Tai Chi

Holy Moly we did it! For those of you who made it through all ten weeks, and I am proud to say that was quite a bit of us, I salute you. We must keep up our exercises for the summer so that we are ready to tackle new and exciting challenges in the fall class, beginning Sept 10 at 8:45am. In the mean time, we shall eat cake:

Crumb Cake

for the cake:

1 1/4 cups cake flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp slat
6 tbsp butter, softened
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
1/3 cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Spray an 8-inch square baking dish with 'pam' and fit it with parchment paper.
In a bowl mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt to combine. Add butter ad mix until it resembles moist crumbs with no big clumps of butter. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat until light and fluffy or so. Plop in pan.
Crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/4 cup cake flour
4 tbsp butter melted
(I added choco chips)
mix it all together, then place on top of batter evenly and all over so that everyone gets an even amount of crumbs and no one complains.
Bake for 35-50 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes. Dust with confectioner's sugar.

Hope you make the cake, hope you enjoyed the class.
Please come in and say hello to me this summer.

Special Event

Tonight Fanwood's own Mindy Szeto will be presenting a program on "Sugar Buster: A Guide to Healthy Living and Eating". We will start at 7:00pm and everyone is invited to participate and learn how to live better and wiser.
See you there!

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut on libraries from his 2005 "A Man Without A Country" - the simple, beautiful and powerful swan song of this great American master.

"And while on the subject of burning books, I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength, their powerful political connections or great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and destroyed records that than have to reveal to thought police the name of persons who have checked out those titles.

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House, the Supreme Court, the Senate, the House of Representatives, of the media. The America I loved still exists at the front desks of our public libraries."
--Kurt Vonnegut (November 11, 1922 - April 11, 2007)
Thanks Kurt - 'And so it goes.' ... Dan

What I have on hold

It is easy to place a hold on a book. You can come to the library and ask at the circulation desk to do it for you, you can place a hold while you are browsing at the computer catalogs, or you can do it from your home computer. You need to know your library card number and your pin number (which should be the last four digits of your telephone number). These are the books that I currently have on hold:

The thirteenth tale:a novel by Diana Setterfield. I was recommended by Jennie at the Scotch Plains Library.
Animal, vegetable, miracle: a year of food life by Barbara Kingsolver. A year of living the life of a localvore, eating only food from within a 50 mile radius. I love her fiction and I can't imagine being a localvore in Fanwood. Lots of fish I guess but what would be the cooking oil?
Nineteen minutes: a novel by Jodi Piccoult. This is summer reading at its best!
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander. A long awaited second book.
The most famous man in America: the biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate. This book just won the Pulitizer for biography, and it continues my education in the years 1837 - 1864. Ask me about it.
The Yiddish policeman's union: a novel by Michael Chabon. Everyone who loved Kavelier and Clay raise their hand. That is why it's on my list.
What the dead know by Laura Lippman. It is going to be summer soon, Summer read anyone?

That's my list. Any opinions? What's on your list.