Dinner Co-ops

So here's a great idea for busy parents with little time to prepare meals:  Dinner Co-ops.  I just was sent a book called Dinner at Your Door, published by Gibbs Smith, with recipes and tips for starting a neighborhood food co-op.  Not only are the recipes intriguing (a little fancy for kids, perhaps -- Chardonnay Chicken with Dried Fruit and Olives -- but delicious sounding and heavy on the casseroles for sharing), but the book comes with tips and advice for starting a food co-op.  The idea is simple, and channels our inner hippy:  Make one delicious weekly meal for several families, and receive several meals in return.  It does require a little organization, but the payoff is worth it.  For one day of heavy lifting, you are relieved of cooking for the rest of the week (but not from cleaning the dishes).  

As I travel into the 3rd(!) year of dining with dad, sharing the laboring oar with others sounds really attractive.  This has been a fairly bad year for cooking for me because I've had to get back hard to work (remember work?), and have had lots of late nights and long travels.  But if there were others to share it with the journey might be easier.  It might also remind me of why we come together for dinner in the first place:  It's not just the food; it's the adventure.