The winners are:

Joy B.
and
Brenda Evans

If you two will send me your mailing addresses I will contact the publisher and ask them to send you your copies of the book. Please contact me by clicking on the contact button above the header picture at the top of the blog post. Your message will go directly to my e-mail account. I hope you both will enjoy reading this new book.

Thanks to all who left comments and participated in the contest.

Becka

The new book is Dewey's Nine Lives: The Legacy of the Small-Town Library Cat Who Inspired Millions. It contains two more stories about Dewey and the rest of the book is comprised of stories from other cat owners who sent in their own inspiring cat tales.

The publisher, Dutton, is sponsoring a contest for anyone who would like to send in their true tale about a special cat that they have known. The winning selection will be included in the paperback edition of the book. You can read all the details here.

In addition, I have the privilege of giving away two copies of the new book, Dewey's Nine Lives. To enter the drawing all you have to do is leave a comment on this post before 11:59 p.m. (EDT) on October 18, 2010. I will be able to accept comments only from those living in the United States and Canada. All the names will be put in a hat (literally!) and my able-bodied assistant will draw the names of the two winners. The winning books will be sent directly from the publisher. Be sure to include your name with your comment so I can contact you in case you are one of the winners.

So, if you like cats and would like to read about some special ones I hope you will enter my first-ever give-away contest!

Becka

I recently had a birthday and I received two of these non-stick Madeleine pans from DH. I tried them out for the first time this week and made these lemony Madeleines. I have eaten Madeleines before, but I had never attempted to make them. I discovered that most of the recipes are basically sponge cake recipes that you bake in these special shell-shaped pans to produce tender, cake like cookies. I think they would be nice as refreshments for a shower or tea.

I work in an office with two other ladies. We often discuss books that we are reading or authors that we have enjoyed. This summer all three of us have been enjoying books by Alexander McCall Smith, a Scottish author who has written a delightful series of books about The Number One Ladies Detective Agency. The stories take place in Botswana, South Africa. They do not contain a lot of violence or bad language — the stories are primarily about relationships between people and you can learn a lot about the customs and life in Botswana. I have found the stories to be quite charming.

One thing that the ladies in the Number One Ladies Detective Agency do quite often is to drink Bush Tea.They also treat themselves to donuts on Fridays. I found some Kalahari Bush Tea at a local grocery store (Ingles) and on Friday we had a little tea party at work with the Bush Tea and Madeleines. The tea is a herbal tea and we tried a variety that was lemony. It went quite well with the lemon-flavored Madeleines. It was a fun way to end the week.

Becka

The author, Anne Byrn had a cooking column in a newspaper in Tennessee and in one column she asked readers to submit their best recipes for things made from cake mixes. Thus began the idea for the cake books.

My daughter Megan's friend, Kristen, bakes cakes for birthdays at her husband's office and she often uses recipes from the Cake Doctor books. She tried a number of the cakes and both she and Megan really like one called the Lethal Peppermint Cake. Here's a picture of the cake:

This cake is oft requested in our family for birthdays and I also made large two layer sheet cake versions of it for the groom's cake at both DD, Meg and DS-in-law Jim's wedding and at DS, Mark and DD-in-law Katie's weddings. Here's a picture of one of the groom's cakes:

The cake itself is a deep, moist chocolate cake filled with a peppermint buttercream and then frosted with a chocolate ganache icing. This picture shows the peppermint filling:

If you like chocolate and mint you will probably like this cake.

I have tried a number of other recipes from these books and there are several that we really like. The author also has a web-site set up like a newsletter with recipes that are not in the books. One recipe that I found on the web-site that is one of my favorites is the Orange Marmalade Cake. If you have read any of the Jan Karon books you are probably familiar with Esther Bolick's famous Orange Marmalade Cakes (scroll down to the recipe--it's in the newsletter titled 4th slice, from 2006 under the heading Recipe Swap ). I tried several recipes for Orange Marmalade Cakes that I found in magazines that I did not care for, but this one is very, very good.

The first Cake Doctor book has a wide variety of recipes for white, yellow, and spice cakes, fruit flavored cakes, chocolate cakes, bars, cookies, etc. The second book has some of the recipes from the first book but nearly all the recipes contain chocolate or white chocolate. In the second book she has revised some of her recipes just a bit. At the front of both books there are small color plates which picture every recipe in the book. I find this to be very helpful.

So, if you like to bake or need ideas for an upcoming birthday or other celebration cake I would definitely recommend that you check out these books.

Becka

He was a tiny kitten when he came to the library. He had been shoved into the library drop box one cold morning in January of 1988 and went on to reside there until his death in 2006. He was quite famous in his time and there were news stories about him all over the world. If you like cats or animal stories you would probably enjoy reading about Dewey.

I have never been to a library with a cat, but I have been to a couple of stores here in Greenville which have cats in residence. How about you--do you know of any libraries or businesses where pets reside?

We have two cats as those of you who read my husband's blog know. They are very difficult to photograph, especially with a digital camera. By the time I take the picture they have generally moved on out of camera range. I did snap a couple of cute shots of one of the cats the other day. She was lying in the sun and enjoying herself so much that she didn't get up and run away. Here are the best pics I could find of both of them.

Here is Clementine:

This is Adelaide:

Becka

He got George this past Christmas (actually he found his gift early, so his mother didn't have the heart to take it away from him!). The two have been inseparable since first meeting.

George has had some interesting experiences including a couple of showers and a swirly. George is very helpful to have around. Sometimes in the evenings or at naptime when "George is tired" Drew will very happily crawl into bed so that he and George can get some much needed rest!

