Recipe - Jeaneane's Pumpkin Cake

Here is the recipe...
For the "crust"
1 yellow cake mix (minus 1 cup--for later)
1 egg
1 stick (1/2 cup) melted margarine/butter
Mix and place in 9x13

Then mix together--
2 cups pumpkin (I usually just use one small can which is 15oz.--close enough!!)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teas. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teas salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup evap milk
1 teas. vanilla
Pour this over the "crust"

Then "cut" and crumble over top--
1 cup cake mix
1 teas. cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cold margarine/butter

Bake 45-50 minutes in 350 degree oven.

Jack Gantos

I love this quote from a talk by Jack Gantos about people who don't read, and I thought some of you might enjoy it too.

“Some people simply refuse to dance with a book—won’t allow themselves to become ‘transformed’ by the literature, made to become the ‘other partner’ of the literature. They resist being the characters, seeing the setting, discovering the themes, anguishing over the actions. In a small way they don’t even feel a bit of joy when little Corduroy gets his button (or pocket), or when Sylvester comes back alive from being a pebble, or when Harry the Dirty Dog takes a bath and is discovered to be his old self, or when The Little Engine That Could, can, or when Eloise runs though the halls of the Plaza scraping a stick along the walls and doors and making a great ruckus. No, some people resist the happy feel of a book, the charm of a book. They fight it. Not Reading is a statement that hollers out to the world: ‘I will remain the same. Don’t give me the stick with rock; I just want the rock!’ Or maybe they want even less, they just want to beat their head against a great big rock . . .People who refuse to read conquer a book by not reading it. As we all know, being ignored is the worst snub. A book is sucked dry of its rhythm and blues, its hokey-pokey, its two-handed waltz when the owner shoves it onto the shelf.

December - Mormon Authors

I am hosting December's book club meeting. We had to change the date because the University Ward's enrichment will be on Tuesday, December 6th so we will be meeting on Wednesday, December 7th at the normal time. At our December meeting we will be having a book exchange so if you would like to participate, please bring a wrapped children's or young adult book.

These are the books I picked for December:

Goose Girl - by Shannon Hale
Wishing Moon - by Michael Tunnell
Mississippi Trial, 1955 - by Chris Crowe (This is based on the Emmett Till case so be warned that it does have some disturbing images)
The Shakeress - by Kimberly Heuston

Enjoy reading!