Eating at Church

The cooks of these 175 superlative recipes are volunteers, bubbling over with good will, know-how and friendliness. They embody commensality -- the act of building community by sharing a table. Some dishes are prepared at home in a well-organized flurry, since they have to get to church on time. Others are cooked in the church-basement kitchen by a close-knit team who love what they're doing, since it's for others. If you find a recipe is imprecise, please feel free to join in creatively and look at a related one nearby. As a child of the church in the thirties, the author cherishes memories of a perpetual cycle of strawberry socials, harvest suppers and silver teas. And those memories, coded in recipes like these, still stir up the intangible ingredients poured in by the hearts of those earlier 'Eating at Church' chefs.