This Mother’s Day, why not offer your loved ones the gift of history?
Copies of “What’s Cookin’ in Elk County,” a collection of traditional German recipes that dates back to the founding of St. Marys, are on sale now through Mother’s Day in the Peppermint Stick Gift Shop at Elk Regional Health Center.
For one Elk County woman, the cookbook proved to be a very special glimpse into her past.
Marguerite Munsell, 97, received a copy of the cookbook as a gift from her granddaughter, Lisa Housler. When Mrs. Munsell opened the cookbook, the book fell open to a page featuring her mother’s recipe for bean salad.
“I couldn’t believe I opened that book right to my mother’s recipe,” Mrs. Munsell said. “Right away, I got very excited. Mother passed in 1971 and I remember that recipe from way back in the 1930s. It was one of those recipes where you could change up some of the ingredients depending on what you had available and it would still taste just as good.”
Mrs. Munsell, who lives in Emporium, called the cookbook “a nice piece of history.”
“I can flip through that cookbook and see the names of so many people I remember,” Mrs. Munsell said. “Some of them were my school teachers when I was a young girl. How many people today would remember these people and know who they are? Some of those recipes are from the 1930s and 1940s and are very traditional German recipes. How many people know those recipes and traditions? The cookbook is such a nice piece of history.”
The original cookbook was published in 1941, with reprintings in 1976 and 2011.
The cost for each cookbook is $15. Proceeds from the sale of the cookbooks will support the Elk Regional Health System Auxiliary, which has made a $250,000 pledge to The Elk Regional Capital Campaign.
“What’s Cookin’ in Elk County” is available for sale in the Peppermint Stick Gift Shop in the lobby of Elk Regional Health Center. The Gift Shop is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Hours on Saturday are from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
