Monday, November 8, 2010

October Recipes

Before we meet again, I figured I better post these!

Southwest Chili

I made it up, so no real recipe here.
Pretty much ground beef cooked with onions and chili powder, added to black beans I cooked, green peppers, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder and salt to taste.
Simmer for a long time.
Add some frozen corn.
People seemed to like trying the cottage cheese on top for variety. We also had cheese and/or cilantro.

Thanks to Ann for sharing her

Perfectly Sweet and Moist Corn Muffins

3 eggs

1/2 cup oil

3/4 cup sugar

2-3 Tbl. honey for extra sweetness, if desired (optional)

1 can creamed corn

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350*. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. In another bowl mix well eggs, oil, sugar and corn. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour into prepared 9x11 pan or 18 lined cupcake cups. Bake for about 22 minutes.

Broiled Zucchini

Thinly slice zucchini and coat with olive oil. Broil one side, flip, sprinkle with salt and Parmesan cheese. Broil 'til golden brown.

Lemon Tea

Sorry, no recipe here, either. Just water, honey, lemon, and lemon zest.

Caramel Sauce

1 1/2 c sugar

1 c Karo syrup

1 1/2 cubes butter

1 1/2 c cream

2 tsp vanilla

Mix sugar and syrup and bring to boil. Gradually add butter and cream three times alternated. Stir to a softball stage (cook longer if you want caramels to wrap and eat as candy instead of caramel sauce). Add vanilla. Enjoy!

Ginger Snaps

1 c sugar

3/4 c shortening

1/4 c molasses

1 egg

2 c flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1 tsp ginger

Cream shortening and sugar. Add egg and molasses. Sift dry ingredients and add. Roll balls into fresh ginger mixed with sugar. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet @ 375 for 8-15 min., depending on desired snappiness.

We served them warm with pumpkin ice cream sandwiched between two of them.

We like to freeze cookie dough logs wrapped in waxed paper and then sealed in a plastic bag for fresh cookies whenever needed :)

Sunday, October 31, 2010

October Meeting at Christie's House

Christie hosted another great book club!  She made us wonderful food that was perfect for the rainy night that is was.  Fall is here!!






I loved this lemon tea! Just like Alice did!


Mmmm mmm good!  What I didn't get a picture of was the other dessert... ice cream sandwich cookies made with the best soft ginger cookies! Recipe please!!

We had a really great discussion about Early Onset Alzheimer's, a truly tragic disease.  I really enjoyed the comments from everyone and their perspectives.

My camera was acting (and still is) a little weird and the photos I took of everyone were overexposed.  I made them black and white so we don't all look like vampires! Sorry!






We missed those of you who weren't there and look forward to seeing you next month at Brenda's.  Don't forget we are meeting the second Thursday in November (the 11th) to review The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

More Printable Book Plates

For these printable book plates go here.  I think they are beautiful!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Book Club!


Book Club is Thursday Night 7:00 at Christie's home. 
See you there!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Free Printable Bookplates



Aren't these book plates great!  I was reading one of my favorite blogs this morning and saw them.  Click here to go to the link where you can print them for free!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Book Club At Bethany's



Bethany was the perfect hostess who provided us with some tasty treats.  We had sparkling pink lemonade, Cesar salad, sweet crunch grapes and...


delicious chicken salad croissant sandwiches!

(They were so good I had to sneak in the kitchen and have seconds.)

Then to top it all off we had strawberry shortcake -- it was the best.  Bethany made the pound cake from scratch and it was PERFECT!  Bethany, I do hope that the recipe will be posted soon because I have a rumbly in my tummy for some more!

We had a great time!  Thanks Bethany for having us!

(Oh & I have to apologize for the photos this month they are all pretty blurry -- I am not sure what happened!)


Bethany & Mariana

Heidi & Kristie

Christie, Anne, Kara

Shannon & Brenda Sue

We can't wait to see everyone next month at Christie's to review Still Alice!!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Book Club Tomorrow Night!!



Book Club tomorrow night @ Bethany's!!
7:00 pm
Be there or be square!
(Bethany would you mind e-mailing your address?  Thanks!)

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Book Club at Stephanie's

Stephanie hosted book club this month and she treated us to some amazing food.  Unfortunately I was so distracted by the goodness that I forgot to take pictures!!  So Brenda grabbed my camera and snapped a few photos of all the empty dishes... 


We had pasta with a choice of three sauces (marinara, Alfredo & pesto)  -- most of us put all three on our pasta. There was a beautiful salad, watermelon and crostini topped with tomatoes and basil.


Brenda did manage to grab a picture of a plate and one of dessert -- mmmm


Shauna led us in a great discussion about Jane Eyre and shared some of her favorite passages from the book. We also voted on books (see post below) and we had a hard time choosing from so many great books.

Thanks so much to both Stephanie and Shauna for such a  great night.  As always we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly!


Christie, Shauna & Stephanie


Shannon, Heidi & Bethany


Brenda Sue & Shauna


Robyn & Rebecca


And finally we have Kara, and our newest member sweet baby Iris.

We'll see you next month at Bethany's house where we will discuss Cold Comfort Farm.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

READING LIST

Get you list ready to take to the bookstore -- here is what we are reading...

October -- Still Alice by Lisa Genova
     Hosted by Christie and reviewed by Heidi

November -- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
     Hosted by Brenda and reviewed by Bethany

December -- PARTY!!
     Hosted by Shauna

January -- The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
     Hosted by Heidi and reviewed by Kara

February -- Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
     Hosted by Shannon and reviewed by Britney

March -- Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins
     Hosted by Kristie and reviewed by Brenda

April -- Little Bee by Chris Cleave
     Hosted by Kara and reviewed by Robyn

May -- The Boy in Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
     Hosted by Robyn and reviewed by Shannon

Monday, August 2, 2010

Robyn's Picks



WE DON'T WANT TO TELL YOU TOO MUCH ABOUT THIS BOOK.It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it.Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this:It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific.The story starts there, but the book doesn't.And it's what happens afterward that is most important.Once you have read it, you'll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds...




The literary sensation of the year, a book that redefines both family and narrative for the twenty-first century. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.


"It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born." 

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he’s done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. He is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.

With The Passage, award-winning author Justin Cronin has written both a relentlessly suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the face of unprecedented catastrophe and unimaginable danger. Its inventive storytelling, masterful prose, and depth of human insight mark it as a crucial and transcendent work of modern fiction. 

Shannon's Picks



When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.

But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences. 





Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins’s groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.


On the Design Sponge blog today they showcased some really great ways to store/display books.  It it making me want to redo my bookshelves -- maybe I should try organizing them by color?!

Being that you are also book lovers you should check out the post here.