Two Sisters Cookbook: menus, stories and a philanthropic spirit
Posted Dec 29, 2011 By Ray Yurkowski
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EMC Lifestyles - Brighton - East Northumberland Secondary School graduate Tina Roberts (born Schneider) celebrated a homecoming of sorts last week at an appearance to promote her new book.
Ray Yurkowski, Belleville EMC
Shoppers at Dragonfly in Brighton had an opportunity last week to meet author Tina Roberts, have their book signed and sample some recipes.
The Two Sisters Cookbook features complete menus, recipes, cooking tips and a collection of family stories. Every menu has a story.
Even as a child, Roberts recalls, she loved to cook. There was even a point, midstream in her courses at medical school, some serious thought was given to attending chef's school.
"All of my friends and family would rely on me for menu planning," she said. "I've always had a knack for inventing recipes. It's something I've always been interested in."
As testament to her creativity in the kitchen, Roberts has won no less than five recipe contests.
Two Sisters is the third cookbook she has penned but the first to be published.
"The first ones were for fun," she said. And even this one started out as a gift for her sister.
"What happened was, many of my family and friends saw the book and started asking for copies," said Roberts. She gave away about 100 copies of the photocopied manuscript and thanks to their encouragement, spent evenings and weekends writing and editing.
"I have a pretty demanding job," she says. Full time days are spent serving as director of marketing and undergraduate recruitment at Waterloo University.
The book has been available for about a month and, so far, more than 650 copies have been sold. And for that Roberts gives credit to the support she has received from small business people who are making it available to the public.
"Sure, I've won five contests, but I'm not on the Food Network and I'm not a known name," she said. "I've been fortunate in the support from entrepreneurs."
As well, says Roberts, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
The donation is in tribute to her nephew, who at age 11 was diagnosed with the disease. Her immediate reaction after hearing the news was to "take anything dessert-like out of the book."
"But I realized, that wasn't going to help, and that's when I decided on giving a percentage of the profits for the book," she said. "Maybe it'll create more awareness. I hope, in my lifetime, I can see a cure."
"What I didn't know, is three million people in Canada have diabetes but only ten per cent have juvenile diabetes," she added. "It's a terrible disease."
The Two Sisters Cookbook is available at Dragonfly, 23 Main Street in Brighton.
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