New Member from Brooklyn

[Rickbern]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm a long time lurker in the forums, decided to finally sign up.

 

I'm an avid home cook and I love to use cooking to create communities. I have two kids in their thirties (unfortunately, one lives 2000 miles away) and for the last 16 years I've made a weekly dinner on Wednesday nights for my kids and their friends, my friends and the family. I get somewhere between 10 and 20 people (from an extended group of probably 75-100 people in all) on a typical evening and I never know how many are coming until 2pm the afternoon of the dinner. Naturally, I'm a firm believer in appetizers, first course, main course. 

 

I'm really into cooking cucina povera, but from all over the globe. I've recently started trying to learn a bit more about Chinese cuisine, and there's a rich trove of ideas to be mined from there!

 

Anyway, hoping to learn a few things around here, nice to finally meet you all!

 

Rick

 

ps-Shout out to @Toliver I've been following the bargain cookbooks thread for a while and it's really expanded my horizons. Now if you could find me some Fuschia Dunlop books on sale...

[TdeV]

Not very cheap Fuschia Dunlop, I'm afraid, at Thriftbooks.

 

Welcome @Rickbern. I'm fascinated by your Wednesday night dinners. Perhaps you could start a thread and show us your creations. 🙂

[weinoo]

Hello Rickbern.

 

Where in Brooklyn are you?

 

A long time ago, we had a nice dinner club, consisting of 4 couples...a few of us may have even blogged about it, including from Brooklyn.

 

 

 

[ElsieD]

Nice to meet you, Rick.  I look forward to reading your posts.

[Steve R.]

Welcome to a fellow Brooklynite.

[Kim Shook]

10 hours ago, TdeV said:

 

 

Welcome @Rickbern. I'm fascinated by your Wednesday night dinners. Perhaps you could start a thread and show us your creations. 🙂

I agree!  I’d love to see a report on your Wednesday dinners!

[eugenep]

@Rickbern - I am curious about the cost for catering to the 20 people - i.e., do you require the attendees to contribute for the ingredients etc.? 

 

And there is the cost of alcohol as well (which can equal or be greater than the food itself) - is it like a BYOB or do you get to select wines with pooled funds? 

[Rickbern]

2 hours ago, eugenep said:

 

[Rickbern]

@eugenep I always figure if I took my adult daughter out to a restaurant for dinner it would cost us about a hundred bucks and I usually average about that. I’ve encouraged everyone to bring wine but I’ve never asked anyone to chip in. 
 

we do this in NYC and I have quite a diverse crew with not always a great wine background. I’ve encouraged them over the years to bring better wines, but I’ll still get a bottle of cheap sweet wine every so often from a newcomer. 

 

one of my regulars has become a pretty ambitious cook and for the first time ever, I’m going to let him guest chef. 
 

This dinner is my hobby and my passion. It costs what it costs and I’ve done a bit of good in the world as a result of doing it. 

[kayb]

I love this. There is nothing I love more than cooking for a big crowd, and sitting down and sharing a meal with friends.

 

I assume you have some idea from week to week how many are coming?

 

 

Edited February 21, 2020 by kayb (log)

[Rickbern]

@kayb Nah. My daughter sends me a text at 2pm with a count.

 

heres the biggest crowd I ever cooked for, the last supper in our old loft, had 54 for dinner. I cooked everything, had somebody helping with the cleanup in the kitchen 
 

the new place I have a table set up for up to 16-18 all the time and with a little reconfiguration I can have 36. If it’s above 20, I’ll know in advance. Usually!

 

[Rickbern]

By the way, that’s me with my back to the camera. We were packing up and leaving, this is the Vemeer painting of my life!