Plots & Pans: The Book Club Cookbook is two books in one. It is a cookbook chock full of recipes from appetizers to main dishes to desserts, as well as a guide on how to initiate and sustain a literary book club. The recipes and selected readings originated from the SWIVEL Book Club, a group that has been meeting for over twelve years and whose passion for reading and supping are strongly reflected here. The recipes have been compiled and tested over the past three years and served with gusto at meeting of the book club.

Plots & Pans is organized into twelve chapters, each representing a different book theme and accompanied by a complete menu. SWIVEL meetings begin with a tasty potluck dinner, so the recipes are designed to be made in advance and easily transported to the meeting. They are also easy to prepare, often using ready-made ingredients to hasten the cooking process.

Appetizers might include savory miniature puffs or mushroom turnovers. Main dishes range from black bean chili to a more complex recipe for lamb stuffed with spinach, mint and tomato. Salads include basics like simple greens dressed with an excellent vinaigrette to more exotic ones such as wild mushrooms and goat cheese with honey dressing. Each menu offers a selection of desserts from cookies and cakes to puddings and tortes, but an entire chapter is devoted to the sweet tooth in all of us.

The book themes include thoughtful information on forming a book club with ideas for planning meetings, choosing reading lists and organizing group events. Meeting themes cover works by single authors, biography, children's literature, movies made into film and literary awards. Dishes reflect the author or them under discussion: the Ann-Marie MacDonald section features Lebanese and Maritime cooking; Roddy Doyle's offers an Irish-based menu; Spanish dishes accompany the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella.

Plots & Pans is a cookbook that seamlessly combines the literary with the delectable.

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The Swivel Book Club is a group of twelve women and men who live and work in the Ottawa area. Many, now retired from careers in education, are avid gardeners, travellers and community volunteers. Their mutual delight in reading, discussion, cooking and eating inspired this collection.

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"Every now and then, an idea comes bouncing along that feels so good, you just want to stand up and applaud it... From Balzac to balsamic, Dante to Dijon, the SWIVEL Collective seems to have an endless store of great suggestions."— The Ottawa Citizen