For 5 years a few of my girlfriends and I in San Francisco had a monthly tradition. Since we all loved to cook, we started the SF Cooking Club. Each month we would switch hosts and the hostess would pick a theme/cuisine. Each guest brings a side dish, salad or dessert & bottle of wine. This was not only one of my favorite things to do, but is also recession friendly. We (in theory) would exchange the recipes afterwards, although I still think I'm delinquent on a few;) It's time to start it up in NYC.