Calendar for the Month

(Please note that Berkeley dates are listed in black and San Jose dates are listed in red!)

November, 2008

Tuesday, November 4th—What better way to spend election night than to be cooking with good folks.  Now some of you may say that you want to stay home and watch the results come in, but if you’re watching the presidential race, I dare say that it will be over by the time that the 6PM results come in, as 8-10 of the key battleground states will have been decided by that time.  So what I’m saying is that this will be the first-ever Frugal Foodies where we have Barack Obama as President elect, and we’ll commemorate it by cooking food from countries that start with the letter V (along with occasional election updates).  We tried to do V last month but didn’t have enough registrants so we’ll celebrate such places as Venezuela, Vietnam, Vanuatu, and Vatican City on this special night.

Wednesday, November 5th—Join hosts Dan and Laurel for a night featuring many people’s favorite ingredient, chocolate. This guest ingredient will be featured in every recipe, beginning with an appetizer and ending in a sumptuous dessert.  Join the crew to see how this universally appealing ingredient will be used in a variety of dishes.

Tuesday, November 11th—It’s one of the last Cooking the Books nights, and we’ll be featuring a quirky cookbook called “Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes”, by Rynn Berry.  This book was given to me, and I can’t vouch for its quality but it claims to have recipes from Pythagoras, Socrates, Tolstoy, and McCartney.  And most of the recipes are vegan, though no promises on the entire menu.  Maybe we’ll even learn something about said famous people as we cook some of their favorites.

Wednesday, November 12th—An apple a day keeps the doctor away! Apple will be the special ingredient, as we experiment with recipes featuring this autumn treat. From savory to sweet, this night will be full of new pleasures for the palate, and will be at least partly friendly to the gluten-free eaters. This is the first night at Patti's house in the Rose Garden, hosted by first-time hostesses, Karie and Jessica.

Tuesday, November 18th—It’s Guest Chef Night at Frugal Foodies, but I still have no idea who the guest chef will be, and I’ve barked up several trees.  Worse comes to worse, I’ll pull out some of my best recipes and see what fifteen cooks can make of them.  What I can promise is that it will be a good time and you won’t be disappointed with the tasty treats.  AND, this night will be a benefit night for a group of students from Oakland’s School for the Arts who are raising money for an exciting study trip to Costa Rica in June.  They’ll earn a full year's worth of science credits while exploring the ecology of the tropical rainforests, the cloud forests and the freshwater ecosystems of Costa Rica. The students who go on this trip, some of whom will join us for cooking and dinner, will no doubt return to the U.S. with amazing stories, a deep respect for the precious rainforests of the world, and a new perspective that is hard to get without international travel.  Please come out to support their studies.  You can learn all about Frugal Foodies benefit nights at www.frugalfoodies.org/benefit.

Wednesday, November 19th—As we wrap up the baseball season, Eric and Melinda will close it out right by bringing the ballpark into the kitchen. All your favorite stadium foods will be prepared in a vegetarian format. And unlike the real baseball games, this event will contain no growth hormones!

Tuesday, November 25th—It’s the fourth Tuesday of the month and Special Guest Ingredient Night at Frugal Foodies in Berkeley.  And by the vote of the people, the special ingredient will be apples.  I know, I know, it sounds like we’re copying the South Bay version from a few weeks earlier, and maybe we WILL steal a few of their favorites, but we’ve had this one on the calendar for more than a month now.  In any case, should be a good time, and guarantees that you’ll get your apples, regardless of where you live in the Bay Area.

Wednesday, November 26th—As the night before Thanksgiving, this night at Brian and Erin’s place will feature many holiday treats—perhaps from many countries—and all in a vegetarian format.  This will undoubtedly include some Thanksgiving favorites and we welcome any holiday waifs to come out and cook with the Frugal Foodies family, or for anyone to enjoy a vegetarian-friendly meal in preparation for the less-veg-friendly event the next day.

Important Note: Please remember that you must pre-register for any and all Frugal Foodies nights so please contact us at to do so.  We look forward to seeing you this month at Frugal Foodies.