A Night of Tropical Intrigue

 

 

Once again, I teamed up with my friend, Bobbie to host a meeting of our Book Club. When it is our turn, we always have  fun creating a party atmosphere for the meeting.

 

The book we selected was a little history, a bit of a mystery and a hint of Hallmark.  A fictional story based on the unsolved murder of Jane Stanford, the founder of Stanford University.

 

It was a fun evening and a lively discussion including which book cover we preferred.  Our friends also appreciated the correspondence that Bobbie exchanged with the author.

Since the story takes place in Hawaii, we decided on a luau theme for the evening. 

We welcomed our guests with Hawaiian music and a lei greeting, then served Mai Tais, pūpūs and coconut gelato with a pineapple cookie and a rainbow spoon.  At the end of the evening we said aloha to each guest with a parting gift that included cookies.

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Since a black cat is a significant character in the story, I wanted to include her in some way, but black icing is something I try to avoid.  ChatGPT helped me with the picture and a tropical cocktail made from a cat cookie cutter sufficed.

 

 

Finding Dorothy

 

 

My friend Bobbie and I recently hosted our Book Club discussion of Finding Dorothy.

We welcomed our guests with images of the characters from the book and photos of L. Frank Baum's connection to Chicago, while Elton John was singing, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road."

Since my great-niece Mary Grace was passionate about the Wizard of Oz when she was a little girl, I borrowed from her collection of memorabilia to decorate for the evening. 

We added some sparkling emeralds to her vintage collection and decided to wear our own ruby slippers. 

Mary Grace's books collection also added to the event.

We chose appetizers and desserts related to the theme of the evening, including a yellow brick road of cheese and a rainbow fruit platter.

 

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photograph of our poppy field with Parmesan/poppy seed wrapped mini hot dogs and our green gelato with a mini ruby slipper and a broomstick spoon that was the hit of the night!

As the evening concluded we gave each of our guests a swag bag that included additional information related to the book and of course some cookies.

 

As for Finding Dorothy.  .  . Mary Grace will ALWAYS be my lovable Dorothy!

 

References:

Thank you to Jill FCS for the design inspiration for the character cookies.
 

Book Club 2023

 

 

When I moved to Park Ridge in 2018, it was a pleasant surprise to learn that there was a book club in our community.  The Uptown Girls Book Club has brought me new friends, interesting book titles and lively discussions every month.  It has become a tradition that I create cookies related to my book choices when it is my turn to host.

For my January book club meeting, I selected a book because I loved the story. . .or was it because of all the options for cookie designs?  I imagined creating pretty pink roses, blue puzzle pieces and so many more.  However, a broken wrist prohibited me from baking.

Although, we have a large membership in our club and I didn't need to host another meeting for at least 18 months, I decided to partner with a friend and host the Christmas party this year.  We chose a snowflake theme and I boxed cookies for party favors with a simple bow and a tag that said:

Books are like snowflakes, no two are the same.

Book Club Cookies

How the world has changed due to the pandemic since I last hosted a Book Club meeting.  We are a large group, so indoor meetings have not been possible and dinner parties are no longer part of the fun, but at least it's warm enough to move away from Zoom to resume outdoor gatherings.

My book selection was, The Girls of Atomic City, by Denise Kiernan so I thought a treat bag of patriotic cookies would be appropriate for a "grab and go" treat.

Book Club Cookies

Last night, was the first time I hosted a meeting of a book club that I recently joined.  The book I selected was, Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens. This book is a beautifully written story that is now on my list of favorite books.