By Riley Fontana
Hometown Weekly Reporter
With a heat wave hitting Massachusetts, the last thing most people want to do is cook, especially when the stovetop or oven is involved. The Westwood Library decided to offer a convenient cooking class to teach patrons how easy it is to cook without actually cooking.
Hosted by Kristen Barenthaler at the Islington branch, this class showed participants how to make a Caprese salad and fruit salsa and then invited participants to share a lunch together. Those who signed up for the class were sent the recipes in advance to create the meals at home. This allowed people to make and have their meals at home, while others opted to put everything together in the library and share a meal with other patrons.
This was the first convenient cooking class, and the library hopes to turn it into a quarterly event. The goal of these classes is to show patrons how easy it can be to make a delicious and easy meal with a few quick ingredients. A Caprese salad consists only of tomato and mozzarella cheese with optional basil, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil topping, and fruit salsa is made up of any and all types of fruits chopped up and eaten with sweet chips.
All of the recipes are easy to recreate at home and easy to share with others. The biggest draw for these cooking classes was the ability to share a meal with others. Participants were invited to eat and chat with each other after the recipes were discussed. This sparked conversations about everything under the sun and community building with the small class. Members spoke about their excitement for upcoming library events and their shared book club and discussed ongoing true crime cases they have an interest in.
The convenient cooking classes through the Westwood Library are sure to be a hit as they continue to grow in size. Many people love the appeal of a quick and easy meal that requires minimal effort and utensils, and these classes offer just that. Until the next class, the library offers a myriad of cookbooks for all patrons.
