Cookbook Club to Feed Plymouth Readers’ Appetites
Micah Bessette
He/Him
Staff Writer
9/21/24
Book clubs can be fun, but let’s be real, everyone just goes for the snacks. That’s exactly why a potluck style book club with recipes instead of books is what two Plymouth librarians had in mind.
Each month, the club will choose a different cookbook. The members will prepare a dish from that cookbook to bring to the meeting, where they’ll share their meals with each other. Their first meeting will be on October 18th at Pease Public Library in downtown Plymouth, where they will be using recipes from America’s Test Kitchen’s Gatherings: Casual-Fancy Meals to Share.
Becky White, director and archivist at Pease Public Library, and Anne Jung-Mathews, outreach librarian at Lamson Library, came up with the idea for the club after attending a similar event at the Minot Sleeper Library in Bristol, NH, that regularly hosted 30 people. “It was just a fun gathering around food, which was really nice,” said Jung-Mathews. “After attending that, I said to [White], ‘oh yeah, we can do this.’”
The cookbook for October’s meeting is filled with fun and delicious recipes ranging from easy to difficult in order to give everyone the chance to make a recipe they enjoy. Jung-Mathews hopes this will encourage people to join the club.
White likes how the October cookbook is well-rounded and offers diverse selections. “I think there’s a little bit of something for everyone in this [cookbook], there’s even drinks in here.”
The club can act as a great way to develop your cooking skills, and offers an outlet to prepare meals you might not normally be able to, Jung-Mathews said. “I’m thinking I will make some sort of salad or some pasta. I like those ones that are easy to share with large groups,” she said. “Maybe I’ll make something that my husband and children don’t like and then I’ll share it with other people because I can’t cook it at home.”
The librarians are hoping this club will help bring the two libraries together, as well as the rest of the community. “[Jung-Mathews] and I are always looking for ways our libraries can do stuff together,” said White.
Jung-Mathews sees the club as an opportunity to connect the libraries in Plymouth. “We have three libraries in Plymouth (Lamson, Pease, Plymouth High School), and I’m really hoping to start breaking down the silos between them. We can work together cooperatively, and our students can benefit from it,” she said. “We’re a campus community, we’re a town community. We just feel like this is the time to do things together.”
The book for November will be Anna Thomas’s Vegan, Vegetarian, Omnivore: Dinner for Everyone at the Table. You’ll be able to find the cookbooks at either library.
Jung-Mathews hopes the club will feel open to everyone, and that no one is limited by their resources. “If you’re a student and you don’t have enough money to make something fancy, I just want to encourage students to do something simple. Don’t feel like you have to do something really complicated.” The Plymouth Cookbook Club is excited to begin meetings in October and is hoping for consistent engagement throughout the year. If you have any questions, reach out to Jung-Mathews at amjung@plymouth.edu or White at rwhite@peasepubliclibrary.org.