Book club

I try to live my life with no regrets. That is not to say that I don't have any, but I really try to think through my decisions before I make them. This doesn't always work, but sometimes it does. The decision to start up our book club was one of those great decisions... one that I will never regret.

I just love this group of ladies! I love how we have bonded over books. I love that old relationships are more firmly rooted, and new ones are blossoming. I love how we laugh! The whole time is filled with laughter...such good medicine for my soul.

Susie hosted this summer season. She decided on a "southern style" menu.

Taffy's cheese ball with crackers

Pulled pork sandwiches

Sweet and Spicy coleslaw

Caprese salad

Chips

Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing

The food was delicious as always!

We wanted to read something a little more lighthearted. Taffy choose this seasons book Bright Lights, Big Bum (o.k. so it's really not bum, but you get the idea) by Jen Lancaster. This book was most certainly light hearted and it had a lot of funny parts. No one was crazy about the book though. The author has footnotes on the majority of pages and it gets really old to have to keep going down the page and then up the page. This is also a memoir. We found the author to be self- absorbed, whiny, and really just kind of mean. Not to be too harsh or anything. Jen Lancaster has authored other books, maybe they are better. This was a light and easy read. I brought it along and read it on the beach in Florida. It would fall into the summer reading category. It does have that going for it. The next book up is the Shack. Talk about a 360! I actually have read it already, but wanted to read it again. I think we will have some very interesting discussion.

Now about the cupcakes. Susie asked me to bring dessert. At first I was thinking a raspberry trifle with orange pound cake, then I thought coconut cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, but then I remembered a recipe I saw for chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing. That's it I thought. I ran it by Jen, and her response was "Who doesn't like chocolate and peanut butter?" As I was looking at the reviews online, I noticed that the icing was getting rave reviews, but the cupcakes were not. I thought to myself that is fine, I will just use the recipe I saw in Molly Wizenberg's book for chocolate cupcakes. Well the cupcakes and the frosting were both great, but not together. The flavor combination was not the problem. The cupcakes were very good and had a wonderful chocolate flavor. The problem was they were very moist and had a very tender crumb. You may wonder what's the problem with that. Nothing , really it's just that the icing is very thick and heavy. It was to much for this delicate cake. Molly has a ganache recipe and I think that would be great or a chocolate glaze which she suggests in her book. As far as the icing goes I would suggest them on a more dense cake, or maybe even a brownie. If you would like the recipes please click on the links below.

Chocolate cupcakes

Peanut butter icing

xoxo

Rach