A Book Review: Dearie

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Okay, the full title of the book is Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child, but that was just too many colons for one blog post title.

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I just finished this one up on Tuesday, while sitting out on Joey’s deck and remarkable is right!  It’s interesting to me that Julia Child is such a huge name in the cooking world, yet before reading this book I knew next to nothing about her.  I didn’t know she grew up in California, didn’t know she was that tall, didn’t know she had a career with the secret intelligence agency before embarking on a career in cooking, didn’t know she didn’t begin that career until she was almost 40, didn’t know hard she worked and how much she did right up until her death just two days before her 92nd birthday.  Remarkable.

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While I’m not sure I loved the style of Dearie — it seemed like a lot facts and quotes and was a little dry for my taste — I totally fell in love with the character it depicted.  By the end, I felt like I had been friends with Julia Child.  And what a spunky and fun friend she was.  I don’t think anyone who knows anything about Julia Child can deny that she was one of a kind.  When I reached the end of the book, I was genuinely sad.  Sad that I was too young to know who she was when she was still living, sad that I never got to watch her shows, sad that the world will never see another like her.  But what a legacy she’s left behind.

P.S. Do not read this book while hungry 😛

4th of July Weekend Things

Lauren7 Comments

The top 5 moments of the 4th of July weekend, in order of importance:

#5 Mini Sopapilla Pancakes.

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After a much-too-long hiatus, Pancake Sunday is back.  For this one week at least.  I dished up some of these pancakes for Joey and I after finally getting out of bed and limping to the kitchen (see below…) and they were A) ADORABLE and B) DELICIOUS.  They truly tasted like sopapillas, which makes this sopapilla-loving girl pretty happy.

#4 Putting Joey’s house up for sale!

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We spent all day Friday and Saturday at Joey’s house, fixing holes, touching up paint, fixing counter tops and pulling weeds so it would be ready to put on the market.  Don’t misunderstand me, the actual work that went into doing all this was horrible.  I am so not cut out for yard work.  My hamstrings are so sore from bending over to pull weeds that I basically can’t walk today.  Is that normal?!  What I am happy about however is that selling Joey’s house means buying one of our own together! 🙂 🙂

#3 The actual 4th of July.

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Joey and I put in extra hours on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday just so we could sneak out early on Thursday and enjoy a fun holiday dinner before heading to the Rockies game for baseball and fireworks.  Little did we know so many restaurants would be closed that day!  Eventually, we found an open restaurant — Highland Tap & Burger — that we’d actually been talking about wanting to go to for a few months.  I ordered the Great Divide Colette and was in love.  Also, BEST ONION RINGS OF MY LIFE.

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Plus, a Rockies win and a great fireworks show.  Serious question though.  Why do songs about America have to be so cheesy?

#2 Starting birthday celebrations a couple days early.

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My birthday isn’t technically until Tuesday, but why not stretch the celebration out as long as possible, right?  My family went to Vine Street Pub for an early dinner last night to celebrate.  There was good food, beer, laughs and perfect outdoor patio dining weather.  Say whatever you want, people with spring, fall or winter birthdays, but summer birthdays are where it’s at.

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Afterwards, ice cream at Little Man’s of course.  This picture right here is proof that ice cream trumps froyo.  Have you ever seen a line like this outside a froyo place?  Also, my dear sweet mother picked out a shiny red Kitchen Aid mixer for me.  I could not be more excited about it.  I hope Joey doesn’t mind cake, muffins and bread for dinner every night for a while.

Psst, you know something really exciting is coming if my birthday comes in second place!

#1 An engagement!!!

Not mine…sorry 😛 My best friend, Hannah’s!  Josh proposed to her while they were on a trip to Steamboat this weekend and I was beyond shocked.  I mean they’ve been together for 8 years so I had a pretty good idea they’d be getting married I just had NO idea it’d be now!  I am elated for them 🙂  The four of us grabbed some celebratory drinks on Saturday night, where they asked us both to be part of the wedding party.  Guess who grabbed that Maid of Honor title?  This girl!

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In true Lauren fashion, one of my first questions was “When do we get to do the cake tasting??”

Yeah, I guess you could say it was a pretty good weekend 🙂

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How was your 4th of July?  What’d you do?

Have you ever been part of a wedding party?

When is your birthday?  And is that “coincidentally” also your favorite month?