Table talk for Nov. 5, 2009

• By TOMMY SIMMONS
• Advocate Food writer
• Published: Nov 5, 2009

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I spent a couple of days last week at Avery Island evaluating cookbooks for the Tabasco Community Cookbook Awards & Walter S. McIlhenny Hall of Fame. The Tabasco awards were established to honor fundraising cookbooks published by nonprofit organizations.

I have loved being one of the judges for the awards, which have been presented annually since 1990. It’s been inspiring to read about the projects that the sales of these community cookbooks are supporting. There are literally thousands of museums, churches, gardens, schools, health education programs, neighborhood associations, youth recreation centers and other civic endeavors that have been underwritten by the sales of volunteer-produced and published cookbooks.

Each cookbook entered in the awards competition has to include information documenting how proceeds from the cookbook sales are spent on community projects. Some of the information provided is so touching. One I recalled from a few years ago was from a tiny farm community in a plains state, Kansas I think, that had put together a cookbook featuring farm wives’ favorite recipes. The purpose of the book was to raise funds to help keep open the sole store that was still operating in the community. The community wrote eloquently about the importance of preserving a place for people to gather as well as be able to buy basic grocery and household supplies. They feared that if the store closed, their community would die, too.

One of the cookbook stories that touched me this year accompanied a small cookbook published by a group in Baton Rouge, who call themselves “Team Snap.” The group includes members who have lost loved ones to cancer or experienced the disease themselves. They decided in 2006 to organize “Team Snap” to raise funds for the American Cancer Society’s work in Baton Rouge. “Team Snap” raised $28,000 last year for cancer research,  support education for early detection and prevention and to help with providing services to cancer patients in the Baton Rouge area. Of their total donation, $15,000 was raised through the sales of their cookbook, “Team Snap Cooks to Find a Cure for Cancer.”

The cookbook isn’t glossy. There are no photos. The recipes are easy, “family friendly,” is how Allison Claudet, a member of Team Snap described the collection. Many recipes use convenience products like cans of soup, jars of pasta sauce, cake mixes, etc. to streamline preparation. Team Snap’s cookbook, like all of the cookbooks entered in the Tabasco Community Cookbook Awards program, is a winner whether it garners an award or not. The cookbook is accomplishing its purpose, bringing pleasure to cooks who use the family friendly recipes and helping fund projects to fight cancer.

Here is the recipe I tried.