Ok, folks. Working under the assumption that most readers already have a book club or would like to start one, we put together a book club “kit” that will help make your turn hosting book club a breeze. Below you will find recipes inspired by The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County complete with a grocery list and recipe printable, product recommendations that will enhance your book club experience, party prep tips, and discussion questions.
We hope you enjoy!
The Menu:
We are going with an appetizer-based menu inspired by some of the foods mentioned in The Funeral Ladies Of Ellerie County. These are easy, heartening recipes meant to fill your belly and lift your spirits just like the recipes in the book.
Mini-Cherry Pies with Esther’s Pie Crust: This is the very first thing mentioned in the book and is a great party food. Here we have a mini-pie version where they are cooked in a muffin tin, but if that’s too much work (no judgment, seriously make this as easy as you can) please feel free to make a full size pie. But we encourage you to make the mini-versions as they are just so easy to serve and eat.
Cowboy Crack Dip with Fritos Scoops: Our rendition of the “cheesy bacon and green onion situation” Cooper is scooping up on page 141
Old Fashioneds: We love a good cocktail around these parts and so do The Funeral Ladies! On page 82 they are sipping old fashioneds at 3:00 in the afternoon. Our kind of grannies! (And also something we might have done once or twice ourselves). Don’t forget the giant ice cubes. We will link this multiple places below because they really do make all the difference with this cocktail.
Cheese Curds: While fried cheese curds are mentioned in the book, we are going with a regular package of cheese curds that you can pop into a pretty bowl. You can’t get easier or yummier than that.
Next Level:
It’s the little details that take any gathering from basic to next level. You want to embrace all the senses. So we have curated a few things from all the corners of the internet to help you really set the scene. Feel free to use or discard this advice as you see fit.
Sight: When you go shopping, take your book to the floral department and pick three flowers that match the cover- one bunch that is a big main focal flower, one bunch that is a support flower with a different petal shape, and one greenery bunch to fill it out. Arrange these in a pretty vase in the center of your food.
Sound: We have curated a Spotify playlist that sets a nostalgic/hopeful/mournful mood. Play this softly in the background.
Taste: We’ve got that covered in the yummy recipes.
Smell: With the Northwoods of Wisconsin as the setting for this book, this candle that is Wisconsin scented is the perfect scent.
Touch: This is the trickiest one, but think creatively. Old fashioneds are served in a lowball glass, right? So serve them in these great glasses with a raised pattern or these with both a fun pattern and colors that match the book. What about having an easy, fun game where everybody writes their name on a slip of paper, folds it and puts it in a bowl and whoever’s name is drawn wins a little prize. What prize? How about this mug with a few stickers (here and here and here) and some pretty pens inside?
Extras: Don’t want to be stuck with clean up? How about these paper plates that match the book? We think Esther would approve of these that look like sweet little china plates. Do you need a new reading journal or a notebook to write down all your book club notes? And you definitely need to make giant ice cubes for your old fashioneds.
Party Plan:
Let’s break this thing down so you don’t feel rushed. We want you to enjoy your book club night and be relaxed, not stressed when your guests arrive.
Ahead of time:
Online Orders: If you are ordering anything online, make sure to do this in enough time to get everything in before your party. Amazon is great, of course, for getting things in just a few days but be careful and give yourself plenty of time to order before your turn to host comes up.
Grocery Shopping: We recommend doing this 2-3 days in advance otherwise you risk some of your produce/florals not being quite as fresh as you’d like. Don’t forget to take your copy of the book to the store with you to match to your flowers.
The Day Before
Make the mini-pies one day in advance and store in the fridge until ready to serve.
We really recommend making the dip the day of the party BUT you can make the bacon a day in advance and store in the fridge. That is if you have enough self control to not snack on it. See recipe for easy preparation and less grease cleanup.
Prepare your giant ice cubes. Make more than one batch or buy two sets of trays.
The Day Of:
3-4 hours before guests arrive set our your flowers and serve ware. You can lay this all out on the kitchen island so as guests arrive they can sip and snack and stand around chatting. Or if you have a big coffee table, this can all be arranged on the coffee table so you can sit and relax.
2 hours before guests arrive start assembling the cowboy crack dip.
1 hour before guests arrive: light your candles so that yummy smell can start filling up your home.
1 hour before guests arrive: make your old fashioneds and set up your drink station with your cocktail in a pretty pitcher and a low ball glass for each guest.
30 minutes before guests arrive: Set out your foods on pretty trays. Don’t forget to open that bag of cheese curds for easy, no work, snacking.
Right before your guests arrive turn on some music (don’t forget the custom Spotify playlist we put together) to set the vibe and pour yourself a drink. You earned it.
Printables:
Shopping List
Here is a printable shopping list:
Recipes:
Here is a printable sheet for all three recipes:
Discussion Questions:
Here are our discussion questions:
Recipes:
See above printables section for a free downloadable pdf of these recipes and a grocery shopping list.
Big Batch Old Fashioneds:
(Makes 12 drinks)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups Wild Turkey 101 bourbon
1 1/2 cups Rittenhouse Rye whiskey
1/4 cup simple syrup (recipe below)
twelve dashes bitters (this one is worth ordering from Amazon, trust us)
1/4 cup dermerara sugar
1/4 cup water
orange slices for garnish
large ice cubes.
Directions:
Simple Syrup:
Combine 1/2 cup demerara sugar and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar is disolved. Let cool to room temperature.
Old Fashioneds:
Combine bourbon, whiskey, cooled simple syrup, and bitters in a pitcher. Stir well.
Place one large ice cube in each lowball glass and rub an orange slice around the rim.
Pour old fashioneds (approx 2 oz each) over ice cube and garnish with orange slice.
