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Potluck dishes line the table in the Jaffrey Public Library with dishes made from the cookbook “The Blue Zones Kitchen.” -
Members of the Cooks and Books club meet in the Jaffrey Public Library to share dishes from their latest cookbook exploration. -
The January meeting of the Cooks and Books Club in Jaffrey featured food from regions with long-lived people.
For the past month, members of the Jaffrey Public Library’s Cooks and Books club have been exploring recipes from the so-called “Blue Zones” – areas of the world with the most longevity. In the coming month, they’ll be celebrating Lunar New Year with Asian cuisine.
The club began about a year ago, said Library Assistant Robin Bussiere, who organizes the club. She said part of the motivation for the club is to let people know about what resources are available at the library – that it’s not just fiction and non-fiction, but also resources like cookbooks and magazines.
The Cooks and Books club is a way for residents to explore those recipes, stretch their cooking muscles into different cuisines. At the end of the month, they get to try a variety of dishes with a community potluck. Sometimes the club pulls recipes from the same cookbook, and sometimes there is just a general theme, but there is one rule – the recipe must come from the library.
“One of the nice aspects about it is that it is a community event,” said Bussiere. “It’s a great way to meet new people and experience and meet new people; it’s a strength of the Monadnock community.”
This past month, the group has been exploring recipes from “The Blue Zones Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100” by Dan Buettner. The book explores recipes from areas of the world where there is an unusually high number of people living to 100 or longer – providing recipes such as porcini mushroom risotto and chickpea soup, and desserts such as sweat bread.
During the monthly potluck supper, which was held on Tuesday, Bussiere said she brought a vegetable stew. She said she uses the club to try new dishes that incorporate more fruits and vegetables, although she said sometimes a treat like homemade ice cream brought in by another member ends up on her list of favorites, rather than the healthy options.
“It gives you ideas for new foods to try, and in the club, there are some really wonderful cooks,” Bussiere said.
For the coming month, the club members will be trying recipes from a variety of Asian cookbooks, in honor of the Lunar New Year, which is celebrated this year on Jan. 29.
The club has openings. For those who are interested, they can sign up online at the Jaffrey Public Library website, jaffreypubliclibrary.org. The potlucks are the first Tuesday of the month, with the next scheduled for Feb. 4 from 6 to 7 p.m. at the library. The Jaffrey Public Library is a tree nut and peanut-free building, and participants are asked to not include nuts or nut oils in their dishes, but as the dinner is potluck, non-contamination cannot be guaranteed. This is an adults-only program, and registration is required.
Multiple other libraries in the area have their own versions of cookbook clubs, including the Jaffrey Public Library’s consortium partners, the Frost Free Library in Marlborough and the Ingalls Memorial Library in Rindge. People interested in similar programs should check with their home libraries.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.