By Alesha Woods
Rowan Public Library

As we get closer to the fall season, nothing brings the family together like a delicious meal. Thinking forward to the holidays, which will be here before we know it, I am already thinking about the menu for upcoming family get-togethers. There are some recipes I would like to try but there are also so many ways to make them. Would my family enjoy one recipe better than the other? I also would like to shake things up a bit and try cooking something new. Which dish would better complement my usual family staples? If you are also experiencing this conundrum, what better way to cook and taste new recipes than participating in a recipe swap event! You might just discover your family’s new favorite dish.

The Rowan Public Library will be hosting “Salad-palooza Recipe Swap” on Saturday, Sept. 16, beginning at 11 a.m. at RPL Headquarters (Salisbury). Adult participants are invited to celebrate the connections between life, love, family and food with other members of the community. With fall greens in season, participants are invited to create a salad to share. The salad can be warm or cold, a heritage recipe, a family favorite or an amazing new find. Registration is required, with a limit of one recipe submission per person.

Recipe submissions will be combined into print booklets for each participant. To be included in the recipe swap, a copy of the recipe must be submitted by Wednesday, Sept. 13. To register and to submit a recipe, contact Lyndsey.Maloney@rowancountync.gov.

If you would like to try a new recipe, go to lidiasitaly.com for salad inspiration and check out the Virtual Author Talk with Lidia Bastianich. This award-winning television host and bestselling author talks about her memoir, “My American Dream: A Life of Love, Family, and Food.” This book follows Lidia’s childhood where she grew up learning the art of Italian cooking from her grandmother in Pula, a city on the Istria peninsula in Croatia. The book then follows her family’s journey to a refugee camp in Trieste, Italy and then to the United States where she becomes one of the most revered chefs and businesswomen in the country. Her heartwarming, deeply personal, and powerfully inspiring story surrounds Lidia’s close-knit family and her dedication and endless passion for food. As a special bonus, Lidia talked about her newest cookbook “Lidia’s from Our Family Table to Yours: More Than 100 Recipes Made with Love for All Occasions: A Cookbook.”

Virtual Author Talks are part of the Library Speakers Consortium and are sponsored by the Friends of Rowan Public Library. To get free access to this Virtual Author Talk and other upcoming or archived talks, go to bit.ly/RPLVirtualAuthorTalks.

Alesha Woods is communications associate at Rowan Public Library.