Mardi Gras

Happy Mardi Gras!  Being the Louisiana girl I am, my most absolute favorite thing about Mardi Gras is the King Cake.  My dad and I have been making King Cake together since I was in Junior High - and now we each bake them and compare how pretty they are!  Here are the ones I made this year:

We use my grandmother's cinnamon roll recipe, fill the dough with cinnamon and sugar, and twist into shape.  Austin has been begging me put cream cheese in one, so the one on the left (and in the close up picture) is filled with cream cheese.  It was amazing!!!  I will definitely be making a plain one and a cream cheese filled one every year!

I love making these cakes because it provides an excuse to have people over and share good food with good friends!  It make be an all-afternoon process, but it's worth it in the end!

Laissez les bons temps roulet!!!

February Book Club Book - Entwined

This was our February pick for book club this month.  I was a little skeptical at first, but it was an enjoyable read.  It is a twist on the 12 dancing princesses - the girls lose their mother in childbirth and are forbidden to dance because the household is in mourning.  The girls find a secret passageway to a garden and pavilion where they meet the mysterious Keeper and he allows them to dance.  Of course, Keeper is not as innocent as he first appears.

The story also tells of the girls' relationship with their father - a learning experience that every growing teenage girl and her father have at some point or another.  The older girls also deal with suitors and potential husbands - and the oldest, Azalea, has to come to terms with the fact that one day she will be queen.  It was a little long for the story - the dances were described in too much detail for me, but it was still a fun read!

Next up - "South of Broad" and "Fever 1793"!

The Postmistress

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake is a different take on the beginning of the second World War.  Iris James is the postmistress in a small town on Cape Cod, and takes pride in caring for the people in the community.  She takes her job very seriously - and feels a patriotic duty to deliver the mail.

Frankie Bard is a young reporter who has something to prove.  She is living in London, reporting on the Blitz tearing the city apart.

Back in the US, Will and Emma Fitch are starting out their married life together.  Will, the town's doctor, loses a patient in childbirth, and decides to go to London and offer his services in the hospitals there.  Emma fears he will never return.  In case of his death, Will leaves a letter to Emma in the care of Iris, to give to Emma when she receives the news.  Will makes Iris promise to watch over Emma while he is gone.

While in London, Will meets Frankie in a bomb shelter.  The form a bond, and Will tells her how much he misses Emma.  When the bombing stops, they part ways.  As will walks away, he crosses the street, looking the wrong way, and is hit by a car.  Frankie rushes to him, and before he dies, he gives her a letter to mail to Emma.

Throughout her travels in Europe, Frankie holds on to the letter, but never mails it.  She goes on assignment and rides trains with refugees fleeing Germany through France.  She records hundreds of stories of the travelers. After broadcasting her last story from France, Frankie boards a boat back to the US.

This book has three major story lines that are impossible to explain without giving away the book.  The first part of the book, I thought Iris was the Postmistress, taking her role literally.  About 3/4 of the way through the book, it hit me that Frankie is really the postmistress the author refers to.  She is the one carrying the news of the war across the ocean, and then carrying the stories of the refugees to people who have the power to help them.  Lastly, she is entrusted with the letter from Will to Emma.  She ultimately brings Emma the news of his death.

The characters of this book are very well developed and the stories of the war going on are those untold by many.  Sarah Blake also includes the research she did for the book, as well as the discrepancies in the work and why she chose to include those.  I really enjoyed the book, and couldn't put it down in the last several chapters.  I also really enjoyed it because the plot was so new - and unpredictable.

Happy Reading!

katie

Grape Salad

Happy Tuesday!  Do I have a recipe for you today!  Grape Salad.  It's delicious!  For you skeptics out there, I was in your shoes once, and then I saw the light!  A lady that works with me made this for our Christmas Party, and she now has to make it for every office occasion.  I made it at my in-laws' last weekend, and my MIL requested the recipe.  So here it is!!!!

Grape Salad
4 cups red grapes
4 cups green grapes
1 12 oz sour cream
1 12 oz cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1-2 tsp vanilla, depending on how much you like

Wash and dry grapes.  Mix sour cream and cream cheese until creamy.  Add in vanilla.  Mix grapes in, coating them in all of that creamy goodness.  Put into your serving bowl, and top with 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans and 1/2 cup brown sugar.  You're supposed to let it sit overnight in the fridge, but it's delicious right after you make it too!  But if you have time, definitely let it chill overnight!

Again, no picture, but I promise I'll get better!!!!!

katie

Catching Up

Long time no see!  It's been a little crazy with work and home and going places - but I'm back!  And I've finished another book!  The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. 

This fictional story details the life of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley.  They fell in love at a young age, married quickly, and moved to Paris.  She stayed home, her piano and music the only thing to occupy her time, and he wrote.  They had marvelous adventures and went on romantic and fascinating trips all over Europe - ski trips in Austria, get aways on the French coast, running of the bulls in Pamplona, and many more.  But writing was always Ernest's first love.  He rented a separate room to write and left Hadley to her own devices.  As soon as they made friends with the literary elite, Ernest would have it out with them and the friendship would be destroyed.  Hadley desperately tried to be what Ernest needed her to be - she didn't have an identity without him.  The book is about her struggles with her life and how she finds herself in spite of, and because of her relationship with Ernest. 

I particularly enjoyed this book because of the descriptions of Europe during this time period.  The romantic life they led, despite their near poverty - talking about books and writing in little cafes, drinking wine and staying out with friends.  It's just this romanticized idea of Paris, and I would have loved to have been a part of that time period!

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Here is my book group's list of books we're going to read this year.  I'm so excited!  They sound fantastic!

Entwined by Heather Dixon

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

The Flint Heart by Katherine Paterson

The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke 

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

Daughters of Jared by HB Moore

Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

Princess Academy AND the sequel (to be released this summer) by Shannon Hale

The Mansion by Henry Van Dyke

The Five Love Languages (pick your version) by Gary D. Chapman