I recently found this little George and purchased him for Drew's birthday which is coming up soon. This George is in his pajamas and is holding a little teddy bear. I'm not sure he will be as well loved as his predecessor, but perhaps he can stand in when George I is drying out from his next water adventure.

Another gift that is going into Drew's birthday package is this little gift set of the book Corduroy and a little Corduroy bear wearing green corduroy overalls. This set is in honor of Corduroy's 40th birthday.

So, if you see Drew, please keep these new friends a secret. Fortunately he doesn't read my blog, so I'm safe sharing these pictures with you.

Becka

Several weeks ago I wrote a post about a new book I had received for Christmas. Last night I finished up the first of several aprons I hope to make from the book, A is for Apron. During Christmas vacation my daughters and I went out to Hobby Lobby (where the book was purchased) and while we were there Megan chose some fabric for an apron. Since then Nora has purchased some fabric and chosen a pattern that she would like and I plan to make one for myself as well. So, I should be in the apron business for a while yet.

The first step in making the apron was to get the pattern from the book enlarged 400%. The friendly woman at Kinko's figured it all out and printed my pattern for me on a large sheet of paper.

I thought the apron turned out pretty well and hope Megan agrees. This apron is cut on the bias and I did have a slight bit of trouble stitching the waistline seam without puckers. I think if I make this one again I will add a little bit of gathering on either side near the ties. I did find the general directions in the front of the book for working with the bias tape to be excellent. I had fun making this and am looking forward to trying some of the other designs.

Becka

At the retreat we had two general sessions and two sessions geared toward the ladies to encourage us in our role as wife of a deacon. The meetings were excellent and I think we all came away encouraged to do more to meet the needs of others in our church.

Since I don't have a new recipe to share, I thought I would do a post about another one of my new books, Mice on Main. It's the little skinny book on the top of the stack that I forgot to turn so you could read the spine. (Bear with me - I'm new to this!) Here's a picture of the book:

This one is a children's book that I got from my son Mark and his wife Katie. I had mentioned this fall that I would have to get the book sometime to have on hand for when our grandson, Drew, is a bit older. So, thanks to them I am all set. Here's a picture of Mark and Katie from this Christmas:

The book tells about the nine bronze mice which inhabit Main Street here in Greenville. Here is a picture of all nine of them:

The city has written out directions that are available in many locations so that you can have a scavenger hunt up and down Main Street trying to find them. It's a fun activity and I would encourage any of you to try it sometime.

I will close with a quotation from our retreat:

The crown of the home is Godliness.
The beauty of the home is order.
The glory of the home is hospitality.
The blessing of the home is contentment.

Becka

Here is one of my current favorites made from this pattern:

Knowing my love for aprons, DD Nora (pictured here with her dog, Paisley)

got me this book and fabric for Christmas:

The book contains a section on vintage aprons, basic construction techniques, making aprons from other items such as dishtowels and skirts, and patterns for 25 different aprons. It is chock full of apron ideas. The patterns are included in the book in miniature form and you have to enlarge them 400 percent. Megan and Nora have each chosen a design and fabric that they like, so I will keep you posted on any finished aprons in the coming months. I've got my fabric washed and ironed and now I need to go to a copy store and get my pattern enlarged.

How about you - do you wear aprons and do you have a favorite style or pattern?

Edited to add: Attempting to use another pattern in this book I ran into great difficulties with the pattern. I decided to check at Amazon to see the customer reviews and find if others had run into similar problems. I was amazed/dismayed at all the bad reviews! Most people feel like the book has great pictures and ideas for the aprons, but many of the patterns do not go together well and the fabric requirements that are listed are not accurate. I can give an illustration of that: for the apron I was trying to make the pattern listed 1/4 of a yard for the waistband and ties. It then proceeded to tell me to cut a piece 7" wide by 70" long. As you can see, something is missing here. So, as many of the people who commented on the Amazon site wrote I would recommend that you get this book from the library and use it for inspiration and then buy a commercial pattern if you actually want to make an apron.

Becka

I had made an appetizer for New Year's Eve and had more of the ingredients on hand so I made another batch for today. They are called Broiled Stuffed Pepper Wedges and I found the recipe at Tammy's Recipes.

Here they are before broiling:

Here they are ready to eat:

The next new recipe was from this book that I got from my friend, Marge, for Christmas.

It is basically a stir fry of asparagus, snow peas, frozen peas, and green onions with a sauce. The sauce was OK, but the next time I plan to just season the vegetables with soy sauce and sesame oil after a quick stir fry. I thought the combination was really pretty and tasted good.

Here's a picture of the finished stir-fry:

The final new recipe was from this book that I got for Christmas from my friend, Sandy.

Sandy knows that Rob and I both have read a number of the Cat Who... mysteries by Lilian Jackson Braun. The beauty of this particular recipe was that it used up the half can of leftover jellied cranberry sauce that I had in the refrigerator left from my DSIL's recent visit. You just make a box of jello with one cup of boiling water, 1 cup of sour cream and one cup of the cranberry sauce, let it thicken slightly and pour into a baked pie shell. I did have to run the mixture through the blender because the cranberry sauce wouldn't blend in with a whisk.

We had all these new dishes with an old family favorite - Pizza Rolls. I will have to post that recipe on another day.

Becka

This year for Christmas I received ten books! Five of them were cookbooks and the rest were varied. I have already had fun leafing through them and planning recipes to try and projects to make in the future. I plan to try recipes from two of the books this weekend, so if they turn out I will post my results. I hope to post other comments from some of the books later as well.

How about you--did you receive any interesting books this Christmas?

Becka