Cooking together

Published 6:47 am Monday, March 3, 2008

One by one, they come in on a Friday night, mothers with daughters, women with friends, wives with husbands.

They come in to a place that is part modern reception area, part restaurant-style kitchen with a backdrop of pop music through the years. Regardless of who they’re with, they all scrub their hands and put on olive drab aprons. Everyone has a name tag that lists their first name and last initial.

They have come to prepare dinner for themselves and their families — for the next two weeks.

Dinners Ready in Mill Creek Town Center is not only one of the newer businesses in town, but it also has emerged as a sort of community-wide gathering place.

This past Friday night, Becky Erk went there with her two daughters to prepare a variety of meals in various styles, from Caribbean (Jerk-rubbed pork lion) to Mexican (sour cream chicken enchiladas) to Japanese (shrimp yakisoba) to Italian (calzones and chicken piccata).

“I’ve been here every month since they opened,” Erk said. “This is the most fun place ever.”

The way Dinners Ready is set up, customers move from station to station, preparing meals with instructions as to what ingredients are needed. All ingredients are set up at the respective stations, and staff in black aprons walk around offering assistance – or a customer can just ask whomever’s next to them.

“You introduce yourself to other people who are there,” Erk said. “I’ve helped out plenty of new people.”

Most of the clientele is women, according to co-owner Kathy Thompson. But bachelors keen on finding a girlfriend should beware — most of the customers are married.

“A lot of moms come in during the day,” Thompson said. “Sometimes they’ll prepare meals for other moms who are having babies or are in the hospital.

Dee Nunley of Mill Creek and her daughter, Niki Ross Kelley, fit into that category. They planned to split the 12 family-sized meals between the two of them, and Ross Kelly is expecting her first child.

“I love it,” Nunley said. She and her daughter said they like the “ease of use” and not having to clean up anything.

Charlie Kruger skipped watching the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament to go to Dinners Ready with his wife Anne.

“Anne’s been here before,” said Charlie Kruger, making shrimp yakisoba. “She’s a regular.”

It was a “date night,” Anne Kruger said, one that included their friends Michele and Doug Maltbie. It was Doug Maltbie’s first visit.

“Saturday and Sunday we tend to have a lot of husbands and wives in here,” Thompson said. “I’ve been surprised by how many couples come in.”