Virtual Cooking Clubs
Have you ever been part of a virtual cooking club? If you have not honestly I can heartily recommend it. I know everybody is a little fed up with Teams, Zoom or BlueJeans calls but trust me it remains a really good giggle, a great way of trying new recipes or food and doing it with others is a bit like cooking with a protective blanket on, you can all do things step by step together and figure out anything tricky together.
I am lucky enough to be part of 3 cooking clubs with different people and I really love them.
Cooking with Friends
At the start of the pandemic when everybody was lonely and nobody could go anywhere we started a little Saturday night cooking club with a group of friends, just cooking different things, catching up and having a laugh and whilst we no longer do it weekly it is something we enjoy very much, somebody decides what to cook, I research recipes and then lead them through the recipe. Our very first recipe was charred salmon with salsa which is so easy and so tasty. We also did Kelly's fried chicken which I thought was super simple but some of the outcomes took me by surprise. The great thing about this is actually how valuable cooking with people with less experience is and it really has made me look at my recipes differently. and word them I think much better. The one however that really sticks in my mind is the BBQ beef scones, Victoria, Nicky, Clare and we laughed so much and because it takes a while to slow cook in the oven, every time we caught the smell in the air we laughed all over again.
During the pandemic Matt and I also did cooking with his friends on Saturdays which we really enjoyed. It was fun watching teenage boys interact and get into it - but only if there was the promise of chocolate at the end! Most of our recipes contained chocolate and the ones that he loved the most was the Kinder rocky road and Mars bar cupcakes. Matt is such a chocoholic, if I make brownies he devours them.
Cooking with colleagues
Shortly after launching this blog my big boss thought a nice way for our team to bond and a way of supporting me would be to have a little monthly cooking club run by me. As this all started in the middle of the pandemic and so it was a great way in those early days to see other people, do something different, have a laugh in a different setting with your colleagues and just switch off for an hour. I am so grateful to Glen for his support and encouragement and it really has been a huge amount of fun and although there is a core group, others dip in and out as their workload allows or the recipe takes their fancy, it is really a positive thing we get to do. Some of the favourite recipes have been burrata and nduja ravioli which although takes a bit more skill went down very well, Jamaican style jerk patties which were a huge hit and baklava which took everybody by surprise.
Restaurant at Home Cookalongs
We were also fortunate to take part in some of the restaurant cookalongs which I learnt so much from and absolutely loved - in fact that is where the crab lasagne came from. I loved these so much and they became the highlight of my week. I loved getting the boxes, going through the ingredients, remembering how good restaurant food was and genuinely having a terrific special evening.
If you have never thought of cooking virtually with friends you should try, even though lock down is over it really is a fun and different way to see people and make different dishes.