March Review

Cheers to us! Everyone read the book this month! Even all the girls that missed BC read the book. Ok ok, all but one person but we just like to see her frown smile monthly, so we let her attend anyways. Emily attended her first 'real' Book Club in February then hosted in March, a big cheers to her, thanks Emily!!

Little Bee by Chris Cleave was our March book, it was a good read. Overall everyone liked this book, I mean let's be honest it had to be pretty good if the whole Book Club finished, we don't exactly have a prefect record. Little Bee is about a young Nigerian refugee who changes the entire course of a young English couple's life. The story is told from two different characters, Sarah and Little Bee. This is a trend in a lot of books these days, we like it, it's a nice way to keep the book moving along. It's a sad tragic story but you'll want to keep reading to see how the story will unfold. We had a great discussion about this book, and any Book Club would have lots to talk about....really Sarah is 32? where did the book take a turn for you? what the heck were those men drinking on the beach? did you like Sarah, Little Bee, Lawrence and Andrew?

Other topics included The Little Couple, Cabrini-Green, cupcakes, TLC shows, frown smiles, how cute Emily & Katy's apartment is, cats, urban (Chicago) legends (that really are true), hair removal (I know this a topic every month but this time we really learned in detail about laser hair removal), Real Housewives of OC, Miami and NYC (how will we find the time to watch all three), NBC Thursday night line up, magic s----h, baby names, Facebook privacy settings, Spain, being over-served on an airplane and Erin Brockovich.

Also congrats to Rachel! We discussed wedding details, Catholic churches, venues, and all the good stuff! I'm sure there will be a lot more wedding talk to come!

One more thing...congrats to Katie on the new job! It's funny, the first blog ever written we were celebrating her new job at the time, so on to bigger and better things!

Another New Member

Alexis

College: Hanover College (undergrad) and Indiana University (grad school)
Hometown: Greenwood, IN
Occupation: Program Coordinator at Northwestern

Alexis lives in Uptown with her boyfriend and cat named Dante. A few fun facts: she likes talking about running and buying running clothes but not really running, she is teaching herself Urdu (a language), she is addicted to Amazon, she buys things from Sephora.com just so she can get the free gifts, she likes drawing in Microsoft paint, she recently received her masters in international education and just moved back to the city and most important (not really) she loves to read. This is actually Alexis' second Book Club, she is in a South Asian Literature Book Club and is looking for a BC with a little more wine fun! I know she has already finished Little Bee (and the lastest Us Weekly) and is looking forward to meeting everyone tomorrow night! See everyone then!

Another one put a RING on it!

Congrats to Rachel and Greg on there engagement! This comes at a prefect time, just as Tiffany's wedding comes to an end now we have a new wedding to discuss at upcoming Book Clubs. :)


Congrats again!!

National Wine Week

Who knew Smith & Wollensky hosts a National Wine Week?

March 7-11
Sample up to 10 wines for $10 with your lunch purchase.
Lunch? What? Sounds like that calls for a half day!

Click here for more info.

Little Bee

Our new book for March is Little Bee by Chris Cleave. This was an easy one to pick at the last Book Club and everyone agreed quickly. Sooo....hopefully everyone has started, you have 3 weeks. Get reading!!

Salted Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
1 Cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened
1 Cup Packed light brown sugar
1/2 Cup White sugar
2 large Eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
1 ¼ Cup All Purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
1 teaspoon (1/2 for dough, and 1/2 to sprinkle on top) Morton® All-Purpose Natural Sea Salt
3 Cups Instant Oats
1 Cup Semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Cream butter, brown sugar and white sugar in mixer on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Beat in one egg at a time until combined. Add vanilla.
3. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk flour, baking soda and ½ tsp of salt and then add to butter and egg mixture and mix until combined.
4. Fold in oats and chocolate chips into entire mix with a wooden spoon until combined.
5. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto parchment-lined baking sheet two inches apart. Use the last ½ tsp of salt to sprinkle a pinch of salt onto the top of each cookie. Bake for about 12 -15 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Amazing! I don't think I will be able to eat another kind of Oatmeal Cookie, it must have Morton Salt moving forward. This Book Club supports Morton Salt. ;)

February Book Club in Lincoln Square

It's been awhile since we had a nice big turn out and almost everyone finished the book, it was great because we had both! We were only missing our two Katies. We also had a new "member" that was a surprise to everyone, although not totally new to the group, Emily has attended numerous BCCPs and other get togethers. We are so happy she has finally "joined" BC. It was so nice to catch up with everyone, but first the book review....

This month we read An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin (yes, the actor). Overall everyone enjoyed the book (we had one "hated it"). This book didn't blow anyone away with numerous themes or drama. The book had a thin plot and heavily goes in the art scene in New York from 1993 through 2009. Steve Martin has an extensive art collection, and after finding this fun fact out (thanks Hill), you could maybe understand his idea for writing this book. Everyone enjoyed the pictures in the book and learning more about the art and artist, but it lacked real depth. So, An Object of Beauty is a nice quick read that will keep you interested but it's not a "must-read".

It was a quick turn to gossip when Norah said "Wait look at J. Lo's shorts real fast.".....and there is was on to the celeb gossip. We learned someone has a real crush on Russel Brand. And another has a real crush on Jon Lovitz, there you have it ladies, are you Team Brand or Team Lovitz? We also discussed Rahm Emanuel, Christina Aguilera, Joan Rivers, Arcade Fire, Giuliana Rancic and a few other celebs but this time since we hadn't seen each other in a while we discuss who else, OURSELVES.

We had lots to catch up on from our own lives. Birthdays, Weddings, Trips to Mexico, Attending the Superbowl, Honeymoons, Buying a house....whew we've been busy ladies. We had to rehash Tiffany's wonderful wedding and talk about how gorgeous she was looking on her special day. We also received tour of Kathy's new home which is super cute and looking great! We also all got to meet her nice dog, Jake, oh and her husband, Brian too, they hide out in the basement away from the girl talk, until we needed them for our group shot.

Some favorite quotes:

"Let me break this down for you...her jewelry is from Clair's"
"When I haven't cut my toe nails in awhile my shoes don't fit." (what?)
"I want to clarify I don't like books about poor people."

Thanks so much for hosting Kathy! The food was delish, she even had a chocolate cupcake for the recent Birthday girl and white cupcake for the recent bride. Recipes will be posted later.


Seems there were a few BCAD (Book Club After Dark) parties going on.....

-Two members carried the party on and a certain hostess may or may not have spilled wine on her brand new couch. Luckily another member was still there to show the 'ole white wine gets red wine out trick'. Good thing we don't discriminate wine, since both were still avaiable.

-Four members may have been spotting having some late night beers at Butch McGuire's. One member may or may not have basically chopped off the tip of her finger on a bar stool, it could be the reason behind this blog is being written on Monday instead of Friday.