Chew on this...

Blame it on Gourmet, we have another club in the making...

I've been thinking about it for a while. Megan started me thinking of it, with her "Girlfriends Something About Cooking" cookbook thing, and then Candi started the book club, which I love. A cooking club. Or a cookbook club. A mix of both. Dinner once or twice a month- a fun way to get away from everything and enjoy food together, meet new friends, learn tips, etc... Maybe we could mix it up a bit from the ideas of cooking together to the ideas from Gourmet (see the article below) to a few other ideas (making enough for everyone to take some home and freeze for a few more meals?) Etc. Etc.


Gourmet's Article

How to Start Your Own Cookbook Club
06.06.08

When my book, Tender at the Bone, came out ten years ago, I began getting mail from book clubs all over the country. I’d open the letters and photographs would come falling out. They were of people proudly presenting the dishes they had cooked from the recipes in the book. “We cooked your Aunt Birdie’s Potato Salad,” one began, “and it was just perfect with Claritha’s Fried Chicken. And my neighbor made the Lemon Soufflé for dessert.”

Sometimes they would go on to tell me about changes they had made in the recipes. “Have you ever thought about putting bacon in that potato salad?” one woman wrote. “It’s a real improvement. I bet Aunt Birdie would approve.” And every single letter told me what a great time the groups had cooking together.

Over the years I’ve corresponded with many of the people who have cooked from my books, and when we were starting the Gourmet Cookbook Club, I went back and looked at how they did it. If you want to create your own cookbook club at home, these are their suggestions:

· Start with a small group of 6 or 8 friends; if the club is too big everything becomes more complicated.

· Don’t think that every member has to be a great cook. All you really want are friends who enjoy spending time in the kitchen.

· Ask each member to sample recipes from the Gourmet Cookbook Club selection during the month so that they can select a favorite dish to bring to the meeting.

· Be sure to have somebody coordinate the meal, or you might end up with three kinds of potatoes and four desserts.

· Ask one person to lead the discussion each month. You probably won’t need this, but it’s good idea for the first few meetings, just to get the ball rolling.

Favorite Questions:
· What is the one recipe in the book that you can’t live without?

· What was the most surprising recipe?

· What new techniques did the book help you conquer?

· What new tips did you learn that you can apply to other recipes?

· What was the one recipe you would never, ever, make again?

One final note: Don’t forget a camera. If you take pictures and send them to the authors, I can promise you that they’ll be thrilled. They might even write back. I always do.

What do you all say?