Juneteenth Cookbook available for order at local bookstore
(Seguin) — The recipe for preserving and celebrating history with our children and grandchildren might just begin with a cookbook.
This Juneteenth, local families are encouraged to stop by Pecantown Books & Brews for their copy of The Juneteenth Cookbook written by Author Alliah Agostini. Agostini, this spring made the trip from New Jersey to the local bookstore in hopes of promoting the cookbook designed for the youngest of generations.
During her visit, Agostini, who is also known for her original work, the Juneteenth Story, explained how this latest addition works to put history and tradition into action.
“The Juneteenth Cookbook is really an opportunity for families to celebrate Juneteenth and to bring the holiday to life. So, the Juneteenth Story tells about the history of the holiday, how it originated and how it developed and the Juneteenth Cookbook itself has a lot of recipes and activities and ways to really bring history to life through play which I think is important for kids and families too,” said Agostini.
She says one of the most important aspects of the book is that it is multi-generational and works to further preserve these traditions.
“So, it’s important to my family. Tremendously important that we have so many culinary traditions especially in the African-American community and I want to make sure that we could celebrate and bring those to life in a way that is coachable for kids. There’s so many kids that love to cook and they like to cook with their families in the kitchen too and so this is a really great starting point for them to make real recipes with real food that taste good too but then there’s also things that they can explore on their own. So it’s important to have both of those dynamics,” said Agostini.
As for the recipes, Agostini says they are designed so that navigating throughout the kitchen is not only easy but ends up being delicious.
“My grandmother’s potato salad recipe is actually in there. It’s the one that I grew up eating and I even made sure it included an illustration of the bowl that she would always put it into too. That was important to me especially. The Mac ‘n’ Please -that’s our version of mac and cheese. It’s super delicious. It’s very flavorable. From a dessert perspective, the red velvet ice cream sandwiches are everything so it’s like a red velvet cookie with a cream cheese ice cream in between. It’s super tasty. So, some of these recipes are really simple and healthy and delicious and the watermelon snow cups are one of them. All it requires is freezing watermelon and shredding it with a grater and you can sprinkle a little Tajin on it too for a little extra flavor and it’s super easy. I can talk about all these recipes all day long,” said Agostini.
Agostini says she turned to writing soon after she became a mom. She says observances such as Juneteenth tend to take on a whole different meaning especially when littles are involved.
“I was doing marketing, consulting before then and during the pandemic, of course, you could evaluate what you are working on and I really went full steam ahead with writing at that point. I’m writing full-time. I have four books out now. So Juneteenth Cookbook is my fourth book and then I have about eight more that are coming in the future, mostly picture books and early readers too. But all of them really celebrate joy and truth and it really primarily focuses on illuminating characters of color especially black folks because I just want to make sure families see us for who we are and that kids can also see themselves in books too,” said Agostini.
A limited number of books are currently available for purchase at the local book store. However, orders for both The Juneteenth Cookbook and the Juneteenth Story are currently being accepted. Cost for the cookbook is $19.99 while the Juneteenth Story ranges between $9.99 and $18.99.
Pecantown Books & Brews is located at 212 S. Camp St.