A Little Book With Our Wine Club: Chapter 3

This month’s book club was at my house. Our book was an older book by Anita Diamant called, “The Red Tent”. It’s a fiction book based on the female character from the Bible named Dinah.

So, of course, before we sat down for the discussion we poured ourselves a glass of wine.

We grabbed our appetizers – goat cheese balls, hummus and flat bread.

Which I served on these plates below in keeping somewhat with the theme. The book includes, and revolves somewhat around, the sons of Jacob, who later represented the twelve tribes of Israel. And, from this lineage, hundreds of years later came Jesus Christ so I thought it apropos to use these plates with the cross motif.

Since we usually try to pull the theme into the table décor I decided to create a centerpiece with candlesticks surrounding a bronze angel carrying a heart. (Depicting the angel of the the Lord). And, of course, my bronze cross for Jesus.

I wanted to come up with some recipes that somehow reflected the book so I went to www.allrecipes.com and found some perfect dishes to support the theme. I hung each of the recipes above each dish so everyone could see the correlation.

Here are some of the recipes I found:

Creamy Goat Cheese and Honey

Goat cheese and honey were commonly eaten back then so I loved coming across this recipe.

Creamy Goat Cheese and Honey

Ingredients

4 ounces fresh goat cheese
2 ounces finely chopped pecans
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, minced

Directions

1. Divide the goat cheese into 12 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball. Combine the crushed pecans and cinnamon in a bowl. Roll each goat cheese ball in the pecan mixture until covered. Gently pat the balls into patties; transfer to a serving plate. Drizzle honey over the patties and sprinkle rosemary on top. Serve immediately.

Israeli Salad

Since God changed Jacob’s name to Israel and his sons represented the twelve tribes of Israel I thought this recipe title was perfect. And it was delicious!

Israeli Salad

Original Recipe Yield 5 servings

Ingredients

6 cucumbers, diced
4 roma (plum) tomatoes, seeded and diced
5 green onions, sliced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1/3 cup chopped garlic
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup minced fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper

Easter Appetizer

Sorry I don’t have a picture of this one (a new take on deviled eggs), but I thought it was a great name, too, for my theme since Dinah’s family lineage filters all the way down to Jesus. They were a big hit.

Easter Appetizer

Ingredients

4 eggs
2 tablespoons cream cheese
2 tablespoons chopped onion
2 tablespoons diced cooked ham
1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

2. Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool and peel. Cut eggs in half lengthwise and remove yolks.

3. In a small bowl, combine cream cheese, onion and ham until well mixed. Spoon mixture into eggs, covering tops. Place eggs in small baking dish. Spray with cooking spray and top with bread crumbs.

4. Bake in preheated oven 4 to 5 minutes, until golden and hot. Serve warm.

Momma’s Lamb’s Famous Fruit Salad

And, of course, with so much of the book about the “momma’s”, and lambs being such a part of their culture this recipe title was perfect, too. And, it turned out to be a great new recipe I’ll add to my collection. (No picture again….sorry!)

Momma Lamb’s Famous Fruit Salad

Original Recipe Yield 6 servings

Ingredients

1 (20 ounce) can pineapple chunks
1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 (15 ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained
1 (10 ounce) jar maraschino cherries, drained
3 bananas

Directions

1. Drain all of the juice from the pineapple into a large bowl. Set the pineapple chunks aside.

2. Add the vanilla pudding mix to the pineapple juice and mix well until smooth. Stir in the pineapple chunks, mandarin oranges, and maraschino cherries. Mix well. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

3. Just before serving slice the bananas into the bowl and fold in.