Dental clinic’s fund-raising cookbook features presidential recipes

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Former President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan, NBC “Today Show” weatherman Willard Scott, and New England Patriots football coach Dick MacPherson are among the many supporters who have provided favorite recipes to benefit the Children’s Dental Clinic in Bangor.

More than 200 recipes have been compiled in the cookbook “Sharing Smiles,” which is an important part of a fund-raising drive aimed at establishing a $1.5 million trust fund to make the dental clinic self-sufficient.

The clinic provides about 1,000 low-income children, ages 6 months to 18 years, with total pediatric dental care — from routine cleanings to complicated orthodontics.

“We’ve just gone up from about 500 children to 1,000 in the last year and a half,” said clinic director Dr. John Frachella. “That demonstrates the need we have for this kind of thing in Bangor. We reflect what’s going on out there. If things are tough, we’re going to be busier. You have to be at 100 percent of the poverty level just to get in the door here, so you know things have to be bad.”

To date, the brunt of the clinic’s $130,000 annual operating costs has been subsidized by Bangor taxpayers. But as federal and state governments continue to shift more and more financial responsibilities to the local level, that money has been harder to find.

To ensure the continued operation and growth of the clinic, Frachella, City Manager Ed Barrett, and Mary-Anne Chalila, who heads the city’s Department of Health and Welfare, devised a five-year plan to establish a trust fund. The “Sharing Smiles” cookbook was Chalila’s idea and is the first major part of the drive to make the clinic as self-supporting as possible.

“Mary-Anne has really put a lot of effort into this,” said Frachella. “Isn’t it amazing the people who sent in recipes?”

Indeed, the list includes President and Mrs. George Bush as well as three former presidents and their wives.

Possibly trying to garner culinary votes, President Bush submitted three recipes — Mushroom Quiche, Old Fashioned Bread Pudding and Old Fashioned Rice Pudding.

Former President Gerald Ford and his wife sent in six entries, including recipes for Grilled Leg of Lamb, Marcon (Asian Style), and the ever presidential Liver Deluxe. The Reagans offered Monkey Bread and the Carters Plains Special Cheese Ring.

Television funnyman and meteorologist Willard Scott must have really dug deep into his gourmet cookbooks before sending in his recipe for baked rice, which calls for a stick of butter, an onion, one cup of uncooked rice and two cans of consomme. For the adventurous, he does suggest adding a small can of mushrooms.

Patriots coach Dick MacPherson offered up a full course meal complete with Spinach Salad, Breast of Chicken and Butterscotch Peach Pie.

In all, more than 200 recipes for soups, salads, breads, entrees and desserts are well organized and indexed in the 140-page cookbook.

Copies of “Sharing Smiles” are available for $10 each at the Children’s Dental Clinic, 103 Texas Ave. in Bangor, or at the city manager’s office on the third floor of City Hall.

The cookbook can also be obtained by sending $10 plus $3 for shipping and handling for each copy to “Sharing Smiles,” Bangor Children’s Dental Clinic Trust Fund, 103 Texas Ave., Bangor, Maine 04401.

On page 56 of “Sharing Smiles,” Maine humorist Tim Sample shares this recipe for Wicked Good Stuffed Maine Flounder:

“Let’s get one thing straight chummy. If you’re gonna make this recipe, you MUST use fresh Maine flounder! You can’t substitute `sea-legs’ or `Wolf Fish’ or any of the 37 other euphemisms marketing types employ when they want to pawn off day-old sculpin bellies on the unsuspecting consumer. …”

Wicked Good Stuffed Maine Flounder

2 pounds flounder (8 fillets)

1 can (3 ounces) chopped mushrooms

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup butter

7 ounces crab meat

1/2 cup coarsely crushed Ritz crackers

2 tablespoons snipped fresh parsley

1/2 teaspoon salt

Dash of pepper Sauce:

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Milk

1/3 cup dry white wine

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Paprika

Drain mushrooms, reserve liquid. Cook mushrooms in 1/4 cup butter in skillet until tender, not brown. Add to skillet and stir until well mixed flaked crab meat, cracker crumbs, parsley, salt and pepper. Remove and spread filling over fish fillets, which have been placed seam side down in a 12-by-7-by-5-inch baking dish.

In sauce pan, melt 3 tablespoons butter. Stir in flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add enough milk to reserved mushroom liquid to make 1 1/2 cup total and slowly add to butter and flour mixture, stirring until smooth. Then add white wine. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Pour over fillets. Bake uncovered at 400 F. for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and then paprika and return to oven for 5 minutes more.