Scratch Night

    What a cool idea for a dinner party.  My friend Robin told me the other day of a style of dinner party that she has been having recently.   It's called "Scratch Night" and it's a group participation party.  She comes up with a fun menu and then teaches everyone how to make the dishes.  It works like this, she puts together an ingredient list that is emailed to all the guests.  Everyone picks the items that they want to bring, copies the other guests, and shows up with all the stuff.  Robin then assigns tasks and shows everyone how to complete them.  Food is prepared, everyone chows down with a sense of accomplishment.  How cool! 

    "Pizza Night" sounded great.  She premade a bunch of dough earlier in the day for the dinner pizzas and then for the lesson, everyone got to make dough for the dessert pizzas.  Since pizza dough takes roughly 2 hours to proof, timing for dessert was perfect. 

    I was totally intrigued by this party idea.  I can't wait to do it myself.  My friends often ask me to show them some simple dishes to make that they can then build on.  A solid foundation of cooking skills will last a lifetime.  I'm all for it, partially for my own selfish desire to be invited to dinner at their houses and eat what they made.  There are in fact times I want to leave the cooking to someone else. 

    Teaching someone a useful skill is such a rewarding experience.  The old phrase "Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day.  Teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime", rings true.  In this case, it's more like "Teach a man (or woman) to roast a chicken, and I'll bring a bottle of Pinot Noir."  That's how I roll!

Ciao down,
Penn

   

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