Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

Hello All!

I can't recommend this book enough! I read it in one sitting! Saving CeeCee Honeycutt will be available in January, and if you received that bookstore gift card for the holidays, save it for this book.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is the story of a girl who cares for her mother as she descends into madness, and her father is constantly away on business. CeeCee escapes as best she can into reading. Her mother is killed one day, and CeeCee finds out about the Southern branch of her family; her father lets her go to them easily, almost immediately after her mother's funeral. Her great-aunt Tootie takes her to Savannah, and envelopes CeeCee into the warmth of Southern hospitality, and into a community of women. CeeCee sees all their strength and all that they can do, all the while learning how to deal with her grief of essentially losing both her parents.

This is a warm, lovely book, and one feels as if one is in the beauty of the South, the gardens, the old homes, and the healing power of a community of women.

Happy Reading!
Patti
(who wrote this at midnight & hopes it is coherent)

Disclosure: I became acquainted with Beth Hoffman by following her on Twitter, and she, in turn, checked out this blog, and had her publisher send me a copy of this book.

Progressive Dinner Party

Hello All!

This will be a different post than usual. I'm participating in a blog progressive dinner with other bloggers, so I need to post my recipe for my participation. I hope to collect other recipes from other participants, but if I don't actually cook/bake anything, I won't gain anything :). Or, I can cook/bake one thing at a time.

My contribution is a coffee cake from a recipe I got from my mom, Toby Cheney; I don't know where she got the recipe:

CINNAMON STREUSEL COFFEE CAKE

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

1 1/1 cups of sugar

1/2 cup of soft shortening

2 large eggs

1 cup of milk

3 cups of sifted flour

4 tsp. of baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla

Streusel Mixture

1 cup of brown sugar, packed

4 Tbsp. flour

4 tsp. cinnamon

4 Tbsp. melted butter

Mix sugar, shortening and eggs thoroughly.

Stir in milk.

Add vanilla.

Sift dry ingredients together, and add to first mixture a little at a time.

Spread 1/2 of batter in greased 9x13 pan

Add 1/2 of streusel mixture

Add remaining batter, and top with remaining streusel mixture

Bake at 375 for 25 to 35 minutes.

Enjoy! This is one of my favorite things!!!

Happy Holidays & Happy Reading!

Patti

Link to next dessert: Medieval Bookworm - www.chikune.com/blog - Colored Sugar Cookies