Busy, Busy, But Finally Done!

Some weeks are busier then others and this week was one of those weeks. Since we home school through our former private school, Emily was able to join choir this year and that means that every Monday and Wednesday I have drive her to the school which is thirty minutes away, wait an hour for her, and then drive her home. Normally this isn't so bad, but this week we also had our monthly Cookbook Club meeting on Tuesday. It is a delicious pastime, but it usually has us baking all morning and rushing to get there on time.

Cookbook Club is themed and this month our theme was ethnic foods. Emily opted to make chicken curry which is one of her favorite dinner dishes, while I decided to make homemade rolls to go with her choice. You just have to love a club where everyone brings a dish, a recipe, and an appetite.

Then, I had to get my tires rotated and get the slow leak in my right rear tire fixed. And you can beleive me when I tell you that Cookbook Club is a much more enjoyable way to spend the morning then waiting in the automotive department of Sam's Club. Especially since I discovered the next day that the repair hadn't taken and my tire was almost flat to the rim. Can you guess where I will be again on Monday Morning (sigh).

The week got even busier as the weekend approached since Emily had not one, but two overnight invites. The first was for Friday night and included a cook out and a bonfire at the home of some family friends. The second was for Saturday night and was at her besties house. Since that left Bobby and I with a free evening, we decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary a day early and went out to dinner at a local steakhouse. One of those fun places where you get to throw all your peanut shells on the floor!
 

But the best part of my week, besides my anniversary, was when Emily finished reading Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library to me. This book by Chris Grabenstein is nothing less then sheer brilliance. Every day as Emily read to  me, I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. As the children in the book learned to work together to solve clues in the library and to find the secret way out, both Emily and I marveled at the mixture of futuristic high tech, the mention of classic books of every kind, and the general mystery. We were equally surprised at the end of the book to find that Chris had a clue for us to figure out. Emily and I got out the dry erase board and went to town deciphering. Once we had figured out the clue, Emily emailed Chris with our findings and was thrilled beyond belief when he emailed her back.

Yep, it was a busy week, but it was a great week!

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. And feel free to drop by my personal website, Fun With Aileen, any day of the week for even more on reading, writing, my very own early grade chapter book, Fern Valley, the sequels, Return To Fern Valley,  and Cooking In Fern Valley, along with my very first picture book, Quack and Daisy! I'm also on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

So Let Them Eat Cake...

As you have probably figured out by now, I like to take whatever has happened in my week and somehow connect it to the books I review. The past week involved my monthly get together at the library with my Cookbook Club. 



Two of my Cookbook Club pals Crystal and Amy!

Each month when the Cookbook Club gets together, we have a theme. April's theme was spaghetti sauce. Now it is true that I love to cook from scratch, but spaghetti sauce isn't one of the items I attempt. My idea of spaghetti is to open a jar of Ragu, add ground beef, and pour it over cooked angel hair pasta. That being the case, I chose to bring a dessert that I thought would go wonderfully with the various versions of spaghetti, an Italian Cream Cake.

Not having made many cakes from scratch in the past, I boldly went where I had not gone before... my mother's house. Okay, so I have been to my mother's house before, but that just sounded so dramatic that I couldn't resist. The reason I had to go to my  mother's house was to borrow two nine inch cake pans. I had two eight inch pans, I had a ten inch pan, I had assorted sizes of spring form pans, but not a single nine inch pan did I posses.

I then went home and set about to bake my cake. The only problem I ran into was that the recipe called for the batter to be put into three pans. But, being the creative soul that I am, I simply split the batter between two cake pans, and put the remaining batter in a bowl. Once the first two cakes were done, I washed the pan and baked the third. Problem solved. It smelled great when I was baking it, looked delicious when I was frosting it, and tasted fabulous when I was eating it! Everyone else must have thought it tasted fabulous as well, because all I came home with was one small slice.

Italian Cream Cake

Since I had also attended a volunteer brunch that same morning (I am a library volunteer), I squeezed my book choosing session in-between the two feasts. Because I had so lovingly baked a cake to share with friends, I thought it would be fun to review a book involving  cake. The book I found was Splat The Cat Takes The Cake an I Can Read Level One book.



Splat the cat wants to enter a cake contest, but his first attempt is a disaster. A very tired Splat goes to bed and dreams of a solution. He bakes a super cake and takes the super cake prize. His cake wasn't the tallest, wasn't the prettiest, and it wasn't the widest, so how did he win? To find out, you will have to be sure to read this book for yourself. And if you want to try your hand at an Italian Cream Cake, my recipe is as follows:

 Cake 
 

1 cup buttermilk 
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter softened
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup shredded coconut
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour

Icing

8 ounces cream cheese softened
1/2 cup butter softened
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
2 TBS milk
1/2 cup chopped pecans                                                               

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease three nine inch pans and flour them. Set aside. In a small bowl dissolve baking soda in buttermilk. Set aside.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla beating until well mixed. Add coconut, flour, and baking powder. Pour into pans and bake for thirty minutes or until toothpick comes out of center cleanly. Allow to cool.

To make frosting, combine cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and sugar. Mix well. Add milk a little at a time until desired consistency is reached. Spread between layers and then frost tops and sides. Sprinkle top with chopped pecans. (My picture doesn't show nuts because we have a member with nut allergies).

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. And feel free to drop by my personal website, Fun With Aileen, any day of the week for even more on reading, writing, my very own early grade chapter book, Fern Valley, and my soon to be released sequel, Return To Fern Valley, coming summer of 2014! I'm also on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.