Cooking Up A Recipe Book For Courtney

Your family's favorite recipes are being sought for inclusion in a cookbook to honor a former Hauppauge student.

The Sipes family is collaborating to create a cookbook entitled "Cooking for Courtney: Recipes and Memories from Family and Friends" in memorial of their daughter, Courtney. The former student died in November 2009 after she was hit by a car on Smithtown's Main Street.

"We thought the cookbook would be an incredible way to honor Courtney and bring people together, which she was passionate about doing," said her mother, Lavena Sipes, "This community has been so amazingly supportive to us over the past year. The cookbook is a way to continue to involve them." 

     Courtney was a food lover, who spent a lot of time with her mom and grandma in the kitchen, Lavena said. Their family made a point to cook and eat together, no matter what their busy schedules entailed.

     The cookbook will have different sections to highlight Courtney, her life and family. One section will highlight some of Courtney's favorite dishes that she enjoyed creating. Some of these dishes include baked chicken tenders, broccoli casserole, coleslaw, corn casserole and fruit smoothies, Lavena said.

Alongside the recipes, the book will have personal photos and stories from Courtney's loved ones to celebrate her life and memory. It will also include examples of how the family uses food and personal traditions to stay connected to each other.

"We're trying to involve people who touched Courtney …her friends in particular," Lavena said. "We have recipes from family from everywhere including: Missouri, Colorado, Arkansas, Texas, a lot from New York and we expect more." 

The Sipes family also hopes to have submissions from some celebrity chefs who have expressed interest as well as local restaurants such as Villa Sorrento and Maroni Cuisine in Northport.

To submit a recipe, story or photo to be considered for publication in "Cooking for Courtney", send an e-mail to book@courtneysipes.org. The deadline for submissions is Nov. 30.  The cookbook is scheduled to be published by a Walsworth Publishing subsidiary by June 2011 in time for Smithtown Day.

The proceeds from the cookbook will go to The Courtney Sipes Memorial Foundation. The organization funds scholarships and programs for music and the arts, activities that Courtney enjoyed. The foundation looks to put out the guidelines for the scholarships and programs by January, so that they can be awarded before the end of this school year to deserving children, Lavena said.  In addition, the family hopes to raise awareness to improve pedestrian safety (especially where children are at risk) in order to help prevent similar accidents.