The Appeal of Cooking......And Eating, Together

Food draws us together.  It brings us to the table where relationships are nurtured over lingering dinner parties. Countless family traditions involve baking cookies with our children and getting them to help with dinner.  And food represents family pride and tradition as recipes are passed from one generation to the next. 

So it makes sense that the overwhelming majority of respondents to a survey sponsored by Calphalon, believe that cooking together is good for a couple’s relationship.  In fact, according to the survey, home cooked meals help connect partners, and 91% of engaged adults surveyed agree that receiving items from their registry that allow a couple to spend quality time together is important. The survey basically confirmed that cooking together is good for your relationship.

And the benefits of cooking together and sharing meals extends beyond family.  Cookbook clubs have been popular for years as a way to bring friends and neighbors together for a new twist on the old bookclub.  There are plenty of articles online on starting a cookbook club, including this article on POPSUGAR.  Cookbook clubs offer the opportunity to try out different recipes and cuisines in a social setting with friends.  Kind of a modern-day potluck organized around specific cookbooks. 

And while it’s easy to go online these days to find recipes for a simple weeknight meal or appetizers for your next wine and cheese party,  there’s still a huge appeal in cookbooks.  As this article in Huffpost describes, today’s cookbooks are “big, Beautiful storybooks” with more depth and description from the author, or about the cuisine or ingredients.  That’s why cookbooks make wonderful gifts.  You’re sure to find one for the person who wants to bake cookies with their kids, host a casual dinner party and serve large portions of comfort food, or the backyard chef who likes to feed a crowd. 

At One Cottage, some of our most popular gifts are those that combine decorative plates with cookbooks and aprons because they represent activities that can be shared and appeal to people who are just learning to cook as well as seasoned hosts and hostesses.  Even someone new to entertaining can set a welcoming table with stylish tabletop items and beautiful plates and linens.  By creating your own gift, you can select the individual items, by theme, that will appeal to the recipient. 

Experimenting with new recipes, hosting a backyard barbecue and baking holiday treats are all great activities that can bring family and friends together. When we view meal preparation as an activity to do together instead of just another chore to fit into an already busy schedule, it elevates it to something more meaningful……..even if meal preparation consists of adding a few  fresh ingredients into the store bought entree and salad.  Or adding some decorations to the store-bought sugar cookies and displaying them on a pretty platter.  We all have different levels of expertise in the kitchen and what we gain in the experience of cooking and eating together can be greater than the meal itself.