CMLE members – this discussion was happening on a listserve, and had some great ideas you might want to try in your library! Don’t forget: if you do baking projects in your library, CMLE Headquarters is available for taste-testing!
“Like I’m guessing many of you, I was excited by the idea of a baking club posted over at SLJ here:
We are able to cook food and have it as part of our events, at least as of right now, so we’re not as restricted as many libraries are.
However, I am curious how, if you have a cooking or baking club, how do you handle:
- Kitchen safety and knife skills?
- Allergens and making sure the food is as safe as you can make it?
- Permission slips — if so, examples?
- Favorite recipes?
- Different types of cuisine to try?
Thanks for any and all advice or tips! I know my teens will really love this, but I’d love to hear from any other librarians who do similar programs.”
- I’ve done things like chocolate dipped stuff using crock pots and making appetizers that don’t require any heating element at all. A colleague has done blenders for smoothies and waffle makers to waffle-ize things. It can be done but you need lots of planning and either money to buy appliances or a willingness to bring your own.
- We did a smoothie program last summer where we asked staff to temporarily donate their blenders to the teen department and we would return them, cleaned, after the program. That helped us out a lot. We’ve also done mug cakes in the microwave and cooking in a convection oven that our library has. I suppose you could do instant noodle cooking if you have a hot water heater or coffee maker. No bake recipes are also really big right now so that would work great if you have absolutely no kitchen appliances or ovens.
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And apparently, you can cook a surprising number of dishes in a 12-cup coffee maker!