supper club ideas

[diannet]

I am a member of a very successful supper club in the Orlando area that has been in existance for almost three years. My turn is coming up to host and I would like to see if I could get any new ideas for a theme from other supper clubs out there! We ususally try an ethic theme or center around a holiday or event. Since we have met almost every month for three years we have tried almost every thing that I can think of. I need some new ideas,
Thanks
Dianne

[Chris N]

How about a theme of a favorite book? Like, what would the characters in "The Time Traveler's Wife" be eating throughout the story, or something like that?

Or if you have others bring parts of the meal, have everyone bring something from a specific cookbook? Like a "let's work our way through "Moosewood" or "Babbo" or something.

Or the old standby, everyone bring an "old family recipe"?

[kgraham]

Usually the supper club I belonged to did themes each month, too. Mostly we did ethnic themes - but once we did a red theme (where all the foods were red) and another time we met Sunday morning for brunch.

And, there were a few months that we did something a little different:

We grilled pizza a few times - one person made several kinds of pizza dough, another person brought the cheeses, another the meats, someone else the cheeses, another the veggies and still another the dessert. An idea related to this would be to cook your whole dinner - apps to dessert - on the grill.

Last summer we met for Shakespeare in the Park and everyone brought picnic foods and snacks to munch on during the performance.

There were also months when we couldn't come up with a theme that we'd make the magazine our theme - all recipes from the current month's issue.

You say you've done a lot of ethnic themes in the past - have you done any regional U.S. themes? Southern, New England, Tex-Mex are some other ideas.

[DmOrtega]

Are you hosting in the summer? How about a shrimp boil, at the beach, or a party at a park, where everyone could wear white and play bocce? I also like the idea of a bbq pizza party or a fajita party. Have fun whatever you decide.

edited to add: How about a "Blue Moon" party?

[NancyJ]

(This was posted in reply to a January request. I copied/pasted it here for you. Hope it helps.)

Our 2+ year old club has had just about every ethnic and/or regional group as a "theme" for dinners. Favorites have been Italian and Mexican. We've also had other themes such as Mardi Gras (Cajun/Creole), Breakfast For Dinner (brunch-style foods), January Beach Party, Kentucky Derby, Comfort Foods, and Soup Samplers (a favorite that has been repeated).

We have also tried to use CL menus a few times with mixed results. We are all "working gals" and generally need to prepare the food in advance rather than doing the cooking that night.


Tomorrow night we're having our first Food-On-A-Stick dinner: shishkebab and fondue!

We also hold a Christmas Cookie exchange in early December. This year, everyone baked an extra dozen and we donated them to a local shelter.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

Nancy

[Gail K.]

Our supper club has also gone with the various ethnic themes - ie. French, Italian, Thai, Chinese, Mexican, etc.
Last night we decided that going forward we are going to try cooking from the current month's CL issue to coincide with what is seasonally available.
For our last dinner (which was last night) we had chosen Mexican for our theme and we just happened to get lucky with the Santa Fe menu in the August 2004 issue.
The menu was absolutely fabulous and I highly recommend it.

[javajulie]

One of our most favorite themes we've done so far is fondue. Many people had never tried it before so it was a new experience. It's also fairly relaxing - but I would advise you to do it when the weather is cooler as it got quite hot in the dining room with the fondue pots cooking.

Another favorite theme that we've repeated in the fall is a harvest theme.

We are also slowly warming up to Ethiopean cooking. One month we all met at an Ethiopean restaurant to introduce the cuisine to those who had never tried it before. Eventually we'll try cooking it.

[lsquire]

One of the themes we have used in my book club (which is also a cooking club) is to require each recipe to have a specific ingredient - Once we did honey. Another time it was peaches. Think of it as Iron Chef for cooking club :-)

[kinast]

Hi Dianne.

I don't know if you have already hosted--if you have perhaps you can keep this idea in mind for another person/year.

You say that you center your themes around holidays, ethnic foods, etc. One possibility for the month of September is to have a dinner with Jewish foods for Rosh Hashana. You could serve apples and honey while people are preparing the dinner, or as a very simple appetizer. I have also seen mini-corned beef sandwiches as appetizers. It would be an easy way to start exploring another culture's holidays, opening up a whole new range of ideas, and be an fun learning experience.

Best of luck,
Andrea