By Carolyn Niethammer
I think if we ask people to come to our book parties, we
should offer them something other than the chance to open their wallets and buy
our books.
When my western novel The
Piano Player came out, I planned a menu straight from the book. Rosie, my
main character, complains of having nothing to eat but beans at the stations on
her stage coach ride from California into Tombstone in 1882. So we had beans
cooked in my big black Dutch oven and tortillas. But when she arrives in
Tombstone, she boards at the Russ House, where real historical character Nellie
Cashman serves an extensive menus of French-inspired dishes. I picked one of
those dishes, Chicken a la Reine, and made that for my guests. I also made some
vintage desserts.
I suggested guests come in their Western finest if they
wished and some did. And because it was also a party for my 70th
birthday, I went all out and hired a real piano player, rented her a red dance
hall girl costume, and worked with her to come up with authentic 1880s music.
That was a little over the top, but we had a memorable afternoon in a real
historic bar that my husband turned into Frisco Rosie’s Saloon with some clever
signs.
Last weekend, I offered to throw a book party for my friend Dave
Devine who has a brand new book on the history of Tucson from the Gadsden
Purchase to now. He and his wife have had us to many dinner parties at their
home, and I was a little behind in reciprocating. He is having a bigger rollout
later in August, but I told him to invite his best friends to a private
shindig. I planned a menu that I hoped would be amusing and cover some of the
time period. This is what we had: 1880’s, beans and tortillas; 1896, Waldorf
salad; 1940s, lime Jello with pineapple; 1960s, pigs in a blanket; 2000s, kale
and quinoa salad; and for dessert, 1970s, strawberry and Cool Whip pie.
For drinks I had root beer, ginger ale, Gallo wine, Pabst
Blue Ribbon and Miller High Life beers. Also Coors packaged in vintage bottles.
Everybody remembered the Jello salad (the attendees skewed
older) and the pigs in a blanket with both mustard and chile dips went fast.
There was some pie left over, maybe the PeptoBismo pink Cool Whip scared people
off. I’m not sure if everyone found it as amusing to eat as I did to plan and
execute, but my friend sold a lot of books and we had a fun afternoon.
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Carolyn Niethammer grew up in the territorial capital of
Prescott, Arizona and now lives in Tucson in a downtown historic district. She
is the author of nine nonfiction books on southwestern subjects including five
cookbooks and two biographies. The Piano
Player is her first novel. Find her at www.cniethammer.com.
