Hosting My First Cookbook Club: Recipes & Tablescape
I love when an idea finally comes to life, especially when the girls actually leave the group chat and make something exciting happen!
A while back, a friend from church and I started talking about how fun it would be to start a cookbook club. We tossed the idea around for a while, and a few months later, we finally made it happen!
I was so excited about it that I volunteered to host our very first cookbook club at my house. The host gets to choose the cookbook for the month, and I picked one of my all time favorites, Measure with Your Heart. It felt like the perfect book to kick off our new tradition, and I couldn’t wait to see which recipes everyone would choose to make.
Luckily, I already had a lot of the dining supplies from my Girlies in the Garden dinner party I hosted over the summer, so I was able to reuse many of those pieces. This time, I gave the table more of a fall feel for cookbook club, and I think it came together perfectly.
I had so much fun adding all the little details and making the space feel warm and cozy for everyone. I can’t wait to share all of the photos, what I made, what everyone brought, and all the details from our very first cookbook club!
What is Cookbook Club?
A cookbook club is basically a book club, but instead of reading the book, you cook from it!
The host chooses a cookbook, and everyone picks one or two recipes from the book to make and bring to the gathering. Since I was hosting our first cookbook club, I chose Measure with Your Heart. I sent everyone a photo of the table of contents so they could look through the recipes and choose what sounded good to them. Once everyone picked their recipes, I sent them a photo of the recipe straight from the cookbook.
Then we all showed up with our dishes and got to try a bunch of different recipes from the same cookbook! It’s such a fun way to try recipes you may not have chosen to make on your own, and you get a pretty good feel for the cookbook before buying it. Although, by the end of the night, almost everyone ended up purchasing their own copy!
Why I Chose Measure with Your Heart
Hannah Taylor is one of my favorite people to follow online. She’s silly, relatable, and shares such a fun and relaxed approach to cooking for her family. I love her energy and the way she makes cooking feel less complicated and more about enjoying the process, which is exactly how I like to cook too.
I already loved Measure with Your Heart, so it felt like the perfect cookbook to kick off our very first cookbook club!
Here’s What I Made From the Cookbook
Since I was hosting, naturally I couldn’t choose just one recipe! I ended up making four: the Chicken Pot Pie, Corn Fritters, Georgia Peach Cheesecake, and Mama’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.
I wanted to make a little bit of everything, and this ended up being such a good mix for the night. The best part was getting to try all of these recipes alongside everything the girls brought!
The Chicken Pot Pie was SO good that I’ve already made it three times since cookbook club night! I even made one for a postpartum friend, and I have a feeling this is going to be one of those recipes I make over and over again. It’s the ultimate cozy comfort meal and definitely one of my favorite recipes from the book so far.
I love a dinner party that starts at sunset and somehow leads into nearly midnight. There’s just something about good food, a table full of friends, and conversations that make you completely lose track of time.
I also made a couple of easy swaps for one of our guests who eats gluten free. I made the Corn Fritters with gluten free flour, and I made a second Chicken Pot Pie using a store bought gluten free crust. Both were super easy adjustments and meant she could still enjoy everything without having to make a completely separate meal.
A photo before I ended up adding all the pumpkins.
I’m already so excited to do another cookbook club! One thing that made hosting so much easier was prepping as much as possible the night before.
For the Chicken Pot Pie, I made the filling and crust the night before, then assembled and baked everything the day of. I also prepped the cheesecake and its filling ahead of time, mixed up the Corn Fritter batter, and made the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie dough. By the time everyone arrived, most of the work was already done, and I could actually enjoy the evening instead of spending the entire time in the kitchen.
If you’re hosting a cookbook club, I definitely recommend choosing a few things you can prep the night before. It makes the day of so much more relaxed, which is exactly how a dinner party should feel!
Georgia Peach Cheesecake
That Georgia Peach Cheesecake was AMAZING, and I’m not even a big cheesecake gal! It was easily one of my favorite surprises of the night. And whatever you do, don’t skip the homemade whipped topping. It’s key and makes the whole dessert!
I made Hannah Taylor’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookies as a little to go party favor for everyone. I love sending guests home with something after a dinner party, and I usually do this with homemade granola. For cookbook club, I thought it would be fun to keep the favor on theme and use one of Hannah’s cookie recipes instead. A little something sweet for everyone to take home!
We were eating GOOD!! This is such a fun way to try so many recipes from one cookbook without having to make them all yourself. I also love that it gets you out of your comfort zone a little. Everyone chooses something different, so you end up trying dishes you may have skipped right over if you were cooking from the book on your own. And honestly, that might be my favorite part of cookbook club!
I loved the cowboy caviar. I ended up making a batch the next day to have with rice and grilled chicken.
More Hosting Posts:
Christmas Cookie Decorating with Toddlers + Sugar Cookie Recipe
Girlies in the Garden: A Summer Dinner Party Menu & Hosting Ideas
Christmas Cookie Decorating Lunch Party!
Christmas Cookie Decorating & Mocktails for Moms
Our Cozy Thanksgiving Dinner with the Family | 2024
Our 2025 Christmas Season
Christmas 2024: Celebrations, The Food, & Gifts from Santa!
One of my favorite parts of cookbook club is simply getting together around the table. We get to chat, enjoy really good food, create new friendships, and bond over the deliciousness everyone brought to share. There’s something special about sitting around a table together, passing dishes back and forth, laughing, and getting to know each other better. The food may be what brings everyone together, but the friendships are what make the night so special.
Oh and the scalloped potatoes! I can’t forget these. I want to make these for Thanksgiving.
I hope you enjoyed all the photos from our first cookbook club! I already cannot wait for the next one. Please send me your cookbook recommendations because we’re going to need some ideas for our next get together!
Hopefully this post inspired you to start something similar with your own group of friends. It was such a fun excuse to get everyone together, try new recipes, sit around the table, and enjoy a really good night with friends.
I loved it so much that I’m already thinking about starting a cookbook club in our neighborhood too. Because apparently one cookbook club just isn’t enough for me!
