Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook

From the Foreword:

Extending the Table is an invitation...to enjoy the gifts of people from Argentina and Bangladesh to Yugoslavia and Zambia. The stories and recipes help us enter into the lives and situations of these people and to be changed by them in significant ways. Food is a medium of communication, but it is more; in a mysterious way, it is part of the message, as Jesus so vividly portrayed in the breaking of bread and distribution of the cup.

Extending the Table follows in the tradition of Doris Janzen Longacre's More-with-Less Cookbook, especially her Living More with Less, which I, as her husband, competed after her death. Both books challenged us to learn from the world community, to celebrate with joy, and to care for the earth. Extending the Table presents recipes and stories of people around the world. Many of them live with few material resources, yet they share gifts which point us toward a different and freer way of life.

Extending the Table is much more than a cookbook. It will most often be found on the kitchen shelf, but it could just as well fit comfortably on the bedside stand or coffee table for inspirational reading. Let it also find its way onto the pastor's shelf for its excellent sermon illustrations and stories.

For all of us, it provides repeated opportunities to take part in the lives of people around the world and to delight in the wealth they have to offer. As we are able to treat other peoples and traditions with respect and tenderness, we too are changed.

—Paul Longacre, December 1990

Cooks who don't object to dishes garnished with Christian moralizing (primarily on the virtues of sharing and the "sacred nature of food"141 ) will find an abundance of appetizing ideas for everyday cookery in this collection commissioned by the Mennonite Central Committee. Home economistp. 6 Schlabach's first cookbook brings together recipes from more than 80 different countries, from familiar Polish bigos or Chinese hot-and-sour soup to the more exotic--chicken with garlic and lime juice from Guadeloupe, and a recipe from Chad for meatballs that contain ground sesame and melon seeds as well as other seasonings. Some recipes have been adapted, mostly to reduce fat content or shorten preparation time. For example, Ugandan groundnut sauce can be prepared from scratch using raw peanuts, but a quick and very flavorful version can be whipped up by substituting chunky peanut butter. Some recipes, like Belizean potato salad and sayur manis (a sweet and spicy Indonesian dish made with butternut squash), include microwave instructions.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.