{"id":58625,"date":"2009-11-20T02:09:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-20T07:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451d48a69e20120a6b92d54970b"},"modified":"2009-11-20T02:09:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-20T07:09:00","slug":"my-first-catering-gig-9-person-book-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/58625","title":{"rendered":"My First Catering Gig: 9 Person Book Club"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

 \"Bookclub_coffeetable\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

Since 2002, thoughts of catering float in and out of my
\nbrain. Instead of continuing to imagine what it would be like to cater an
\nevent, I decided it\u2019s time to actually do it. Wishing something is great but
\nnothing really happens until you take some action, so I had an opportunity to
\nget my chops wet and cater pal @halfacat\u2019s<\/a> book club meeting for 9 people at
\nhis house. Seven people showed, so it was a nice turnout.<\/p>\n

The opportunity to cater this event is also made possible by
\nViva Paper Towels who is sponsoring this post. 
\n<\/span>The folks at the book club thought it was cool that their meeting was
\nsponsored by a major corporation. This is one of the beauties of being friends
\nwith a food blogger. For some fun,
\nfork-free recipes including videos and snappy entertaining ideas, check out the
\nVIVA\u00ae Diva Caf\u00e9<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The menu theme<\/o:p><\/strong><\/p>\n

I based the menu around the theme of the book which was Bonk
\nby Mary Roach. It\u2019s a fascinating book about the Science of Sex.  <\/span>I enjoyed how Roach took not only a matter-of-fact
\ntake but she added a whole lot of humor and ease. To me, the tone was very much
\nlike if Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love were to write the book.<\/p>\n

For the attendees of the book club, I also had to consider
\nvegan and food allergies to dairy and eggs. I also made mostly finger foods to
\nadd some sensual flair. The menu contained 4 appetizer type dishes and one
\ndessert:<\/p>\n

Turkey and shiitake mushroom meatballs with panko, saut\u00e9ed garlic
\nand onion in an organic marinara sauce. I used no egg or dairy in the
\nmeatballs.<\/p>\n

 \"Bookclub_meatballs\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p>Mushroom caps stuffed with eggplant saut\u00e9ed with garlic,
\nonion, olive oil, Dave\u2019s Honey Habanero mustard, and a secret ingredient<\/a>. Here's the recipe<\/a>. On half the mushrooms, I topped
\nwith parmesan cheese, and the other half I left the cheese out to make it
\nvegan.<\/p>\n

  \"Bookclub_mushroomcaps\"<\/a>
<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Edamame and Sweet Pepperdew hummus with sesame pita chips.<\/p>\n

 \"Bookclub_hummus\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

A bread plate with Rosemary garlic bread, St. Andre\u2019s
\ncheese, prosciutto, fig spread, red grapes,  <\/span>ground pistachios, and some Dave\u2019s Honey
\nHabanero mustard. I love to top cheese with fig spread, and ground pistachios.<\/p>\n

  \"Bookclub_cheesebread\"<\/a>
<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Scharffen Berger dark chocolate dipped organic raspberries
\nand blackberries. I thought it would be decadent to eat fruit dipped chocolate
\nwith the fingers couple with the red wine.<\/p>\n

  \"Bookclub_chocolateraspberry\"<\/a>
<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I will follow up this post with the recipes for the
\nmeatballs, mushroom caps, and hummus. All the noshy food by the way was pretty simple
\nto make.<\/p>\n

Everyone brought some wine, and Roger had this very sexy decanter
\nwhich is believe it or not $10 at IKEA. Yes, cool holiday gift idea, I\u2019m
\nthinking.<\/p>\n

  \"Ikea_decantar2\"<\/a>
<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The book club was so much fun! We drank red wine, noshed on
\ntasty sexy food, and discussed the book along with everything from Cougars to
\nRoger\u2019s how-to tips to communicate to a guy about what you want in bed, very
\nenlightening to get the male point of view. Plus, Roger is such a sweet and
\nmodern guy, so I find his take very refreshing.<\/p>\n

The best part of book
\nclub<\/o:p><\/strong><\/p>\n

Everyone enjoyed the food which was a huge relief for me.
\nNow that I catered my first event, I can say that I really<\/em> enjoyed coming up with the menu, that by far was the best part
\nfor me as I got to really use my creativity. I didn\u2019t enjoy so much all the
\nshopping, prep, and clean up. The jury is still out on whether I will get into
\ncatering or not. Perhaps, I will do it just for small parties because I do like
\nthe 10 and under number.<\/p>\n

Overall, the best part of the book club was all the new
\nfriends I made. Being a Phoenix resident now for 2 months, I have to say that I\u2019ve
\nmet so many wonderful and friendly people. Moving here was one of the best
\nthings I have ever done. <\/p>\n

For next month, the book we\u2019re reading is Kitchen
\nConfidential by Anthony Bourdain. Now, that book will be a fun read for us
\nnoshers!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/img><\/a>
\n<\/img><\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Since 2002, thoughts of catering float in and out of my brain. Instead of continuing to imagine what it would be like to cater an event, I decided it\u2019s time to actually do it. Wishing something is great but nothing really happens until you take some action, so I had an opportunity to get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}