Women's International Cooking Collective

This past weekend, I hosted my first ever "Women's International Cooking Collective" at our house. When Andy & I moved in January to our new place, the kitchen-- which is huge & gourmet-esque-- begged for me to combine it with some of my passions... namely, hanging out with international women & learning about foreign cultures. Through much brainstorming with Andy & friends, I decided to start this group.
The idea: Once a month, I invite a different international friend in Austin to come and teach me (and a crowd of other internationally-interested Austinites) how to cook their local foods and tell me about their home-country. Not only do I get to learn how to cook awesome global cuisine & hear about foreign countries from natives, but I also get to make or enhance friendships with internationals right here in my city! Win, win!

Our inaugural month was June. Destination: INDIA! My friend Skipper invited her neighbor, Sharda, to serve as our "guest chef". About 12 other Austin gals who I'm friends with joined in the fun. We spent 3 hours watching Sharda cook Spinach Paneer (but we made it with tofu), Indian Fried Rice, and Indian Chai Tea. We all wore aprons and wrote down the recipes on matching index cards. During lulls in the cooking process, we had a short list of questions to ask Sharda about India, Indian culture (both at home & here in Austin), her family, her life, her religion, and even down to her favorite Bollywood movie!

Then came the taste-test. Mmmmmmmm! We all fixed test plates with a generous spoonful of each dish and our own cup of tea. To be honest, my experience IN India was not that great with the local foods, so I was somewhat nervous that our first month's dishes wouldn't be my fav. But, I admit, they were soooo yummy! Sharda was an excellent chef! I even got 2nd & 3rd helpings of the Spinach Paneer. Plus, she left me with the remaining Chai Tea packets so I can make my own cardamon tea any time I want!

I had sooooo much fun! And I am pretty sure all the other girls did too-- including Sharda! I already have countries lined up for the rest of the year... what a FUN way to spend time with ladies I love getting to know!

(**Something I learned from Sharda was that Southern Indians have a traditional spice can-- hers is pictured below-- and they keep their top 5-8 favorite spices in it... always ready to go. Her mother gave her this one before she moved to America so she could always have the flavors at home right at her fingertip!)