I recently finished reading “A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table” by Molly Wizenberg, with my book club. It’s a memoir of a woman’s life as she progresses through the passing of her father, a move to Paris and the eventual finding of the man she will marry. It’s a quaint story to which many can relate, but what I liked most of all is that at the end of every chapter she lists a recipe pertaining to the story.

For example, for her wedding she made 25 (I think it was 25) decadent chocolate cakes. She claims they are so easy to make and freeze well. How can making 25 cakes be easy? I had to try it. Well, not making 25, but I made one successfully.

First, I melted chocolate and butter over a double boiler.

Stir until creamy.

Lookin’ good.

Mix in sugar.

Bake. It comes out a little crusty on top. Then you have to flip it onto a plate, then flip it again to get it right side up.

Here it is in all its beauty. This ancient plate doesn’t to this cake justice. It needs to be sitting on a fine piece of china or a pretty little cake stand, dusted with powdered sugar.

Here’s the side view. It’s a rich, dense cake with tons of chocolate flavor.

Everyone at book club made a recipe from the book and we had quite the feast that night (see links to recipes below). I wish my camera were working properly that night so I could show you the food. You’ll have to click the links below to see them on Wizenber’s Web site, Orangette.

Related:

• A Homemade Life on Amazon.com
• Orangette the blog 
• Recipes that the ladies from book club made — all are super delicious:
  
  • Gâteau au chocolat fondant de Nathalie (aka Chocolate Wedding Cake)
  • Banana Bread With Chocolate and Cinnamon
  • Chocolate Covered Macaroons
  • Caramel Corn
  • Slow Roasted Tomatoes
  • Sugar Cookies with icing (ours were made in the shape of hearts )
  • Pickled grapes and pickled carrots (I can’t find the recipes online for these, but they were good)

Wear Red Day

Today is “National Wear Red Day,” a day inspired by The American Heart Association to bring awareness that the number one killer of women is heart disease. From their Web site:

We’re working hard to change the perception that heart disease is a “man’s disease.” And it’s working! By teaching more and more women how to talk to their doctors about heart disease, we can save thousands of lives every year. Because the good news is that heart disease is often preventable!

And in case anyone still believes that heart disease is only a concern for older women, we encourage you to read the Inspiring Stories we’ve collected. Together, they make the case plain and simple: the time for action is now!”

Why not make a heart healthy meal tonight? Here are some healthy recipes to get you started.

Is Ana Duggar Pregnant Again?

It seems that the Internet is wondering if Anna Duggar is pregnant again. I can’t find any information announcing this news so I guess you’ll have to wait it out for an official announcement. I can say that the elder Duggars (Michelle and Jim Bob) mentioned in their book, “The Duggars: 20 and Counting,” that they abstain from intercourse for a set amount of time after each baby is born. I can’t remember how long, but it’s longer than 6 weeks. I remember thinking that she seems to get pregnant about 9 months after each baby is born. I’m sure you could find this out if you do enough Google searching and look into the birth dates of each child, but you’ll have to do that on your own. So, if Josh and Ana are following a similar path, it would be too early to tell about a second pregnancy for Ana. There, my two cents about the topic it seems everyone is wondering about right now.

Epic Novel a Quick Read

I just finished “Roses,” by Leila Meacham. Long at just over 600 pages, but it’s a quick, delicious read. It’s the first book in a while that I easily found time to read. I didn’t want to go to bed at night (and, you know how tired I am!) and just wanted to keep on reading all the time.

It’s a story about a woman who inherits a cotton plantation in Texas and how this birthright interferes with her life. There’s romance, love, family, tradition and heartache. It’s simply stated and a page turner, telling the tales of multiple generations. Even toward the end, you don’t really know what’s going to happen so you keep turning the page to find out.

Fantasia’s Lesson For Us All

I should do an entire blog post about this next topic, but don’t want to miss the opportunity to say something while it’s hot so I’ll add it here. Fantasia Barrino, the “American Idol” appeared on “Oprah” this week to talk about nearly loosing it all. After struggling her entire life, raising a child on her own and winning the title “American Idol,” her house was in foreclosure.

At one point, she couldn’t even afford to pay for a pizza she had delivered: her debit card was rejected. That’s when she knew she had to do something. She came into money quickly and had (has) a large family to support. Her problem was that she “just wanted to sing.” She let everyone else figure out the rest. She didn’t have a part of her money, of her bookings, her schedule.

