A Continual Feast: A Cookbook to Celebrate the Joys of Family and Faith Throughout the Christian Year [Paperback]

Evelyn Birge Vitz (Author), Parker Leighton (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1991

A cookbook full of wonderful recipes and ideas drawn from throughout the Christian tradition, with suggestions about when, and why, these dishes might be served. It contains more than 275 recipes with which to celebrate all the holidays throughout the Christian year, as well as the many shared rituals that strengthen family bonds and enrich the significance of the day to day events of our lives. How these rituals, rites and feasts came about, how they are celebrated around the world, and how you can bring them into your home are described every step of the way. Includes wonderful illustrations.

A Continual Feast brings new meaning to "breaking bread together." A book to cook from and learn from, it includes: menus for holidays and every day recipes for all occasions from church picnics and Sunday suppers to birthdays, namedays, confirmations, and baptisms; wonderful cooking projects for children; recipes for Christmas giving; thoughtful suggestions on taking food to others; customs associated with many great Christian holidays from Advent through Pentecost as well as various saints days around the world; traditional meanings associated with particular foods; tips on fasting and abstinence; recipes that incorporate leftovers; quotations from the Bible and various theological and gastronomic sources; many recipes of varied ethnic origins; a wealth of Christian history and thought.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Ignatius Press (October 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898703840
• ISBN-13: 978-0898703849
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 0.8 x 9.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #418,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great introduction into cooking for the Church year! March 19, 2001

By "swift112"

Format:Paperback

This is a really helpful cookbook, especially if you didn't come out of a liturgical tradition orginally. Evelyn Vitz has laid the book out in a calendar fashion for the most part, but has sections on days of fasting and abstinence and saints days. I really love her recipe for plum pudding and use it every year now. I had tried several other recipes before hers, but hers is definitely the best. We have also included a lot of her other suggestions in our family celebrations. This is a cookbook that I refer to frequently (especially during Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter).

This book is great for any Christian family that wants to add a bit more traditional Christian emphasis to their lives. You don't have to be Catholic or Orthodox to enjoy it and use it. You may find yourself understanding Catholic and Orthodox traditions once you've read it, however.

This book passes on traditions that some families failed to get from Great Grandmother before she died. If you are from a Christian family, it will help you get in touch with your roots (as well as give you a lot of delicious recipes to try).

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite and most used cookbooks January 8, 2007

By Deborah Nowak

Format:Paperback

I've owned and used this cookbook for at least 13 years. It is one of my favorites not only for it's excellent explanation of liturgical feasting and fasting (What other cookbook gives you a chapter on fasting?) but also because some of my family's favorite recipes are in it. We use "Four-egg cake" for nearly every birthday, baptism or first communion. My family actually loves the recipe for "Black fruitcake," and I get frequent complements when I bring her simply delicious "Cranberry-orange sauce" to holiday dinners. And Easter just wouldn't be Easter for my kids without the "Lamb cake."

I own the hardcover edition and my chief complaint is that it is not spiral bound to lay flat while cooking.

We have tried one or two recipes that just didn't taste all that great, but were culturally interesting to try. ("Salad of the good night/Ensalada de Nochebuena" from Mexico comes to mind. Perhaps because it calls for beets, apples, oranges, bananas, radishes and peanuts together. Sounded so weird I just had to try it. But I guess it's an acquired taste.)

I still enjoy reading her comments on the feast days throughout the year. I can't help but think of her recipe for "St. John's wine" every December 27th. Simple to make (always a plus) and warms the inside when it's cold and blustery outside.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book for family religous customs February 8, 2002

By O. H. Taylor

Format:Paperback

As an Anglo-Catholic who was not raised as one, I have had many questions about customs and liturgies. This is one of the sources I reach for first when I need answers.

The focus of this book is on home practices, on customs and especially on foods. However, this is not just a collection of recipes for various Saint's days, but also includes information about each saint and about the seasons of the liturgical year, starting, quite properly, with a discussion of "Sunday" since each Sunday is a mini-celebration of Easter.

If you are raising a family and wish to do so in a Christ-centered way, you should have a copy of this book. While it is aimed primarily at Catholic and Orthodox families there is much material here that would be useful in a Protestant family, particularly one that wishes to explore the two thousand years of Christian tradition rather than "re-inventing the wheel."