Register and learn more:
https://berlinpeck.org/events/cookbook-club-2026-02-23/
Do you enjoy flipping through cookbooks to decide what to make?
Do you search through recipes for inspiration?
Come join our monthly book club, featuring cookbooks! Just register, pick a recipe from the specified cookbook, make the dish on your own, and then gather for a feast. While you eat, you can discuss the cookbook, its recipes and the process of choosing what to make and how to make it. We will aim to evenly distribute the recipes among starters and sides, main courses, and desserts.
You do not need to be an experienced cook, just an enthusiastic one!
How Do I Participate?
Register for the program.
Visit the Adult Reference Desk to view the cookbook and pick a recipe. Some copies are available to borrow.
Let us know which recipe you picked. You can call, email, or visit in person.
Then bring in your dish for a fun potluck!
About the Book
This month’s cookbook is Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson.
A lyrical culinary journey that explores the hidden stories of Black Appalachians through powerful essays and forty comforting recipes from the Poet Laureate of Kentucky. Years ago, when O. Henry Prize-winning writer Crystal Wilkinson was baking a jam cake, she felt her late grandmother’s presence. She soon realized that she was not the only cook in her kitchen. There were an abundance of ancestors stirring, measuring, and braising with her. These are her kitchen ghosts, five generations of Black women who arrived in her region of Appalachia and made a life, a legacy, and a cuisine.
Part food memoir, part cookbook, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts weaves fiction with historical records, memories, and interviews to present a unique culinary portrait of Black Appalachians. Forty recipes rooted deep in the past yet full of contemporary flavor are brought to vivid life through stunning photography and beautiful illustrations. You’ll find delicious favorites such as Corn Pudding, Chicken and Dumplings, Jam Cake, and Praisesong Biscuits woven into the narrative of Crystal’s family, portraying the experience and history of Black Appalachians through their voice, spirit, and foodways. As the keeper of her family’s stories and treasured dishes, Crystal shares her inheritance in Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts. She found these stories woven into her apron pockets, floating inside the steam of hot mustard greens, and tucked into the sweet scent of clove and cinnamon in her kitchen. Crystal conjures up her ancestors every time she cooks, honoring the mothers who came before her, the land that housed generations of her family, and the untold heritage of Black Appalachia
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