Food Ideas for "Station Eleven" {by Emily St. John Mandel}

We read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel this past month.

The whole idea behind this menu was to think organic camping food. In the book there is a group of traveling actors and musicians that go from town to town performing for the people and bringing art and music to help lift their spirits. They are called "The Traveling Symphony".  So I wanted to do the food based around them. What would "The Traveling Symphony" eat while on the road. I wanted everything to be homemade, organic from a garden or scavenged from a house.

{Drinks}

The drinks should look like you have found only one or two of each kind in a random place along the road. You could do a couple of cans of a drink, bottles of different drinks or even plastic bottles. Think random drinks and you've got the perfect mixture.

{Sides and Salads}

I wanted all the sides and salads to be as organic as possible.

Corn on the Cob is a must I think for a summer BBQ/camp dinner. Pull the husks down and tie them with twine. Then add this wonderful butter spread on them and throw them on the grill. They tasted divine. Thanks Erika for binging this and adding that wonderful butter mixture.

When you keep the husks on it makes it easier to BBQ them.

If you can try to make Homemade Rolls.
Bread is a rarity in the future of this book so when they get bread it's a treat.

We had two beautiful Organic Veggie trays brought. Elizabeth found this fabulous purple cauliflower to add to her tray which gave it such a rainbow look of perfection. And Bryn brought this Veggie tray in the cutest basket and it looked so beautiful and well put together I didn't want to ruin it by taking any veggies. Thanks girls for bringing these.

Summer brought Homemade Baked Beans that was her mother's recipe and they were delicious. Thanks for slaving over a hot stove for these. Thanks to Whitney for bringing beans also. We had plenty of beans to go around. They were both delicious. We served them in little jars and tin cans.

And last but not least I can't go without Watermelon.
Thanks to Ashley we had a sweet and ripe watermelon to munch on.

Robin brought this amazing salad and she even made the dressing.

{Main Dish}

I figured people in this futuristic world hunted for their meat and so I chose chicken drumsticks brined and BBQ'd on the grill. In a cooking class I just attended I was told to always brine your chicken before you cook it. That way it will always be moist and not dry. We were going to do Elk Skewers but we forgot them at one of our houses so if you can get a little bit of elk for your book club members to try that would be a fun idea.

{Desserts}

Since there weren't very many baking type ovens in this future I wanted a No Bake Cheesecake with fresh Strawberries and a graham cracker crust. Rachel made these super cute mini Cheesecakes in cups to be served easily. We displayed them on this cute wood dessert stand.

Julie brought these delicious Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies. I wanted to include Chocolate since in the book Kirsten really likes chocolate and they rarely get it.

I made my indoor version of Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler with Blueberries. I cheated a little and baked it in my oven instead of over a campfire. But it turned out great.

I recently went to a cooking demonstration and they had these awesome natural leaf plates that I just loved so I searched on Amazon for them and found some.

Bring on the feast!

I hope this gave you some great ideas for your own Station Eleven Book Club.
A Big Thank You to Summer from Summer Nicole Photography for taking all the pictures.

Stay tuned for Book Club Ideas for Station Eleven and Summer's yummy Homemade Baked Beans Recipe of her mother's.

Check out our Station Eleven Book Review