One of the things that makes the office environment at Parties That Cook so special is that we have a monthly cookbook club. Once a month, one person picks a cookbook and the first Monday of the month to hold the potluck. The rest of us choose a recipe out of this chosen cookbook and either spend the entire month pouring over how to make this recipe the best, or the Sunday evening before at 10 p.m. rushing to bake a cake. However we do it, it always ends up being an eventful lunch hour sharing our cooking stories and decompressing from a month of attempting no side conversations.

If it is just a few friends, coworkers, or complete strangers, cookbook clubs are a great way to build friendships and buff up your skills in the kitchen. No kitchen prowess is needed, so they are a fun activity for beginners but can be just as exciting trained chefs. For beginners, Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything” and any Barefoot Contessa cookbook would be great because they are so well-tested. As you become more advanced, try to challenge yourself with something like Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”.

Why limit it to cookbooks? Cooking magazines have great recipes as well as mouth-watering photographs. “Fine Cooking” and “Cooks Illustrated” are both wonderful starts. They focus more on teaching and don’t assume that you are completely experienced.

Not only could you check out magazines but also some of the chefs on the Food Network. Giada De Laurentiis and Rachel Ray would be a good start.

As you cover the more well known cookbooks, it is always fun to have a breakfast cookbook club, like we did with the “Tartine” cookbook, or a trip to Egypt over lunch, much like our “Dining on the Nile” cookbook club. It is never a mistake to choose a more specific genre of cookbooks. You may not come out with the variety you would get with something like the “Joy of Cooking”, but you’ll be surprised with all of the different flavors you can find in just one course.

Hosting a cookbook club monthly with your friends is a great way to beat the heat of the economy while still enjoying yourself.