By Karen Kistler

karen.kistler@salisburypost.com

CLEVELAND — Friendsgiving was the theme for a recipe swap, which was set for the afternoon on Nov. 18 at the Rowan Public Library West in Cleveland.

The community was invited to attend this event and “celebrate Friendsgiving and the connections between life, love, family and food” and either bring a favorite dish or test a new one for the holidays and come enjoy the time with others in the community.

Liz Gerometta, West Branch library associate, said the recipe swaps are very popular with the community; however for this particular event, turnout was limited to Cyndi Allison of Cleveland and staff at the library.

Allison shared that she has been to all of the library’s recipe swaps, which are held at RPL West on School Street on a regular basis, being offered once per programming season and has been held once at RPL headquarters on West Fisher, shared East Branch Library Supervisor Sydney Smith.

Previously, Lyndsey Maloney, adult services supervisor, served as recipe swap organizer, but leadership at the current time is Reference Librarian David Lamanno.

Sharing that she enjoys the potlucks at church, Allison noted she likes to come to these events, which have that similar look and feel of food and fellowship. 

“I like to come because I get to try everybody else’s favorite recipes,” she said.

All of the recipes that are brought to the swaps are then compiled into a booklet and shared with everyone that attends. Some of these, Allison shared, now show up on her table for her family.

While she usually takes one of her favorites to the swaps like Cherry Yum Yum or oatmeal raisin cookies, Allison said her recipe this time was a new one she discovered after seeing some on Facebook and decided it looked good.

This time she made spicy sausage wonton bites, using this event as a trial run to test the recipe, and plans to make them again for Thanksgiving.

In addition to sharing recipes with others, Gerometta said she would encourage people to attend these community events as they are a chance to get hints and tips on how the recipes are made, it’s a “time to share heritage and family traditions that are connected with the recipes, and you get to taste them too.”

Some of the family stories that were written on the submitted recipes were kept and included in past booklets as well, thus learning even more about the history of the recipe.

Smith noted that these events are wonderful and likewise would encourage the community to attend as they are “a great way for people to come together and share recipes and stories.”