Top Chef, Meetup Style

Whenever I start a new hobby, I like to get involved in a group of like-minded people. When I wanted to train for my first triathlon, I joined Team in Training. Upon the realization that I was having trouble keeping up with running, I joined Back on My Feet, a local DC nonprofit that uses running to help people overcome substance abuse. Not only did both of these groups help me to train, but they also provided me with a social outlet as I made new friends. 

I wanted to do the same thing with cooking and I decided to get started with www.meetup.com. After doing a quick search on cooking, I found a group called "Eating and Cooking in Our 20s and Early 30s." Part of the group description read, "This is a group for those who want to explore all forms of food the DC area has to offer (restaurants, specialty stores, etc.), cook and bake for others, and meet new people in their 20s and 30s who want to do the same." Perfect!

Last Sunday, I went to one of the group's event. Entitled "Fall Flavors," this get together was a potluck with a Top Chef style competitive twist. Each guest was to bring a fall dish and people would then vote for their favorite one. Competition can sometimes stress me out, particularly when it involves a skill that is still fairly new for me. This time, however, I made a conscious decision to just make something easy especially since I was busy with other commitments. I settled on this pumpkin bread: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pumpkin-bread-iv/

Let me just say that this event was a great way for me to prepare for that overstuffed feeling I'm likely to experience at Thanksgiving. There was SO MUCH FOOD and I wanted to try it all! The picture to the right shows one of several tables covered with goodies. In addition to sampling many dishes, I also got to chat with fun people. A butternut squash dish received the most votes and the pumpkin gnocchi came in second. The best thing is that people are now posting recipes from the event on the Meetup group page. I can't wait to try making some of them myself.

I was a little bummed that not even a quarter of a loaf of my pumpkin bread ended up being eaten at the event. I had given one loaf to my family and my brother gave me some much appreciated validation. When I asked him what he thought, he exclaimed, "It's SOOO delicious! I heated a piece up in the microwave and slapped a spoonful of cool whip on that puppy." Eloquent as ever...

All in all, I had a great time last Sunday. If you're in your twenties or early thirties and want to explore cooking with a fun group of people, I highly recommend that you check out this Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/hungry20sdc/