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100th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Guild cookbook serves as recipe for success
The Vindicator
Photo
Pat Gergel stands with Olga Brown, left, president of St. Anne’s Guild, and Carol Kaszowski, guild vice president. They have been involved with the publication of the 100th Anniversary Edition of “Book of Golden Recipes,” marking the anniversary of Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church of Youngstown.
By JoAnn Jones
Begin with a large mixture of ethnic dishes.
Add holiday specialties along with meats and casseroles.
Mix in breads and rolls, soups and salads, or desserts.
Combine all ingredients, topping them with a sprinkling of prayers and poems.
A recipe? Actually it’s a labor of love by the women of the St. Anne’s Guild of Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church of Youngstown; it’s their 100th Anniversary Edition of their “Book of Golden Recipes.”
“Prior to his death last year, Monsignor Leo Adamiak asked me to reissue our cookbook in celebration of the church’s anniversary,” said Pat Gergel, whose mother, Sadie Preksta, put together the first edition in the early 1970s.
The current book is dedicated to Monsignor Adamiak and “members of the St. Anne’s Guild, past and present.”
According to Gergel, about 6500 of the first edition were sold after being mentioned in The Vindicator by the late Esther Hamilton in her weekly column. That edition sold for $2.75.
“My mother had had a dream since we were kids,” Gergel said. “She got started on it when my two brothers, sister and I left home. She would take it to a monastery in Butler, Pa., where monks printed books.”
The anniversary edition, however, is printed at the church and put together by a small committee of women, with the help of administrative coordinator Luba Horsky and Nancy Stecyk, who have helped with formatting and editing.
Gergel and her committee punch the holes in the pages and bind the books themselves because that saves money.
“Everything we make goes to the church,” Gergel said.
“We don’t have a [money] goal in mind. If the church needs something, we donate. We’ve already given a large sum of money toward a ramp for the handicapped.”
This edition of the cookbook, which sells for $15, plus $2.25 for shipping and handling, contains about 150 recipes. Some of these were in the original book, while members of the guild, as well as their children and grandchildren, have submitted others.
“We’ve sold about 300 by word of mouth,” said Carol Kaszowski, the guild’s vice president. “When we get down to about 10 or 15, we make about 50 more.”
The guild began working on the book in the spring of last year and has sent books to five different states, according to committee member Olga Brown.
Other committee members are Irene Perish, Marion Goske, and Evelyn Yourstowsky.
Brown said she has several favorite recipes in the book, including those for pumpkin cake, stuffed cabbage soup and raisin puffs.
“We try to make it a homey book,” Brown said.
Gergel, Kaszowski and Brown also help with the church’s pirohi sale that takes place every Friday from Labor Day to Memorial Day. The church sells about 7000 to 8000 pirohi a week.
The cookbook, of course, contains a recipe for them.
The book is available for purchase by contacting Gergel at 330-792-1820 or Kaszowski at 330-757-4672. Patrons can also call the church at 330-744-5820.