Foodie Club

I've always wanted to belong to a book of the month club, but there's something in me that rebels against mandatory reading- a holdover from my school days I'm sure. I read plenty on my own, without the pressure or prompting a monthly book club warrants.

Yet I love the idea of getting together with friends at some one's home to experience something communal - a sharing of ideas and opinions.

Expanding my culinary horizons, rather than literary horizons, appeals to me on a much more fundamental level.

Some ideas...

A cookbook of the month club. Everyone purchases the same cookbook, makes one recipe and brings it to the gathering to taste-test and review. Who honestly has time to test out every recipe in a cookbook? I think it would be a fantastic way to expand my cookbook collection and add new dishes to my repertoire.

Cheese of the month club. Each member brings a different representative of the same cheese (brie, blue, etc) and taste/review each specimen. There are so many cheeses out there I'm dying to try, but who honestly has the budget to buy 10 different cheeses just to taste-test? It would be much easier and economical if every one brought a wedge to share. 10 different kinds of blue cheese or even 10 different cheeses from the same cheese maker.

New recipe of the month club. Similar to the above, but instead of being restrained to one cookbook, you can pick a course: appetizers, amuse bouche, ice cream, second course, cookie, cake or secret ingredient (Iron Chef style): basil, vanilla, garlic, squash, or even a theme: French-Polynesian, thanksgiving and so on.

Last Supper Club. This is a fantasy of mine to have a new host each month provide their version of what they would like their last meal to be. It would be a wonderful way to learn about each other and examine food at the spiritual/emotional level.

It's hard to pick just one, isn't it?