About a dozen people stand around the long table in the reading room of the Alice Pendleton Library. There is the aroma of coffee in the air, and a fire crackles softly in the fireplace. A trimmed Christmas tree stands to one side. Our librarian is at the copier, which whirrs and grunts as it creates copies of 14 different recipes for the Annual Holiday Recipe Exchange Cookbook. One set of recipes is given each person who brings a recipe to share. On the table are the 14 recipes made flesh, or perhaps about to be, plus two bowls, one of punch, one of eggnog (neither, darn it, alcoholic, because we are on Town Property.)

We nibble and sip, sampling really — it is three o’clock in the afternoon, and even though we all would probably love to heap up our Christmas-y little paper plates with generous slabs of Pumpkin Cheese-cake and fistfuls of Cherry Chocolate Cookies, or Mary’s Butterscotch Fudge, we don’t. We don’t want to ruin our suppers, and we are mindful about both the hors d’oeuvres we ate the night before at a holiday party and the cookies that lie ahead at the Up-Island Church Candle-lighting in another couple of hours. This time of year we eat our way from one end of the island to the other.

Maybe the recipes are the main attraction. We have bumped into these yummy things at gatherings ranging from the Pre-School Fair and bake sales to holiday parties and the desserts offered up after the Com-munity Chorus concert. Here is our chance to find out how they were made and quiz the cook on technique. I must have thousands of recipes in cookbooks and scribbled on pieces of paper, little and big, or torn from magazines, even printouts from Internet recipe sites. But using a recipe from a friend or neighbor seems less like taking a chance. We get to see what the final result ought to be, so now we know what we are aiming for. It is almost as good as being in the kitchen to observe firsthand.

Maybe it is the sociability of the time together that we like. It’s a party. Some have made the effort to change into a Christmas sweater, and put on holiday earrings. Some, on the other hand, myself, for instance, galloped out of the kitchen without changing clothes, so have to keep our jackets on so no one will see the floury shirt, and little clumps of dough stuck to cuffs of sleeves. And there we all are, visiting as if we hadn’t spoken already this week.

Our library is a very sociable place anyway (like the Post Office and grocery stores, etc., etc. — as in most rural places, if you are going to do an errand in this community, better plan on spending some extra time for chat. If you want to be all business, put a bag over your head.) It often smells like coffee in there, brewed up for volunteers, and there is often a low buzz of conversation, and the occasional joyful barking of Moxie, the Library Dog. Our library is very nearly the community’s living room.

This year’s recipe exchange will be the ninth. Over the years, 113 recipes have accumulated in the handouts. Some years are modestly represented by a dozen recipes, others by twice that. After the cookie-laden first year, casseroles and appetizers joined the sweets. In nine years, many changes occur in one small town, and the pages reflect the comings and goings of community members. Some people appear every single year with a recipe or two. As new members of the community arrive in town and begin to participate, their recipes appear, and as some move away, their names disappear. In some instances, a recipe stands as a memorial of beloved friends, and gives us a chance to recall them, their kitchens, and their presence among us.

I recently thumbed through the collection a couple of hours before supper, a bad time to read recipes because everything sounds so delicious. In 2000 our Librarian, Linda Graf, brought Ginger Cream Cheese. It sounded so good and simple. Here it is. Now, if you wanted to jazz it up a little, you could chop up some crystallized ginger, and mix that in along with the other ingredients. Linda observed that it would be good on fruit bread, and good old New England Brown Bread. I think it would be great on scones, too. Or maybe even straight off a spoon.

Ginger Cream Cheese


1 8-ounce package of cream cheese at room temperature

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 tablespoon of lemon juice (and a little zest to taste, optional)

One-half teaspoon ground ginger (or more to taste)

Mix ingredients together with an electric mixer until it is smooth.

— Sandy Oliver

Islesboro