chow Mein” look promising, and suggest that things like soy sauce and canned water chestnuts had found their way to our little town in 1962. These ingredients were still a bit exotic in my childhood. 

An aside, but as a kid there was nothing more delicious than a bowl of white rice with a sprinkle of soy sauce.

After perusing the Treasure of Personal Recipes, I went to that kitchen bookshelf and pulled out The Old Meetinghouse Cookbook: Food to Nourish Body and Soul.

Published in 2007, to help fund renovations to the UCC Church, next door to the Community Building, it is a far thicker volume than Treasure, but includes many of the same last names amongst the contributors. There were a lot of new names, though, new Lincolnville families including my own. I had submitted recipes I collected during my brief time as a semi fully functioning adult. Almost 20 years ago now.

The Old Meetinghouse Cookbook also represents the changing palates of this little town, a lot more spice, more culinary inspiration from the wider world, as the people of Lincolnville became more widely traveled in the new millennium.

Lincolnville men are also represented in this cookbook. I need to try making Keryn Laite’s bread pudding, now that I have started getting over my childhood prejudice against raisins. (No, ma, they are not the same as chocolate chips in oatmeal cookies.) Bob Heald’s Saco Fries, a hearty camping breakfast, looks delightful.

Times change, we grow and evolve. Baked beans, biscuits, pickles, and coffee cake never go out of style, however.

So bring on the masa, the chili crisp, the tofu, gochujang and hummus. And keep making green tomato relish and an occasional Jello salad. And you can never go wrong with a pot of beans on a Saturday night. If you don’t have a crock in your cellar, last time I checked, Wentworth’s sells salt pork.

Find an old recipe from your grandmother, your mom, an old neighbor, heck, even an ex boyfriend or girlfriend and make something delicious for someone you love. We all need to eat, so you might as well make a bit of a production out of it.

Friday at the Museum

Join the Lincolnville Historical Society this Friday night, February 20, at 7 p.m. for Living History With Hank Lunn: Abiel Briggs, American Patriot. Taking the role of Abiel Briggs, a volunteer who joined with Benedict Arnold for the Expedition to Quebec, Lunn will describe the life of a soldier through the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. 

Hank Lunn a amateur historian and has been an educator and counselor for over 40 years in the Midcoast.

Parking is limited, so carpool if you are able. Doors will open at 6:30 if you want to check out the museum before the talk. You should definitely check out the museum.

Library Happenings

Tuesday, February 17 at 1:30 p.m., will be the monthly forum “Conscious Aging: Coping with the Challenges of Aging”, with Roe Chiacchio, RN, CPT, SFS.

On Friday, February 20 at 12 p.m. learn to play MahJong, or join a game if you already know the rules.

Finally, from 10-11 p.m. Saturday, February 21, bring the little ones for Eric Carle Stories and Crafts.

After a disappointing Super Bowl (though the halftime message was right up my alley), today is the Daytona 500, a yearly event introduced to me by my wife and father-in-law. Instead of wings and nachos, it is pepperoni and cheese and dozing off to the drone of stock cars turning left, always turning left.

Not everyone’s cup of tea, I am sure, but I have learned to love it.

Be well, Lincolnville. The nights still freeze, but the days are often north of 32, so the maple sap is flowing. This is a great time to make friends with someone who makes maple syrup. As always, reach out to me at ceobrien246@gmail.com.

Municipal Calendar

Monday, February 16

President’s Day, Town Office closed

Tuesday, February 17

Library open 3-6 p.m. 208 Main Street

AA Meeting 12:15 p.m., Community Building, 18 Searsmont Road

Recreation Committee, 6 p.m., Town Office

Thursday, February 19

Library open 3-6 p.m. 208 Main Street

AA Beginner’s Meeting, 7 p.m., Lincolnville Historical Society, 33 Beach Road

Budget Committee, 6 p.m., Town Office

Friday, February 20

AA Meeting 12:15 p.m., Community Building, 18 Searsmont Road

Library open 9-12, 208 Main Street

Saturday, February 21

Library open 9-12, 208 Main Street

Sunday, February 22

United Christian Church, 9:30 a.m. Worship and Children’s Church, 18 Searsmont Road

Bayshore Baptist Church, 10 a.m. Sunday School for All Ages, 10:40 a.m. Coffee and Baked Goods, 11:00 a.m. worship, 2648 Atlantic Highway