Every time I make this yummy peanut butter soup for neighbors, friends, or book club members, people want the recipe. Soups are easy to make in advance and serve with French bread and a salad for an easy book club meal.

Peanut Butter Soup

2 medium onions, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 13-3/4-ounce can chicken broth
4 cups water
2 large yams, peeled and cubed
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups cooked chicken pieces
1/2 cup crushed peanuts

In a large soup pot, sauté the onions and garlic in the oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, chicken broth, water and yams. Cook over medium-low heat for 25 minutes or until the yams are soft. Stir in the peanut butter, cayenne pepper and salt.

Let cool for 30 minutes. Puree the soup in a blender or food processor, then pour it back into the saucepan and warm. Sprinkle the soup with the cooked chicken and crushed peanuts. Serves 6 to 8.

When I was growing up in southern  Louisiana, we ate red beans and rice once or twice a month. For many in New Orleans, the tradition is to serve this easy dish every Monday to start the week out right. A pot of red beans simmering on the stove will certainly feed a crowd, which makes it a good, easy dish to serve for your book club members.

The key to cooking good red beans and rice is to allow enough time, about three to four hours, so the beans have time to soften. To make a creamier dish (my favorite), mash the beans against the side of the pot once they are soft enough. The nice thing is you can cook this on the weekend before your book club meets and heat it up again the night of your event. The extra time it sits only helps the flavors get more intense. You can also freeze your beans and reheat if you want to make this dish well in advance. Here’s the recipe I got from my mama that I make for my own family.

Red Beans and Rice

• 1 lb. kidney beans, picked clean of bad beans and washed
• 1 lb. smoked pork sausage, or spicy sausage such as andouille
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 medium green pepper, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt, pepper and cayenne pepper to taste

Soak the washed beans overnight in a four-quart pot. In the same soaking water, bring beans to a boil. Add onion, garlic, bell pepper and bay leaf. Lower heat and simmer about one and a half hours.

Add sausage and oil. Simmer one and a half hours longer or until beans are tender.

Serve over cooked rice. For a complete meal, add cornbread muffins and a green salad with fruit on the side.

I first made this recipe for Sausage Pie when I was short on time and ingredients, so I was looking for a way to make a meal with something I already had in the fridge. I liked the results so much, I’ve planned ahead to make it several times since. It’s a good dish to serve to company too, as it seems a bit more involved to put together than it actually is.

Sausage Pie

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 Tblsp. butter or olive oil
• ¾ cup milk
• ¾ cup flour
• 3 large eggs
• 1-1/4 lbs. of spicy, pre-cooked sausage such as andouille, chorizo or Italian sausage, sliced into small chunks
• ½ cup green onions, chopped
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Melt butter in a 10-inch oven-safe skillet on medium high heat. Add onions and stir frequently until limp and clear, about 5 minutes. Arrange chunks of sausage evenly on top of onions.

Mix milk, flour and eggs with a whisk in a large bowl until smooth. Pour milk and egg mixture over sausages in pan and bake for about 35 to 40 minutes, or until puffed, crisp and brown. Remove from oven and sprinkle with green onions. Salt to taste and divide into even portions before serving. Serves 6.

You can also transfer sautéed onions and sausage to a buttered 8″ x 8″ casserole dish if you’d like to serve it in something other than the over-safe skillet.

When we read Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce in my mother-daughter book club, my daughter and I served lasagna for dinner, because it matched a special dinner mentioned in the book. Lasagna is such a great comfort food to serve to a crowd on a cold night. It’s also easy to prepare ahead so it’s ready to pop in the oven and cook in time for your book club meeting. Just serve a green salad and bread or rolls to go with it, and you have a complete meal. Here’s a great lasagna recipe that comes from one of my book club moms. It serves 6 to 8 and can easily be doubled.

Karen’s Lasagna

Karen Gotting, Portland, Oregon

Prepared spaghetti sauce and pre-grated cheese make this easy to assemble. I don’t remember when or why I started adding the spinach but it adds color and seems healthier. I like to serve it with warm foccacia bread and a green salad. You can make it the night before and heat it up.

• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 Tblsp. minced garlic
• 1 jar prepared spaghetti sauce
• 9 lasagna noodles
• 16 oz. ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 10-oz package chopped, frozen spinach
• 1 lb. grated mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brown ground beef, onion and garlic over medium heat until cooked through. Drain any fat. Stir in spaghetti sauce, simmer while cooking noodles, stirring occasionally.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water.

Microwave frozen spinach 3 to 5 minutes until thawed; drain and press out excess liquid.

In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, nutmeg and drained spinach. Set aside 1/2 cup meat sauce. To assemble, spread 1/3 of remaining meat sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13” baking dish. Arrange 3 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. It doesn’t cover completely, leave a little space in between noodles. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with 1/3 of mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers, end with third layer of noodles. Top with reserved meat sauce and remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Cover with foil. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I love to eat muffins, scones, breakfast breads, biscuits and almost anything else that can come out an oven. The trouble is that I don’t move very fast when I drag myself out of bed every morning. So it can be difficult to satisfy my craving for baked goods when I’m moving at a snail’s pace to get through my shower, make my daughter’s school lunch and put breakfast on the table for all of us. Fortunately, I’ve figured out that I can do all the prep for my favorite breakfast treats the night before, so all I have to do in the morning is a few simple steps before sliding something into the oven.

