My family and I are new to the East Valley, & and I have been trying to find new ways get connected with Mom’s in our area. One thing I was excited about doing was starting up a cooking club. I had been a part of a cooking club for about 3 years {before we moved}, and I just loved it. I thought there was no better place to start up a new club than in the new city I live in.
What could be more fun than gathering with friends once a month, eating a variety of scrumptious food, sipping on delicious drinks, and then going home with plenty of new recipes to try?? I can’t really think of anything more enticing, especially for this stay at home Mama who truly enjoys a night out!
Here are some tips on how to start your very own cooking club!
- Choose the members of the club.
- Keeping between 10-12 members will ensure plenty of food at each club, and will create a great atmosphere that isn’t too chaotic. Remember, whoever is hosting will need to make sure they have seating for everyone during the meal.
- Set the date!
- Do what works best for your members, but make sure it is consistent. For instance, always do the 4th Wednesday of each month. Make a yearly calendar for each member with the exact dates each club will meet.
- Have everyone choose their hosting month.
- Each member of the club will host 1 {at least} cooking club a year. Send a sign up sheet around at the first meeting and have each person choose their date to host. When hosting, you are not required to cook a dish. You will, however, have to provide dinnerware for everyone to eat on {and typically a few serving utensils will be needed}, & drinks for the members.
- Decide on themes.
- This is the fun part. You can do this ahead of time, or, when you meet for the first time, have everyone join in on the fun and choose your theme’s together. Make sure your theme’s go well with the time of year. For example: Don’t choose to do “Soup Night” in the middle of the summer. Make sure you save that theme for a cold winter’s night.
- Create a group page on Facebook. {and maybe even a catchy name for your club}
- This makes it easy to stay in contact with each member of the group, as well as provide a great place to post all the recipes from each meeting. It is also helpful to create an event page for each club night. That way each member can RSVP if they are coming and can post what recipe they plan on making. This will save you from having 4 dishes of enchiladas on Mexican Food Night. {actually, 4 dishes of enchilada’s doesn’t sound too bad, in my opinion}
- Encourage members to bring tupperware or plastic bags for taking home leftovers.
- Typically there will be some food left over, and what better way to enjoy a meal than to bring some home for your family to try? I know my husband loves him some homemade cooking club leftovers!!!
- Take pictures!!
- Make sure to take the time to capture your evening. It will be so fun to look back at the end of the year and reminisce on all the memories you made during your cooking club. And, you can use the photo’s to encourage other friends to start a cooking club of their own!
That’s it!! You are ready to start your very own cooking club. Start cooking, and enjoy making new memories with your closest friends while eating food the way it should be enjoyed…around the table with good company.
Here are a few suggestions for theme’s. Be creative & try to come up with theme’s that will be useful when cooking for your families.
- Signature Dish {your go-to dish any night of the week}
- Slow cooker favorite
- 5 ingredients or less
- Secret family recipe
- Comfort food
- Soup & salad
- Mexican Food
- Pinterest recipe
- Kid friendly
- Appetizer
- Dessert Night
- Breakfast for dinner
- Freezer meal
- Fruit inspired
- Husband’s Favorite
Have you ever been a part of a cooking club? What were some of your favorite theme’s?
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This post is sponsored by:
The Brett Saks Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, hopes to make our Arizona communities safer for bicyclists by teaching adults and children about road safety and mutual respect between drivers and cyclists in fun and engaging ways. We are “Shifting Gears to Saves Lives,” as more than 600 cyclists are lost each year to car-bike accidents. Learn more at gearupaz.org.
Love this idea!