Last Thursday evening, the lights burned brightly inside the Elizabeth Taber Library, which seemed deserted save for some voices – and enticing aromas – drifting from an unseen room behind the stacks.
This is where the Potluck Recipe Exchange Group meets to discuss and sample recipes taken from the library’s cookbook collection.
For Library Director Libby O’Neill, the idea for the group was a no-brainer.
“I love to cook and I love to eat,” she said. “I just wanted to bring together like-minded people who also love to cook and eat.”
This was only the group’s second gathering; the first was held last July.
“We had a little bit of a smaller group, but it was very successful,” O’Neill said.
The last time, attendees made recipes from the same cookbook, which O’Neill chose, but not everyone loved that particular book (“I don’t like to cook with 35 ingredients,” one woman said). This time, O’Neill allowed that they could make recipes from “any of the Elizabeth Taber Library cookbooks that we have on the shelf here.”
On the practical side, the group reviews the recipes they try, detailing any changes they made or “hiccups” they encountered. And on the fun side, they get to taste-test the finished products.
O’Neill prepared two recipes – a goat cheese dip from Dips and Spreads by Dawn Yanagihara and a tortellini recipe from Happy Cooking by Giada De Laurentiis.
Dot Brown made Pollo in Potacchio, a braised chicken with rosemary, garlic, and tomato sauce, from Skinnytaste Fast and Slow by Gina Homolka. Library Assistant Nicole Davignon made a chicken chili recipe, also from Homolka’s book.
Mary Alice made a beef stew from The Barefoot Contessa by Ina Garten, which she deemed “pretty good but a lot of work.”
Diane made Sassy Salsa Pumpkin Soup from Lisa Lillien’s Hungry Girl cookbook. She made a peanut butter fudge from the same book, which also called for pumpkin – and which she found “terrible.”
Charlene, a self-declared “fresh fish eater,” made fish cakes from Jennifer Trainer Thompson’s book Fresh Fish.
Teresa, another library staffer, made chicken satay with peanut sauce from Mark Bittman’s Kitchen Express and apple cake squares from The Healthy Kitchen by Andrew Weil and Rosie Daley (“lots of grating”).
Nancy checked out The Old-Fashioned Cookbook by Jan McBride Carlton and decided on Ozark pudding, but then wondered whether it was a good choice. Then, in the back of this month’s Woman’s Day magazine, she saw an updated recipe for Ozark pudding and took it as a sign: Ozark pudding it was.
The next get-together is planned for July, with appetizers and desserts being the tentative theme.
By Deina Zartman
