Saturday, January 30, 2010

January Book Club Meeting: OUTLANDER

Hi All! I'm back! PLEASE forgive me for not blogging in days. Life has been nothing short of hectic since Wednesday.


Hosted my book club meeting on Thursday... and we had a great time!!



Went to Cameron's in Brick, NJ on Thursday to pick up Scotch Pies, Sausage Rolls and a huge flag with the Lion Rampant on it for my book club meeting.



I also made bannocks and served them with jam (and a spoon that was clearly way too large to make a good presentation, but whatever. No one cared about the spoon. They RAVED about the bannocks and now Shannon wants to make and market them!)


I basically had a ton of meats and cheeses, trying to be as in keeping with 18th century Scotland as possible (while serving foods that were as easy to make/buy as possible.)

 My dear friend, Teresa made a SPECTACULARLY GORGEOUS carrot cake that I found on one of my favorite Scottish sites: A Wee Bit of Cooking. Wow. I mean... WOW. Look at it! Stunning! (Those are cranberries and pistachios on it!) And it was tremendous, too. Teresa actually used to live in Scotland. She lived in Dunoon (I've been there - adorable town. Loved it) when she was a wee lass... and she happens to be the best cook I know. So when I sent her a link to the website with a photo of the cake, she offered to make it. Who was I to say "no"???

All in all, the book club meeting was a lot of fun. People were in different stages of reading the book - so many did not partcipate in the discussion as they have not finished yet and didn't want spoilers. It just about killed me to keep my mouth shut all night long about Outlander, let alone the rest of the series. But somehow I muddled through. Someone innocently threw a bit of a spoiler out there about Echo in the Bone after reading a few sample pages at the end of Outlander (why do they DO THAT?? They should only give a sample of Dragonfly in Amber, darnit!)...but nothing bad at all. And one person gave a last page spoiler to Teresa... but she put her fingers in her ears and said "lalalala" with a huge amount of dignity. LOL

OK....next up... a blog about our meeting at Tracey's house today. More to come!

7 comments:

  1. Looks like you all had a wonderful time! The food looks incredible! Wish I could have been there. While I have started a lot of people on these books, I don't really have anyone to discuss them with (in person, anyway).

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  2. Dinah, do you live in the NYC metropolitan area? No firm date set, but we are in the early stages of planning a trip to a Scottish bar in the city for any and all Sassenachs to meet up. Would be so much fun to meet everyone!

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  3. That's what we're here for, Dinah! I'll be even better at discussing when I finish books 5,6&7! PS - found out there are two other book clubs reading Outlander because I have been spreading the Outlander lurve around town. LOL

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  4. I'd love to come to your happy hour! But I'm too far away as well :-( I wish I lived closer to your book club! Like Dinah, I don't know anyone else reading these books. I visit this site often to get my "Outlander" book club and discussion fix. I'm now midway through Drums of Autumn and am torn between taking my time, and reading the series slowly, to coincide with the release of Gabaldon's next book (a zillion years from now, I'm guessing?). If you guys ever hear of an Outlander book club in the Rockville, MD area (20 mins from DC) I'd love to join up :-) Love your site! And love the scottish menu - so cute!

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  5. Hi Sirena and welcome! Consider us your online Outlander book club. :)

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  6. Tracey: thanks for the invite, but unfortunately, I live in the midwest... :(
    Carol: isn't it great to find out that people are reading (and loving) the books thanks to you? Since I started the series, I have gotten 7 or 8 people to read them. Five are hooked and love them (almost as much as me); I'm still waiting to hear from the rest of them.

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  7. I agree with Dinah! As a visitor to this site, I can only say how much I love there being a place where people are as crazy about the books as I am BUT less far along than the LOL site, as well. Can't wait til I'm up to speed with you guys!

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