BACK ROADS

Our first book club meeting in 2001 was to discuss the book Back Roads by
Tawni O'Dell ( who reads a book by someone who spells their name Tawni?!?).

Synopsis

Meet Harley Altmyer. His mother's in prison for his father's murder. At nineteen, he's raising his three younger sisters-and he's just developed an obsessive crush on the sexy, melancholic mother of two, living just down the road...

Before I tell you our menu for this book, I wanted to introduce the members of our book club-
*Lisa- our tennis diva who started this club
*Vicki- a dreamer like me
*Roxanne- our Italian gal, still trying to live down "Mr. Perfect" (more about that later)
*Joanne- my close friend and ex- next door neighbor
*Jeanne- my second ex-next door neighbor (they keep moving to other houses in the neighborhood- should I
               be offended?)
*Margie- our realtor
*Jaye- our school teacher
*Debbie M- our "Martha Stewart"
*Debbie H- the friend who knows everything first that is going on in the neighborhood and takes care of everyone
*Susan- our busy professional gal who still puts book club at the top of her "to do" list
*Donna- that is me, the piano teacher and wanna- be blogger
We also started out with Alisa and Lois, but they moved away early in the book club, we still miss them!

So back to Back Roads...
Our menu was grilled pork tenderloin, garlic mashed potatoes, sauteed green beans with almonds and Lisa's famous salad. Appetizers were cucumber sandwiches and eggrolls (you have to read the book to know why Lisa picked these) Dessert was S'mores.

Lisa's Molasses Grilled Pork Tenderloin

1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup dijon mustard
2 Tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp salt
4 (3/4 pound each) pork tenderloins
Cooking spray

Combine first 4 ingredients- put tenderloins in ziploc bag and pour half the molasses mixture over.Seal and chill 8 hours. Chill remaining molasses glaze.
Coat grill rack with cooking spray- put grill over med hot coals (350-400 degrees). Place pork on rack, cover with grill lid for 18-20 minutes or until meat thermometer reads 160 degrees. Turn once, and baste with remaining molasses mixture last 8 minute. When done, remove to plate, cover with foil, and rest 5 minutes.            8 servings

Microwave S'mores (you have to read the book to know why this was our dessert)

Place 4 squares of milk chocolate candy bar on a graham cracker. Top with marshmellow. Place on paper towel. Microwave 15 seconds on high, or until marshmellow puffs. Top with another graham cracker. Let stand one minute. (Fun to let the kids do by themselves...)

So begins our Dinner and a Book Club of Chastain Lakes...next month's book- The House of Sand and Fog...