springdellgirl

Dining Divas

Tonight we went to a dinner party at the Bowen's...they had it at the Adirondak Lodge...which is very nice. Our ward has started doing monthly dinner parties. People sign up to be hosts/hostesses and there is a monthly dinner party theme. Ours tonight was "Appetizers"...and then the hosts invite several couples or families to attend. The Bowen's dinner party was a family dinner party which was great because we didn't have to find a babysitter. It was a lot of fun!! The food was great and so was the company. I brought Hot Artichoke Dip with tortilla chips and Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce. I needed an excuse to make such delicious yet fattening food.


This has made me think back with such regret on the now defunct Dining Divas ( here anyway). Dining Divas is a cooking club that was started in Salt Lake about 6 years ago. My sister, Stacey, was an original member. It is a fantastic group of women who meet once a month for dinner...hence the Dining Divas. The Diva of the month picks a theme and then sends out lavish (usually hand-crafted) invitations and assignments. This group is such a tight bunch that when my sister, Kelley, wanted to join she had to be on the waiting list for 2 years and could only sub until someone moved away.

When Kelley moved here we decided to start a our own chapter of Dining Divas...several girls have started a Houston Chapter, a Palouse Chapter and I think there is one more but I can't remember where... Anyway, Kelley thought that this would be a great way to meet friends. So Dining Divas began... The original group included: Kelley, me, Meghan (Kelley's friend from SLC who moved up here with her), our cousin Tania who had just moved back to town, two sisters: Stephanie and Erica, Amy, Kassie, Rebecca, and Jolene. We were off to a great start. Each woman was unique and interesting. We had many great dinners: our Dining Divas kick-off of appetizers and beverages (Kelley was the Diva), Thai night, April in Paris (I was the Diva), a goddess night, Spain, Dinner at the Lake, Summer Harvest, Carribbean, "What moves you", "Iron Chef", Mediterranian, Breakfast at Tiffany's (Kelley was the Diva), Fire and Ice (I was the Diva) and and two "dining-out" at restaurant dinners. We all had assignments at the dinners: Diva, appetizer, vegetarian appetizer, soup, salad, entree, vegetarian entree, dessert, beverage and alcoholic beverage.

Our group began as ten women...most of whom didn't know each other but who had a love of cooking and great food. We wanted to challenge ourselves and expand our culinary horizions. The women ranged in age from 23-36. We had a yoga instructor, hospital registrar, Lands Council Director, masseuse, bartender, secretary, bridal shop manager, graphic designer, computer specialist, and a stay-at-home mom. There were four moms. Our group also consisted of 3 vegetarians and one conservative married mormon (hum...I wonder who that was). I was excited to be out of my comfort-zone and my little "box" and meeting women who I maybe wouldn't have had the opportunity to form friendships with...famous last words!

Here are a few picture from some of our gatherings...

At first our dinners went well as we were all in the "getting to know you" phase. But after we got to know each other we realized that there were a few strong personalities that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. We had two women who used the dinners to tell us all their latest graphic "sexploits". These two women also would cancel at the last minute without finding subs...usually when they had entree. The final straw was at our "What moves you dinner"...the Diva had hired a flamenco dancer to teach us some moves and these two sat talking loudly through the performance and being extremely rude to our invited guest. Several of the women approached me and Kelley about kicking these two out of the group... which we eventually did.

We then restructured...we were now a group of eight...a much more comfortable number. We restructured our dinner assignments to: Diva, appetizer, soup, salad, entree, side dish, dessert and beverage. We decide to become more community-minded...doing service work etc. We had interest from the Mary Jane's Farm Magazine's editors (who my sisters and I met and told them about our cooking group)...about a potential article on cooking clubs. They offered to let us tour their test kitchen and cook with them (a little Dining Divas Field trip). We wanted to have guest speakers...local chefs etc. But things took another bad turn...


Even with the exit of Meghan and Jolene...we were left with two vegetarians... (I have nothing against vegetarians...I am a 95% vegetarian and my three kids are vegetarians ) and several hard-core "granola" types. We eventually stopped having meat dishes all together, we could only use organic foods...if you used anything from a regular grocery store or....heaven forbid...Costco you were berated. So as the group had stopped being fun, creativity was out the door, and we couldn't extricate a particularly unpleasant woman from our group...Kelley and I ended it after a little over a year.

Kelley and I still mourn this little club. We miss the entertaining, cooking and friendship aspect of it all...it's too bad that it didn't work out. It's a great concept and with the "right" group of women it is a lot of fun...the SLC, Palouse, and Houston chapters are still going strong...so I guess I will stay inside my little "box" (for now)...it's cozy in here!!