The Shared Cookies / June 21, 2016 by Cynthia Raub

One of my nearest and dearest friends is having a baby! YAY! YAYYYYY!! YAAAAAAAAAYY! To celebrate her and her highly anticipated bundle of joy, her sister-in-law, neighbor, and I threw her a BBQ baby shower for her and 80 friends and family. Mama-to-be loves sweets especially a variety of them, so that was an important aspect in planning for the shower. In addition to the sheet cake, Jell-O cups, brownie bites, palmiers, and beautiful fruit platters, we made cookies. There is no better dessert to follow a BBQ than cookies (except maybe popsicles . . . ) and with that many guests, I wanted to make sure we had a variety of sweets to suit everyone's tastes. Amy and I decided to make double batches of our two favorite cookies for the dessert table for this very special occasion.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies

Salted Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Shared Dessert Bars / May 17, 2016 by Cynthia Raub

strawberry rhubarb crisp bars, coconut bars, lime bars with pistachio crust

Have you ever laid in bed, unable to sleep, because you were thinking about rhubarb? It has only happened to me once, and while my husband blissfully dozed into dreamland, I tossed and turned wondering when I was going to be able to eat it. Like many of my mom-stress-fueled restless nights, I reached out to Amy to see if she was awake and thinking about rhubarb, too. Turns out she wasn't thinking about rhubarb, but when I mentioned it, she (like the recipe encyclopedia that she is) recommended I make Smitten Kitchen's Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp bars. The recipe was simple, straight forward and not heinously gluttonous. Perfect! Once we started chatting about dessert bar cravings, Amy came strong with multiple recipes she has been meaning to try including her Coconut Bars and Lime Bars with Pistachio Crust.

I am always weary about making whole servings of desserts because I always seem to eat everything in the pan in a matter of 24 hours. I avoid baking unless I am giving the goods away because of the magical disappearing act baked goods do in my presence. Now you see them on a platter! Now you don't. (Because they're ALL in my gut, and in the back of my mind, and on my conscience as another loss of self control.) But like the good friend that she is, Amy suggested that we swap bars! It was a great idea in theory (sharing, variety, smaller portions), until I did the math: three scrumptious pans of bars for two households. Isn't that more than the one pan in my house that I was fearful of? No time to overthink the math. We were committed. No regrets.

Lime Bars with Pistachio Crust

Coconut Bars (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp Bars

The Shared Birthday Dinner / March 1, 2016 by Amy Cantu

My husband is one of those impossible-to-buy-for people. He’s a minimalist and prefers to get rid of stuff, rather than acquire more stuff. There is, however, one thing that he can never get enough of: cheese! (Okay, that’s not entirely true - he also never tires of carne asada burritos.) He is a serious cheese lover - all day, everyday . . . cheese. On our honeymoon to Europe, we had cheese with every single meal. I thought I loved cheese, but by the end of the trip, I had hit a wall. My husband? He wanted to know if we could have cheese fondue for our last meal before heading home. So it came as no big surprise when he requested fondue for his birthday dinner. And what about the cake? (I bet you’re thinking cheesecake . . . ) Nope, he requested his favorite - ice cream cake!

Follow us to the recipes:

Three Cheese Fondue

Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Cake

The Shared Pie / January 12, 2016 by Cynthia Raub

Cooking is an arduous endeavor: planning, shopping, organizing, preparing, cooking, eating, and finally, cleaning up the mess left in the wake. This is especially true and frustrating when you are cooking for finicky young children. Despite the difficulties, cooking and enjoying home-cooked meals with your family can be incredibly fulfilling. By using your hands, tools and senses, you nourish your family with wholesome meals, creating important food memories and habits. It can get discouraging, and it can be difficult to find the time and energy to create a meal. With all the corporate services available to us today to help ease meal planning and cooking, we sometimes forget that we also have each other as a resource.

At The Shared Plate, we want to be generous and brave enough to share a meal with a friend - to ease their burden of cooking a meal, to develop new skills or hone the ones we already have in the kitchen, to show them that you care with a thoughtful gesture. Amy and I have created The Shared Plate to help ourselves, help each other, and help others. We want to explore all of the ways food can be shared in our communities, between family and friends. We aim to provide approachable, wholesome, family friendly recipes. And we hope to encourage people to cook for one another with an open and vulnerable heart - and in turn, receive similar acts of love graciously.

The idea for the blog came as Thanksgiving approached, and I was simultaneously dreaming and dreading all of the shopping, preparing and cooking that a Thanksgiving feast entails. I asked Amy if she would be interested in swapping pies for the holiday, so we’d be able to serve two pies while only doing the work of baking one type of pie each. (Without a second thought, she replied, “YES!”) We set a mom-date to bake together, and it was one of the most enjoyable and relaxing days I’ve had. Which, might have been because three of our four kids were not there while we cooked, but that’s besides the point! Cooking together allowed us to enjoy the moment and spend quality time with each other, while creating something special for our families to share.

Apple Pie

Extra Smooth Pumpkin Pie