Meeting Recap: My Life in France

Because of the business of Thanksgiving, we pushed our November meeting to December 1. Tracy hosted us in her newly remodeled home - it was lovely!

Our book this time was Beth's pick, MY LIFE IN FRANCE, by Julia Child. To make things more fun, Tracy encouraged everyone to make one of Julia's recipes for the meeting. Four people took the challenge ...

• Nancy made one of Julia's turnip dishes - according to Julia, this dish will make anyone a fan of turnips! Everyone agreed that it was tasty but I don't know that anyone will be making it again ...
• Beth made Julia's Potato and Leek Soup. Julia says everything must be chopped by hand and not pureed. The soup was quite good! I'd have liked some bacon or cheese topping but it was delicious regardless.
• Annette made Julia's Apple and Pear Tart. This reminded me of the amazing pear pies we'd make when I was a kid. This tart was absolutely fantastic - I don't think there was much left after the meeting!
• Tracy made Julia's Chocolate Mousse. There is a funny story with this one .... Tracy made this around 11pm the night before the meeting. The recipe said to add 1/4 cup of coffee; she did so, but kept thinking that the resulting mix was rather grainy. Her husband checked the recipe and pointed out that she was supposed to add COFFEE, not COFFEE GROUNDS. Oops! That's what late night cooking will do to you! By this point she was out of eggs so she sent him down to the Chinese restaurant on the corner to see if he could buy a few eggs so she could redo the mousse. Luckily they were willing to help out. In the end the mousse was decadent and delicious ... and not grainy in the least!

We had such fun with the food this time around that the book took second place. And that's good, because I was the only one at the meeting who finished reading. One other person read the whole thing (Melissa) but couldn't make it at the last minute. Everyone else read no more than a third of the book. In most cases it didn't keep their interest, which I found surprising as I really enjoyed it (my review is here).

Despite the lack of literary discussion we all had a wonderful time. I think everyone has been exhausted with the busy-ness of the season (and it hasn't even really begun) and family issues (it seems we each have our own at the moment) and this was a chance to sit back, relax, and just enjoy each other's company. Cheers! Or as Julia would say, "Bon Appetit!"

Meeting Recap: The Unlikely Disciple

Our October book was THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE, by Kevin Roose (my review is here) and Jennifer hosted us at her home for a lovely brunch. This is the book I nominated so I was very happy to be reading it. It seems the rest of the group was as well. We had a great discussion about Kevin's experiences at Liberty University and whether we would have wanted to go there (or for our children to go there). Kevin's willingness to be open-minded made some of us hopeful for the future while others dismissed his outlook as mere naivete.

The book was well written and an enjoyable read; we agreed that we're likely to hear more from this author in the future.