Food for All Seasons: Cooking for the Christian Year

Margaret Bremmer was an artist and illustrator in Chesterville, Ontario.

With a sunny, attractive cover, this book is a nice size to hold and use. Following a chapter on bread, the contents are organized by occasions in the Christian calendar: Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost. A final section, “Liturgy of the Table,” contains suggestions for blessings and graces. The titles are in large type and the recipes are clearly divided, making the book easy to read and follow. The spine-side third of each page is sectioned off and devoted to notes: interesting tidbits of information about holidays, foodstuffs, saints, etc., relating to adjacent recipes. This makes the book interesting to browse through even apart from the recipes: the excellent index even includes the “spine-note” subjects and biblical quotations.

There is a great variety of recipes here, many that I’m glad to have, such as soft pretzels and Scripture Cake. Some of them seem a bit recherche (Granola for Easter? Fish in Pastry for Christmas?), but there are also a number of classics like Hot Cross Buns, Plum Pudding and Hard Sauce, and Buche de Noel.

One could certainly go to greater lengths than I’d be inclined to, but I’m sure there are those out there who would be enthusiastic about making Leek Tart on March 1st, Saint David’s Day (patron saint of Wales), or Coventry Godcakes to give (traditionally) to one’s godchildren in honour of the New Year. And I can always appreciate a cookbook which says — at the end of a complicated set of instructions — “Even if all goes wrong, the dough tears, and the filling runs all over the place, do not despair. Let it rise and it will bake beautifully.” Thanks!