The Good Living Cookbook Club At Bookin' It

Here, Laura Hansen, owner/manager of Bookin' It in Little Falls, Minnesota, muses on her bookstore's Good Living Cookbook Club, which started five years ago. As Hansen goes on to describe, the club is more than a book club -- it's a mix of good cook books, good friends, great food, with a dash of wine and rhubarb muffins thrown in for good taste.

Some nights the rush to open the wine takes precedence over everything else. Some nights we end up with no beverages at all and settle for cool, fresh water. When there is enough room around our begged-and-borrowed collection of tables, we put all the dishes right in the center and pass them around. When the group is large, we have to set up a buffet amid the cardboard recycling and used and damaged books. The bunny cage has been moved to the front room, but SyDonna and Delos usually bring their toy poodle, Petey, who always gets a few taste treats from the leftovers. There are regulars among us and newcomers and occasional guests, and a few have drifted way … sated, we hope.

At today's meeting, the Good Living Cookbook Club at Bookin' It in Little Falls, Minnesota, is a group of about 14 -- though some months we number more than 20, and, at rare times, we are only six or eight. (On those occasions we gaily announce, "All the more for us!") Just now I am trying to get my hands on another of Earl's wonderful rhubarb muffins -- the recipe for which, as it so happens, doesn't seem to be from the selected cookbook of the month. Rather, they are the result of the sheer bounty of the season. One cooks with abandon what the garden offers up!

The Good Living Cookbook Club has been meeting -- and cooking -- for five years. All the members choose a recipe from a pre-selected cookbook (they buy four per year). The object is to get a mix of appetizers, main dishes, sides, breads, and desserts.

Once members start arriving for the monthly meeting, we start amending the list. Sometimes an ingredient can't be found or a job runs late or someone brings something extra. Once in awhile someone who was expected doesn't show up, which is not a problem with so much food being brought in. However, once, before we started designing whole menus, we ended up with all desserts and went home with sugary stomachaches.

We've had some astonishing flops. Take the Twinkie Cake, which Lois made, not once, but twice, assuming it would somehow turn out better on the second try. It slid apart and oozed and glistened with separating oil. And then there was the doomed-from-the-start recipe that Brian made that turned out like a thick, yellow rubber Frisbee. Was it Boston Crème Pie? At least it smelled nice and vanilla-y.

Overall, though, we have feasted. We have gorged on Irish Soda Bread, Honeydew Melon Soup, Blintzes, Baked Glazed Ham, Baked Steak and Parmesan Smashed Potatoes, grilled veggies, Tiramisu, and Mint Juleps, and all manner of liquor-laced desserts.

We meet most often at the store, occasionally at someone's house, and, once, in the fall, we met at Belle Prairie Park, complete with bonfire and luminaries. We have only one hard-and-fast rule: If you don't follow the recipe exactly, come clean. You have to tell us what you changed or substituted, so no one will go home and make it, and then, wonder why theirs turned out tasting nothing like yours. We indulge ourselves and go home smiling and happy, already looking forward to what goodies will be there for us to sample at the next meeting. We are Living Good.

We recently surveyed the group and came up with their top picks from our cookbook selections to date:

1. The Williams-Sonoma Complete Grilling Cookbook (Time-Life Books)
2. The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (Crown)
3. The Colorado Collage Cookbook (Junior League of Denver)
4. American Home Cooking (Broadway)
5. Junior League Centennial Cookbook (Association of Junior Leagues International)
6. Country Weekend Entertaining (Doubleday)

Notable: Gardener's Community Cookbook (Workman)

A complete list of featured cookbooks by year is available by contacting the store: Bookin' It, (320)632-1848, or (800)809-1848, or via e-mail, [email protected].

To see the Book Sense Cooking Bestseller List, click here.