Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Apple Cheesecake

Crust

  •  1/2 cup butter
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup flour
Cream the butter and sugar and then add the flour.  Press into a 9 inch springform pan.

 Middle

  •  1 package cream cheese (250 grams)
  •  1 cup plain Greek yogourt
  •  2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
Beat cream cheese and yogourt until smooth. Add rest of ingredients and beat until mixed.  Pour over the crust.

 Topping

  •  3 or 4 apples
  •  1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
 Peel and slice the apples and place them on top of the cream cheese mixture in a spiral pattern.
 Mix sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle on top of the apples.

 Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.

About three babies and a book

Traditional horimono
It was a marvelous evening at Jan's house, sharing the stories of the births that made first-time grandmothers of three of us.  Understandably the talk about the book was a secondary priority in the circumstances.  Still, the beautifully crafted Garden of Evening Mists also deserved and won some of our attention.  Thank you to Jan for a perfect evening.  See cheesecake recipe above.

We made some plans for future evenings.  On December 1st we will be at Lynda's and the book we settled on last night is Remember Me Like This by Bret Anthony Johnston.
On January 5th book club will be at my house (Marian) and the book will be All Our Names by by Dinaw Mengestu. 
On February 15th we'll meet at Maureen's to talk about Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien.
We decided to meet at Susan's in March but the book and the precise date are up for grabs.

Books that were mentioned last night:
  • The Night Stages by Jane Urquart
  • Nujeen by Nujeen Mustafa and Christina Lamb
  • The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
  • Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut 
  • The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner
  • Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien
  • The Sellout by Paul Beatty  
  • All the Birds Singing by Evie Wyld
Recommended on Netflix: The 13th

Below, plucky Nujeen Mustafa on her way to Germany.
  

Saturday, October 1, 2016

September at Jo's

Contending with travel fatigue, rain and traffic on the Gardiner we were rewarded by a great evening at Jo's house talking about The Summer Before the War and other things.  A big thank you to Jo!  Too bad the weather didn't allow us to meet in your beautiful backyard retreat.

Next month we'll be at Jan's.  The book will be The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng. The date is Tuesday, October 25th, when we can expect much sharing of baby photos.

We chose Wednesday December 1st for the next meeting at Lynda's but didn't decide on a book.

Here are the other books we mentioned:
This plot of this last novel has some similarities to the new American TV series, Designated Survivor, with Keifer Sutherland as the stand-in POTUS.