Book Exchange Coffee

Myself and another squadron wife hosted this month's spouses "coffee" at our house. We decided to do a book exchange. Everyone brought a wrapped book and added it to the "bookshelf" (just some bookends from our office) and after we ate and discussed our squadron spouses' business and socialized, we did the book exchange "combat" style. My hope was that everyone end up leaving with a good book they've never read before. I made little cards that look like old library catalog cards with cute quotes on them and scattered them around. I was inspired by this blog and found the card catalog generator here.

I converted my antique desk by our front door into a wrapping station for people who brought their books naked.

For the nummies: we did a potato bar with all the fixins, two kinds of salad and a bunch of desserts. I baked the spuds throughout the day and then kept them warm in crock pots. And by warm, I mean I had to use a potholder to move them to plates and open the foil, so it worked.

We had probably 20 different toppings, from the standards; bacon, sour cream and chives, to the wild and wacky; feta, jalepenos and taco meat.

I forgot to take a picture of the dessert spread, which is a shame because it was probably the prettiest part. Anything covered with this much cream cheese frosting must be pretty. I took some store-bought brownie bites and piped some store-bought cream cheese frosting on top, and added some fall sprinkles. This is my party dessert standby and everyone is always impressed until I tell them I did basically nothing!

I also made an amazing Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, yum, I'm drooling thinking about it. The recipe is Steve's grandmother's and I tried a piece at a Thanksgiving when I was pregnant with Brian, it was so good, I had another piece and another piece and another piece. I did the same thing last night. And this morning. And this afternoon. It's gone now. I love me some pumpkin-flavored desserts. I have a new slogan: Pumpkin, it's not just for pies anymore. Here is:

Grandma Edith's Pumpkin Cake Recipe

4 Eggs

2 cups Sugar

1 Cup Vegetable Oil

2 Cups Self-Rising Flour

2 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Salt

2 Cups Pumpkin

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Beat eggs and sugar in large mixing bowl. Beat in oil. Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in small bowl and then slowly add into creamed mixture. Stir in pumpkin and vanilla extract. Bake in fluted pan for 55 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool before frosting.

Frosting:

16 ounces of Cream Cheese, softened

1 stick of Butter, softened

1 lb box of Powdered Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Cream together softened butter and cream cheese, slowly mix in powdered sugar and vanilla extract.

When I was ready to frost the cake, I warmed the frosting in the microwave until it was runny enough to pour over the cake rather than having to spread it on the cake and having it look all messy and ending up with the frosting spatula in my mouth several times.