My Twisted Book Club

I've mentioned my book club before. These days, I look forward to our meetings like I never have before. Most of the ladies in the club are my (former) coworkers and now that I'm not with them every day, catching up, discussing great reads, drinking wine and eating good food is such a bright spot in my life.

We try to tie in a food theme with each book. Sometimes that's easier said than done. Because of crazy schedules over the past few months, we ended up lumping two books into one meeting. We read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Gone Girl. Yeah. Pretty much on the opposite end of the literary spectrum, right?

Because I was hosting, I was responsible for suggesting a food theme. Absolutely nothing came to mind.

That is, until a stroke of genius struck me.

Twisted food.

Because of the double helix that Henrietta's cells helped discover and the twisted plot of Gone Girl.

Genius, right? (Modesty be damned.)

We had pasta salad with twisty pasta, a ridiculously good twisted chicken and broccoli dish, Twizzlers, disgusting chocolate wine (because the concept seemed twisted--and was), twist-top wine, chocolate covered pretzils, and these Nutella meringues (because marbled is almost like being twisted--we take liberties...), among other treats.

I highly recommend the meringues. They are easy to make, and anything with Nutella is heavenly.

I might have made them (and eaten most of them) again. They're almost fat free. And the sugar certainly doesn't convert to fat and go right to my hips...

We all enjoyed both books very much and had an interesting chat about both. We do actually discuss the books. Sometimes the discussions get quite heated. Not this time, though. It was a pretty demure conversation. I think I was the only one who didn't love Henrietta Lacks. I think my lack of love goes back to her skipping out on a literary festival at one of my alma maters. I probably should get over that.

This month we are reading Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver. It is absolutely stunning. I always forget how her prose reads exactly like poetry. So far, I highly recommend it.

What twisted dish would you have brought to our little party?