Printed on a three-ring binder with a solid cover and detailed sketch of Upland Community Church (UCC) are the words “Spreading the Joy.”
Within the pages are 400 unique recipes from members of UCC. Seven packed sections include recipes for everything from meal starters like “Cucumber Salsa” to soups and entrees like “Mexican White Chili” and “Two-Crust Chicken Pot Pie”—and sweet treats like “Chocolate Almond Cheesecake” and “Swedish Spritz Cookies.”
Headed up by Cathy Mitchell, a team of six church members did the work of receiving, editing and compiling submissions.. Mitchell’s daughter, Abby (’16), designed the cover of the cookbook using a photo that was converted into line drawings, taking a look at UCC’s building.
The idea for the project was born after Mitchell was inspired by a conversation she had with a friend, Kari Manganello, at a church gathering. UCC has provided a sign-up meal train for mothers of newborn babies, and Manganello had asked if Mitchell had any recipes for the dietary restrictions of one mother she was baking a meal for.
During this time, Mitchell said she felt God reminding her of the influx of new neighbors moving to Upland.
“There are a lot of new houses going up along Eighth Street, and it would be nice to be able to welcome them in some tangible way,” she said.
Mitchell reminisced on when she and her husband were on the receiving end of a welcome wagon tradition years ago, and they received a basket with coupons, flowers and other informative advertisements for the community. After some thought on it, Mitchell woke up one morning with the full-fledged idea she believed God had given her to do a church cookbook.
After enlisting the help of other UCC church members, including Emily MaGee and Marsha Becker, Mitchell began working on the project in February, and the team put finishing touches on their work in June.
Becker contributed to the cookbook with some of her own recipes, as well as edited and proofread submissions sent in by church members. Some of the submissions contained family recipes that Becker enjoyed working on.
“It was fun picturing how the family would look sitting around eating these dishes that have been in the family for generations,” she said.
The team strived to collect diverse recipes from a variety of people, including Janie Kessler, the former first lady of Taylor University, and Bryton Albright, the worship pastor for UCC, MaGee said. Max Meier submitted a “Happy Times Punch” that he made for around 40 years to be served at his wife’s yearly piano student recital. Paul Bowen sent in a recipe for ANZAC biscuits, also known as Australian cookies.
The cookbook can be a formative biblical way for communities to connect and come together over a table of food, Mitchell said.
One recipe for Easter Story Cookies, submitted by Abby Mitchell, gave readers the opportunity to enact the story of the Passion by putting them in the oven and getting them the next morning to find them hollow, representing the empty tomb that Jesus walked out of, MaGee said.
“I had several people when we first announced it thrilled and saying, ‘I have a cookbook from a former church, and I love it because I open the pages and I see the names of people I love,’” Mitchell said.
MaGee submitted a vegan recipe that she had received from a friend and slightly modified. The “Moroccan Chickpea Soup” has spinach, garlic, crushed tomatoes, cinnamon and lots of chickpeas—an assortment of good flavors that creates a delicious soup, MaGee said.
Carie King, department chair and associate professor of the English department, sorted through all of the recipes and marked ones that had dietary restrictions, creating an index that was put at the beginning of the book, Becker said. These recipes will give users the ability to eat food that is different from what they usually consume in order to meet someone else’s dietary restrictions, Mitchell said.
The team had 565 cookbooks delivered and invited people to buy one for themselves and get a second one to donate to UCC for the purpose of gifting a new neighbor or bride at a wedding shower. There are approximately 150 cookbooks remaining and Mitchell plans to put those out for sale at the back of UCC a few times before Christmas.
“It's just such a huge honor and blessing to be a part of what God is doing in the world and to have something like a cookbook that is a collection of sweet memories, people and activities,” she said.
