The beginning

It's finally happening! I have been wanting to join/start a book club for a while now. More so after watching "The Jane Austen Book club"...if you haven't seen it, rent it immediately! One of my girlfriends decided to start one and invited me to join. We had our first planning meeting and decided on a compilation of mostly fiction, mostly classics. Our goal is to broaden our book choices to things that are not necessarily easy reads, but of course a good story with alot of substance. We are however avoiding theological, commentary type books.


My idea to start this blog is two fold: expanding my horizons in the kitchen as well as in literary pursuits and being able to get feedback and discussion from anyone who wants to try it out with me. If you are interested in one and not the other, you are welcome to participate in some and not all.

My book club is meeting once a month and we are trying to include some kind of theme to go along with the book. i.e Jane Austen: have a tea, scones, cucumber sandwiches. Should get pretty interesting depending on the book!

For the food part of it, I'd like to try new recipes about once a week. I am trying things I wouldn't normally make or the same thing with a twist. We'd try it together and report back on how it turned out, how it was received by our families and what tweaks we made to it.

So....here we go: our first book is "Pigs in Heaven" by Barbara Kingsolver. Our first meeting is on Nov 12th. We gave ourselves a shorter time for this one because we wanted to finish before Thanksgiving.





I'd like to start with a post on how I started my love of books and my journey so far in the kitchen. Please share your own story and little bit about yourself!


I'll start with the cooking journey because it's short and sweet. Growing up as third of 11 kids means you have alot of responsibility. But it also meant that since I had sisters who loved to cook, I didn't have to do it very much. I learned the basics, and mostly did baking if I was in the kitchen. In general, I was doing outdoor chores or doing stuff with computers/electronics....or reading:-) But now that I'm a stay-at-home mom with two kids, cooking is kinda a necessity. I found myself gravitating towards the same old faithfuls and my palate is getting bored!

Now books....that's a whole different story. I grew up mostly without television, home-schooled so reading was my primary source of entertainment. I can't remember not knowing how to read.  I learned around the age of 4 1/2, I think, and it opened up a huge world to me. I could go anywhere, do anything in my books and imagination. I would read a book, then make up my own little version with me in it. I remember reading my first Janette Oke book around maybe 7 or 8? I've always been a very fast reader and have often wished books would last longer. I always bring too many books with me on a trip now because I never want to run out. I remember flying to CA and only brought two books. I read one on the first 2 hour flight and the other on the next. I was stuck the rest of the trip with nothing to read...horrors!

I read a variety of books, mystery, Christian fiction, and classics. I love Jane Austen and like to collect older antique books. I am really looking forward to challenging myself and reading all the classics that I haven't gotten to yet!

I don't think there are many things better than a good book and tasty food. One of my fondest memories when I was a kid was making the perfect tuna sandwich, with toasted bread of course, a side of pickle and chips and a tall glass a milk. I'd take it out to the trampoline with my favorite book Silver Birch and read in the sun in absolute bliss!

Can't wait to start reading!