The Mixing Bowl is now available

The Mixing Bowl, the Bath County community cookbook, is now available.  In addition to recipes it contains history, stories and photos.

Maggie Anderson is the Tourism Director for Bath County.

“Everyone that submitted a recipe had a story that went with it,” says Anderson.  “Sometimes the recipes were given to us in memory of a parent, or a grandparent, or a sister or a brother and there was always a nice story that went with it.  In addition to the reminisces that went along with the recipes, we have pictures so you sometimes see someone when they were very young or when they were a child and I think that adds to the charm of the book.  So there’s a little bit of the history, you get a real sense of what it was like to grow up in Bath County.”

Anderson hopes the cookbook will be the perfect souvenir for guests who visit the area.  With photos of Bath County included, she describes the book as a little bit history, a little bit travelogue and all cookbook.

“We had 191 contributors and over 700 recipes,” says Anderson.  “The book is hardcover, four color, so it really is very unique.  It’s more like a coffee table cookbook than anything that you probably have seen.”

The Mixing Bowl  is now available at the tourism office.  Until December 31st, the cost is $22.50 which includes tax.  And if you buy five or more the cost is $20 each.

After the first of the year the cost will be $24.95 and in addition to being available at the tourism office, the cookbooks will be available at the chamber and at retail outlets around the community.

“I think every recipe that’s in the cookbook is a recipe you can actually make,” says Anderson.  “I don’t know how many times you’ve bought a cookbook and you read through the recipes and you think ‘Well this is fun but I can’t make this because I can’t get that ingredient or that’s too complicated or there’s seventeen ingredients and it takes two hours to make.’  This is home cooking, local cooking and I probably have thirty recipes that I’ve marked that I want to make because they’re easy, they’re fun and they’re familiar.”

The tourism office is located on the second floor of the Bath County Courthouse in room 220.  It’s open 8:30 to 4:30 Monday through Friday.

“A friend of mine said this book has many mothers, from Margo Oxendine who gave us the name The Mixing Bowl,  to our graphic designer Susan Payne who actually made the book come together, Celine Pritt in my office who gathered all of the recipes and organized all of the photos and Janice O’Reilly who helped type and proof the material, to all the wonderful contributors,” says  Anderson.  “You don’t have a community cookbook without community.  So basically everyone in Bath County who contributed, we thank you.”

For more information about The Mixing Bowl, call the Bath Tourism Office at 540-839-7202.