The Flaming Spoons are coming to Conway this weekend.

No, the "Spoons" are not members of any rock group; they are the six women who belong to The Flaming Spoon Dinner Club.

Members of the group, which includes Nancy Pace, Kay Perry, Irene Wassell, Dorothy Clement, Martha Craig and Betty Reynolds, all of North Little Rock, will be at Hastings Books Music and Video in Conway from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday and 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday to sign copies their new cookbook, "Entertaining With The Flaming Spoons; Hot Ideas, Menus and Recipes." Copies of the cookbook will be available for purchase for $22.46 plus tax.

The 350-page, hardback cookbook contains 36 complete dinner menus arranged by seasons - summer, fall, winter and spring - and include an appetizer, entree, salad, vegetable, bread and dessert for each dinner, plus a few extras.

Each menu follows a theme, chosen by the hostess, and each member contributes a dish to the dinner. A few table-decorating ideas, coordinated with the dinner theme, are also included in the cookbook. Additionally, there are accounts of some of the amusing dinner club mishaps, including the way the club got its unusual name.

The Flaming Spoon Dinner Club began several years ago, the idea of Betty Reynolds, who, after her husband died, found she still wanted to cook for others. She shared her feelings with another friend, Dorothy Clements, also a widow. The two decided to get together once a month for dinner. Each invited one or two more widow friends, and the club was born.

It was at the third meeting of the club that the name was born. The hostess that night wanted to end the meal with cafe brulee, an after-dinner coffee that includes using brandy for flaming the coffee. None of them had ever made the drink before. They carefully followed the recipe, but one thing went wrong, then another, and before they knew it, the chafing dish was aflame, as was a wooden spoon one of them was using to stir the concoction. Thus the name, "The Flaming Spoon Dinner Club," was born.

The "Spoons" note that the recipes included in their cookbook "are a lifetime collection from good friends, family and favorite cookbooks and magazines." They introduce themselves to the reader on biography pages at the front of the cookbook, each biography complete with an artist's sketch of each "Spoon." And they each reiterate the club's motto: "All for fun and food for all."

For those unable to attend the Conway book-signing, more information is available at the Web site www.geocities.com/flamingspoons.

(Staff writer Carol Rolf may be reached at 505-1257 or e-mail crolf@thecabin.net.)