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If you ask Emily Russell what one of her favorite colors is, she will say it's a shade of bright boiling red with specs of black sprinkled here and there. She'll add that if it has some grey and green in spots, the affect is even better.
Despite how it may sound, schizophrenic color schemes are not Russell's forte: It's marinara pasta sauce. The junior biomedical science major frequently gets together with friends to cater to this cooking fixation, and said she would choose a night of preparing a spicy pasta dish over going out on most days.
Gathering with friends and having a meal is a tradition as old as time. However, due to a special occasion or just for the simplicity of it, students are ditching long waits and high prices involved in eating out for staying in and flexing their culinary muscles.
"Overall, making food with your friends is a more personal and intimate setting, as opposed to eating out," Russell said. "It's always difficult to agree on a restaurant that everyone wants to eat at. And in College Station, you have to wait an hour before you get seated. And there is no pressure of being ready to order. Having a waiter constantly ask if you need anything can ruin the sense of privacy."
Gathering with pals to prepare a meal can also be a means for breaching the social gap between acquaintances. As Russell puts it, nothing says, "let's get to know one another" better than having to slice peppers alongside someone you don't know.
"It's a great way to meet friends of friends, because when you are around a lot of people, working together to make dinner is a great icebreaker," she said.
For those with a non-discriminating palette, cooking with friends can also open doors to cuisine from around the globe.
"Another huge thing is learning about different cultures," Russell said. "Dinner parties give us the chance to learn about foods from around the world, different types of preparation and even special customs that may be used while eating."
"It's definitely more fun to prepare the meal together," she said. "There is a sort of camaraderie that it requires and in some ways, you can learn a lot about a person in that sort of setting. You can figure out if they are a follower, a leader or if they are good at working in groups with their friends at all. And of course, if they are a good cook."
As with most trends, students from other universities also look at cooking with friends as a way to relieve stress, or even as a simple, yet meaningful gesture.
"If you want to do something special for someone, making them dinner is a great option," said Tyckie Avery, a senior criminal law major from the University of Houston. "It's really nice to just be able to kick back, takeoff your shoes and enjoy some great food. How else can you enjoy gourmet food in your pajamas with the people you love?"
For Avery, cooking with friends is also a way to re-create dishes that are hard to find in stores and restaurants.
"I can't even recall how many times we have felt like eating a particular dish, but just couldn't find it in a restaurant," she said. "So obviously, we just make it at home."
While Avery and her friends may be on the lookout for that certain taste, others use dinner parties as the cheap alternative to eating out. Jacob Michaels, a sophomore general studies major, said that while his friends have a diverse taste for food, they don't have the money to frequent sit-down restaurant, very often.
"As college kids, we are all strapped for cash," he said. "So if there is a type of dish that we really want to try but don't want to drop a lot of cash at a fancy restaurant to do so, the best option is to get together with friends and try to make it ourselves."
Michaels said cooking together is an interesting alternative to the typical college student activities, such as watching a movie or playing video games.
"I'm a guy, and I just love food," he said. "But the social aspect of it is what I love. It's just a lot of fun to try and make food with your friends. I like the interaction involved in food preparation. Sometimes recipes work out and the meal is great, but other times it isn't. In the end, it's all a good time."
While some college dinner parties may simply consist of throwing together a pizza, others involve appetizers, wine and other elements of a classy meal; variables that Michaels said have to do with the transition that college students have to make to become independent.
"I think it also has to do with our sophistication levels. We are trying to enjoy the finer things in life," he said.
When it comes down to it, some students may look to cooking with friends as a means of feeling closer to home.
"It's the closest you can get to mom's cooking. And cooking with friends makes you feel like a part of a family again," Russell said.
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