"Cooking With Friends"...the book/co-op. Has anyone done this?

[Bess]

I'm talking about this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Among-Friends-Preparation-Delightfully/dp/0970156111/ref=pd_bbs_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204149954&sr=8-5

If any of you have done this, what are your thoughts? Worth it? Did you actually organize a group, or did you just participate. If you did organize it, was it difficult? Any thoughts would be great. Oh, and most important...how was the food?? :confused:

Thanks!

[Fourmother]

I haven't read this book, but I did start a dinner co-op years ago with a couple of women from my Mom's Club chapter. There were 3 families in all and we took turns making dinner for all of us once per week. When it was your night to cook, you had to have the meals ready by a certain time and the other families would pick their food up from your house. We packed the food in those inexpensive, semi-disposable aluminum pans and just reused them as needed.

Pros
- Leftovers

- DH could pick up dinner from the other families on his way home from work.

- It was nice to sample other people's recipes and specialty dishes.

- Only one big cooking night for me.

Cons
- Some people aren't reliable. Once a family couldn't cook on their night and forgot to call everyone. I showed up to pick up dinner and nobody was home.

- The co-op didn't last long because the cooking night was more work than most people are accustomed to. Also one mom had a shoulder injury which prevented her from doing heavy lifting of pots and pans.

- Family sizes differ raising the question of equalizing costs.

Over all I enjoyed the experience and would do it again if I had relationships that would make it feasible to organize this. I've become increasingly hermit-like in the years since then, so there's little chance of that happening. Before approach a cooperative cooking arrangement I would think about what's most important to you. Are you wanting to create a sense of community around your meals or do you want to just minimize your time in the kitchen. Presently it's just easier for me to cook 3 or 4 meals at a time, eat one, and put the rest in the freezer.

HTH