Breakfast With Rudolph

Santa has given Rudolph the Red-nose Reindeer permission to visit our library before they pull their all night present delivery. Rudolph should be resting, but he could not turn down our invitation.

Bring your small children and grandchildren to the Daingerfield Public Library Saturday, December 5 any time between 9 and 11 a.m.

A light breakfast snack will be served complete with hot chocolate and apple juice for the children. (We will also have coffee and hot tea for the parents/grandparents.)

You can have a 4x6" photo of your child taken with Rudolph for a minimum charge.

See you there!

Catering Post

We catered an event yesterday evening...our second for the local Business & Professional Women. Here we are Monday evening excited to have the decorations in place and the tables set.

Another shot with the photographer swapping out so that she could be in a photo too. We didn't get a photo of everyone... some had already left before the camera was remembered.

Everyone brought their Thanksgiving decorations. It's amazing how everything pulled together and made a very presentable show.

If we were feeding a group of men, you better believe there wouldn't be any table linens or china! We would stack the paper plates and provide plenty of paper napkins. When we serve ladies, we do like to go fancy.

Several of us have been shopping garage sales and resale shops. We have acquired several nice sets of dishes - most china. We've also found table linens at estate sales. Sometimes we bring in a few items to fill in when we run short. This event, we needed only bring flatware service for 6.

Some of the tablecloths came from our homes.

The banquet table presents a bit of a problem. No one has a tablecloth long enough. We merely covered each end with a white tablecloth and spread the autumn cloth across the center.

The menu...It is a bit hard to read. Relish tray, turkey breast, cornbread dressing, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce, green bean bundles, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, vegetable medley,two different fruit salads, butter braid bread, (dessert is listed a few photos down).

Yes, we still have cookbooks available for purchase! Check the sidebar on the right. Recipes for some of the dishes we served came out of our cookbook. Recipes were provided for some of the other dishes with holes punched so that they would fit in the cookbook.

Some like it hot...our coffee gurus.

Some like it cold...after all this is Texas!

What is a dinner without good food?

Cheesecake, Pecan Pie, German Chocolate Cake, Pumpkin Trifle

Believe me...the leftovers were delicious!

Working Hard

Even though we had a wet and fairly cold day, once again we set up under an awning to sell drinks and cookbooks at Daingerfield Days. We always ask to be set up beside the chili cookoff...preferably beside the spiciest chili. That logic hasn't failed us yet.

Our cookbooks are still selling. Since our inventory is happily decreasing, if you intend to purchase a cookbook, you need to do so NOW!

Last year we started working the concession stands for the volleyball games and the Thursday night football games. Once again this year, we jumped right in. Many of the football games were rained out...and most of us were happy about that!

However, we are not through. We have been asked to cover six or seven basketball games between now and early February.

Upcoming events:

We will be catering a dinner for the Business & Professional Women before Thanksgiving.

Best event!!! Keep checking back for further information, but be sure to mark you calendars for 9 a.m. Saturday, December 5. This event will be for the children.

Book Review

Blood Sins
by Kay Hooper

Did I ever make a mistake picking up this book! I guess I have not read Kay Hooper's work before. I very quickly realized that this had to do with psychics. Okay. I can handle a little of that.

On page 102 after reading,

"Tessa sat up in bed with a gasp, her heart pounding. Oh, my God. He was feeding off them.

"He's a--a %#&*@ psychic vampire."

Okay. That's enough for me.

Another point of view. Come on Sherry, it's FICTION! Kay Hooper's books are interesting, fast paced, and never, never boring. She has been a favorite author of mine for years. The Bishop Trilogies are different for sure but they are very very good.
Earlene

Book Review

The Time of My Life
by Patrick Swayze & Lisa Niemi

In a twist, a patron of the library loaned this book to the librarian.

YES! This is it! What a beautifully well-written book.

I laughed. My eyes became misty. This was REAL life not just so-called facts gleaned from recorded interviews reported in gossip magazine style.

Written entirely from Patrick Swayze's point of view with memory proddings from his wife, Lisa Niemi (according to the prologue)...this autobiography gives insight to Patrick Swayze the son, husband, dancer, actor, man...the good and the bad.

Definitely worth your time.

The Daingerfield Public Library will have its own copy later this week. I also advised the librarian that an audio book is available with Patrick Swayze performing it himself.

Book Reviews

Biography time!

A "You gotta be kidding!"

one last dance
Patrick Swayze
by Wendy Leigh

I so looked forward to reading this biography. I have videos of Dirty Dancing and Ghost and have seen several of Patrick Swayze's movie. I have fallen in love with his and Lisa Niemi's love story. What a beautiful romance.

Then to read something so shoddily thrown together to capitalize on Swayze's illness and (at the time the book was written) upcoming death to pancreatic cancer.

In the first chapter...the title of the song mentioned is NOT "Down on the Range." It is "HOME on the Range."

Leigh made another two errors in her abbreviated version of Dirty Dancing. A reviewer on Amazon.com also mentioned an error in Leigh's version of Ghost. But I refuse to reread any portion of the book to locate it.

The writing by Leigh reminds me of the quality of writing in the gossip rags. She very quickly pulled together whatever interviews she could find of Patrick Swayze along with quotes from his childhood friends who took dance lessons from his mother. To me the quotes were more of a "he said, she said, he said" thing.

