April Book Club

Last night we enjoyed a fun night at Katie's apartment, thanks for hosting! Wherever there is Popper Dip that is where you will find the ladies from RBTW, just sayin'.

Our book choice this month was 50 Shades of Grey, we had to see what all this hype was about. Basically we couldn't not read this book. But did it live up to the hype? Sorry to say most of us were somewhat disappointed but then on the other hand most of us read the book, which is very rare (two did not). The writing is isn't great and the story line could use some work as well. It was hard to get past the similarities to Twilight, naive girl with the mysteriousness dangerous man, just too cliché. We'd still tell fellow Wine Book Clubs to read it for a fun night of hilarious conversation over lots and lots of wine (weeknight wine runs aren't really ok and coming back with champers is really NOT ok). I prefer not to go into details of the X rated conversation (Hi Mom!) from last night but I will say that somethings should always remain tight. It's a quick easy read that sucks you in from page one, just go upload (do not buy the hard copy please, that's just wrong) there are typos, weird terms, and lots of sex. One last thing on the book...what year is it suppose to be anyways? What college senior in Seattle wouldn't have a laptop? Dumb.

We did talk about the book more then usual but other topics included: Angelina, Middletons, tattoos, scars, gypsies, Chelsea Handler, nervous breakdowns over Kayne & Kim, broken feet, every hot celebrity male under the sun including but not limited to James Franco, Johnny Depp, Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Ed Burns, and Ed Norton to name a few, also Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall, vanity sizing, Block 37, Target, "stars are just like us", waiting tables, man voices, and CTA mishaps.

Fun fact of the night is our new member Katy is voice twins with Zoe Deschanel.

We would have taken picture but someone spilled an entire full glass of red wine on the carpet while standing up to get her camera and of course everyone went into a chaotic state of cleaning. So in place I will give you this:

After the massive spill something really weird happened, a product appeared on the counter that our hostess claims to have never seen before in her apartment. And guess what?...it works like a charm. Book Club Wine Fairy? Weird. Seriously though where did it come from?

Retro Recipe

This retro recipe is from Emily and everyone was talking about it after the last Book Club!

Ingredients:
Loaf of Wonder bread
Center cut bacon
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup blue cheese (more or less depending on your taste)

Directions:
Cut off crust of approximately 1/2--3/4 loaf of bread
Cut bacon slices in half
In a separate bowl, mix together cream cheese and blue cheese
Spread cream/blue cheese mixture on crust-less pieces of bread
Then slice bread into thirds
Wrap bacon around outside of bread and roll into pinwheel-shape, secured with a toothpick.

Cooking:
Place bacon on aluminum foil or nonstick pan
Bake at 325-350 degrees for 20 minutes
May need additional time

March Book Club

Written by our guest blogger Lisa from Lipgloss Lush.....

March Book Club was hosted by Emily in Lakeview on the trendy Southport Corridor. Emily's fare was delicious! Everyone especially loved her retro-inspired bleu cheese/bacon creation. We were pleased to induct our new member Katy to the group! She was a hit; hopefully we didn't scare her off by our non-book related discussions.

Speaking of the book, we read The Marriage Plot for March. Many of our members didn't finish it; but for those who did finish or at least read some of it, there were mixed reviews. We were all a little freaked out by Leonard's ups and downs, but most of us could relate with some crazy boyfriend story. Rachel's may have taken the cake as she regaled us with tales of hers: lest we forget, Chris G is thought to now be a coal miner in the UP. I guess we will never know if he is using that stolen bike to get to work every day ("The worst is that he stole my bike! It was a diamondback")...

Other topics discussed were babies, kids, how we all babysat at like 12 and were left with the kids until all hours of the night. Would parents do that now? Probably not. We discussed the careers or lack thereof of those American Reunion kids, Pinterest recipes (hit or miss but fun regardless!), Milwaukee Summer Fest, and Lincoln Park Zoo. If you haven't, you really need to go! While we are on the topic of animals, we talked about amazing boyfriends who love pets - specifically cats and fish...but what to do about those aquariums?

We debated the perfect hangover food: Taco Bell or something else?? Also discussed were the benefits of flash mob weddings - as long as you don't get caught! In my notes I have a quote of my own, "Boobs are just silly fun" but I can't recall the context - I am sure it made sense after all that wine. An important discussion revolved around Botox and how NOW is the time to do it! It's all about prevention, ladies! Noticeably missing from our discussion was the topic of hair removal - I guess we'll have to pick it up next month.

Per usual, we took our picture too late into the evening. For next month, 50 Shades of Gray was suggested. I ran into the sisters Halpin, and they educated me that this is basically straight up porn...but really, who doesn't like some sexy times? The real question is whether it will make you too "hot under the collar" (thanks Katie H.) as you are reading it in public on your Kindle.

All in all, it was a really fun night! Thanks again to our lovely host Emily and our sponsor whatshouldwecallme.tumblr.com