Every once in a while, I unexpectedly stumble across a gem of a cookbook.  My latest find is this one: a collection assembled from the learners of the former Age & Opportunity (English as an Additional Language) for Older Adults program.  Two of the recipe writers have since passed on and their recipes are a memorial.

I so wish that the recipes from my little Polish Grandma Felice had been recorded somewhere but since they have not, I scan collections such as this for the possibility of her jarred meat, her prune dumplings or her thimble cookies.  Her Poppy Seed Roll was legendary (well perhaps only to her neighbours of the little town of Limerick SK) but stellar in my memory.

In the Recipes from Europe section there is a version but it is from the Ukraine and not Poland.  Still I will give it a try.  Others on my list:

Mullah Potatoes from Sudan

Alfajores (Dulce de Leche Cookies) from Argentina

Fried Milk from China

Lumpia (Spring Rolls) from the Philippines.  I’ve always wondered what lumpia rolls were at Confusion Corner.

and Plov from Uzbekistan (I’m going to have to look that one up in my atlas) 

The collection itself is very user friendly as it has a spiral spine which means it will lay flat in the kitchen.  The design by Jeff Lukin is excellent;  done with a template of clouds on every page as if you were flying the world to savour these dishes.

To find out where you can pick up your copy-contact Age & Opportunity at 956-6440. 

Kath’s quote:  “I know the look of an apple that is roasting and sizzling on the hearth on a winter’s evening, and I know the comfort that comes of eating it hot, along with some sugar and a drench of cream… I know how the nuts taken in conjunction with winter apples, cider, and doughnuts, make old people’s tales and old jokes sound fresh and crisp and enchanting.”-Mark Twain

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