Wanderlust and a refreshing, lusty salad

Wanderlust by Elisabeth Eaves is a little bit like Eat, Pray, Love but with more sex and less meditation.  Sounds good, right?  The book documents Eaves passion for travel, which starts when she takes a school trip to Europe when she in high school. Her obsession with travel is sparked by a boy she meets on the plane, and throughout "Wanderlust" it is apparent that her desire to travel to new places and keep moving is inextricably linked to her relationship with men and sex, which is also defined by her desire to keep moving and seek out new experiences and partners.  The book is a great combination of relationship confessional and travelogue.  Eaves is undoubtedly a bit irresponsible in the way she treats some of the men in her life, but she owns up to that fact and candidly explores why she treats people the way she does.  My favorite parts of Eat, Pray, Love were the travel parts, and to be honest I suffered through the soul searching.  In Wanderlust, you have all the great explorations of far off lands, with some navel gazing, but I found the Eaves' navel gazing much more interesting and tolerable.  The beautiful salad above has no direct link to the book, but I came upon the recipe when I was searching for something kinda sexy and exotic.  The salad is a great anecdote to some of the heavier eating we are doing these days without giving up any pleasure.  It was easy and so delicious and will definitely become part of my regular rotation.

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Cocktail Hour: Do you want to be good or bad?

This day after Thanksgiving cocktail, the question I have for you is, do you want to be good or bad.  If you over did it on the holiday and you want to be good, to cleanse, I have for you the above green smoothie, featuring the super healthy and virtuous kale!  If you over did it on the holiday and you don't care, and you want to continue being bad, I have for you the pumpkin butter cocktail below called the homecoming.  A farewell to fall and all things pumpkin, it is a doosy.   I'll tell you how to make both after the jump.

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Fall of Giants and the Original Salvation Army "Doughboy" Doughnuts

Ken Follett likes to write really long books.  If you have read his work before, you have likely read the large tomes "Pillars of the Earth" and "World Without End," which both, in about 1000 pages, tell the story of two generations of characters in England in the middle ages, with a real focus on the church and the introduction of the architecture of grand cathedrals in England.  Follett has a knack for sharing a lot of useful information (about history, about architecture) via some juicy stories, and he has done it again in Fall of Giants - which I liked much more than his previous books.  Part of the reason I enjoyed this book so much is that I am a bit of a history buff - I am particularly interested in 20th century history and Fall of Giants is an epic about World War I.   Unlike most war books which tend to tell only one side of the story, in Fall of Giants WWI is seen from multiple sides of the war - the main characters are from England, the United States, Russia and Germany.  It was also a riveting account of the domestic events that shaped the WWI period that were so earth shifting at the time - the Bolshevik revolution, the rise of the Labor (and Labour) movement and the fight for womens' suffrage.  Follett weaves all of this major history with love stories, secret marriages, illicit affairs, and unwed mothers - the epic told from the perspective of the every day.  As I was thinking about what to make for the book, I googled around "WWI food" and what kept coming up is the WWI Salvation Army doughnut  recipe.  More about the book and the recipe after the jump

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Cocktail Hour: The J.Crew Cocktail!

Cocktail Hour Number Two!  If you are looking for an unfussy but festive cocktail for your Thanksgiving gathering, this is it.  Also, if you are looking for relief from the crush of crowds at your local Whole Foods grabbing at the heritage turkeys and bags of stuffing mix, this will also do the trick.  I had this cocktail last week at a fun little party my friend and I went to at my local J.Crew store for "very special" customers to introduce the new holiday collection.  Now, I am sure anyone could have attended the party, but my credit card statement confirms that J.Crew and I have a "very special" relationship. This elegant but simple cocktail fit in perfectly amongst the soft cashmere, sparkly sequins and rabid J.Crew shoppers at the party.  Want to know whats in it?

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