2011 List

February- A Tree Grows In Brooklyn * Rachel
March- A Vintage Affair * Lindsay
April- Plainsong * Sophia
May- Saving CeeCee Honeycut * Julie
June- She's Come Undone * Angie
July- A Long Way Gone * Brittany
August- Room * Brooke
September- Sarah's Quilt * Kim
October- Cold Sassy Tree * Leslie
November- Matched * Mariette
December- Christmas Party

Hey look!! I CAN post!

So last night at book club we determined that this here blog should get a bit more exciting.
RECIPES!!!!!
Share your fav recipes on here if you want to!

Last night's menu consisted of spinach salad, lemon cupcakes & parmesean & black pepper rolls.
We missed those of you who couldn't make it!

Spinach Salad
1 package baby spinach
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes (I just cut up 1 tomato)
1 avacado, diced
1/2 cup dried cranberries (oops! I forgot to add those last night dang it!)
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

Dressing
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp soy sauce

Whisk dressing together. Drizzle over salad ingredients.


Lemon Cupcakes w/ Cream Cheese Frosting
Lemon cupcakes were from a Duncan Heines cake mix. Simplicity is best!

Frosting:
1 stick unsalted sweet cream butter. room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese. room temperature
1tsp vanilla
About 4 cups powdered sugar.

Cream butter, cream cheese & vanilla together.
Add sugar one cup at at time until desired consitancy.


Parmesean & Black Pepper rolls
12 frozen Rhodes dinner rolls
2 T melted butter
Parmesean cheese (not the real grated kind, the stuff that comes in a green bottle that's almost like powder)
Fresh cracked black pepper

Let the rolls rise in a muffin tin for a few hours (until they are almost rising above the tin. I let mine rise 4hrs. Apparently my house is cold. Warmer temps will make it rise faster)
Pour a little butter over each roll letting it drip down around the roll into the bottom of the tin.
Sprinkle a little parm on each roll.
Then crack the pepper over each roll.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until roll (parm will turn brown sooner than the roll) is brown and looks done.

What We Will Be Reading

JANUARY: "The Secret Histroy," Donna Tartt (Shea)
FEBRUARY: "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," Dave Eggers (Sophia)
MARCH: "For One More Day," Mitch Albom (Aubrie)
APRIL: "Sundays at Tiffany's," James Patterson (Kris)
MAY: "Paris to the Moon," Adam Gophik (Angie)
JUNE: "Rebecca," Daphne Du Maurier (Rachel)
JULY: "Couldn't Keep it to Myself," Wally Lamb (Kim)
AUGUST: "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," Lisa See (Ashlie)
SEPTEMBER: "Hunger," Lan Samantha Chang (Lindsay)
OCTOBER: "Wuthering Heights" (Leslie)
NOVEMBER: "If I am Missing or Dead: A sister's story of love and murder," (Brooke)
DECEBER: "The Book Theif," Markus Zusak (Kelly)

Schedule Update

Thanks so much for hosting last night Leslie. I thought we had a great discussion and an awesome turnout.

I just wanted to update the schedule so that we are all clear through the end of the year. As we discussed last night, we are going to make December a book club party/planning session for the new year so be thinking of what selections you would like to make. Shea is going to take January, so we will plan from February on. Does everyone like having a chance to choose the book/lead the discussion/ and host? If everyone takes a turn, then it should only come around once a year, if that.

Can't wait for next month! I really enojoyed Brooke's selection.

A New Earth

Hey girls it's almost that time again! I hope you all have started A New Earth! I love it. I know it's by all means not one the funnest reads, it's kind of a hard one, but I feel that this is one of those books that needs to be given some good thought! After all Oprah loves it!!!! anyways I wanted to put out a reminder that it will be at my house(Les Doman) sept.11th At 7:00. Please e-mail me for directions ldasherduke@hotmail.com. Thanks and hope to see everyone soon! P.s. I think if you go onto Oprah.com it has some discussions on this book!

First Ever Retreat

How much fun was our Breaking Dawn overnighter in Jeremy Ranch last weekend??!?? Huge thanks to Aubrey for her generous use of their family's deluxe accomadations!

Left to right: Aubrie, Leslie, Kelly, Rachel, Shea, Errin, Laura, Lindsay, Kim

Let's Get Organized.

Here is the deal:

We thought it would be fun to have a journal or sorts for our book club. We wanted to make it accessible, fun and easy.

It is basically all things book club. We can post ideas about meetings and books. We will all have access to contribute to this blog (but we will also privatize it) so that when it is your turn to host, you can post pictures, directions to the meeting site, or whatever.

It will be fun to track our history this way!