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Serve: Revisiting a Century of American Legion Auxiliary Cookbooks

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Recipes from 100 years’ worth of community cookbooks published in nearly every state are collected here, thoughtfully selected by members of the American Legion Auxiliary, Unit 1879, Colorado State University, to celebrate the national organization’s centenary.

In their own words:

We collected more than 80 vintage and recent TALA cookbooks from virtually all states and eras, and sifted through their pages for compelling recipes and anecdotes. Then we reached out to TALA members across the country to retest recipes in their home kitchens and send us their comments and photos.

Recipe testers faced challenges such as determining the temperature of a “warm oven,” the amount of “butter, size of a walnut,” and today’s equivalent of “10-cents worth of pork….

Organized by era and punctuated with histories of America’s military involvement, food stories of veterans, and tips and reflections from our test kitchens, this anthology of contemporary and timeless recipes—from Spiked Applesauce Baked Doughnuts to Potato Skins and U.S. Senate Bean Soup—is sure to inspire conversation in your kitchen and with veterans in your life.

And yes, you will find S**t on a Shingle, along with evidence of the wide range of culinary influences reflected in the source material. A tamale recipe adapted from a 1919 book from Eureka, California; beef goulash adapted from a 1936 book from Pendleton, Oregon; Brussels beer waffles adapted from a 1976 Iowa coobook; Norwegian fish cakes adapted from 1999 cookbook from Homer, Alaska; pierogi adapted from a 2011 book from Hampstead, Maryland.

Proceeds from the sale of the book benefit mental wellness programs for veterans.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.

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