Tips & Recipes for Starting a Book Club and Fire Wife Community

1. Put out the invitation!
2. Pick a time to meet, where and for how long. Will one person host the book club, or will everyone take turns? Do you want to meet in a neutral place or do you want the comfort of someone’s home? Do you want to meet once a month or every two months? How long will the book club be, two hours or three?
3. Create Boundaries. Make sure the book club is a safe place to discuss personal issues when they arise. Trust is imperative to building friendship and also to respecting the vulnerabilities of what people are going through. Also, allow for everyone to take turns speaking.  A timer is sometimes a nice easy way to keep everyone on track!
4. If you’d like, create a private Facebook Page or other social media platform for the book club to interact together when not meeting up in person.
5. Give everyone time to pick up a copy of Fire Wife, Standing Strong in Your Relationship, Your Life and Your Dreams and the interactive Fire Wife Companion Guide before you meet. The workbook is personal and can be worked on at home on a person’s own time. However, at each book club gathering, someone may want to delve deeper into some questions by getting advice or support from the group. At the beginning of each gathering, the host can ask a question or two that stood out to them to get the conversation at the book club started with everyone.
6. Eat! Fire families are renowned for their good eats, whether it’s a dinner party or some simple appies to share, nothing beats good food, good friends, and good conversation. In this section you will find some of my favorite book club snacks, from my table to yours! Bon Appetite!
7. Have Fun!

Mushroom Wellington 375 degree oven for 20 minutes

¼ cup butter,  a tbsp. garlic, 4 cups sliced mushrooms, 1 sliced medium sized zucchini, 2 red, yellow peppers, sliced, 1 medium onion, sliced, 1 sprig fresh rosemary, 2 tbsp. balsamic, ¼ cup red or white wine, 2 sheets of frozen puff pastry thawed (I like the ready to roll out puff pastry!) 1 cup goat cheese, melted butter to brush puff pastry before putting into the oven.

Add butter to a pan on medium heat and when completely melted, add all vegetables and balsamic vinegar. Sauté until tender, about 8-10 minutes. Add the wine and simmer until liquid evaporates. Put vegetables aside and onto a plate with paper towel to drain any excess moisture, remove rosemary sprig and cool before assembling onto puff pastry.

Roll out puff pastry in a rectangle shape onto lightly floured parchment paper.  Once rolled out, place the parchment paper and pastry onto a cookie sheet. Spread cooled vegetables over top of puff pastry and leave a 1-inch boarder all around the edges.  Top evenly with crumbled goat cheese and then cover with second puff pastry sheet. Crimp the edges all around rectangle with a fork.  Brush with melted butter and bake in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes until perfectly brown.  So good!