Having said that, I’d never read one of Hilderbrand’s books before and was impressed with how she developed the characters, their voices and the complex relationships between them. The story is about a Food Blogger whose husband dies unexpectedly, so she throws a weekend with four friends, all from different stages of her life, to cheer her up and distract her from her grief. There’s also a twist in the story that makes it more interesting. It’s a page turner!

Anyway, since she’s a Food Blogger, there were many delicious recipes mentioned in the book, but unfortunately, no recipes! Not to worry, I interpreted my version of the recipes she mentioned and, for most of them, turned to my old friend Ina (as in Ina Garten, aka the Barefoot Contessa) for help.

So her Bacon and Rosemary Pecans became Ina’s Chipotle & Rosemary Nuts and her Summer Squash Tart with Goat Cheese and Mint became Ina’s Zucchini & Goat Cheese Tart. And, while I was on an Ina kick, I made her Summer Rose Sangria, that was in the same Make It Ahead Cookbook as the tart, and it was the hit of the party. Or at least the drink that everyone wanted. I wanted a Summery menu to go with the theme and what is more summery than sangria?

I like to test recipes at least once before I serve them, so I made the Chipotle & Rosemary Nuts for friends coming over before we went to dinner one night. Or, I should say, I attempted to make them. I prepared them (1/2 the recipe), put them in the oven and gave Zeke instructions to take them out when the timer went off. I then left to take a quick shower. When I got out of the shower, there was a text from Zeke saying “the nuts are burnt” and went down to find a blackened mess on the cookie sheet.

Didn’t you smell them burning?

I asked.

Many times I smell things burning, before I see them, but apparently he smelt nothing. I dumped all the nuts into the garbage and lit a candle, feeling mad and frustrated. What a waste of time, energy, money and food! I did learn something from this very minor disaster however.

1. The first time you make a recipe, set the timer for less time than required and check it early. Oven temperatures vary.
2. The first time you make a recipe, babysit it. Do not take a shower and rely on your husband’s defunct nose to smell it burning.
3. If you pull something out of the oven, which is on the verge of burning, quickly take it off the cookie sheet or pan, so it doesn’t keep cooking! My nuts were black by the time I arrived, post-mortem.

Other lessons I’ve learned in cooking from Ina:

1. Always taste a dish before you serve it. It might need a pinch of salt or a squeeze of lime or lemon juice.
2. Make it easy! Nobody wants a stressed-out hostess.

Ina’s tag line and the name of one of her cookbooks, in fact is: How Easy Is That? I love this philosophy!

I did make as much ahead as I possibly could. The nuts were made ahead, the Sangria about an hour before the Book Club Meeting. The Goat Cheese Tart was assembled ahead and cooked right before people arrived. I also made ahead Ina’s Roasted Shrimp Salad, which used to be a staple for our Girl’s Weekend in the Keys (before a bad shrimp spoiled the bunch). I baked Key Lime Shortbread Cookies about a week ahead and froze them and had the ice cream base in the fridge, ready to go into the Ice Cream maker. The raspberry mixture that got swirled into it was marinating in sugar and vodka.

The hostess in the Five Star Weekend has an ice cream truck come to her house in Nantucket for dessert on the last night of the weekend. I”m not that extravagant, but do have my own Ice Cream Maker, so made a Raspberry/Vanilla Swirl Ice Cream that was to die for. This is the one thing I did do kind of last minute, because I wanted a soft texture to the ice cream, not a hard-as-rock brick.

I set up a large table in the Family Room, which is everyone’s favorite room in our house and decorated it “beachy”- with shells, flowers, candles in sand-filled vases and aqua napkins tied with twine and garnished with a little yellow flower. The music I chose was Yacht Rock.

As usual, our Book Club members spent about 15 minutes talking about the book (in the Living Room), the rest of the time catching up on our lives! But, for a light and fluffy book, there was a surprising amount of meaty conversation at this Book Club, mostly about the characters we liked and didn’t and the choices they made. It was a story about female friendship- some from childhood, others recent- and how important they are for well-being.

I did a lot of my shopping at my favorite grocery store- good old Trader Joe’s.

Here’s my complete The Five-Star Weekend Menu:

Drinks: Still Water with Cucumber, Sparkling Water, Lemonade, Summer Sangria, Rose Wine, Prosecco.

Appetizers: Chipotle & Rosemary Nuts, Roasted Onion Dip with Truffle Potato Chips and fresh vegetables.

Entree: Goat Cheese Tart with Mint, Roasted Shrimp Salad, “Make Your Own Salad” with Arugula, Roasted Corn, Sliced Hearts of Palm, Cherry Tomatoes, Sliced Avocado (from my garden), Pickled Blueberries, Vinaigrette, French Baguette with Cracked Pepper Butter.

Dessert: Raspberry Swirl Ice Cream, Key Lime Shortbread, Chocolate Cupcakes (brought by Guta).

Parting gifts were avocados from my garden (I had a ton this year!) and cellophane-wrapped Key Lime Shortbreads. I love entertaining. As corny as it sounds, I guess it’s my “love language”; how I show people I care about them. But, I have to say, I enjoy entertaining the most when it’s easy on me and I don’t have to knock myself out. That way, everyone has a good time and you can say, like Ina: “How Easy Is That?”

