The Tasting Spoons Cookbook Group
The Tasting Spoons Cookbook Group has been running at Diamond Valley Library for six months.
Twelve people meet on Saturday afternoons to share food, cooking experiences and books.
The tables are pulled together in the Community Room to form a large dining room table. So that it is not so clinical, a tablecloth (or two) and a center piece covers the tabletop creating a welcoming, warm space. A space that breaks down barriers of loneliness and opens people up to kindness and friendships, with a common goal of sharing food from the same cookbook we have been reading all month.
What do the Tasting Spoons get up to?
Sometimes there are food failures, but the group is a soft-place-to-land, and we can all empathize with food failures and sometimes other failures too. Suggestions for improvements are gently forthcoming and hugs too.
We have upcycled our kitchen utensils in a bid to help others who might find the items useful. Extra ingredients and produce have been divvied up too. The cost of living is slightly alleviated by sharing items and produce, as well as lifting our spirits by the kindness of others.
It is a small, diverse group, who have a common passion for sharing food and food experiences. Testing ourselves by cooking from books we would never have borrowed on our own!
COOKBOOKS WE HAVE READ:
Home by Stephanie Alexander
My life's work has been to convince as many as possible that cooking a lovely meal without anxiety
adds so much to the joy of living. If you value sharing a meal with a special person, or a large family, or maybe just cooking for yourself, you will find ways to shape your day around selecting, preparing and cooking something that will taste wonderful.
Veg by Jamie Oliver
Jamie Oliver is back with brilliantly easy, flavour-packed, and accessible veg recipes. From simple suppers and family favourites to weekend dishes for sharing with friends, this book is packed full of phenomenal food - pure and simple. Whether it's embracing a meat-free day or two each week, living a vegetarian lifestyle, or just wanting to try some brilliant new flavour combinations, this book ticks all the boxes.
Baking : teaching Australians to bake for 90 years
Baking is close to our hearts at the Australian Women's Weekly Test Kitchen. Over the decades we
have created thousands of recipes for cakes, brownies, scones, slices, plus all manner of doughs and pastries. As trends and tastes evolved, many of these had been tweaked, resulting in more than one delectable version on file. For this book, we revisited these versions, also keeping in mind the way we live today. After much testing (and tasting!), we proudly share a selection of baking recipes that honours our heritage and celebrates the present and future.
Every. Night. Of. The. Week: sanity solutions for the daily dinner grind by Lucy Tweed
Welcome to Every Night of the Week, a cookbook for people who don't like hard-and-fast recipes, by food and recipe writer, stylist and Instagram genie Lucy Tweed. Some days you want to cook; other days the goal is simply 'food in mouths'.
Simple Italian : the essentials of Italian home cooking by Silvia Colloca
In Simple Italian, Silvia Colloca shares the essential dishes and techniques that are at the heart of the
world's most popular cuisine. With 100 recipes and countless tips and tricks, you'll be cooking like a nonna in no time. Create silky smooth pasta, find out which shapes go with which sauce and learn the secrets to achieving perfectly creamy risotto and soft gnocchi every time. Alongside chapters on pasta, gnocchi and rice, you'll also learn how to create stunning antipasto spreads and cook hearty mains and elegant sides to go with them.
Sounds Amazing? When does The Tasting Spoons Cookbook Group meet?
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Cookbook Book Group, Saturday 3 February, 2.30pm —3.30pm, at Diamond Valley Library.
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Cookbook Book Group, Saturday 2 March, 2.30pm —3.30pm, at Diamond Valley Library.
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Cookbook Book Group, Saturday 27 April, 2.30pm —3.30pm, at Diamond Valley Library.