Book review: Sing You Home

If you have not read any of Jodi Picoult's books, you are really missing out. She has been one of my favorite authors for years and I just finished her latest book, "Sing You Home." I love her books because they are about current, relative, and usually controversial and ethical issues. Her personal view probably affects the endings but I think she does a pretty good job of staying neutral and portraying all sides of the subject matter. The amount of research she must conduct for each novel is unbelievable. While they are fiction stories, she uses real information and is very knowledgeable about each of her topics. I always feel that I have learned a lot after reading one of her books. Over the last few years she has written books about teen suicide, autism, Columbine, religion, medical issues, and many many others. "Sing You Home" is about a couple who is desperately trying to have a baby but not succeeding. The fertility treatments and miscarriages take a toll on their marriage and they divorce. Zoe ends up falling in love with another woman and wants to use one of the remaining embryos (which are still being stored at fertility clinic)to have a baby with her new partner. Her ex-husband becomes a born- again Christian who is against this and wants to give the embryos to his brother to be raised in a "proper Christian way." They both have equal contributions to the embryos so who should get them? A whole court case ensues but I won't spoil the ending. There are several other little side stories as well. The story is really well written and you will love the characters (well most of them) Read it! And her other books!

Feather hair extensions

So I think I am going to become obsessed with feather hair extensions. I am always getting bored with my hair and especially right now. It is long, blond, and blah. My friend Erica has recently had colored extensions (just a small piece) put in and they are lots of fun. I was going to copy her (she lives in Charlotte so its ok) but she suggested I try feathers. I was picturing Steven Tyler's which is a little wild so I started looking around and I'm officially obsessed. I am going next week to get something like this.

Cooking Class

So I recently signed up for a cooking class called "Cooking With Summer's Bounty" and this Monday was my first class.  It is through Wake Tech (which has sooo many other cool classes) and is held at Knightdale High School.  Our teacher is Chef Brian and he makes up all the recipes that we use.  Here is his website: Love at First Bite.  We began class with an overview of the 6 week course and basic procedures and then  went over the terms: natural, organic, sustainable, locavore, and heirloom as they relate to food.  I will not bore you with all the details but you should be reading labels to see what yucky stuff is put in your food! They inject colored dye in meats to make them appear brighter and salt water to make them appear larger.  Gross!

Anyway...the first half of class was spent talking and then we broke into groups to make the recipes for the night.  Two groups, including mine, made two Strawberry-Basil drinks and the other two groups made Blueberry Pie.  The first drink we made was the “Strawberry Basil Fizzy.”  I did not love this drink but it is supposed to be made with champagne and we had to seltzer water because we are on a high school campus.  It might be much better with champagne…things usually are!  The second drink was Strawberry Basil Lemonade and this was pretty good.  The strawberry-basil combination is interesting but yummy!  They were pretty simple to make except my partner and I had no idea what the term “chiffonade” meant.  I quickly googled it on my phone so we could appear knowledgeable.  It is when you stack and roll up leaves (basil in this case) and then cut the roll. 

The other two groups made the blueberry pie and it came out of the oven just a few minutes before class ended.  We HAVE to be out at 9:30 so that the janitor can clean so we all had to take a piece in a to-go container to taste later.  Even so, we were still a few minutes later than 9:30 which apparently chef Bryan got yelled at for.  So…I had to drive home with this warm blueberry pie tempting me on the seat next to me and then I got wayyyy lost.  30 minutes or so later I finally made it home and enjoyed my blueberry pie with some milk.  YUMMMMMMM. It’s really good although it had a little too many almonds in it for my taste.  I am going to make it for my school’s brunch next Monday and try it with a little less almonds.  I got blueberries in my produce box today too so this works out well. 

Here are the recipes.

Strawberry Basil Fizzy

Makes 1 pitcher

½ cup fresh strawberries, chopped fine
½ cup fresh basil leaves, chiffonade
½ cup sugar
½ cup water
Zest of 1 lime or lemon
Juice of 1 lime or lemon
2 cups ice
Seltzer water

In a small saucepan combine strawberries, basil sugar and water and bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for about 3-4 minutes. Let cool. Place in a blender and blend until smooth. Place puree into a pitcher and add zest and juice of lime or lemon, 2 cups of ice and fill with seltzer water. Mix well and serve garnished with a strawberry or lime or lemon wedge.

Strawberry Basil Lemonade

Makes 1 Large Pitcher

1½ cup of sugar
1 pint of strawberries, hulled and quartered
10 lemons, halved and seeds removed
1 tablespoon lemon zest
¼ cup fresh basil leaves , chopped fine
15 -20 cups of water

Juice the lemons and set aside.

In a medium non metal bowl, mash the strawberries, sugar, zest and basil until a smooth paste forms.

In a large pitcher, stir the lemon juice, strawberry paste, and water thoroughly.

OR

Add the lemon juice, strawberry paste, and water to a blender and blend until smooth.

Crunchy Blueberry Pie

1 C sugar, plus 1 Tbsp

4 C fresh blueberries

8 oz sour cream

3 Tbsp flour

1/8 tsp salt

1 - 9 inch pie shell

¾ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

¼ teaspoon salt, divided

½ cup old-fashioned oatmeal

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1 stick cold unsalted butter, diced

Pre heat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, toss 1 tablespoon of sugar with all of the blueberries. In a separate large bowl, mix 1 cup of sugar, the sour cream, 3 tablespoons of flour, and 1/8 teaspoon of salt until well combined. 

Fold the blueberries into the sour cream mixture. Spread this filling evenly into the pie shell.

In a medium bowl, toss ¾ cup of flour, the brown sugar, 1/8 teaspoon of salt, oats, almonds, and butter. Using only your fingertips, crumble the mixture until it comes together into pieces no bigger than the size of a pea. Sprinkle evenly onto the top of the pie.

Bake until golden brown on top and the filling is bubbling, about 45 to 50 minutes.

 

Cake Pops- Take 1

You may have seen these bite-size delicious little things called cake pops. They are popping up everywhere and are so freaking cute. Apparently someone named Bakerella came up with them. Here is her website: Bakerella.  Basically it is a little ball of cake and frosting on a stick. 

Anyway...my friend Mary is a bit craft/hobby/project obsessed like I am and suggested we make these little bites of goodness.  We both probably spent hours researching these things online and watching countless youtube videos and tonight we were ready to try them out!  Mary made a yellow cake and crumbled it up before I got there and then we mixed in vanilla frosting. We formed them into balls and put them in the fridge for a few minutes while we got pink candy melts (those little disks you get at craft stores) all melted.We dipped lollipop sticks in a little pink candy and stuck them in the cake balls. So far this was easy and everything was going exactly as planned. Now...according to all the videos we watched, we were now supposed to just dip in the candy melts, pull them out, give a gentle tap, and BAM- a perfectly round nice looking ball.  Well that did not exactly happen.  When we tried to dip the balls in the candly melts they either fell off, got lumpy, or got a ton of the candy on the outside.  You were supposed to gently tap the excess off but we had to bang and bang our sticks on the bowls to get get off the extra. Our sprinkle decorations were not so hot either.  Some research revealed that the brand of candy melts we used were not good for this project so we'll have to get a different brand next time.  But in the grand scheme of things, they turned out pretty cute for a first try and we will definitely advance to more difficult projects soon.  I just tasted one for the first time and YUMMMMMY!!  Here are some pics of the finished products. 

If you work with me, stop by for a sample tomorrow.  I have lots!





Next time they will probably look something like this.