Chocolate Cake and Fudge Sauce

This is the cake that I make for almost every girls' night.

1 1/2 c flour
3 Tbsp cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Mix together
Make 3 holes in the flour mixture.
Add 5 Tbsp vegetable oil in one
1 Tbsp vinegar to another
and 1+ tsp vanilla in the third
Pour 1 c cold water over all.
Beat
Bake @ 350F 8x8 pan - 30 min, 9x13 pan (double recipe) 35-40 minutes.

Fudge Sauce:
2 c sugar
2 heaping Tbsp cocoa
1 c cream
2 Tbsp corn syrup
Slowly heat until boiling.
Serve with warm cake and ice cream

Crunchy Ice Cream Topping

This is from last night....

2 c crushed corn flakes
3/4 c toasted coconut
3/4 c chopped pecans/almonds

Melt (and I boil):
1/4 c butter/ margarine (but butter tastes better)
3/4 c brown sugar

Pour over the coconut mixture and toss well.
You can also adjust the recipe to what works for you. I LOVE toasted coconut, so I usually add more of that and a little less of the corn flakes. Do what works best for you!

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Here's the recipe for the sugar cookies... I always make a triple batch as the small one doesn't make a lot and I LOVE sugar cookies!

Single Batch:
2/3 c butter/margarine (cream until white)
3/4 c sugar
1 egg
2 c flour 1 Tbsp milk
1 tsp baking powder
1+ tsp vanilla
dash salt
roll to about 1/4-1/2" thick (depending on how thick you like them)
Backe @ 350F for 8-12 mins

Triple Batch:
2 c butter/marg
2 1/4 c sugar
3 eggs
6 c flour
3 tsp baking powder
3 Tbsp milk
3+ tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

Once cool, ice with either a butter cream icing, or I also use an almond flavored glaze! Both are delicious!

The Count of Monte Cristo

Okay, for those of you who somehow didn't receive my email (due to wrong email address or complete ignorance) or my facebook message, here goes!!

Hey Everybody....

So, the plan is to start reading the Count of Monte Cristo. I have asked if anyone would like to join me so I actually read and finish the book. It's just WAY more fun to do it with other people. It is quite a long book, so I've divided it so that it won't be as overwhelming. If we are finding this to be too slow we can speed it up and if it's too fast we can slow it down. I have approximated about 100 pages per week. It's an easy read and fairly large print accounting to these 100 pages (depending on your copy it could be more or less pages). I would love to meet once or twice a month to talk about what we have read and have thoughts on it etc. Please let me know if you are wanting to be a part of this or not, so I know who to talk to about upcoming dates etc. Thank you!!

The following is a tentative reading schedule:

Dates	Chapters
April 1-5	1-9
April 6-12	10-17
April 13-19	18-26
April 20-26	27-32
April 27-May3	33-37
May 4-10	38-45
May 11-17	46-52
May 18-24	53-59
May 25-31	60-67
June 1-7	68-76
June 8-14	77-82
June 15-21	83-91
June 22-28	92-101
June 29-July 5	102-111
July 6-12	112-117

Let me know if you're going to be joining me!!

Ashley Dawn

Apple carmel dip!

There were a few of you girls that were at my house last Wed. who wanted the receipe.

whip: 1pkg. (8oz.) softened cream cheese and 1/2cup w. sugar together in a bowl.
Mix: 3/4cup b. sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla and 2 tbsp. milk in another bowl.
Mix the two bowls together and add chopped pecans. Refrigorate.
Super easy! I also like this dip on strawberries.

Red Party

Fun times @ Abbys for sure!! Great food and so fun catching up with everyone. Of course the rousing game of Bunko, we were all loving that (once we all remembered how to play). I only took a few pics unfortanately they didn't turn out that great, so if Abby & Natasha wanna add their pics please do!! I left after the Bunko game (that was all Sadie could handle) as did many other couples with kids... I am sure that is when the real party started!

TONIGHT

We're meeting at Abby's @ 7:30pm. The theme is RED, so wear it, bring food in that color, etc. It'll be fun. Oh and if you can, bring your hubby. I'm sure there are a few of us flying solo tonight, but if he can come... great! If you need directions gimme a call!