Now she does. She’s realized that you have to know what’s coming in and what’s going out. This is a strong message for all women. We need to not let our spouses do all the finances. We must know what’s going on. We must be part of the decisions. It’s a team effort. We all don’t have as much money as Fantasia, so even more reason to know where it’s going.

Fantasia has a new reality show about her family, “Fantasia For Real,” airing on VH1. You can see just through a few clips how disorganized and out of control everything is in her life during the filming. Here’s hoping that she’s learned from this and that we can too.

Sir Ken Robinson’s latest book (2009), “The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything” tackles how to live your passion — how to be in your element. I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Robinson speak in person when he was a guest at the University where I work, and enjoyed how he spoke so freely about creative minds, education reform and how to be authentically you. It’s clear that Robinson’s own passion drives his talks and books.

Creativity VS. Intelligence

Robinson gets people to think. He easily engages his audience with questions of creativity versus intelligence. He has the members of the audience raise their hands based on a scale of how intelligent they think they are. Then, he does the same for how creative they think they are. Then he explains that intelligence and creativity are “blood relatives” — most people think they are one, but not both.

If you’ve never seen him speak or read his books, you should take a moment and read through this engaging book about life and how to make the most of your time. It’s not an organization or time management book, it’s a book of thought. How to think differently. How to realize that what you enjoy doing is probably what you are good at doing. The two go together.

Parenting and Education

It’s the perfect book for parents: especially if you have a creative child. Not every child is going to go to an Ivy League college. Some may be better off following a different path. And, that’s OK. Robinson is an advocate for education reform and is known for working with school and universities.

Throughout the book there are great stories about how people became successful after great adversity. Two of my favorite stories he tells are about Elvis, yes, the Elvis Presley and the Paul McCartney.

• Elvis wasn’t allowed in his school’s glee club.
• Paul McCartney didn’t enjoy music at school. He applied to the choir and was turned down.

Can you even believe this? And there are more stories like this in the book. Stories about now famous people were bored in school or didn’t do well in school. The schools did nothing to help figure out how to help these kids. To find out what makes them tick. It’s only by luck that they were able to find someone who did help them become the person they are today.

What is The Element?

Robinson covers a lot in the book, but here are some main take-aways:

• “The element is the meeting place between natural aptitude and personal passion.“
• “Do what you love. It will feel like you. It will be authentic.”
• Being in the zone –when you are in “the zone” time moves quickly. If you watch the clock at your job, it’s probably not the one in your zone.
• Is it too late? Julia Child didn’t start living her passion until she was in her 40s, yet she’s one of the most famous cooks of our time.

I can’t summarize this book enough in one blog post. Robinson is a great storyteller, sprinkling humor with his own personal stories as well as stories of triumph about others. It’s a great, inspiring read. Find out for yourself.

Photo credit: Stock.xchng by artist ngould

Related:

• Sir Ken Robinson’s official Web site
• “The Element,” book information
• Sir Ken’s “Do School’s Kill Creativity?” on Ted.com
• An excellent review of “The Element,” by Heather Davis, a Ph.D. candidate. She mentions that “his [Robinson] book sits nicely with Malcolm Gladwell’s … “Outliers” (2008) where Gladwell argues in a similar vein that success is due, mostly, from luck, circumstance and openness to new ideas.”

I’m sorry that I have kept Heidi Montag up at the top of the blog for so long — it’s time to bump her down. I am working on several new posts that I will be starting to launch this week, but am not quite ready to post them yet. It’s late and I really need to get some sleep.

I’m reading a lot of really great books right now that I hope to tell you about soon. The first one will be “The Element.” I’m almost done with that post and will share with you some insights about how creative people are just as smart as naturally intelligent people. There are multiple intelligences and one isn’t greater than the other — they are just different.

I’m also reading two books called Roses … one is a novel, “Roses,” the other an incredible baking cookbook from the author of “The Cake Bible.”

I’ve got “Crush It” on my night stand too. Along with Daniel Pink’s new “Drive.” There isn’t enough time to read all this, but I’m going to give it a shot.

I got our all of our children’s Christmas books a week or so ago and we’ve been reading them every night with my son. I particularly like “Memories of the Manger.” It’s a story you probably know. One that you may have already read to your children during the Christmas season. But, this book is sweet in that it tells the story of Jesus’ birth through the farm animals that live in Bethlehem.

A white dove narrates the story as he delights in telling the story of how Mary and Joseph arrived at the manger and what it was like when the baby was born. Some of the animals ask the dove questions that your children might be asking and the dove graciously answers.

Beautifully illustrated and told, this is a book worth having in your home to read and reread each year at Christmas.