My question is...with the errors that were extremely easy for me to catch (along with other reviewers on Amazon) how many of Leigh's so-called facts...are in fact true?

Go ahead and read this. It won't take long to muddle through it. But wait until someone releases an authorized biography of Patrick Swayze before you believe everything in Leigh's version.


On the other hand...

An American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood
by Marc Eliot

Be sure to read and absorb this book. Being the child - ahem - that I claim to be, I just vaguely remember the cute Rowdy Yates from the television series Rawhide. But the quiet serious Man with No Name in the 'Spaghetti Westerns' I do remember well. And who can forget the oft repeated phrase from Dirty Harry, "Make my day."

Eliot's extremely well-written book is so easy to read. I have no doubt that if you like Clint Eastwood, you will enjoy this book!

The Daingerfield Public Library has an extensive biography section. Be sure to visit!

Book Review

How many times have you purchased a cookbook or checked one out from your local library yet find only one or two recipes...or horror!...no recipes that you like? Ever seen one of those cookbooks that every recipe calls for two sticks of butter or no butter at all? Gooey, greasy or blah, bland. What about those recipes that call for ingredients that are not available in your area, but you have absolutely no idea what they are? I have had it to happen so many times that I normally don't even look at cookbooks any more.

Have I got a few surprises for you!

Surprise #1: Debbie Macomber writes novels. She was approached by Harlequin to make a cookbook to take her readers inside the kitchens of Cedar Cove - the fictional location of one of her series of novels. Whenever families and friends gather, food is a major part of most gatherings.

Many of the recipes not only had me literally drooling, but imagine my surprise when I realized that they were just down home cooking!

Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove Cookbook is definitely a cookbook you will want to spend time browsing through - and making notes!


Surprise #2...YES! I have yet another cookbook to recommend!

Reader's Digest has issued Taste of Home Casseroles, Slow Cooker, & Soups - 3 cookbooks in 1. I mentioned "down home" above. This book continues the same line of cooking. Real down home food with real down home ingredients...most of which you will already have in your kitchen cabinets/pantry/larder...you get the idea!


Surprise #3...By now, this should not surprise you.

We still have a few copies of Cooking With Friends available. If you don't want to miss out on this fabulous cookbook from friends and patrons of the Daingerfield Public Library, now is the time to buy for your friends and family for Christmas. One of the library's patrons purchased one of our cookbooks to give to her son who lives, "up north." She reported that he was so excited to have a Texas cookbook.

Check the sidebar on the right for instructions on ordering your very own copy!

In addition to Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove Cookbook and Taste of Home Casseroles, Slow Cooker, & Soups, the Daingerfield Public Library has many more cookbooks available to our patrons for checkout.

Book Review

An Echo in the Bone
Diana Gabaldon

The seventh book in the Outlander series has left me wanting more.

I never dreamed that I would be anticipating Gabaldon's next installment in her Outlander series. Time travel. P'shaw.



I love it! I love the story. I love the history. I love the characters. A teacher I talked to a couple of years ago said that, "Everyone loves Jamie." Well. She is so right!

Gabaldon's Outlander novels are not quick reads. An Echo in the Bone is 820 pages of "I do not want to put it down." I read what I could Friday evening and begrudgingly set it aside to go to bed. Saturday morning I put a roast in the slow cooker for supper and sent the husband to town for a hamburger for lunch. I got up long enough to get a yogurt and a spoon and sat back down to continue reading. Bedtime came too soon. Today I did not even turn on Sunday Morning. I read all day and finally finished at about 5 p.m.

I finished! Now I have to wait another two to three years before the next book in the series is published.

Gabaldon weaves the lives of a 20th century British nurse with an 18th century Highland warrior in the historical setting beginning in the mid-1700s. Having Scottish ancestors I have enjoyed her condensed history of Scotland. She continues the story of Jamie and Claire...but I don't want to tell you too much in case you haven't read any of her books.

The Daingerfield Public Library has all of her Outlander series with the exception of The Outlandish Companion (nonfiction):
Outlander
Dragonfly in Amber
Voyager
Drums of Autumn
The Fiery Cross
A Breath of Snow and Ashes

The library also has some of the Lord John series - Lord John being introduced in the Outlander series.

Author Review

I have found a new author! He's been around awhile, but I've just recently read his work. Robert Crais writes a series of books featuring Elvis Cole, PI (Private Investigator). You'll have to read to find out why Elvis is named 'Elvis.'

Crais is enjoyable to read. His writing is creative and imaginative without being as graphic as many authors have become. He has given Elvis a multi-faceted personality. Elvis is self-deprecating, funny, and intelligent.

Crais has 11 books in the Elvis Cole series and a few other stand-alone novels. He has also started a new series featuring Elvis' partner, Joe Pike. These have just got to be as good as the Elvis Cole series!

The Daingerfield Public Library has just a few of Crais' Elvis Cole books in the paperback section.

Elsie Review a Recipe

Elsie over at Elsie's Life and Stuff won one of our cookbooks when her name was picked on Keep You In Stitches' blog giveaway. Elsie has blogged about the recipe she tried.

Go visit Elsie's blog, http://elsielogsherblogs.blogspot.com/2009/08/thanks-to-friends-of-daingerfield.html