February 26 Meeting at Rosemary's

Thinking about the blog and my hosting the February book club, I realized I seem to be always apologizing for something, the overcooked turkey, the undercooked broccoli, the overcooked crumb cake.   I apologize for the apologizes.   The dinner was good and crumb cake delicious and recipe will follow below for those interested.

It was a good discussion of the book  "Home " by Julie Andrews.   Most agreed the beginning of the book went into much detail with respect to her ancestry and got more interesting as her life and career evolved.    I mentioned that Julie Andrews had collaborated with her daughter in publishing many children's books which have been well received.    The writing endeavor was prompted by the unfortunate loss of her renowned lovely  singing voice due to a "botched " surgical  procedure in 1997.   Dame Julie is a person to be admired for her courage, talent, graciousness, and one who used adversity to redefine herself.  

Thank you all for coming and thanks for wine and goodies to share.   We missed you Pam, Pat and Grace.    It was a fun evening and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Julie Andrews  and sharing an evening with friends.

..... Till You Find your Dream
Rosemary

Recipe for crumb cake

1 box yellow cake mix (moist type)-prepare and bake for only 20 minutes in a greased sheet pan.
Crumb topping:       4 cups flour
                            2/3 cup brown sugar
                            2/3 cup sugar
                            1 Tbsp cinnamon.    -   Mix together
                             
                             3 sticks melted butter   
                             1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Melt butter in microwave -add vanilla after butter is melted in separate bowl, mix flour, both sugars and cinnamon.   Slowly add melted butter to flour mixture.  Using hands, mix and form large crimes.  Sprinkle crumb mixture onto half baked cake.  Return to oven and finish baking for another 20 minutes or until crumbs are golden.  Let cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Cake is also delicious warmed in microwave.
  Serve alone or with whipped cream, ice cream if you want to spike your cholesterol, but it sure is good.

January 15 Meeting at Louisa's

The evening started with everyone catching up with each other.  Edna brought the wedding album to share. What a memorable event.

Dinner was served with a lot of help from Elizabeth.  I couldn't do Book Club dinner without her help.
After dinner we began the book discussion. Unfortunately not everyone could get the book.  Some hadn't finished it, but everyone liked the cover....Ahhh
Carol wasn't pleased with the ending.  As we discussed it, Roe put her fingers in her ears not to hear it. We decided that we liked the book especially the letters about Edi during World War II.

My famous oatmeal cookies were then enjoyed by all.
We missed you Alice and Pat.
Thanks to everyone who brought goodies to share.
Louisa

November 20 Meeting at Grace's

"The Kitchen's Gods Wife" by AMY TAN

Sorry girls I have taken so long to write this blog. I left the next morning for NJ and PA to celebrate Thanksgiving.  It was a very busy week.

Pat we missed you, hope you had a good vacation. Pam arrived later that evening and was able to join in on some of the discussion and for dessert.   Actually, I forgot what we discussed.  As a matter of fact I remember very little about the book.  One thing I do remember is that  all of us agreed that we would not have been able to function in a marriage in that culture.  I don't even remember the names of the characters.  I personally did not enjoy the book and felt it was too wordy.  I did not like the characters and others felt the same way.

We started off the evening with Jello Shots celebrating our SIXTH ANNIVERSARY.  Naturally, we ate most of the evening.  I believe everyone enjoyed the evening and I am so blessed and thankful to call each and every one if you my friend.

October 15 Meeting at Carol's

Well, I made it girls with only one minor melt down during preparation for our October meeting.  I managed to provide a meal with some help from my sister and nobody passed away after eating.  I tried to stick with a southern style meal, but celebrated with my Halloween party theme.  Of course I didn't have a cork screw (thanks neighbor for the help), finally found the dusty wine glasses (thanks Ellen for drying them), and had no coffee (just hot tea)--sorry ladies.  I appreciate the wine, desserts, and small gift brought by fellow book club members.  After doing what we do best (eating), we got down to discussing the book, "The Last Original Wife" by Dorothea Benton Frank.  Most agreed that Wes was not a very considerate husband.  He and the children did not seem to consider all the hard work and sacrifices Leslie made during her life for them.  It was amazing that she could fall and hurt herself while out walking with him and it took 40 minutes before he noticed she wasn't still there.  Also, how could he hide having saved so much money without her knowledge.  She had to scrimp and save every penny while he spent whatever he wanted on himself.  It was pointed out they didn't seem to have any real deep love or affection between them and this was probably the root of the problem in their marriage.  Everybody felt she did the right thing in taking care of him when he had to go in for surgery.  After so many years of marriage, it only seemed right to be there in his time of need.  It was brought up that maybe she was selfish in leaving the way she did and by not caring if they were able to cope without her.  Another point of contention was how it seemed too convenient when she immediately ran into her old boyfriend and developed a relationship with him so quickly.  Some of us thought this relationship and marriage happened to soon.  In the back of my mind, I kept waiting for the fairytale ending where Wes would realize just how wonderful she had been (I think he did in the end), but that they would mend their fences and try again.  Well, folks--it just didn't happen.

 

Carol

September 17 Meeting at Pat's

We all (minus the world travelers) met at Pat's house and fit around the dining room table.  Since my daughter-in-law was taken ill, I had to go to plan B for a meal, but ended up having homemade bread, 2 vegetarian options in honor of Molly (character in book) and Jerry's blueberry "pie" for the Maine setting in the book.  All enjoyed Orphan Train.  Discussion included Alice's interest in Irish connection, the actual history of the orphan trains, the hardships of being an orphan, and possible epilog.  Hopefully it was a good time had by all.

Do I need to say more??

 

Pat

 

Reminder:  next month's meeting on October 16 at Carol's, we will select the month we wish to host for  2014 - 15, our seventh year!

August 21 Meeting at Ellen's

"The Amateur Marriage" by Anne Tyler was the book selection of Ellen.

The weather held out so Kathy, Edna and Carol came to swim, the water was cold but they took the plung.  They said they had a nice relaxing afternoon.

Sharon, Alice, Dricka and Pat were missed. Congrats to Pat, her son had a baby, her name is Clair.

We had snacks and then our meal of salad, baked shepherds pie, bread and lots of desserts.

The book discussion was iffy, some liked the book, some did not. Michael and Pauline were the main characters; when they got married Pauline changed her mind the day of the wedding at the church. She said they fought all the time and that Michael did not want to go anywhere or do anything.  Michael and some of Pauline's friends talked her out of it and they did get married.  It was not a good marriage, they did fight all the time. 

After 30 years of marriage, 3 children and 1 grandchild that they raised, Michael ended the marriage.  Michael remarried to a friend of Pauline's.  Pauline was killed in a car accident.

At the end of the book Michael who was still married, took a walk thru the old street that he and Pauline  used to live on, he knew just what she was going to say, "Is it you, is it really you!"

Ellen