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What is the recipe for success?
At the Abraham Lincoln School in Bangor, it starts with one great idea. Add one ambitious parent-teacher organization, 10 dedicated volunteers, 194 eager pupils and their parents, one history-oriented custodian, more than a dozen helpful teachers and 3 heaping tablespoons of community support. Combine all ingredients and simmer over the course of six months. Serve, covered, to a crowd.
Though it seemed daunting at times, the result – a thick cookbook titled “Fourscore & More: Recipes from the Families of Abraham Lincoln School” – was worth the wait. It combines more than 280 recipes with family anecdotes, jokes, kid-friendly snacks, student artwork, class pictures and historical photos and essays about the school.
“That was the idea – to try to make something that wasn’t just a cookbook but a memory book, too,” said Pat Bears, chairwoman of the Abraham Lincoln School PTO and an integral player in the cookbook project.
It all started last fall, when the PTO started planning its annual fund-raisers. The group was looking for an original idea to add to the slate – a contradance, book fair, and sock hop already were in the works – when Jewel Stevens, a third-grade teacher, suggested a cookbook. It had worked at Stevens’ previous school, and it fit with the PTO’s mission.
“We like to get together, have fun and make money as we’re able, and this was very much the same,” Bears said. “We all really like to work on projects that help bring our school families together.”
So Bears sent out a call for entries. Over the course of a few months, she got back nearly 300 recipes and stories. Children’s entertainer Rick Charette, a friend of the school, gave away the secret to his popular “Mud Flat Pizza.” Every year the PTO holds a dinner for the teachers, so the group decided to add some of their favorite dishes, too.
“They do that very nicely,” Jackie Frisk, the music teacher, said during a break in the teachers’ lounge. “They spoil us.”
The PTO also wanted to spoil the pupils, so they asked them to submit artwork, recipes for such nonedibles as Homemade Silly Putty, and food-related jokes: “Why is the baker never rich? Because he always kneads dough!”
And the kids ate it up. During a recent visit to Mrs. Stevens’ third-grade classroom, some pupils took a little time out to promote the book. When asked what they thought about it, the answer was a resounding “awesome.”
“I think everybody will enjoy the cookbook and I think a lot of kids will have a lot of good recipes to share with their family and friends,” Ryan Robinson said.
Charlene Drake piped up: “This is good for Father’s Day if your father likes too cook.”
“It’s not just a cookbook,” Allison Rowe added.
In addition to recipes, class pictures, stories, jokes and artwork, the book also includes a history lesson about the original Abraham Lincoln School, which stood on Palm Street and Forest Avenue from 1895 to 1973. Custodian Dale Lindsey gave the PTO a collection of photos from the original building. An essay by Cleavie Davis Badgley shares some of the highlights of the old school, including the fact that when it was completed in 1895, a Boston newspaper described it as “the best school building in the state and probably comparing with the best in the country.”
Parents were eager to help out as well. A core group volunteered to help put the book together, and Bears’ husband, Doug, developed a computer program to lay out the pages so they wouldn’t have to send it away to a cookbook company for publishing.
“There were a handful of parents in here, working for hours, sometimes until midnight, working to get this right,” Frisk said.
Eric Zelz, a graphic designer and illustrator for the Bangor Daily News, painted a watercolor for the cover. His daughter, Charlotte, is in Mrs. Pojasek’s kindergarten class at Abe Lincoln. And when a boy in her class asked why there were two girls (and thus, no boys) in the painting, Charlotte had a good answer.
“There’s a little bit of everybody in this school in just these two,” she said.
In fact, there’s a little bit of everybody in the cookbook, as well. Food has the power to bring people together, and “Fourscore and More” did just that.
“We learned a lot about each other, and the kids will have something they can keep forever,” Pat Bears said. “It wasn’t just a fund-raiser, it was so much more.”
“Fourscore and More: Recipes from the Families of Abraham Lincoln School” costs $12 and is available at the school, located at 45 Forest Ave. in Bangor. For more information, call 941-6280.
Rick Charette’s Mud Flat Pizza (Clam and Garlic)
After an evening concert at a school in Colchester, Conn., the concert’s sponsor, Peggy Filloramo, invited him over for clam pizza. He had never tasted it before, but it was so delicious that he had to ask for the recipe. This is an adaptation of Filloramo’s recipe:
Pizza Dough:
2 3/4 cups bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package rapid-rise yeast
Pinch sugar
11/2 to 13/4 cups warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil
Cornmeal
Clam Flat Topping:
1 pound chopped clams
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 crushed garlic cloves
Basil and oregano, to taste
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
Mozzarella cheese
In medium bowl, combine yeast, sugar, oil and water. Gradually add the flour and salt to make soft dough. Knead on floured board for about 5 minutes. Place in a greased bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Let rise in a warm place for 30 to 40 minutes. Punch down dough and knead briefly. Roll out dough to a circular shape.
Drain clams. In a frying pan, heat olive oil. Lightly saute garlic. Add clams, basil, oregano and pepper; cook for about 4 minutes. While dough is rising, preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Heat pizza stone in hot oven for about 5 minutes. Remove from oven. Lightly sprinkle with cornmeal. Place crust on stone and quickly add the clam topping. Sprinkle mozzarella on to your liking. Cook for 15 minutes.
Kid-dillas
This kid-friendly recipe was submitted by Leif Grosswiler, a first-grader at Abe Lincoln.
Flour tortilla
Cheddar cheese slices
Chopped fresh chives (Leif uses chives from Abe Lincoln’s “kindergarden”)
Chopped fresh tomatoes
Warm a skillet over medium heat. Heat 1 tortilla on one side until warm but not crisp. Flip tortilla. Cover tortilla with cheese slices. Sprinkle with vegetables and top with a second tortilla. Heat through and flip over to heat other side. Remove from heat and cut into wedges.
Dirt Dessert
This fool-the-eye recipe was submitted by Jaylon and Joey Turcotte, a third-grader and a first-grader at Abe Lincoln. Their mother writes, “The first time I made this dessert for some friends of the family, my husband looked at me and very seriously asked if I expected his family to eat potting soil for dessert. If the cookies are crushed just right, it really does look like potting soil with the little white specks. The looks on your guests’ faces will be priceless!”
2 pounds crushed chocolate sandwich cookies
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick butter at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
91/2 ounces instant vanilla pudding
31/2 cups cold milk
12 ounces Cool Whip
8-inch flower pot
Gardener’s trowel
Artificial or edible flowers
Cream together cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar and mix well. In a separate bowl, mix pudding and milk until thickened. Mix together the cream cheese mixture and the pudding. Fold in Cool Whip. Layer in plant pot, starting and ending with crushed cookies. Add flowers and serve with the trowel.
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