Kat Pasquach holds up a copy of the Campus Community Cookbook, on sale now as a fundraiser in support of Indigenous students at the University of Windsor. A launch event Thursday was staffed in part by volunteers from the Lancer men’s hockey team.
Niloofar Naghdipour knows a good thing when she tastes it. A doctoral student of electrical engineering, she stopped by a booth offering free samples of dishes from the Campus Community Cookbook. A fundraiser of the Orange Shirt Day committee, the publication enjoyed a launch Thursday on Turtle Island Walk.
“We had some salmon, an apple slaw, and a chicken pasta salad,” Naghdipour said. “It was all very delicious, really good.”
Copies of the book, filled with recipes submitted by faculty, staff, and students, are available for purchase for $30.
Alicia Charlebois, student engagement assistant in the Turtle Island Aboriginal Education Centre, initiated and co-ordinated the project. She said she is excited and happily overwhelmed with how the cookbook and the launch event turned out.
“It was a lot of work,” Charlebois said as she served up samples under a tent outside the Education Building. “I’m so pleased to see the results of the labour!”
The spiral-bound book contains more than 50 recipes and was designed by Kawmadie Karunanayake, serving a co-op term in the Leddy Library.
“It was definitely a bit of a process,” Karunanayake said. “In the end it turned out really well.”
Kat Pasquach, outreach and retention co-ordinator in the Aboriginal Education Centre, was quick to pick a favourite recipe: Game Day Nachos that are the specialty of UWindsor president Robert Gordon. Requiring only two ingredients, tortilla chips and grated cheese, the dish is microwaved.
“Dr. Gordon is my kind of cook,” Pasquach enthused. “Simple and to the point!”
The books, as well as T-shirts and lawn signs, may be ordered through the Orange Shirt Day website.