Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Book Club Recap

I have to be honest: I did a horrible job with capturing the moments from my book club dinner party, which I have been talking about since day 1 of this blog. I would have to guess it's because I was in the middle of hosting said party and not filming it ;) Plus, my digital camera has been acting up and so I had to use my phone camera for this ONE shot I took:

Isn't it so cute?! Suzie made these Halloween fun-fetti cupcakes with spider web icing and plucked plastic spider rings from her condo decor as the "cherry" on top. I think she used white icing out of a jar and then made concentric circles with black piping. She took a tooth pick to drag the lines through the circles, stuck the spiders in, and wha la! They were just as delicious as they were cute!

I followed about 75% of my inspiration board for the party, seen here. I made a burlap-esque table runner out of extra fabric I had from a curtain I'd made a while ago. This was a great base, and I think it will work really well with other table-scapes in the future (uber excited about that tidbit!). I placed my white elevated tray on the center of the table runner, topped with a hurricane filled with bright-red apples and a black grosgrain ribbon tied around the neck. Then I put my two tin baskets that I received for last year's Easter basket on either side of the white tray. I placed two off-white candles in these tin baskets for extra glow. (I LOVED the look of the tin against the burlap. This combo made sure that the decor didn't go too far on either side of the modern vs. natural scale.)

Finally, I placed my batty napkin rings (with napkins) in the center of each square bowl, silverware, and glasses for water and wine at each place setting, and I was good to go! Once I wash my table runner (it got some of Bree's yummy spinach and artichoke dip on it), I'll recreate the tabletop to show you guys what it really looked like.

BOO-k Club Dinner Party Menu (wish I'd thought of that BOO part earlier):

Baked Feta appetizer from Sam the Cooking Guy: A little bland, so I'd suggest serving it with hummus and maybe don't get the low-fat kind like I did for a bit more shazaam! However, after reading the recipe again, I noticed I forgot the garlic. Could have been the clincher. "Recipe" here.

Curry Pumpkin Soup from Sam the Cooking Guy: VERY yummy, although I doubled the recipe which made it harder to keep warm without boiling. Also, by the time my last guest arrived, it had reduced to the consistency of pumpkin pie for her...oh well! Still tasty haha. Recipe here.

Salad with apples, feta, and tomatoes by Nissa: DE-LISH! Recipe self-explanatory.

Hallo-weenies by Suzie from Pillsbury: She made the tiny weenies which were delicious, but a little too small to picture the zombie-croissant-roll covering. She even brought tiny black bowls for the ketsup and mustard dip 'cause she's good like that! Recipe here.

Spinach and Artichoke Dip in a Bread Bowl by Bree: Again, I had a hard time getting this guy warm, but it was still delicious. She wasn't into it, which was ironic since she brought it, but everyone else was in leurve. MMMM...anything in a bread bowl is genius in my eyes.

Spider-Web Cupcakes by Suzie: I think I pumped these up enough already ;) Recipe on back of cupcake mix box.

Water and red, red wine. I found a cheap bottle of Cab with a black twisted tree on the front of it. It went perfectly with my theme, so I placed that on top of the library's copy of The Strain at the end of the table for added effect. Although, I was the only one who read the book, so I'm not even sure anyone recognized it ;)

Next book: The Help by Katharine Stockett (apparently we're into the two-word titles).

'Til next time, bookies!

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