cookbook club

I have this awesome group of friends with whom I craft.  We get together about once a month and make things.  We rotate hosting at our homes.  Sometimes there’s a theme, such as a holiday.  Sometimes, it’s just a bring-your-own-project situation where you can have time and space to craft, catch up with friends, and eat some tasty snacks.  I could go on and on about how much I love me some craft club, but I will save it for now.  You will definitely be hearing more from me about our craft club in the future!

So when I came across this brilliant idea for a cookbook club, I knew the first place I would turn to would be my inspiring crafty friends.  The idea is pretty simple.  Just like a regular book club, you chose one book for everyone to read and then plan a meeting where you all get together to talk about the book.  Only being that it’s a cookbook, everyone must cook and bring their recipe to a dinner party.  Food, cooking, friends (and not too much reading) – yes please!

To make it easier for everyone and since I was spearheading this project, I chose the book It’s All Good by Gwyneth Paltrow.  I know Gwyneth is a controversial celebrity – people either love her or hate her – but I, for one, am a fan.  After all, she’s just another mama trying to make it all work in this world, right?  Ok, that’s all I’m going to say on that subject for now.  Since not everyone wanted to commit to purchasing the book, I offered to email recipes to people.  I helped narrow it down by giving a synopsis of what was in the book and made several recipe suggestions.  Then everyone emailed me back what they wanted to make to be sure we didn’t have any duplicates.

I stopped at this lovely little flower shop in Silverlake called Clementine on my way home from work to get something for the table.  I usually prefer to go to the flower market in downtown when I have the time, but Clementine is a super cute, affordable option when time is not on my side.  I told them how much I wanted to spend and what it was for and they whipped me up a little bouquet in a minute!

Since I had to pick up my kids and do dinner and bedtime with them as well as getting ready for our guests, my husband helped me out with the recipe for fish roasted in salt.  We used branzino, which is a type of smaller sea bass, from our local fish and meat market.  I do love eating some good fish every now and then, but whole animals kinda gross me out to prepare, so thank god for him!  Again, everything was from the book It’s All Good.  If you want to recreate our menu from the night, it included:

fish roasted in salt, thai style, pg 134

roasted cauliflower + chickpeas with mustard + parsley, pg 173

power chopped salad with creamy parsley dressing, pg 61

lentil salad with mustard + tomatoes, pg 196

the brownie recipe that could, pg 252

Once all the food was finally ready, we ate, we drank wine, we talked about the recipes and chatted about whatever else.  All the food was good and I think we all would consider it a success!  I also think we’re going to make this a regular thing.  I’m getting hungry just thinking about doing it again…