Christmas Party 2015

Last week was the Christmas Party and it was lotsa lotsa fun! Shauna hosted and the food was delicious as always! We missed those of you that couldn't make it!

Sorry I didn't get pictures of all the food and all the gifts, they were all great!

Britney with her candy-filled lamp!

Sumo wrestler, anyone?

Oops, I guess it went out of focus when I set the timer!

Shannon was on serious pain killers because of her surgery that morning so she had TOOOONS of fun!!

Eating shot, sorry Stephanie!! :)

Shauna's house was decorated so beautifully!

I'm enjoying hot chocolate in my new favorite mug, thank you Heidi!!!

Some of the delicious food!!!

If you're willing to share your recipe, please post it on here (or email me?). We would love all the recipes possible!!!


Oven Roasted Cauliflower with Garlic, Olive oil, and Lemon Juice:

5 cups cauliflower, cut to eating size (or 1 of those costco bags to make it easy)1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil1 TB garlic, minced/grated2 TB lemon juice1 tsp salt1/2 tsp pepper2 TB parm cheese, grated (I use much more than 2 TB)
Preheat oven to 500 (I did 450) degrees. Place cauliflower in large roasting pan. Drizzle the olive oil over the cauliflower and season with the garlic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Put in oven for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure even roasting. Remove from oven and sprinkle with parm cheese. 

October Book Club!

Britney hosted this month...so here is a blurry picture of her!

And as is true for all book clubs, the food was wonderful!

We reviewed Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.

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!

January Book Club

Book Club was at my house this month.  Thanks ladies for braving the cold temperatures and making it a great night.

Unfortunately not everyone read the book -- OK, only Kara read the book -- but there were several of us that came super close to finishing.  This seems to happen with the book we read over the holidays.  We usually pick a longer book because we think we will have more time to read -- but really I think we have less.

Kara brought up some great points and told us about the metaphors though out the book.  She also brought a copy of a painting discussed in the book.  Thanks Kara for all you work.

We had homemade tomato soup and tea sandwiches...

and chocolate cheesecake...

Just for fun we took a quiz about some of the past books we have read.  Kara was the big winner -- remembering the most!  I am pretty sure Brenda was the "idiot" ha ha!

Britney & Robyn

Kristie & Christie

The always photographed together Shannon & Bethany

 

Brenda, Heidi, Kara & our current mascot Iris

We'll see you all next month at Shannon house to review Major Pettegrew's Last Stand

The Best White Elephant Ever!

"Mom, can you tell the lady who gave you this thank you?!"

When Myles got it out and saw that it was brand new, he asked me if we should give it to my grandma for Christmas. I considered, but the girls seriously objected.

I thought it was especially fun to post on our blog since we all happened to be reading at the time.

We can't wait to try out the hand waxing station it came with, as well.

So, thanks, Shannon. Great choice!

Christmas Par-tay

The Christmas party was a hit again this year. Thanks so much Shauna for hosting!  We loved the "bow game" where we had to watch Shauna like a hawk to see where she put her bow (on her body) -- we had to follow her lead or we were out.  Kristie was the big winner & Shannon was the big looser.

First the food... and this isn't even all of it!

And now for the lovely ladies...

( I do have to apologize for the blurry photos - I blame Shauna and her near dark conditions) ha!

Kristie & Brenda

Christie & Kara

Bethany & Shannon

Robyn & Britney

Shauna & Heidi (wow is my head so much bigger than Shauna's)

And now for the white elephant exchange.

It was a blast!  One of the best for sure!

Brenda with her ear plugs, sleeping mask and some sort of foot spray(?)

Britney will be whipping up some new maternity clothes with her handy dandy Sew Quick hand-held sewing machine!!

Shannon got the coveted (by Kara) K-Mart watch

Here is Shauna with her soon to be stolen earrings.

Christie was just in love with her monkey socks -- can't you tell?

Not to be left out of the monkey mayhem Kristie got some hot pajamas.  So hot in fact that I took them home!

Ooohhh what is it?

One hot photo of Britney's husband!!

The secret was that under that picture was really this print...

If you would like to print one out for yourself just go here.

Now back to the white elephants...

Robyn received an onion, some garlic and...

Hannah Montana Crest -- who wouldn't want that I ask!?

And finally Shannon got to shakin' her gourd -- if you know what I mean.

Thanks everyone for such a fun night!  And thanks again to Shauna for hosting.  These little treats were our parting favor. They were filled with goodies. Now Don't forget to read The Idiot for next month or Shauna will expect her favor back.

 

See you next year!!

(January 7th to be exact)