Powder River Examiner -

Courtesy USS Montana Committee

Montana’s “flavor,” in history as well as cuisine, will accompany next year’s expected commissioning of the USS Montana nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine currently under construction for the U.S. Navy.

The USS Montana Committee is planning a cookbook, and committee member Joy Mariska says she needs Montanans’ help.

“Included in the cookbook will be tried and true recipes to accompany an informational paragraph or two about Montana’s important, unusual and historic people, places and events,” she explains. “The plan is to give a cookbook to each of the sub’s crew members at the commissioning, with extras to be sold to raise funds for committee expenses and its legacy fund.”

Mariska seeks recipes, narrative ideas, and inquiries from all parts of the state to ensure good representation in the book. Please contact her by sending a note through the Contact page of the http://www.ussmontanacommittee.us website. She’ll get back to you, including with information on how to pre-order a cookbook if you like. The books will cost $25 with the money going toward publication and providing copies to crew members.

“The idea behind the cookbook is to offer the ‘flavor’ of Montana to the sailors and their families and to anyone who opens it,” says Mariska.

Ideas submitted so far include a brief story about the service of a Medal of Honor recipient buried in Big Timber along with a family favorite recipe and a short history of Cornish immigrants in Butte accompanied by their famous pasties recipe. Mariska also envisions info about the Great Montana Sheep Drive in Reed Point with a fantastic lamb recipe, for example.

“Bring us your stories and ideas from all corners of the Big Sky Country,” she asks.

The USS Montana Committee is a Montana nonprofit corporation with federal tax-exempt status. It was formed to support the commissioning and crew of the new Virginia class nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, SSN 794, that was recently christened as the future USS MONTANA, celebrating its readiness to launch. Over the next year the warship will be completed and undergo sea trials. It is expected to be commissioned into the fleet in late 2021.