All Booked Up

Tuesday night, I hosted my book club. It’s not a hard job. As host, you basically have three duties: 1) buy a bottle of red and a bottle of white and put out some wine glasses; 2) bake or buy some kind of dessert; and 3) provide a selection of four or five books on which the group will vote to read for the next meeting. I have been a member of this group since 1996 – almost 18 years – so I have hosted many times.

Yesterday I baked a batch of brownies and made a simple ganache frosting by heating up cream and pouring it over 8 oz. of chocolate chips to melt, then adding a teaspoon of instant coffee. Because I was feeling particularly festive and clever, I crunched up three or four candy canes and sprinkled them over the top of the brownies after I frosted them with the ganache, for some added Christmas spirit. Furthermore, I made a special trip to our neighborhood liquor store where I bought a nice red zin and a crisp pinot grigio. I cleaned the house and set up the room for our gathering at 7:30.

Bill and I were sitting down and eating a quick dinner at 6:45, when – and I don’t know why – it suddenly hit me that I hadn’t gotten any books on which the members could vote for next time. Generally, the host actually has the books on hand so that the members can peruse them prior to making their collective decision. I had nothing. I said a bad word.

Thank goodness that I keep a running list of books that I want to read. Our book club has two rules regarding the books: 1) (and aren’t I using a lot of numerated lists in this post?) the book must be available in paperback; and 2) the book selected must be a book that no one in the group has already read.

The problem with my list of books I want to read is that it includes hard cover books, and it also includes many mysteries (which I happen to love but the rest of the group doesn’t). In a matter of minutes, however, Bill had figured out the perfect answer: 1) (I can’t resist) go through my list, and upon finding a suitable book, find it on Amazon; 2) hit the “share” button and email it to him; and 3) he would do the rest.

I used my list, coupled with the section of Amazon that says “customers who bought this item also bought…”, and was able, in about 20 minutes, to come up with a list of six books. Bill worked his magic, and in 10 more minutes, he handed me six sheets of paper, each with a picture of a book and the synopsis. I had time to pour myself a glass of wine to calm down!

Our book club was founded in 1994, and we have seen many members come and go over the years. It is a awesome group of women of different ages and different backgrounds who all happen to love to read. Our conversations about the books are always interesting but never snooty or overly intellectual. Just intellectual enough! And we digress – a lot! I will, of course, be unable to attend for the next four months or so as I will be in AZ. But I will continue to read the books they select and maybe even – if I’m really ambitious – electronically provide my thoughts about the book, perhaps via Nanaswhimsies!

They, by the way, didn’t blink an eye when I handed them sheets of paper instead of books. Thanks friends.

In addition to my numerated lists, I also seem to be using a lot more exclamation points than usual. Too much coffee perhaps? And now that I’ve mentioned it, I’m not going to change them!

Yesterday morning I made my annual holiday batch of caramel corn. Who doesn’t like caramel corn? I can tell you that I brought a batch in a tin to my son with whom I ate lunch, and he was very happy. I even snuck in a leftover brownie from last night. The recipe is simple and delicious.

Caramel Corn

Ingredients
1 c. butter
2 c. brown sugar
½ c. corn syrup
1 t. salt
½ t. soda
1 t. vanilla
5 quarts popped popcorn

Process
Preheat oven to 250 and place popped corn on tray(s) in oven to keep warm.

In medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Then boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and add baking soda and vanilla. Pour in then stream over corn; stir to coat.

Bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven; let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

Nana’s Notes: Every year, including this year, I use too much popcorn. The result is the corn isn’t as thickly coated as I would like. Use less. Pretend I said 4 quarts of popped corn.

And now......

Cream Cheese Kolacky Cookie, via Margaret M.


Ingredients
3 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. vanilla (lemon or orange are nice also, depending on what filling you use)
1/2 cup filling (jam or pie filling)
1/4 - 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Process
Mix the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add vanilla. Add the flour slowly until well blended. Shape into a log and chill overnight or for several hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll the log in the powdered sugar. Slice off 1/8 in thick slices and place about 1/2 tsp filling in the middle of the cookie. Fold ends of cookie over the jam. (The original recipe calls for rolling out the dough and cutting 2-1/2 inch squares then overlapping opposite corners. The modification is just easier when we are doing this with kids, and we don't handle the dough as much, so it's flakier). Place on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven. If desired, sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar after cooling.

Source (before modifications) : Allrecipes

Makes about 3 dozen.

Nana's Notes: Thanks for the great recipe. I rolled the dough out and used a biscuit cutter to cut circles. I placed about a half tsp of blueberry or apricot peach preserves in the center and folded the cookie over. I didn't have a lot of success getting them to

stick. But, while they aren't lovely, they are definitely delicious. I should have rolled them thinner and used egg to seal.

Anyone else have a recipe they want to share? Comment or send an email to the address on top right.