A book club that loves food...or a food club that loves books?

My book club meets monthly to discuss a book we have all agreed to read...in theory. In practice, I think we get together to eat and chat. I don't always read the book...but no one cares about that little detail at our book club.

This month we read One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus. It's a story about a woman in the mid-1800's who was committed to an asylum for the "crime" of promiscuity. She fell in love, lived with, and had a couple babies with a man she had not married and who was beneath the social class of her family. Her family had arranged for her commitment, they took her children, and they locked her up. The premise of the story starts two years later. In exchange for her freedom, she agreed to participate in a secret government program to be one of one thousand white women who would travel west to become brides for Cheyenne men. I think, though, that the book is more about relationships the white brides built with each other, their husbands other wives, and the other members of the tribe. I was fascinated how as the story unfolded, the women learned to get along in a society, whose social norms and rules were completely foreign to their way of life. I read this book in just a few days...and I'm famous for not finishing, and sometimes not even starting, our assigned reading. Hee, hee.

Perhaps more important than the book is tonight's menu: taco night. I'm in charge of the shredded cheese. And since I bought generic cheese, I'll have to put it in a fancy bowl to dress it up a bit. In the spirit of taco night, here is a recipe for guacamole...at least I think it is...I gleaned this little formula from watching the gal at Jose's Blue Sombrero restaurant in Brookfield...they have a table-side guacamole gal who mixes it up...well...right at your table.

3 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted, mashed up a little
juice of 1/4 of a lime
1/4 tsp salt, possibly more to taste
1/4 tsp minced garlic, possibly more to taste
a handful of chopped onions
a handful of chopped tomatoes
a smidgen of fresh cilantro, finely chopped

Stir it, doctor it up a bit more, if needed. Serve it with warm tortilla chips.

To store for later, try leaving the pits in it and squeezing a little more lime juice over it to reduce browning...