Cooking Club--Jewish Deli Food

I think we need a cool name. Cooking club---Supper Club.

They sound boring to me.  So, I looked up cool cooking club names and thought perhaps we could borrow one?

Here are a few interesting ones:

The Zesty Chefs

The Tasty Temptations

Gourmet Goddesses

Bad to da Bone Cookers

I'm not sure what fits us. 

We are a small group of friends who get together on a semi-regular basis to take on a large cooking project--or--explore an unfamiliar cuisine.

This was a bit unfamiliar to us--

Jewish Deli food.

And-- I am so far behind; we did our Jewish Deli food in March of 2020.  Early March, right before the world went crazy.

And let's face it--it did go crazy for a while, and at first it was very scary.  And then, it wasn't.  

But I digress.

Sally and Paul made corned beef and Pastrami from scratch!!

It was the centerpiece of the meal.

And it was oh-so-good.

This is a text about how they did it:

It tasted really good!

Seen below right before going on the grill. 

What we always do---whoever is hosting, buys a cookbook before cooking club. NOT something we have to do, or even talk about--we just do it, to be able to look thru it and know some facts about what we are attempting to do.

Of course, none of us have Kosher kitchens, but the food was really, really good.

We bought the right stuff....

We read the right books, watched the right movies.

And then we just had fun--as we always do.

It was a really good sandwich!

As usual I have a gazillion photos of our evening. 

I wish I could explain how nice it is to have a cooking club/supper club.

When trying to find something on the internet about cooking clubs I did discover that they are the newest trend.  Cooking and meal sharing is trendy. 

I've done both and while the meal sharing (we called it dinner swap and only once a week was I responsible for making dinner--for four couples.  And dropping it off on their doorstep.  My day was Wednesday and then on all the other weekdays, someone would drop off on my doorstep.  Or kitchen counter.

We did it Monday-Thursday for 6 months.   It was so nice to have dinner prepared for us.

I loved it.  And I would do it again, but if I had to choose, I'd choose this cooking club, the one where we eat with our friends. We get to talk and laugh together.  You share a bond with people when you gather to eat on a regular basis.

I feel comfortable saying that I love this one, this cooking club the most, because half of the dinner swap people are the same as cooking club people.

But anyway--- let's get back to our Jewish Deli party night!

We had a test!

Yes, a test!

I think I am so smart, but I failed this test!

We began our evening with some pickled things.  

Pickles

Olives

Beets

And bagels and lox-- or my bastardized version of it.  

But they were good, nonetheless.  

Something smells good!

It's Chicken soup with Matzo Balls!

We had latkes or latkas--it depends on where you are from--a Ashkenazi Jewish tradition that is made for Hannukah.  

We served with applesauce.

And we also had Kugle..

I didn't get a close up of the Kugle, so I borrowed this photo below.  But April's Kugle looked exactly like this. 

As you can tell if you look closely at all the Kugle left on the plates.

It was no one's favorite. But really, who are we?

And once again, poor Paul and Sally got put in the corner.

(whenever I say 'corner' like that, I am reminded of the movie Dirty Dancing and the line "no one puts Baby in the corner."  And that movie took place in the Catskills, which was a typical Jewish summer holiday place.  See how I can bring this all back around to the theme of the evening?)

We always have fun at our SUPPER-CLUB!

(whatever you want to call it)

**notice that Shelly and Lorin were absent from this cooking/supper club get together.  They were probably in Hawaii in March but let this picture (of them missing) be a foreshadowing. 

The end!

This was the best cooking club ever!

And these cooking club meals were all good too... just click on the link to see.

Cooking Club #1 -Meals your mom used to make

Cooking Club #2- Cajun Cooking

Cooking Club #3 - Let's all go to Hawaii

Cooking Club #4 - American Regional Cooking --Great Lakes Region, featuring: SUPPER CLUBS!

Cooking Club #5 - Famous Chefs (long post with other stuff mixed in, but just trust me)

Cooking Club #6 -Meatball Madness -- or something round (long post combined with Famous Chef's.  Scroll thru some stuff to get there)

Cooking Club #7 - Breakfast for dinner

Cooking Club #8 - Slow Cooking

Cooking Club #9 - Mexican Street Food

Cooking Club #10- Your Christmas Cookie Heritage

Cooking Club #11 - Cooking from labels/back of box, can, or carton

Cooking Club #12 - It's all Greek to Me!

Cooking Club #13 - A Root Beer Tasting Holiday

Cooking Club #14 - Thai Food

Cooking Club #15- Pizza

Cooking Club #16- Pacific Northwest

Cooking Club #17 - Christmas Scavenger Hunt

Cooking Club #18 Milk Street Mania

Cooking Club #19 -  9x13 Cooking

Coming Soon --

Italian Dinner

Cook from a Movie --CHEF

Fondue Party

End of summer rhubarb party

Paella 

Fermentation, pickled, raw, clean food.