It was the beginning of the year, and the air was filled with New Year's resolutions.  But, since "resolutions" has become somewhat of a dirty word, I will use "intentions" and "goals" as its euphemisms from now on. One of my personal goals was to spend more time in the kitchen, invite friends over for dinner more often, and to connect with other creatives in my town beyond the social media.

I also wanted to get out of the cooking rut I found myself over the last few months, possibly years. My husband and I found ourselves cooking the same go-to things over and over or simply making Trader Joes frozen meals. If it’s not broken, why fix it, right? Plus, living with a five year who old wants to eat dry pasta for every meal really puts a damper on adventurous cooking.

I am sure you noticed, there are SO many new cookbooks out there, and the rate they are coming out at is growing exponentially. And while I want to try some of them, I don't necessarily want to buy all of them, or at least not before I know that they are any good. Plus, I already have a good dozen or more of cookbooks at home. Thus, an idea of sharing cookbooks while sharing the meals lead me to start a cookbook club. I called it Cookbook-ish, and on my birthday in February I decided to try it out with close friends before extending the invitation to more people. It was a great success, and I am now ready to let it see the light of day. So, if you are reading this and want to be a part of it with me, please reach out! 

How it Works:

1. We meet once a month or every two months.
2. I choose a cookbook (a new one or a classic).
3. Those who already have the book (or choose to buy it right away) pass it around to those who aren't ready to commit in advance of the meeting.
4. Each person puts their name on a few recipes they are interested in making (but in the end will end up making just one).
5. A week before the event I come up with a cohesive menu based on what everyone chose and assign specific dishes to people who chose them.
6. Everyone cooks their respective items at home and brings them to the potluck.

For our inaugural meeting, I chose the book I got for Christmas—Alison Roman's DINING IN. I have heard so many good things about it, and her chocolate chunk short bread cookies were becoming an internet phenomenon. Naturally, I made the cookies first, and they became my gateway drug to the rest of the book.  

Our group was small (5), so adding a few extra touches didn't take too much time. I painted our dinner menus by hand with watercolor ink and used a sprig of wax flower to pin down the sides of the menus. It served a functional purpose and it looked pretty! 

Since my dining table is wee, keeping table setting simple made the most sense to allow space for the food (the important part!). Having a business specializing in table and kitchen linens came in very handy. Since I always test the items I put in the shop, I have a set of almost everything in my linen drawer. For this dinner party I used linen napkins in Heather Gray.  A complete list of tabletop items is at the end of the post.  

While we all agreed that every single thing on the menu was stellar, the one dish that everyone raved about was the burrata salad with tangerines, shallots, and watercress. Here is the recipe. 

Alison Roman's Burrata with Tangerines, Shallots, and Watercress, from DINING IN cookbook: 

Ingredients:

1 shallot, thinly sliced into rings
1 table spoon fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 8oz ball burrata
3 tangerines, peeled and sliced 1/2" thick
3 cups small spicy greens (watercress, mizuna, arugula)
Olive oil
Flaky sea salt

Preparation: 

1. Toss the shallots with lemon juice in small bowl and season with kosher salt and pepper
2. Tear, slice, or cut burrata into pieces and arrange them on the serving platter.  
3. Scatter the tangerine slices around burrata
4. Combine the shallots and spicy greens, and season with salt and pepper.  Toss and scatter around the burrata mixture.  
5. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt.

If you'd like to be involved in the future Cookbook-ish gatherings, be sure to sign up for my news and updates or send an email to foldsantabarbara@gmail.com and let me know how you would like contribute. I am looking for passionate home cooks who want to try new recipes and share them with people. I am also looking for hosts, photographers, guest stylists, vignette-arrangers, flora foragers, dish washers, and story tellers. AND...there is always a spot at the Cookbook-ish table for those who may hot love to cook, but are rich in wine, bread, or sparkling water.  If this sounds like you, I would love to have as part of the Cookbook-ish adventure!

Resources:

From the Shop

Elsewhere

Matte black flatware: IKEA (link here)

Recycled glass water tumblers: Hawkins New York (I got mine from NEED Supply Co.)

Double Old Fashioned Duralex Picardie glasses (we used them as wine glasses): World Market (link here)