RFL elementary students to publish recipe book

By Linda Bell
Correspondent

The Bald Eagle Recipe Co. is in business. Red Feather Lakes School students in grades three to six founded the company with a $400 grant from Wells Fargo Bank to the Young Entrepreneurs Program, an after-school enrichment offering at the school.

Last year around Christmas, some of the students suggested to Judy Viola, a volunteer and former teacher at the school, that they could earn money by selling something at the Greening of Red Feather, a seasonal craft show held the first weekend of December, but they had no product to sell.

Viola set to work to put something in place for the next academic year. In September, students in the Young Entrepreneurs Program decided they wanted to produce, publish and sell a community cookbook titled "Recipes to Remember."

The grant will serve as seed money, Viola said, and any profit made by selling the books will be used at the school. Students have already started talking to teachers to see how proceeds could benefit everyone, she said. Fourth grader Anthony Keeton said one idea is to repaint the orange toilet stalls a shade of blue.

Viola said the students worked out a budget with the help of Tom Viola to charge $8 for the books based on the number of pages and estimates from printers to have it spiral bound. To gauge exactly how many copies to print, she said, they may do a feasibility study first, sending preorder slips home with students and trying to predict the interest in the community by asking how many copies they can place in local stores.

To obtain recipes for their book, students posted notices in the community requesting recipes from everyone, and they made a special appeal to area restaurants. Sixth grader Karina Turner said so far they have more than 140 recipes. Each will be typed and formatted by the company's staff of nine.

Viola said students researched the format they wanted for their publication by looking at other community-produced cookbooks. The one they liked best was published by the Red Feather Lakes Library Friends a few years ago.

The students asked Brenda Colter, art teacher for the mountain schools, to help design and illustrate the cover. Ariane Caldwell, a fourth grader, said they are dividing the book into several color-tabbed sections. So far, she said, they have main dishes, appetizers, bread and breakfasts, desserts and possibly a holiday section and a "grandma" section.

The grant will be used for advertising and production costs and for a $30 booth fee to set up at the Greening. Viola said they plan to have edible samples of some of the baked goods recipes available for tasting at the Greening. One sample might be for Sour Cream Banana Bread, a recipe the Bald Eagle Recipe Co. has already tested and enjoyed down to the last crumb.

Sour Cream Banana Bread

1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup oil
1 cup mashed bananas (2 medium)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour bottom only of a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Beat together sugar and oil. Add eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and baking soda and stir until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour into loaf pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes.