Last Cookbook Book Club of 2018 -- It's Ina!

After September's Pioneer Woman, 

we decided to do Ina for October

Partly because . . . 

Her newest book came out on Tuesday before our Club Meeting on Thursday

(and several of us pre-ordered and so it arrived on Tuesday!)

The hostess was Barbara --

dear Barbara who lives in Sheldon

and every month travels to Fort Scott with her dish

So we got to travel to Sheldon with our dishes

What fun!

We started with appetizers

Donna

(who is our overachiever)

brought a combination of two of Ina's recipes --

Easy Cheese Board and Cheese and Bread Platter

We all agreed that it was picture perfect

And oh, so delicious!

She also brought Thyme Roasted Almonds and Rosemary Roasted Cashews

(I think many of us could have taken those dishes and just went to a corner and ate!)

Main Dish

Barbara's

Cider Roasted Pork Tenderloins

Not from a book but from her television show.     

 Barbara (for the hostess always provides the main course)

 cooked them to perfection . . . and as she said it was easy.

She also served them with a wonderful pineapple chutney

which --

a) I forgot to take a picture of

b) I forgot to get the recipe for

But it was delicious -- that bowl of chutney made it's way around the

table at least three times!

Sides:

Rita's Dish

White Cheddar Cauliflower Gratin

In today's lo-carb world, this definitely would take the place of either mashed or baked potatoes

It was so good and I'm not sure Rita had any to take home!

Martha's Salad

Beets with Orange Vinaigrette

One of the things we try to do is NOT make anything we've made before and I've cooked a lot from the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks.

The few things I had not made, I could not find the ingredients in our little town.

I finally settled on this dish -- from her first cookbook

And I could not find the whole beets so I substituted slice ones

(what are you going to do)

And our cookbook club are beet lovers!

Every. Single. One.

Bread:

Belynda

Honey White Bread

Belynda is not a bread baker -- did she say this was the first bread she's every made?

Well, it was fabulous . . I think there were only crumbs left!

But it is the purpose of the cookbook club to have us stretch . . . 

And bringing bread certainly allowed Belynda to!

Desserts:

Rhonda

Beatty's Chocolate Cake

It is a great chocolate cake.    Rhonda chose to make it in a 9 x 13 rather than as a layer cake

which was good because

1).  we all only wanted little pieces

2).  It travels much better that way!

Even non chocolate person, Michelle ate some!

Michelle

(became our second overachiever of the night!   She brought two desserts!)

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Frosting

Oh, my were they good!

Definitely a dessert to consider for Thanksgiving!

Creme Brûlée

Michelle had never made it before

but you would never know it -- it was as good a creme brûlée as I've ever eaten!

Not having a little kitchen torch

(and not wanting to buy one)

Her husband came to the rescue with the blow torch from his tool room!

A torch is a torch!

Nothing like a trio of desserts to end the evening!

Ina has been a prolific cookbook author --

since she first started in 1998

a new book every other year --

 The first 10 --

Cook Like a Pro makes number eleven

And I have all of them

They are my most used cookbooks

We enjoyed cooking with Ina

Her recipes are definitely easy

But sometimes she uses ingredients that are not available

in little towns in the midwest

which limited our choice of recipes.

We cooked with her once before

(our first year)

and I'm sure we'll cook with her again!

It's always bittersweet to see our Cookbook Club year end

But we meet on the last Thursday of the month

and Thanksgiving and Christmas get in the way

So rather than try to reschedule, we just skip those months.

And in January it's always good to get together again!

Barbara was a wonderful hostess and we always enjoy traveling

there and she likes to host our last meeting!

In January we're turning things upside down and inside out!