Food Ideas for "Remake" {by Ilima Todd}

We had an amazing book club meeting for Remake by Ilima Todd.
We had no idea when we were choosing our books last year for this year, that we put two ocean themed books right next to each other but we did, and I'm so happy we did!

 Both ocean themed books were wonderful, totally different books and totally different menus.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea vs. Remake

Classic vs Dystopian

Food Ideas for "The Devil in the White City" {by Erik Larson}

The Book we read this month was "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson. Many of us started reading this book without knowing what it was about. About a third of the way through it some of us thought, "Is this fiction or non fiction?" The H.H. Holmes plot was like something out of a fiction novel, truly an unbelievable story that unfortunately, really happened.

Food Ideas for "My Life in France" {byJulia Child}

How can you read a book about food and not go all out on the menu for book club night?
We certainly didn't scrimp on anything and brought our "A food game!"

Whitney did such a great job picking the food for tonight and put a lot of thought into which dishes she wanted to highlight while making sure not to choose recipes that were over our head.

I mean, have you read this book and all the food they talk about?? You can gain 5 lbs just reading about it all because it makes you so hungry!

(PS. I'm loving this Eiffel Tower)

{Food}

Julia wrote this book with her two French friends. She spent many years perfecting the recipes and deciding which ones to put into the book. You should buy it if you want to Master French cooking OR if you're like me and just LOVE how darling it looks on your bookshelf.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking

I was so inspired I wanted both of her books so I bought them in this set. Aren't they beautiful?

We did a fuzzy drink with Fruit Puree but if you are not opposed to alcohol Julie talks extensively about Wine, well her husband Paul talks a lot about Wine and the different types and which ones to eat with each food type.

French Bread

Cheese, Meats and Cracker Platter

Winter Tomato Mozzarella Salad

Stuffed Tomatoes Provencale

The Star of the Night, Beef Bourguignon

Crepes with every topping imaginable!!

All the Chefs in the Kitchen

Let's Eat!

Our beautiful group!

We wanted to imitate the cover picture on the book. Here are our results. It was so hard to stay serious we were laughing so much.

(Source)

Don't forget to download our delicious BEEF BOURGUIGNON recipe for your next special occasion.

Check out our other post on My Life in France

and our Book Review

xoxo,

Kellie

Book Club Ideas for "Remembrandt" {by Robin King}

Our very own book club member Robin King wrote her first book and Brooke did such a great job putting this book club night together. We all had such a great time discussing, socializing and dressing up for this book club night.

Book Club Ideas For: "The Eye of Minds" {by James Dashner}

The Eye of Minds by James Dashner

This is book #1 in The Mortality Doctrine series. In January we had our Book Club on it. Shalease was our moderator for this book and she did such a great job coming up with the decorations and menu for the night! Luckily for us her husband recently rediscovered his old gaming system so she brought them to create some fun decorations. Do you remember Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda and Tetris?! Seeing those games sure brought back memories. 

Book Club Ideas for "Shadow on the Crown" {by Patricia Bracewell}



For our Christmas Book Club we read the most unexpected gem of a book. This book is a historical fiction and sometimes you never know if it is going to be captivating or more on the dull side. We were all really impressed with this fabulous book and were left wanting more! Most of us flew through this book being captured by its plot, characters, writing, relationships and historical story. Patricia Bracewell did such an amazing job bringing this book to life.

Brooke was the moderator tonight and she did such a great job bringing the night together. She even got a hold of the author, Patricia, and asked her to Skype with us and she said yes!

Here is the lovely Brooke dressed up like the main character from the book, Emma.

Decorations
were a little more simple this time because of Christmas but Brooke brought in some royal items and spruced up the place. We used candle light to set the ambiance. 

Because it's December we had a Christmas tree and festive decorations all around. Kellie H made some cute ornaments to give to each moderator of each book we did this year and made a cute garland with the books we discussed this year.

The ornaments and garland turned out so cute and sparkly. Kellie is doing a DIY on this soon.

{Food}

There was so much good food tonight. Because it was the end of the year we wanted to put our favorite dishes of all the book clubs we did this year.

We used the veggie platter from "Bossypants" book club.

The Roasted Brussels Sprouts were from "The Monuments Men" book club.

The Festive Fruit Salad was from "Carter Beats the Devil" book club.

The Roasted Chicken was from "Ruin and Rising" book club 



The Cream of Pumpkin Soup was from "The Haunting of Hill House" book club.The Tomato and Cucumber Salad was from the "Walt Disney: An American Original" book club.

The yummy rolls and breadsticks we had at our retreat for "Black Moon" book club.

And the oh so delicious Spaghetti Carbonara is from our "Goldfinch" book club.

Desserts

Who can't resist Baklava which was our favorite from "The Golem and the Jinni" book club.

The Snowflake sugar cookies or cupcakes are from "The Snow Child" book club.

The yummiest Pavlova was from "The Husband's Secret" book club.

The scones were from this book club because the author Patricia Bracewell loves them.

After we ate and stuffed ourselves with all the delicious food and visited for a while, we got a Skype call from

Patricia Bracewell

We were so lucky to have all our questions answered by Patricia and talk to her about any tidbits she could give us on book two "The Price of Blood" coming out Feb 5, 2015. Yes, people this is going to be a trilogy and thank goodness for that.

Brooke took Patricia (on the iPad) around the room to meet everyone and see all the decorations.

Group Pic

Thanks Patricia for joining our book club tonight. We can't wait to read what happens next.

Now it's time for our Favorite Thing Gift Exchange game. Our theme this year was your favorite Beauty item of the year. We play it like a white elephant game were there are only two steals then it is yours. And we write notes in the gifts talking about why it's our favorite then that person has to guess who brought it before they can open it. You think you know someone then you play this game and find you don't. Elizabeth wrote a fabulous post on all our Favorite Beauty items, check it out.

I was so excited to get this palette of eyeshadows only to have it stolen by Elizabeth.

Elizabeth got it temporarily. I stole it back first chance she got.

All these photos were taken by the fabulous Summer of Summer Nicole Photography

Hope this gave you some great ideas for your own Shadow on the Crown book club.

xoxo,

Kellie