Tonight I’ll be putting together most of the ingredients for Chocolate Chip Scones, one of my family’s favorites. I can’t claim that these delicious wedges are very healthy, but I do serve fruit with them to give a little balance to this meal. Everyone in my family loves them, and the best part is that the recipe makes enough scones for two breakfasts. Which means no cooking the morning after I bake these. Of course, they’re good any time. I’ve also served these Chocolate Chip Scones to members of my mother-daughter book club when we read I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, which is set in England.

Here’s the recipe. Originally, it came from my friend Ellen.

• 2-1/2 cups flour
• 1 Tblsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 8 Tblsp. butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup milk or milk + yogurt combo
• 2/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter with knives or dough blender. Add brown sugar, chocolate chips and mix. Add liquid, stir with a fork until soft dough forms. Knead lightly, then divide into two balls.

Roll out balls on a cookie sheet or baking stone. (I simply flatten mine into a circle.) Cut into 4 or 6 wedges. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool.

I modify this a bit when I prep it the night before. I add the brown sugar when I combine the dry ingredients. I measure the milk and set it in the fridge next to the block of butter I’m going to use. I put my baking stone on the cook top. Next to the baking stone goes the bowl with my dry ingredients (covered with a towel), the measured chocolate chips, and knives for cutting in the butter. In the morning it’s easy to cut in the butter, stir in the chocolate chips, add the milk, shape the scones and pop them in the oven. As an added benefit, the smell of baking scones helps wake everyone up.

When the weather allows, everyone in your book club may appreciate the chance to get outside when you gather to have a meal and talk about your book. Especially is the characters in the book go on picnics, as they do in Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. And if the weather’s not great? You may just decide to move that picnic indoors.

Karen’s Picnic Fixings

Provide the following for mix and match according to taste:

• Tomatoes
• Lettuce
• Cucumbers
• Sweet pickles, dill pickles
• Olive assortment
• Guacamole
• Fresh carrots, broccoli, cauliflower with veggie dip
• Sauteed sweet red, green and yellow peppers
• Sauteed mushrooms
• Sliced cheese assortment
• Mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup
• Wheat bread, sourdough, rye, tortillas

You can grill sandwiches if you’re serving your picnic where there’s access to a grill. Serve with ice cream sundaes or banana splits for dessert.

Reading The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer put everyone in our mother-daughter book club in the mood for good Mexican food. Here’s a recipe for chicken enchiladas that you can serve when you’re considering a Mexican-themed dinner for your book club discussion.

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Prep and bake time: 1 hour

• 1/2  pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 4  cups torn fresh spinach or 1/2 of one 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well-drained
• 1  8-ounce carton light dairy sour cream
• 1/4  cup plain fat-free yogurt
• 2  tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4  teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4  teaspoon salt
• 1/2  cup fat-free milk
• 1  4-ounce can diced green chili peppers, drained
• 6   7-inch flour tortillas
• 1/3  cup shredded reduced-fat cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese (1-1/2 ounces)
• Chopped tomato or salsa (optional)
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions (optional)

In a 3-quart saucepan place chicken in enough water to cover. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Remove chicken from saucepan. When cool enough to handle, use a fork to shred chicken into bite-size pieces. (You should have about 1-1/2 cups.) Set aside.

If using fresh spinach, place spinach in a steamer basket over boiling water. Reduce heat. Steam, covered, for 3 to 5 minutes or until tender. (Or, cook in a small amount of boiling water, covered, for 3 to 5 minutes.) Drain well.

In a large bowl combine chicken, spinach, and green onions; set aside. In a bowl combine sour cream, yogurt, flour, cumin, and salt. Stir in milk and chili peppers. Divide sauce in half. Set one portion aside.

For filling, combine one portion of the sauce and the chicken-spinach mixture. Divide the filling among the tortillas. Roll up tortillas. Place, seam side down, in an ungreased 2-quart rectangular baking dish.

Spoon reserved portion of sauce over tortillas. Bake, uncovered, in a 350 degree F oven about 25 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with cheese; let stand for 5 minutes. Transfer to a serving platter. To serve, if desired, garnish with chopped tomato or salsa and additional green onion. Makes 6 enchiladas.

When our mother-daughter book club got together to read Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang, Show-Ling—who is from Taiwan—made Chinese dumplings for our dinner. They were so great everyone asked for the recipe and Show-Ling was willing to share. You can use this recipe to serve at any book club meeting where you discuss a book set in China.

• 1 pound ground pork (you can use ground beef, chicken, or turkey)
• 1/3-1/2 small bag of prewashed baby spinach (you can substitute with other vegetables of your liking)
• 3-4 heads of green onions (scallions)
• one small piece of ginger root
• cilantro (for sauce)
• garlic (for sauce)
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• sesame oil, 1/4 teaspoon
• vegetable oil, 2-3 tablespoons
• 1-2 packages of dumpling wraps (make sure that you DON’T get the thick style kind)

To make:
Chop ginger, green onion, and spinach in a food processor.

