Western Living’s Julie van Rosendaal joins Best of Bridge!

The West’s most beloved cookbook joins forces with our beloved Contributing Editor.

If you don’t know what a Christmas Morning Wifesaver or Schwartie’s Potatoes are, then I don’t care what your address says—you ain’t from the West. The two classic recipes from the Best Of Bridge are culinary heirlooms passed down from generation to generation, and now it’s time for a new generation to lend a hand in this uniquely Western tradition. And they couldn’t have chosen a better torch bearer—our own Julie van Rosendaal (one of our fantastic recipe developers and writers) who describes it was such:For those of you who are not Canadian, or Western Canadian, and may not be familiar with Best of Bridge, it was a group of Calgary ladies who played bridge together and, back in 1975 on a weekend trip to the cabin, came up with the idea to write and self-publish their own cookbook. Their first hand-lettered, coil-bound book was a hit, and turned into a series – one that fed most families in Western Canada throughout the eighties. I grew up in the same neighbourhood, and was friends with some of their daughters, and have memories of sleepovers at which the Bridge moms would be testing recipes. Everyone in our community used the books and supported their endeavour – which included convincing the bank loan officer to give them a loan without requiring their husbands’ signatures, and loading copies of books into their hatchbacks and driving to bookstores (and drugstores and department stores) to convince them to buy a few copies. They truly were the first to introduce me to the concept of self-publishing, and it’s no exaggeration to say they inspired my career path early on.Julie will be joined by her friends Sue Duncan and Elizabeth Chorney-Booth in continuing one of our fave Western traditions. In the mean time:  it’s Classy Chicken time—just click here!