Mennonite Weekly Review

NORTH NEWTON, Kan. — The movie Julie & Julia and a love for good food has inspired a Newton woman to embark on a culinary journey.

Ellen Awe of Newton has been on a yearlong culinary journey of cooking and blogging, inspired by the memoir and the movie Julie & Julia.

Ellen Awe is documenting her adventures in a blog, “A Year of Mennonite Cooking.” She will share her experiences in cooking, eating and writing at 3:30 p.m. Aug. 1 at Kauffman Museum on the campus of Bethel College.

The foundation for Awe’s journey is the Mennonite Community Cookbook, first published in 1950 with more than 435,000 copies now in print. Awe inherited her copy of the cookbook from her maternal grandmother, Ida Kauffman Yutzy, a conservative Mennonite from Plain City, Ohio.

Awe says she has fond memories of her Grandma Yutzy with her full apron, housedress and white head covering. Yutzy used the Mennonite Community Cookbook for many years and hand-wrote more recipes in the now tattered and stained 60-year-old copy that Awe owns.

The Mennonite Community Cookbook was truly original — its author, Mary Emma Showalter (Eby), included recipes gathered from multiple streams of Mennonite theology and ethnic backgrounds. Showalter selected more than 1,100 of the 5,000-plus “Favorite Family Recipes” submitted from Mennonite communities throughout the United States and Canada.

One hundred twenty-five Mennonite women noted for their excellent cooking contributed instructions for tantalizing dishes representing old Dutch, German, Swiss and Russian kitchens. Showalter introduced each chapter with her own nostalgic recollections of cooking in her grandmother’s day, punctuated by “old-time” illustrations by Naomi Nissley.

Awe, who teaches at a Catholic school and is married to a non-Mennonite, strives to keep the “family meal” alive and is committed to preparing healthy meals that use local produce. But a recent rebirth of appreciation for her cultural and spiritual background has led her to a “journey through the land of cream, lard, noodles and corn” as she reads her grandmother’s Mennonite Community Cookbook and revisits recipes from her past.

Additional inspiration came from the book and movie Julie & Julia, which tells the story of a woman who cooks her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year and writes a blog about it.

From her first blog on Dec. 26 (“Scramble,” from a Grandma Yutzy recipe), to a July posting on “Peach Skillet Pie,” Awe will talk about her recipe selections and inspirational experiences. Audience members will also have an opportunity to share their favorite recipes and cooking memories.

The program accompanies the museum’s special exhibition, “Beloved: Artwork by Kristin Die­ner,” in which many pieces refer to the artist’s Amish and Mennonite heritage.