Up Next: Chipotle & Rosemary Roasted Nuts

I almost always read the book and, when it comes time to pick the book for hosting, I have thoroughly vetted the choices. I scour the New York Times Bestseller list, read Oprah’s and Reese Witherspoon’s picks and talk to friends in other book clubs to find out what books they have loved. In our Book Club, if you host the book club meeting, you get to pick the book.

This year I choose The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama. I had sent one of our Book Club books (The Elegance of the Hedgehog) to my friend Katy in Orlando and she loved it. I went to visit her in February 2020 and when we visited Epcot, the Japan pavilion had a beautiful rock garden. I took photos because I’ve wanted to make a rock garden for a while and Katy said:

I think your Book Club would like this book The Samurai’s Garden. It’s similar to the one you gave me- simple and elegantly written.

Katy

Shortly after my visit to Katy and our trip around the world (via Epcot), the world as we knew it shut down. My Book Club, however, never stopped. We kept meeting, sometimes outside, sometime inside. This year, we hoped, everything would be different than 2020. Not quite, but we did keep on keeping on with our meetings. Katy sent me The Samurai’s Garden soon after my visit to her. I read it, loved it and picked it for my Book Club Meeting.

I realize why the book occurred to Katy while we were in the rock garden of Japan. While the main character maintains a beautiful garden in Japan at a beach house, his love interest in the book, has a rock garden, just as beautiful, but completely different. When I finished the book, I was determined to make my rock garden a reality by the time I hosted the Book Club.

It wasn’t easy.

First, I had to eradicate all the weeds, next, level out the dirt so it was a flat playing field. After that, I secured black weed blocker material to the dirt with giant metal staples, cutting holes around my two rose bushes and a sprinkler head. The final detail was ordering gravel for the rock garden. For this, I went to Bernie’s Rock and Garden in Homestead. The saleswoman recommended getting a gravel called Zen confetti (black and white), which the Fort Lauderdale Bonsai Garden used for their Zen garden.

The night before my gravel was to arrive, I was like a kid the night before Christmas. So excited to finally complete this project I’d dreamed about for years! Two huge bags of gravel were delivered in the morning and I immediately started spreading it over the black fabric. It looked good! After all the rocks were distributed, a feat accomplished by my sweet husband as I was at a Girl’s Weekend in the Keys, we lugged three huge boulders over to the rock garden in the back of our house. The boulders are supposed to represent the mountains in the landscape and the gravel is supposed to represent the water.

I ordered (for $70!) a wooden rake that rakes the gravel into rows resembling waves. Around the boulders, I raked graduating circles to look like the ripples in the water . I already had a yellow garden stool, and some metal bells hanging in my mango tree for a Zen feel; rattan fencing I hung hid the ugly chain link fence lining the garden. I wanted a bench to meditate on, but lacking a Zen-looking one, I spray-painted one I already had black. Finally, my rock garden was complete! My thoughts turned to what to serve for dinner for my Book Club Meeting.

Food was mentioned a lot in the book, which takes place in Japan. There was a lot of rice, soup, fish and mochi. For appetizers, I made Summer Rolls. These are rice paper discs, soaked in warm water to make them pliable and stuffed with vermicelli noodles, fresh veggies and herbs. I served them with a creamy peanut sauce. Summer rolls were a refreshing and interesting start to our meal and Sumita, who started the club, is vegetarian so I always try to have something she can eat.

Since the dining rule is to follow a cold course by a hot one, I served Miso Soup for the first course when we sat down at the table. I’d set the table with a red tablecloth, aqua napkins and chopstick, with orange zinnias in clear vases as the centerpiece. I bought the Miso Soup at Matsuri, one of my favorite sushi restaurants. For the main course, I decided to have “Make Your Own Poke Bowl“. Jasmine Rice and/or Spring Greens were the base and then I had Ahi Tuna Chunks, Chopped Chicken Breasts and Tofu for protein choices. There were lots of toppings to choose from to accompany the bowls- chopped green onion, cilantro, edamame, fried onions, sliced jalapeno, ginger, chopped cashews and sesame seeds. I offered a variety of sauces- Bang Bang, Ginger Dressing and Siracha- to complete the bowls.

I think everyone liked the Poke bowls. It makes it easy for everyone when they can tailor their meal exactly as they like it. For dessert, I went easy on myself and got Mochi from Trader Joe’s in Green Tea, Vanilla and Mango flavors, served on a banana leaf. I also served sliced orange, as they do in sushi restaurants. Guta brought a coffee cake and I made Hot Lemongrass (from my garden) and Jasmine Tea to go with dessert.

When you make a signature cocktail, even people who have sworn not to drink usually can’t turn it down. The Signature Cocktail I made was called a Sparkling Elderflower Sake Cocktail by Cake & Knife. It had sake, lemon juice, Elderflower liqueur, Pomegranate Juice and was topped with Prosecco and a lemon peel. It was a light and refreshing drink, perfect for a hot night and was also, pretty to look at. It had been raining off and on all day, but luckily stopped just before the first guest arrived. When everyone arrived I led them, signature cocktail in hand, into my new Rock Garden.

We get it almost every night When the Moon is big and bright It’s a supernatural delight Everybody’s dancing in the moonlight

King Harvest

Up Next: Sparkling Elderflower Sake Cocktail