Junior League of Denver needs your favorite recipes
The Junior League of Denver’s cookbooks have become a bit of a Colorado institution, with the League’s five books having sold a staggering 2.1 million copies to date. Besides great recipes, that means millions of dollars ($6.9 million, to be precise) have gone to helping the JLD’s efforts to train women and improve our community.
Because good food for a good cause never goes out of style, the League announced it’s releasing a sixth cookbook, called “Centennial Celebrations,” and it needs your help to find and share the best Colorado recipes. “Centennial Celebrations” will be all about celebrating with food, and the League is looking for recipes for all kinds of occasions — from date-night
dinners to Thanksgiving family feasts to entertaining a crowd.
“Junior League of Denver is proud to be nearing 100 years of training Denver’s finest civic leaders. It’s the perfect reason to celebrate,” board of directors president Kali Handford wrote via email. “We’re marking this milestone of bringing women and communities together with the 2019 launch of ‘Centennial Celebrations.’ This sixth cookbook in our award-winning lineup will give you a great excuse to bring your loved ones together around our triple-tested recipes.”
Over the years, those tripletested recipes have reflected their era — case in point, the section on Microwave Cooking in the original 1978 cookbook. Each book includes such Denver-centric dishes as Bronco Bread and Denver Stuffing, and the cookbooks themselves have become treasured keepsakes. Artifacts document their times in every way, even in the cookbook’s design — the original breaks up recipes with sketches from around the state, while the “Classique” has glossy photos of noteworthy peaks.
“The recipes have definitely changed over the years to reflect the food trends of the time,” cookbook chairwoman Mary Beth McErlane said. “However, all five cookbooks contain classic, timeless recipes. ‘Colorado Cache’ contains a recipe for microwave cheesecake, but also a recipe for fresh Colorado peaches and cream pie.”
If you have a killer celebration-worthy recipe, submit it to the JLD by Nov. 20 for possible inclusion in the new cookbook. Or, if you’re just looking for more great recipes to add to your repertoire, do nothing right now and wait for your chance to support JLD while also picking up delicious cooking tips when the new book is released in 2019.
“Folks who have supported us by purchasing one (or all five!) have helped us continue to improve literacy rates and provide access to books for children through the third grade, as well as continue to provide trained civic women leaders to the community,” Handford said. “It’s cooking for a purpose. The Denver metro community and beyond has embraced not just the cookbooks, but what they support, and that’s made all the difference in their popularity.”
If you have a great celebratory recipe to share, submit online at frprecipecollection.com (Book Code 8020-VS); via email at recipes@jld.org; or mail to Junior League of Denver, c/o Recipe Collection, 1140 Delaware St., Denver, CO 80204.