Better Book Club Party
Recipes
Discussion Questions
Request an Author Appearance
Forget your standard, run-of-the-mill book
clubs. It's time to party. 10% book, 20% food, 30% alcohol and 40%
fun--that's my recipe for a good time. And here's what I can do to help:
First, I'm available to call in to your
party. Yes, me, Gwyn Cready, the author. For that 10% of the time
you're actually going to be talking about the book why do the heavy
lifting yourself? Email me at gwyn@cready.com
with the date and time of your get-together. Assuming I'm available
and you have a speaker phone (me shouting through your handset is no
fun for anyone), I'm happy to do a reading, answer questions, talk
about time travel, writing romances, and even stir things up a bit
with a party game or two.
Second, the most wonderful thing that can
happen to your party is someone else doing the work. While I can't
offer you that (talk to my husband; I'm barely doing anything at
home), I can give you some of my favorite party recipes. They're
easy, inexpensive and tasty. Yum.
Recipes
Butterfly Pasta
Serves four for dinner or eight as an
appetizer
1 lb bow-tie pasta
3 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 love garlic, crushed
¼ C chopped fresh basil
8 oz goat cheese (or feta), crumbled
¼ C olive oil
salt
Put tomatoes, garlic and basil in bowl. Salt
to taste. Pour on olive oil. Cover; let sit one hour. Boil pasta in
large pasta pot. When al dente, drain the pasta in a colander, run
cold water over it, drain again, and set aside. Put pasta in serving
bowl (I like a not-very-deep, wide bowl.) Pour tomato/olive oil/basil
mixture on top. Add goat cheese immediately before serving. Toss.
Bruschetta
Serves eight as an appetizer
1 baguette
3 tomatoes, diced
1 garlic clove, crushed
8 leaves basil, chopped
1/3 C olive oil
1 t balsamic vinegar
Salt to taste
Set oven on broil. Slice bread into ½"
slices on the diagonal. Arrange slices on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Broil, watching closely, until bread turns a golden brown,
approximately one to two minutes. Flip the slices and broil until the
other side turns golden. Remove. Let cool.
In a bowl, mix tomatoes, garlic, basil,
vinegar, and olive oil. Salt to taste. Let sit 30 minutes.
Arrange baguette slices on a wooden cutting
board or plank. Spoon a teaspoon of tomato mixture on each slice.
Serve immediately.
Ice Cream Timbales
Serves eight
4 C coffee ice cream (or your favorite flavor)
1 C chopped pecans
Chocolate sauce
Press ice cream into eight 4 oz paper cups.
Cover with plastic wrap. Freeze at least 24 hours. Cut paper cups
away. Put pecans in bowl. Roll ice cream in nuts. Place ice cream on
plate. Drizzle ice cream and plate with chocolate sauce.
Summer Salad
Serves eight
2 6-8 oz bags of bibb lettuce blend
1 8 oz container cherry tomatoes
¼ C pine nuts
1 orange, cut into round slices
1 tsp balsamic or other good vinegar
1 tsp orange juice
¼ C olive oil
1 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Open bags of
lettuce; put in bowl. Cut each tomato in half; put on lettuce. When
oven's preheated, spread pine nuts on a cookie sheet. Cook 4 mins,
watching closely, and shaking sheet to turn nuts after 2 minutes.
Remove when nuts are a golden brown. Let cool. Sprinkle nuts on
lettuce. Cut orange slices in half and then remove each triangular
segment from the peel. Remove seeds. Put on lettuce. In a small bowl,
put vinegar, orange juice, olive oil, sugar salt and pepper. Just
before serving, whisk, pour over lettuce.
My Mother's Dip
Serves eight as an appetizer
8 oz cream cheese
4 oz sour cream
4 oz Hormel Dried Beef, cut into little pieces
Horseradish
Let cream cheese reach room temperature. Mix
cream cheese in a mixer, slowly adding sour cream until incorporated.
Mix in dried beef pieces with a spoon. Add horseradish to taste. I
like a lot. Serve with toasted crackers or potato chips.
Cheese Balls
Serves eight as an appetizer
2 C finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 ¼ C flour
½ C melted butter
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
32 pimento-stuffed green olives
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a bowl with
a paper towel. Drain the olives in a colander. Place drained olives
in the paper-towel-lined bowl. In a large bowl combine flour,
shredded cheese, cayenne pepper, and melted butter. Mix with a fork until a crumbly
dough forms. Place a heaping tablespoon of dough on your palm, press
it flat, place an olive in the center, roll the dough around the
olive to enclose it. Place dough-wrapped olives on an ungreased
cookie sheet. Cook for 15 minutes. Remove and serve.
Drum's Favorite Orange Marmalade Tart
Serves eight
8 oz cream cheese
¾ C marscapone cheese
½ C sugar
1 T vanilla
2/3 C orange marmalade
1 prepared graham cracker pie crust
Beat cream cheese in mixer. Slowly add
marscapone cheese. Slowly add sugar. Add vanilla. Spread in pie
crust. Let chill one hour. Spread marmalade on top.
Lizzy's Juice (easy to hide the gin)
6 ice cubes
1 oz gin
3 oz orange juice
1 oz club soda
Stir ingredients in an 8 oz glass; garnish
with lime; 1 serving
For a Tumbling Through Time party:
For a Seducing Mr. Darcy party:
Discussion Questions
If you insist on taking time away from
drinking to talk about the book, here are some good conversation
starters:
> What parallels do you see to other
well-known stories?
> The power of shoes is an important
theme. What is it about shoes that appeals to women? Would the story
have worked as well if Seph tried on a pair of magical gloves?
> When Seph travels in time, a back-up
Seph is left behind. Would it be a good thing or a bad thing to have
a back-up version of yourself?
> Should Seph give up her job at Pilgrim
Pharmaceuticals?
> If you could travel back in time to
anywhere, what time would you choose?
> Who did you think took the dispatches
and why?
> Do you think Admiral Basehart is capable
of the act of kindness that, from what we learn from Professore di
Marvelo at the end, has apparently saved Drum's life?
> If time travel were possible, do you
think it's possible to change history?
> When Tom and Drum meet, who in your
opinion has the right to feel the other is copy?
> Seph bounces between Tom and Drum as
often as she bounces between now and the past? Do you consider her
quickly-changing affections fickleness or just good, sexy fun?
> If Seph hadn't had Tom in her arms at
the top of the bell tower in Venice, and he, therefore, had never
arrived in Gibraltar, should Seph have ever told Tom that Drum looks
like him?
And my favorite:
> Which man should Seph have ended up with
and why?
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