Mini-Cherry Pies (makes 24 mini-pies)
Use Esther’s pie crust recipe from the back of the book. It makes 2 piecrusts.
Makes approximately 24 mini pies or one full size pie
Ingredients:
2 Cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons shortening
7 tablespoons water
4 14.5 cans tart canned cherries, drained slightly
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon almond extract
1 can whipped topping
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350F.
Measure the flour into a mixing bowl and mix the salt through it. Use your hands to work in the shortening until the shortening particles are the size of giant peas.
Sprinkle with water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing lightly with a fork until all the flour is moist. Gather the dough together with your fingers so it cleans the bowl. Press it firmly into two evenly divided balls. Then keep in waxed paper in the refrigerator or roll out for a pie.
Dust your counter with flour. Roll out your dough to not quite 1/8 inch thick. Roll lightly - don’t add too much flour, or the crust will be too tough.
Grease 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.
Using a small cup about 4” wide as a template, cut 12 circles out of the rolled crust. You might need to gather scraps and re-roll to get all 12, repeat with second crust. Gently smoosh the pie crusts down into each. Open your canned cherries and drain them slightly to remove some of the extra liquid. In a medium mixing bowl empty your canned cherries and add 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 tablespoon almond extract and mix together. Spoon mixture into each crust filled muffin tin to about 3/4 full. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until the crust is lightly golden and the filling has begun to bubble.
Substitutions:
Pie crust: Homemade pie crust not your thing or you find this recipe too complicated? Feel free to sub out with Pillsbury Pie Crust.
Cherry Filling: We suggest canned tart cherries, but cherry pie filling can be used here as is also super yummy. Or if you don’t like cherries substitute with your favorite pie filling: peach, apple, pumpkin (especially if you are hosting around the holidays) would all be great options here.
Cowboy Crack with Fritos Scoops:
*** Pre-cook your bacon the 1-2 days before and store in the fridge until ready to assemble***
Ingredients
8 oz cream cheese softened
2 1/2 cups shredded cheese
1/3 cup green onions
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
8 pieces bacon
1/8 - 1/4 cup jalapeños, approx 2
Directions:
Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees.
For the bacon:
Line a 9x13 baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut open the package of bacon and lay it out on the parchment paper. It’s ok if the edges touch or even slightly overlap. Bacon will shrink down as it cook and we are going to crumble this later. Place your cooking sheet in the oven and set a timer for roughly 10 minutes. When the timer has gone off, pull the pan out of the oven and flip the bacon over with kitchen tongs to the other side. Put the sheet back in the oven and cook for another 10 minutes or so. Its always a good idea to keep an eye on your bacon peeking in every couple of minutes and repeating the flipping process until the bacon is nice and crisp on both side. This should take approximately 10-20 minutes. Remove your
Bacon from the pan and place on a paper towel lined plate. Let the pan with the parchment paper cool down until the grease is congealed, then take the parchment paper and throw it away (or you can scrape the grease off into a small mason jar and store in the fridge - you never know when bacon grease can come in handy - what would Ivan say if he saw you throwing that bacon grease away?). If you are storing your bacon for use tomorrow, wait until it cools to room temperature and then place in an air tight container in the fridge.
For the Dip:
Preheat your oven to 350F (or reduce the temperature if you are making this the same day)
Spray your baking dish with non stick spray.
Set your cream cheese out on a plate to soften to room temperature (you an hurry this process along if you have a soften setting on your microwave).
On a cutting board, cut the tops off your jalapeño and slice lenghtwise. Scape the inside of the pepper with a small spoon to de-seed your jalapeños and remove the white pith (lining) of the jalepeno off with a small spoon unless you like thing spicy. Discard seeds and pith.
In a medium mixing bowl, stir together softened cream cheese, mayo, and sour cream (you can use a Kitchenaid style mixer for this step or even a hand mixer). Add 2 cups shredded cheese (save the other half cup for the top)
Add bacon, onions, cilantro, and jalapenos. Stir together.
Spoon into prepared baking dish and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and golden.
Serve hot with chips. We love Fritos scoops but any corn or tortilla chip will do.
And last but not least, what book club is complete without the discussion? See below for a few questions we came up with to get the conversation started. Don’t forget to go back up printables section for a free downloadable pdf of these questions.
Discussion Questions/Conversation Prompts:
This book centers around an elderly woman, Esther, and her group of lifelong friends who are called ‘The Funeral Ladies”. Throughout the book the elderly are discussed with care and respect even thought they might be out of touch with modern technologies. How does this view clash with our culture’s view of the elderly?
Grief, loss, and regret are reoccurring themes throughout the book. How did each character handle this aspect of their lives?
In Iris there is a continual internal push and pull - a push toward desiring something bigger for her future and a pull from not wanting to give up her idyllic small town life. How does this impact the decisions she makes in the novel?
The lake town of Ellerie and the Northwoods of Wisconsin anchor the story in such a unique way. How do you see the setting of this book impacting the story?
Cooper’s PTSD, which was also mirrored in Esther’s late husband Felix’s battle fatigue, played a huge role in this book. Why did his PTSD get worse in the peace of Ellerie County?
The close-knit community in this book recalls a bygone era when you spent a life building relationships with your neighbors. How does the community of Ellerie County impact the main characters?
The preparing and eating of food is a central piece of this book. How did food form a core element to each of the main characters?
What role did faith, specifically Catholic faith, play in each of the character’s lives?
How did the women of Larson family support each other despite, and because of, their personality differences?
Do you have a community cookbook on your shelves, and if so what recipes are your favorites?
This was such a fun post for us to put together but we want to hear from you. Is this something you find useful? Take a moment to let us know how you feel about this kit.
Now, go forth and book club!
This makes me miss my book club so badly! Haven’t found one in my new area! 😞😞😩