Details for January

It appears that the majority of us like the idea of celebrating our anniversary at Mai Bistro on Dundas Street West near Burnhamthorpe.  The date is still Thursday the 5th. A big thanks to Susan for making the arrangements. See you there at the usual time. 

Remember Me Like This

Remember Me Like This was controversial and stirred up quite a lot of comment.  Like it or hate it, you have to admit that the conversation about this novel was fun.

Somehow we discovered that we had reached a milestone: it's twenty years since our book club began! This is cause for celebration and so we've ditched our plan to go to Lynda's next month. Instead we'll meet at a restaurant. Probably we'll stick with the same date: January 5th. The location hasn't been decided yet.  I'll post the information here as soon as we finalize our plan.

This change means that the date for book club at Lynda's has moved up to February 22nd. The book will be All our Names by Dinaw Mengestu.  And following that change, we'll go to Maureen's on March 23rd for Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien.

April 20th will be at Sue's.  We'll talk about The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall.
On May 11th the book will be 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad and we'll be at Saara's.

Books that were mentioned:

• A Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman
• The Party Wall by Catherine Leroux
• Sweetland by Michael Crummey

Movie recommendations:

• Arrival
• Moonlight
• Manchester by the Sea
• Mustang

And Netflix:

• Longmire
• Dicte
• 30 Degrees in February
• Case
• Rams
• Midnight Diner

Almond Cheddar Appetizers 

Ingredients:

1 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 medium onion, chopped
3/4 cup chopped almonds
6 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1 baguette

Preparation:

Combine mayonnaise and Worcestershire sauce.  Stir in cheese, onion, almonds and bacon.
Cut bread into 1/2 in. slices.  Spread with cheese mixture.  Cut each in half.  (or cut in half before spreading with cheese). Bake at 400 for 10 minutes or until bubbly. Yield: about 4 dozen.

Unbaked appetizers may be frozen. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet; freeze for 1 hour. Remove from the baking sheet and store in an airtight container for up to 2 months. When ready to use, place unthawed appetizers on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes or until bubbly.

Toblerone Shortbread

Ingredients:

2 cups room temperature butter
1 cup superfine sugar
1/2 cup corn starch
3 1/2 cups flour
2 bars (100g) toblerone chocolate (I used one big bar, around 300 g in all)
3 tbsp. icing sugar

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350 F.

Beat butter and superfine sugar in large bowl with mixer on high speed until light and fluffy. Mix flour and corn starch. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating well after each addition. Stir in chocolate.

Drop by heaping tablespoons 1 inch apart on baking sheet.  Bake until lightly browned. When cool sprinkle with icing sugar.