Famed St. Peter's Italian Bazaar Cookie Bake Set for Tuesday and Wednesday

PORTLAND---The wafting aroma of Italian cookies on Federal Street in Portland on Tuesday and Wednesday will be a welcome scent as volunteers, from ages 10 to 93, will participate in the annual “cookie bake” for the baking, decorating, and packaging of over 8,000 cookies in advance of the weekend’s 97th St. Peter’s Italian Bazaar.

The baking is held at St. Peter in the kitchen and parish hall from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.

"We should really be in the ‘heat’ of things by 10 a.m. both days,” said Nancy Taliento-Goodwin, a parishioner at St. Peter for over 60 years.

It will take over 120 dozen eggs, 200 pounds of sugar, and 350 pounds of flour to create the anise cookies, filled cookies, lemon cookies, cannoli, pizzelles, tiramisu, almond cream cake, and limoncello cake.

“We now have multiple generations working on the cookie bake,” said Nancy. “It’s a way to have the younger generations start to volunteer. If they volunteer with the church, which they are a part of, then they will look beyond that and volunteer in the community.”

The bazaar will be held the evenings of August 11 and 12 from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. outside of St. Peter Church on Federal Street in Portland. Saturday’s events will begin at 4 p.m. with a Mass at St. Peter Church celebrated by Bishop Robert Deeley. The festival features great Italian food, along with music and carnival games. To learn more about the St. Peter's Italian Bazaar, click here.