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In less than five minutes with only four simple ingredients, Mike Bare can effortlessly whip together a treasured, decades-old family recipe — or, depending on whom you ask, just a recipe his mother once came across and really liked.

 

“As I remember it, we had this salad at most picnics and holiday meals. I always thought it was a family recipe, but my sister disagrees,” Bare said of his three “p” salad. “She thinks Mom got it from a women’s magazine in the 1950s.”

 

Either way, Bare’s three “p” salad — so-named for its curious combination of sweet peas, Spanish peanuts and pickles mixed with mayonnaise — has become part of family lore and a staple food at any potluck party he attends. At the suggestion of those who have sampled it, the six-year area resident plans to submit the recipe for inclusion in the Sequim Centennial Cookbook.

 

“I didn’t realize a cookbook was being put together, but I’m pleasantly surprised. I love Sequim and like the idea of local recipes,” said Bare, who with wife, Kathy, manages the Museum & Arts Center’s historical Dungeness Schoolhouse.

 

“While visiting my mother’s hometown in Augusta, Kan., Kathy bought one of their local cookbooks. The meatloaf recipe is the best I’ve ever tried, so now, every time she makes meatloaf, it reminds me of Augusta.”

 

Capturing that nostalgia-tinged sense of place through food is one of the intents behind the

Sequim Centennial Cookbook, a historical, anecdotal collection of recipes, stories and photographs being produced by the Sequim Centennial Committee to celebrate the rich history and agricultural heritage of the Sequim-Dungeness Valley.

 

City of Sequim Communications and Marketing Director Barbara Hanna, who is helping oversee the project, said all are encouraged to participate, dispelling the notion that one must be a longtime community member to share a favorite recipe.

 

“Whether you’ve lived here for two years or 20, everybody has a Sequim story,” Hanna said.

“The Centennial celebration is about the people who live, and have lived, in Sequim and the Dungeness Valley. There is a remarkable history here and an amazing history that’s being written right now.”

 

From sweets and side dishes to main courses and beverages, Hanna said she hopes to receive 100 recipes for the cookbook. She said she has received a surprising and interesting variety of submissions so far.

 

“I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet of the recipes that have been coming in and we’ve got everything from dandelion wine to crab dip,” Hanna said.

 

Recipe submission details are available at City Hall, 152 W. Washington St. in Sequim, online at www.sequimwa.gov, and by contacting Hanna directly at bhanna@sequimwa.gov.

 

The recipe submission deadline recently was extended to Dec. 31.

 

“This is a community-based event and a celebration of who we are as a community,” Hanna said of the yearlong Centennial celebration. “I hope that people come away from the celebration with a sense of pride in who we are and what a special place this is.”