Book club meetings are always fun but if it is your turn to host and the venue will be your home, it can be stressful. Here are 4 tips that can simplify your hosting duties and enjoy the time with your friends with less fuss. Here’s a streamlined approach to pulling it off.
1. Give yourself time to get organized
Block out space on the calendar for planning your book club meeting and straightening up the place before the date arrives. Plus, add plenty of time for grocery shopping and food prep. It’s easy to think you can “stop at the store on the way home from work,” but that usually takes up more time than expected. Don’t be shy about enlisting friends and family for help — you’ll have more fun and less stress if you share the load.
2. Streamline the decorations
Our homes are fine the way they are but for some reason, when company is coming, it seems that what we have enough. Just clear household clutter out of the way and have scented candles ready to be lit. They will provide the fragrance for the ambiance you want to create. As a centerpiece, use a fruit bowl and fill it with fruits in season. This will be your pop of color.
3. Opt for easy appetizers
It’s not difficult to come up with delicious appetizers that take little time to prepare, that are easy to pass around, and that everyone will love. SeaPak recently introduced its own Calamari Rings, which are crispy on the outside and perfectly tender on the inside. You could put the calamari on a serving tray and the tomato Romano sauce that comes with them in a bowl on the side. And don’t forget toothpicks for serving!
You also can turn to everyone’s favorite, jumbo butterfly shrimp, and whip up some Prosciutto-Wrapped Party Shrimp, a classic appetizer that’s great for entertaining. If you’re expecting more guests, simply double or triple the recipe.
Prosciutto-Wrapped Party Shrimp
Ingredients:
1 9-ounce package SeaPak Jumbo Butterfly Shrimp
12 1″ pieces of roasted red pepper
12 1″ x 4″ strips of prosciutto
12 small basil leaves
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
While shrimp is still frozen, place one piece of roasted red pepper onto each piece of shrimp.
Wrap one prosciutto strip around each shrimp-and-pepper unit and place on the baking sheet (with the prosciutto ends facing down).
Bake according to package directions for 14 to 17 minutes or until shrimp is cooked through.
Serve hot, garnished with the basil leaves.
4. The Most Important: The Book
There are so many books to choose from and many go by season or the nearest holiday as a theme. The holidays might be over in January, but the Paris Haute Couture season will ongoing. That said, “The Last Collection: A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel
Haute couture is the loftiest in the fashion world. It eclipses everything. This is where all fashion innovations begin. In “The Last Collection: A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel
Not necessarily a treatise on the accomplishments of Schiaparelli and Chanel, (it is after all in fictionalized form), “The Last Collection” gives a glimpse of fashion history. Avid fashionistas know the story as history. In this book, Mackin made it more colorful thanks to her poetic storytelling.
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Story
The Last Collection
Haute couture is the loftiest in the fashion world. It eclipses everything. This is where all fashion innovations begin. “The Last Collection” subtitled “A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel,” Jeanne Mackin tells the story of the true to life rivalry of these two fashion icons who shaped the world with the clothes they design.
