Recently I received one of the most interesting and delightful emails I’d gotten in a while. Flatteringly enough, it came from two friends nearly simultaneously; it was an invitation to participate in a holiday recipe exchange. It looked something like this:

Hey there! Happy holidays, blah blah blah.

1. My super friend
my.super.friend@dartmouth.edu
2. Oh my gosh it’s me
oh.my.gosh.its.me@dartmouth.edu

I’d like to invite you to participate in a holiday recipe exchange. So get your mind going and pick out your favorite recipe (as long as it isn’t too complicated).

To do this, address and email to the first person on this list, copy this message with my name in the first slot and yours in the second, and send it to 15 friends. You won’t be getting recipes back from your friends, but rather from friends of friends and many people you might not have met.

Thus far I have sent out my recipes and my 30 feelers to my most culinary of friends. I knew neither of the people I sent recipes to, and was overjoyed to share my favorite recipe for Ben and Colleen’s Vegan Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Banana Cookies to two new people. Hopefully I’ll get some really interesting recipes back I can try out over the next term on campus.

This exchange will work best among close communities like schools, offices, and families where you will still feel some sort of connection to the people you’re receiving recipes from. However, if you’re the really adventurous type, you could do this with just about anyone and meet a few new friends. This is a great social cooking opportunity!

If anyone’s participated in an exchange like this or does in the future, please let me know how it goes!