I was recently telling a new friend about the idea of Cooking With Friends and her eyes lit up. It reminded her of when she was a little girl growing up on a farm, and her mother had a circle of friends who got together once a month. They'd do whatever the host chose, sometimes snapping beans from ...
Kitchen Chronicles
Cake, Cookies and Camaraderie
The picture says it all — this was one spectacular cake for my daughter’s 8th birthday party. By myself, I would have been lucky to produce a sheet cake with her name and sprinkles thrown on top. With a friend, look what I was able to create! Once again, I followed my baking friend Jenn’s lead and ...
Marvelous Mayhem
With kids so much a part of my life now, it’s inevitable that they will learn how and why to cook with their friends. After school on Monday, sixteen 7-year old Brownie girls gathered at my brave friend Emily’s house. Yes, there was mayhem that to some would have seemed like madness. To me, it was ...
Cooking With Friends Recipe Collection
My friend Heather created an amazing surprise for those of us who have been cooking together in Denver. We've been cooking in groups of 2 or 3 and then meeting for food swaps. There are about 14 of us now. One of our problems is we aren't so organized in sharing our recipes. So Heather came up with ...
Cooking with Little Friends
The other day, I came home to a beautiful yet messy surprise. My almost 8 year old daughter and her 10 year old friend were in the midst of making Gingerbread cookies — from scratch and by themselves. Apparently, they went to the Cooking with Friends website, downloaded the recipe for Gingerbread, ...
Snow Day!
It was a snow day here yesterday. School was closed so we spent the day sledding, snow man building and warming up with lots of hot chocolate. Even my 2 1/2 year old was a trooper, again and again climbing up a big hill holding his own sled. Our day ended with an impromptu gourmet feast with good ...
Homemade Take-Out
If you're new to the Cooking With Friends concept and aren't sure what you want to cook with your pals, think about what you reach for when it's dinnertime and there's "nothing" to eat. Look in your freezer and peruse your take-out menus. Then make some homemade take-out. Especially if you have ...
A Single Bite
One crispy bite of my toasted cheese, tomato and onion sandwich and I am in my childhood kitchen with my father. Together, we’re slicing onions, tomatoes and cheddar cheese. Side by side we’re toasting bread, smearing mayonnaise and layering cheese, tomato and onions, one top of the other, creating ...
A Magic Carpet of Dough
There are some cooking dates when bringing my toddler along simply isn’t an option. Making ravioli at Lou’s house is one of those times. Pasta making requires full attention and multiple hands. Shaping, smoothing and passing fresh sfoglia (a thinly stretched sheet of pasta dough) through the pasta ...
Friendship Fruit Salad
Cooking together works for all kinds of people--young, old, men, women, those who work outside the home and stay-at-home moms. This past week I was so excited to see my daughter's class of four- and five-year-olds creating a simple but beautiful dish, Friendship Fruit Salad. Instead of bringing ...