Gay Men’s Test Kitchen

Cooks! The April Test Kitchen is happening Sunday the 19th in San Francisco’s Dolores Park neighborhood.

As always, this is a test kitchen, not a potluck. Make something you’ve never made before, something experimental, something you’re genuinely excited about exploring. Occasional failures are part of the experience, so don’t hold back!

Please post your dish at least 2 weeks before the Test Kitchen. Go to the event’s Comments area and let the other cooks know what you’re planning to make.

Cooks! The May Test Kitchen is happening on Sunday the 17th in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley.

This month’s Test Kitchen challenge—should you choose to accept it—is a little act of culinary chance. Pull a cookbook from your shelf (or your favorite library’s), flip your way to page 123, and—if it’s a recipe you’ve never made—commit.

Here’re a few recipes that turned up on page 123 from my own shelves. Rumaki, from A Cookbook for Poor Poets and Others, a retro, savory-sweet classic of chicken livers and water chestnuts wrapped in bacon, glazed and broiled until crisp.

Things get heartier with Kalbijjim with Root Vegetables and Beef-Fat Croutons from Korean American, a rich, slow-braised dish in which tender short ribs mingle with earthy vegetables and decadent, crisp croutons.

And for pure whimsy, The Big Book of Cupcakes lands on—believe it or not—Somewhere Over the Rainbow Cupcakes, a Pride-worthy explosion of color and sweetness.

Wherever page 123 leads you—savory, sweet, familiar, or strange—embrace it. That element of chance is part of the fun. Can’t wait to see what surprises emerge from your shelves and onto the Test Kitchen table.