Next Book Club Choice- Eat Pray Love

We had a great night last Friday discussing The Awakening by Kate Chopin and I'm really excited about our next book choice Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

The book takes us on the author's post-divorce search for herself--gastronomic adventures in Italy, spiritual pursuit in India and newfound love in Bali. 

A friend gave me this book not long after I got divorced and I think that now I might have a different perpesctive 3 years later.  I am excited to share this book with the girls and then we're going to see the movie that's coming out soon. 

I'm wondering how different the movie will be from the book.  In my humble opinion books are generally better than the movie.  So, let's hope it's not disappointing. 

Style My House: Bar Tray Table

I have been toying with the idea of putting a bar tray table in my living room.  I love the look of it, but ya know I'm not really a liquor drinker.  I have the perfect table for it and a great little spot picked out.  I saw this great pic in Lonny Magazine and got some inspiration.

Mathilda Savitch...little girl not quite lost

I enjoyed reading Mathilda Savitch and yet I didn't.  We find Mathilda in the midst of a very broken family stuck in their grief over the death of their older daughter Helene.  Mathilda is dealing with her grief in her own way and desperately wants her parents to acknowledge her and Helene.  The story is told as we listen in on Mathilda's thoughts and rationale for her sometimes bizarre behavior.  She seems like such a little girl sometimes ...afraid of terrorists that might harm her or her friends and then at other times she makes profound conclusions that seem beyond her age.  As the story unfolds Mathilda goes to great lengths to discover the truth of her sister's death and to get her parent's attention. 

I loved reading Mathilda's thoughts written by Lodato.  You just wanted to keep reading- she was funny. Lodato really tapped into what an adolsescent might think- what they might fear, what would make sense to them. At the same time, the story was a sad one and the ending was bittersweet.  Mathilda seemed lost and searching throughout most of the book and at the end she wasn't quite so lost, but not quite found yet either.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

So, I've been looking at this book for awhile wondering what in the world it was all about...then I finally bit the bullet and bought the book.  I love it! I am so shocked, but the juxtaposition of the serious Jane Austen content that I love and the Seth Grahame-Smith added zombie attacks are fun.  I haven't finished the book yet, but I am reading it as fast as I can. 

BTW, in this book Elizabeth Bennett is a trained fighter who won't be caught dead without her katana sword and delivers quite a beating to an obnoxious Mr. Darcy.  I think that Jane Austen would have approved of this tough, take-charge Elizabeth although I am not sure what she would think of a zombie-filled countryside. 

Bouillabaise at Magnolia's--amazing!

I have declared a new 2nd favorite meal ever--Bouillabaise "BooYaBase" at Magnolia's in Charleston, SC.  My very wonderful and kind parents let us come stay with them in Charleston for a long Memorial Day weekend and took us to one of my fav restaurants- Magnolia's.  I decided to try something new and ordered the bouillabaise.  I am so glad that I did- it was absolutely delicious and now I have to cook it at least once.  It's a delicious fish stew with mussels, shrimp, fish, corn, okra and pot liquor aka the most delicious broth. 

btw- got this pic on the net- none of us has a forearm tattoo :)

I found the recipe in the Magnolia's cookbook for this delicious stew, but there are lots of variations to be found on the interent.  here's one I found on allrecipes.com that serves 12:

Ingredients

3/4 cup olive oil

2 onions, thinly sliced

2 leeks, sliced

3 tomatoes - peeled, seeded and chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 sprig fennel leaf

1 sprig fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon orange zest

3/4 pound mussels, cleaned and debearded

9 cups boiling water

salt and pepper to taste

5 pounds sea bass

1 pinch saffron threads

3/4 pound fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined

Directions

1.Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, and add the onions, leeks, chopped tomatoes, and garlic. Cook and stir over a low heat for a few minutes until all vegetables are soft.

2.Stir in the fennel, thyme, bay leaf, and orange zest. Add shellfish and boiling water; stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Turn up the heat to high, and boil for about 3 minutes to allow the oil and water to combine.

3.Add fish, and reduce the heat to medium. Continue cooking for 12 to 15 minutes, or until fish is cooked. The fish should be opaque and tender, but still firm. Fish should not be falling apart.

4.Taste the bouillabaisse and adjust the seasoning. Stir in saffron, and then pour soup into a warmed tureen or soup dishes. Serve immediately

Elegant Grey Bedroom Inspiration

I love this Thom Filicia designed elegant grey bedroom.  Love it, love it!

I am using this as the inspiration room for Steve's bedroom at his new house.  If you know me, you know how I love a new project and this one has me excited. It will go slowly starting with this paint color.  The paint color is Ralph Lauren Palais Royale, which unfortunately they don't exactly carry at Home Depot anymore.  However, when I went to my local HD they were able to pull up the old info on it and I got a gallon of pseudo-Palais Royale. Happiness.  Paint makes such a big difference so I can't wait for Steve to get this paint on the wall so that we can see how it looks.  I found a great white four poster bed at Ikea, but who knows if Steve will go for it. 

Next Book Club Choice- The Help

The Help is the next book for our book club.  I devoured 400+ page book in two days.  I lost track of all time reading this book.  So, you could say I would recommend it.  It's the story of three women in Mississippi in 1962.  One of these women is the newly graduated privileged daughter of cotton plantation owners and the other two women are "the help".  These women work for the friends of the privileged young woman.  The women's lives intertwine while the civil rights movement is slowly making inroads in Mississippi.  Two black women and one young white girl bucking the system as it is and coming into their own as freer women.  Compelling stuff.  I found myself at times really angry at what was going on during this time period in the South and also, it left me with the question, "What would I have done had I been alive in the South in the 60s?"