Photos provided

By Laura Durenberger-Grunow - Boreal Community Media - February 15, 2023


If you're looking to 'up your cooking game', enjoy a night out with your partner or family, connect with your neighbors (or all three), the Cook County Co-op and North House Folk School are offering a great option in the form of community cooking classes. 

Boreal Community Media talked with Amber Richard, Marketing Manager of the Cook County Co-op, and Rae Poynter, Marketing Manager for North House Folk School, to learn more.

According to Poynter, "we held the first community cooking class with the co-op in early February (2023), where students learned to make the co-op's mulligatawny soup, a local favorite. It was well attended and students afterward said they loved the class."

When asked how the idea for the community cooking classes was started, Richard said: "It’s really a matter of getting back to our roots. North House Folk School has done community classes for a long time (woodworking, food, fiber) to offer lower cost options for locals, and the co-op always hosted food classes leading up to the pandemic. The Folk School kitchen is big and beautiful. We have the cooks and instructors. Collaboration allows us to utilize the best of both our worlds."

The classes are hands on; meaning you can show up, learn something new, connect with local community members, and eat.
 
"All of these classes are open to students 12 and up if they enroll with an adult, so they make for a fun family night. They're also a great excuse for a date night or friends' night out," Poynter said. 

"For $25, you get an evening of fun and learning in the gorgeous North House kitchen, and you'll leave with recipe overviews of what was created," added Richard.

Two additional classes are scheduled for March and April.

In March, the topic focuses on eggs. "Eggs are the perfect protein and can literally work with almost anything," Richard said. "This class will help you expand your egg 'repertoire', and move beyond the scramble to poaching, over-medium, and basting."

The April class is all about making spring rolls at home, something that, according to Richard, "is especially useful in a town where you can't get them." Students will learn not only what ingredients to use, but also how to roll and cut them.