I recently hosted Book Club… for the very first time since I first joined this amazing group of women about 5 or 6 years ago. The group was started by a fabulous woman ten years ago, Jenny, who has created such a wonderful space for us all to share our accomplishments, goals and struggles in the most safe and reliably empowering way. I don’t always attend regularly but the monthly get together has always left me feeling apart of something so impressive; a bunch of women who support one another. Each month the group rotates homes all over Los Angeles and I was very excited for everyone to come see mine, meet Arthur and little Pierre, and hopefully feel as welcomed as I always do. Since we have such a variety of of women in the group we all aim to be more conscious about other’s dietary preferences and so I always try to bring something dairy free, vegan or gluten-free. So when I was thinking about what I’d serve/have Arthur make us, I wanted something inclusive and also me. And since my only culinary talent lies in creating beautiful cheese plates, I figured I would expand it to include crudités, which is just a fancy way to say chopped veggies and dip. So I got Arthur to whip up some vegan/gluten free pub cheese dip and I found all the pretty vegetables at the store.

The purple cauliflower was probably the most impressive of them all, but I gasped when I found the cute baby carrots with their little greens leafs attached! The goal for me was just a variety of color. The vegan/gluten free hummus I found isn’t pictured but was a perfect addition with all the veggies. I typically do about three cheeses, so in addition to my vegan cheese dip I added my usual suspects, manchego and a creamy brie adjacent, camembert. When it comes to picking cheeses you always want diversity in texture and taste so I always have something creamy and something crumbly. For accompaniments, I always do something salty and something sweet: toffee peanuts, olives, dried fruit, peppered salami and the star of the show, raw honeycomb, which is fully edible if you’re wondering, and where all my bragging rights stem from! Enjoy!