In 1986, the Rainbow Circle (women’s group) of Centenary United Methodist Church dreamed of a way to support the building of the new church that was relocating from 3500 Normandie Ave. to Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles. They created the Centenary Favorites cookbook, which was a huge success!
Many of the recipes were created by the members of the Rainbow Circle going into the kitchens of their Issei sisters and making notes of the measurements as most Issei cooks created their dishes from memory. The original Centenary Favorites was so popular that a second edition was published in 2000 with all the original recipes and a few new ones.
To this day, the church still has inquiries of people wishing to reorder the cookbook, which unfortunately has not been available for years. That is, until today!
An electronic version of the New Year’s section and other selected recipes of the cookbook will be sold on Amazon for $9.99. It was published on Dec. 21, 2020. You can also find the book by searching for “Centenary Favorites Cookbook” at smile.amazon.com. This e-book will make a great gift for your friends and family! Purchasing through Amazon Smile allows you to designate Centenary UMC as the charity to receive a percentage of all your purchases through the year.
This year, with the COVID-19 pandemic, you may be having your own Oshogatsu for New Year’s, rather than attending large family and friend gatherings. To that end, we would like to share our Centenary Favorites Japanese New Year’s Feast Special Edition to assist you as you bring in the new year with traditional Japanese recipes.
We hope to release the rest of the cookbook in the coming year!
Ecclesiastes 9:7 (NLT) So go ahead. Eat your food with joy and drink your wine with a happy heart for God approves of this.
Let’s celebrate the new year with our Centenary Favorites as we remember the traditions and foods of the Japanese culture.
All proceeds from this cookbook will go toward the mission of Centenary United Methodist Church (Los Angeles) — a place where we ENRICH lives through experiencing God’s love, and become EMPOWERED to IMPACT the world.
Visit our website, centenarydtla.org, to learn more about us.
You must love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your being, with all your mind,
and with all your strength.