Monday, March 18, 2013

A Celebrity Among Us!

I was paging through the Feb. Ensign when I came across this beautiful picture!



Thanks for coming to see me, Brenda.  It was a good day for a visit from a friend.
Here's the.link to the article.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

March Book Club at Kara's


Kara hosted book club last night. We had a fabulous time and oooohed and aaaawed over her new house and great kitchen!

From that great kitchen Kara produced this masterpiece...
(okay, so I forgot to take a picture of it right out of the oven, but this it the same goodness she made) 




Under all the brown sugar and pecans were wonderful sweet potatoes!


Now imagine this bite all warm and good with some vanilla ice cream!

It was tasty stuff!

 We also had a really splendid discussion about The Catcher in the Rye. Many of us had read it before and it was interesting to see how our perspectives have changed (or haven't) from when we were young whippersnappers.

I have to say I always appreciate the different perspectives we have on each book. It makes for such an interesting discussion and I learn a lot from these smart ladies!

Stephanie, Heidi, Kara, Mariana, Bethany, Brenda & Britney Morgan was there too but had to leave early to she escaped the photo op)
Thanks so much Kara for hosting last minute and I know there were several requests for the recipe!

See you all next month at Morgan house -- we will probably meet the 2nd Thursday in April because of Spring Break -- more info to follow.

February Book Club




We came

We ate

We voted






Stephanie, Kristie, Kara, Shannon, Heidi Bethany & Morgan




As promised here is the Coconut cake recipe:

Coconut Cake
Recipe adapted from Marian Burros recipe in Cooking for Comfort

1 3/4 cups grated coconut
1 cup scaled milk
1 cup coconut milk
2 sticks butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups sifted cake flour OR 3 cups sifted all purpose flour minus 3 Tablespoons
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut two pieces of parchment (or waxed) paper to fit in the bottoms of two 9x13 round cake pans. Butter and flour the sides of the pan (I buttered the bottoms too)

2. Place the coconut in the scalded milk and let it cool while you make the rest of the cake.

3. Cream butter until light (about 3 min) Add the sugar and beat 4 min more.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add vanilla

5. Mix dry ingredients together and add alternately to the butter mixture with the cup of coconut milk.

6. Press the coconut into  strainer to remove the excess milk. (I saved some of the milk to use in making my frosting) Add the coconut to the batter.

7. Divide the batter evenly into the two pans. Bake 20-30 min until a tested comes out clean.

8. Cool the cakes for 10 min. then remove from pans to cool completely

9. Frost with your favorite frosting. I used a cream cheese frosting but a Seven minute frosting would be fantastic too!

10. Enjoy!




Sorry I've been so tardy posting!
After all the votes were counted the winners are...


April - Where'd You Go Bernadette @ Morgan's house, Heidi reviews
May - The Twentieth Wife @ Shauna's house, Bethany reviews
June - Beautiful Ruins @ Kristie's house, Mariana reviews
August - The Shoemaker's Wife @ Brenda's, Stephanie reviews
September - Edenbrooke @ Britney's, Shannon reviews
October - Mary Coin @ Heidi's, Kristie reviews
November - In the Woods @ Bethany's, Britney reviews
December - Christmas Party @ Kara's
January - At Home @ Shannon's house, reviewed by Kara