A book club-inspired spring party

With the weather warming up and summer novels hitting store shelves, a book club is a great way to stay up-to-date on reading, while enjoying great wine and stimulating conversation with friends. With this in mind, we created a book club-inspired outdoor table setting and menu featuring La Crema Wines and Emily Giffin’s new novel, The One & Only.

Setting the tablescape

With the warm weather returning to our coastal Southern California town, we wanted to capture the colors and flavors of spring. The centerpiece focused on books and bright flowers like orange and yellow roses, wax flowers, hydrangea, viburnum and ranunculus. Complimenting the floral arrangements are fresh spring artichokes. (By the way, we found a great recipe for grilling artichokes. Check it out, here.)

To us, spring weather means keeping the setting, food, wine, and conversation vibrant and light.

Book club menu

We kept the food simple with clean flavors and presentations that make the food easy to enjoy while chatting about our book.

Light, fresh, tangy flavors in the chicken salad make for a great al fresco luncheon. We served these on potato and pumpernickels breads and sliced each sandwich diagonally to make for a nice presentation and to keep the main course easy to eat while thumbing through our book to discuss the next chapter. You can get the recipe here.

Grilled Vegetable Skewers are so easy to prepare. Just slice some vegetables of your choosing about 1/4 inch thick ad brush with olive oil, grill until tender about 3-5 minutes and skewer. You will want to serve these hot.

Simply prepared grilled vegetable skewers allow the flavors of spring to shine.

Caprese skewers are  mini heirloom tomatoes and mini fresh mozzarella balls skewered with a basil leaf, drizzle with your favorite EVOO and balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Caprese salad on a stick? Heck yes!

For dessert, I used fresh, organic fruit and made organic whipped cream and garnished with a mint leaf.

Finish it all off with fresh berries, mint and whipped cream.

And as with any book club, the wine is sometimes as important as the book. There’s nothing like a chilled glass of La Crema Pinot Gris or their newly-released Rosé to stimulate conversation on a warm spring day.

For more tips on hosting your own book club, check out “10 Tips for Hosting a Book Club,” also on the La Crema Blog.

Photography: © Kristin Vincent Photography

Share this on Pinterest!