Combine with ground meat in a big bowl. Add vegetable oil, salt, pepper, sesame oil, mix well with a spatula. Place some stuffing in the middle of the wrap (make sure to thaw out the wraps ahead of time, microwave is NOT recommended), make sure you don’t over-stuff it. Apply water to the edge of the wrap and seal the edge by folding one side over the other. It’s important to make sure that the seal is tight. Have a pot of boiling water ready.

Put the dumplings in one by one (you might need to do it in batches). Gently stir once to make sure that the dumplings are not stuck to the bottom of the pot. If you do it too hard you’ll break the dumplings. Add one cup of cold water after the dumplings have boiled and repeat three times. After you take the dumplings out, rinse them quickly with cold water to prevent them from sticking to each other. You can probably also coat them with some olive oil to prevent sticking.

Sauce: Chop a few heads of garlic and some cilantro, mix with some soy sauce, sesame oil, and a bit of water. If you want, you can also add vinegar, chili sauce.

This amount is enough to serve 2 adults and 3 kids age 10.

When my daughter and I read Granny Torrelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech, we all knew what would be on the menu for dinner that night. We didn’t know what kind of soup would be served, but we were all craving soup. Here’s an easy recipe that Granny Torrelli would be proud of.

Cindy’s Peanut Butter Soup

• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 1 13-3/4-ounce can chicken broth
• 4 cups water
• 2 large yams, peeled and cubed
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups cooked chicken pieces
• 1/2 cup crushed peanuts

In a large soup pot, sauté the onions and garlic in the oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, chicken broth, water and yams. Cook over medium-low heat for 25 minutes or until the yams are soft. Stir in the peanut butter, cayenne pepper and salt. Let cool for 30 minutes.

Puree the soup in a blender or food processor, then pour it back into the saucepan and warm. Sprinkle the soup with the cooked chicken and crushed peanuts. Serves 6 to 8 and is easy to double.

Serve with crunchy French bread and salad.

It’s Mardi Gras season down in New Orleans, and I’m sure the people there are celebrating even more with news that the Saints are going to the Super Bowl. I grew up near Baton Rouge when the Saints were first getting established, and I well remember all the losing seasons when they were known as the ‘Aints and fans wore paper bags over their heads. Now they are going to play for the NFL championship for the first time in the franchise’s 43 years. With Super Bowl Sunday on February 7 and Mardi Gras on February 16, I’m sure lots of people will be having parties. And every party during Mardi Gras has to feature a King Cake.

If you’re not familiar with King Cakes, they come in many different flavors, but they are similar to coffee cakes and perfect with a good cup of coffee with chicory. If you’d like to know more about the history of King Cakes, here’s a great write up at Mardi Gras Unmasked.com.

As you might guess, King Cakes are great to serve to a crowd. They’re good for breakfast or dessert, and they’re good to serve at your next mother-daughter book club meeting. Here’s my recipe:

King Cake

(Recipe Makes Two Rings)

Basic Dough

* 1 envelope dry yeast
* 1/4 cup warm water
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1 cup butter
* 2 egg yolks
* 2 whole eggs
* 4 cups (or more) unbleached flour
* 1/2 cup + 1 tsp. sugar

Mix yeast with warm water and 1 tsp. sugar and 1 tsp. flour. Bring milk to a boil then stir in butter and sugar. Pour into a large bowl and mix. Once mix is lukewarm beat in egg yolks, whole eggs, and yeast mixture. Beat in approximately 2 cups of flour until dough is fairly smooth, then add enough flour to make a soft dough you can form into a ball. Knead by hand until smooth and elastic. Lightly oil a bowl, turn dough once or twice to coat, cover with a cloth and leave in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1-1/2 – 2 hours. Pat down cover with damp towel and refrigerate overnight. Remove dough from fridge. Divide in half. Shape each half into a long sausage shape. Roll dough into a 30″x9″ rectangle as thin as a pie crust. Let dough rest while you make the filling.

Filling

* 16 oz. cream cheese
* 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
* 4 Tblsp. flour
* 4 egg yolks
* 2 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Divide filling in half and place each half in a one inch strip down the length of each dough shape. Fold one end of the dough over the filling and onto the other side. Crimp at ends so filling won’t come out. Shape dough into rings, place each on a separate cookie sheet or jelly roll pan and let stand 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350. Brush with egg wash and cut deep vents into cake. Bake for 20 – 35 minutes until risen and golden.

Icing

* 1-1/2 cups confectioners sugar
* 2-1/2 Tblsp. milk
* 1/4 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Once cake has cooled spread on icing. Sprinkle colored sugar crystals of purple, green and gold over the icing before it hardens. (You can buy colored sugar or make it yourself by placing ½ cup of regular sugar in a zip lock bag and adding one drop of food coloring at a time until you get the color you desire. For purple mix equal parts of red and blue.)