With little spare time for more real-life meetings, I hunted in vain for an Australian cookbook club online – so I started my own!
Hello my lovelies! I’m back on air after the Facebook news debacle, and I’m ready to share my newest project – my online Australian cookbook club.
I know a lot of you share my weakness for cookbooks, and we know how that goes. We see a new one, we love the concepts behind it and the recipes in it and we just know it’s going to become our new favourite, transforming our family menus for good. But sooner or later (usually sooner in my case) real life barges in, we get busy and revert back to most of the reliable old standbys, our shiny new recipes forgotten or relegated.
I’ve seen lots of cookbook clubs where members either get together once a month to cook from a specified book, or join in online with a book of the month and share their cooking photos and recipe finds on social media.
They are a great idea – you get to have a deep dive into the cookbooks on your shelf, or buy a lovely new one ?, expand your repertoire and build on your kitchen skills. I simply can’t fit another monthly real-life meeting into my schedule, so tried to hunt for an online Australian cookbook club – with no joy.
There was only one obvious thing to do, so I’m thrilled to announce Lambs Ears Cookbook Club and I’d love you to join!
It’s all very simple, with no pressure and lots of sharing fun. Once a month we will cook from a designated cookbook, which I’ll choose and post here on my blog on, or near, the first of every month. There is no pressure to join in every month (but obviously the more who do, the more interactive it will be), nor is there any pressure to cook any particular amount of recipes – just cook what you choose from the designated cookbook, when you want, over the course of the month.
Share your cooking fun by posting all of your photos of your cooked dishes in the Facebook group, or on your Instagram profiles using the hashtag #lambsearscookbookclub, with any comments about the book or dishes. Please share only your photos, not the recipes as we don’t want to infringe any copyright laws. And please don’t stress about your images – this group is to share the cooking joy, not to get all OCD about your photography skills, no one will judge. And the more you snap, the better you’ll get!
The first book we will be cooking from, for the whole of March 2021, is Ottolenghi’s Simple (Penguin Books) – see, I told you it would be simple. ? I chose this because it is already so very popular that many of you will have it or be able to source it from the library. Once you have stocked up on a small handful of easily available ingredients the recipes are genuinely simple, but flavour-packed – you will absolutely lift your cooking game with this cookbook.
If it’s unfamiliar to you, you can check out my review here.
So head over to the Facebook group and join in the Australian cookbook club fun – I can’t wait to see what everyone chooses to cook and share!
Cathy Batley
Hi Amanda,
I would like to join in but am not a Facebook member. Does that mean it’s not possible ? I do have an Instagram account
Amanda
You can absolutely join in on Instagram, Cathy – just use the hashtag #lambsearscookbookclub for your monthly cookbook cooks. ?