“Sharing Our Hearts Through Cooking” meant for everyday use

A year in the making, the Japanese Women’s Society Foundation’s newest cookbook, “Sharing Our Hearts Through Cooking,” is out, with more than 200 family recipes shared by foundation members. It took that long for member Melanie Takahashi to test the recipes and photograph the dishes, a task she had volunteered to do.

“I cook almost every night anyway, so I had a plan where I would come home from work every night and try to cook a main course and a couple of side dishes,” Takahashi said. “Then on the weekend I would add a couple of dessert recipes.

“It took longer than I thought because some recipes didn’t make the cut. Then I had to find more recipes to replace them.”

The organization wanted a cookbook that people would use frequently, so Takahashi looked for practicality and easy availability of ingredients.

“Not many people know how to cook these days, so if a recipe is too fussy or it’s too expensive to buy and assemble ingredients, they might as well go out and eat. I basically started with things I would want to eat, that my family would also enjoy.”

Some recipes were new to her, calling for ingredients like cumin and capers, which she said she normally doesn’t use. When she couldn’t find lilikoi puree to make past-President Lillian Yajima’s “Lillian’s Lilikoi Delight” dessert, she went to Yajima and suggested excluding the recipe because it would frustrate cooks unable to find the puree.

“Her recipe came from a time when she had lilikoi vines growing in her backyard, but she started calling around and found Foodland Farms Ala Moana carries it near the R. Field section,” Takahashi said. So the recipe made the cut.

Each recipe is accompanied by a photograph of the dish, and Takahashi said her family got into the habit of asking, “Did you get your photo?” before digging in.

Neighbors were also the beneficiaries of her largesse when her family could not finish desserts.

“They must have wondered why I was making new desserts week after week, but they gladly took it in,” she said.

Funds raised from sales of the cookbook will go toward a range of causes, from promoting cultural activities to addressing issues regarding women and aging, including scholarships for students in the University of Hawaii at Manoa gerontology program.

The foundation has proved that with time, a little help goes a long way. Among goals suggested by the group’s first president, Alice Noda, in 1954, was the establishment of a care home for women. It became a reality in 1980 after the group raised enough funds to establish the Hale Pulama Mau adult residential care home at Kuakini Hospital, under the presidency of Yajima, Noda’s daughter.

The group’s relationship with residents of the care home continues with Friendship Teas on the first Sunday of each month, when members bring food, refreshments and plan entertainment, crafts and games.

In 1996, the foundation also launched an Adopt-a-Mom program, usually held after Mother’s Day, during which members cook Japanese foods for residents who have no families.

APPLE-NUT CAKE WITH SOUR CREAM

Adapted from “Sharing Our Hearts Through Cooking”

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon EACH baking powder, baking soda and salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cups peeled, diced apples

>> Topping:

• 1/2 cup chopped nuts
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons melted butter

Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease 9-by-13-inch pan.

Cream butter and sugar, then beat in eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Stir flour mixture and sour cream into butter mixture, then fold in apples. Spread batter in pan, sprinkle with topping ingredients; bake 35 to 40 minutes.

Nutritional information unavailable.