Break an Egg Cooking Club: How We Do It December 5, 2006

Below is an explanation of how our cooking club is set up. If you’re a member, here is where you figure out what to do! If you’re just a reader, here is a blueprint for setting up your own cooking club!

How often we meet: Quarterly (Jan, March, June and September)
Where we meet: Rotate between member’s kitchens
How we know what to cook: Host picks the genre (i.e., soups, desserts, appetizers, crock pot, etc.)
What the host does: Buys their dishes ingredients, conducts a demonstration of their dish’s preparation, portions out tastings, and portions out freezer portions for attendees (with recipe)
What the guests do: Brings their own completed dish in the selected genre, with tasting portions ready for serving and freezer portions for other attendees, plus their recipe
What we all do: Prep and cook the host’s dish, clean up after cooking, EAT and bring wine to serve with the tasting

Example:

It’s January and Danielle’s turn to host. She invites Christy, Meggan and Holly to her home on a Saturday afternoon when they are all free. Danielle has selected “desserts” as the genre, and has decided to make Brown Sugar Pies. Danielle purchases the ingredients for her pies, making sure to get enough so everyone has a pie to take home and there is one for the tasting. Danielle also purchases a Riesling wine, because it will go well with dessert. Christy, Meggan and Holly each select their own dessert to make, and premake 5 portions of their dish: one for themselves, one for each additional member and one for the tasting. They package their dessert for freezing, attach a recipe card and select a wine to go with their dessert. Everyone arrives at Danielle’s house with a cooler full of their desserts. We exchange so that everyone has one of each dish. We prep and cook Danielle’s dish as a group. We reheat everyone else’s tasting dish, open the wine and EAT! Afterwards we all clean up together, and everyone goes home with 3 new desserts!