To start, on Saturday morning I had my first book club meeting. Bindi had the brilliant idea to start a book club (okay, maybe the brilliant idea came from her sister, Bela, who has been in a book club in DC for years), as a way to hang out with girls we don't normally hang out with and expand our minds by reading books we wouldn't normally read. The first book was Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen. This book is about a middle-aged, professional woman who, after getting divorced by her mentally abusive, homosexual husband of 15 years, goes home to live with her Mennonite mom and dad to find her roots again. While I wouldn't recommend the book to my worst enemy, it was an exploration of a multitude of cultures. To sum up: 9 of us met for book club, 7 of us actually bought the book, and 3 of us managed to read the entire book. But, more importantly, 4 pitchers of mimosas were polished off. So, all in all, I'd call our first meeting a success.
Cultural experience #2: That night I had my first "black-audience-screaming-at-the-movie-screen" experience. We saw Paranormal Activity 2. (If you are at all into scary movies, go see the Paranormal Activity movies - amazing! Be sure to see the first one before you see the second one.) Almost instantly the theater filled with "Hell No's" and "Dayuum's" and "Girl, whatchu doin?! Don't go outside!!'s" But the best part was when, just after the scariest scene in the movie, a girl got up, ran down the stairs and sprinted across the entire theater to the exit doors. Perfect.
My final cultural experience of the weekend was the Taste of Atlanta on Sunday afternoon. While this may not seem like a cultural experience, I think the foodie world has a culture all of its own. This was my first visit to ToA and it was fabulous. More than 80 local restaurants had booths, ranging from the best farm-to-table restaurants in Atlanta all the way to Waffle House and QuikTrip. My favorite taste was a Bibb Lettuce Wrap with Smoked Pork Shoulder & Tomato Molasses from craft followed by pumpkin spice ice cream from 5 Seasons Brewing Company. I wish Taste of Atlanta was every weekend!
Now, I didn't want to end my cultural experiences on Sunday night. So, for crockpot Monday I ventured to Thailand and made a Thai Coconut Soup. I used a recipe from http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ as my inspiration.
This week I added two more dinner guests - Bina and Dolly - to the party. Yay for Monday night dinner club! What the soup lacked in visual appeal, it made up for in taste. The coconut milk, lime, ginger, and red pepper blended well to elevate this vegetable soup to a guest-worthy meal.
Here's the recipe...
Mix together the following ingredients in the insert of your crockpot:
4 c vegetable or chicken broth
1 can Lite Coconut Milk
juice of 3 limes
zest of 1 lime
1 red bell pepper, sliced in strips
8 oz mushrooms (I used small portobello because they are cheaper than shitake and won't break down or become soggy during slow cooking)
1 large tomato, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tsp red pepper flakes (this made it a 7 on the caucasian scale and probably a 5 on the indian scale - use less for a less spicy soup)
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 inch fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped (Helpful hint: to peel ginger use a spoon to scrape off the skin instead of a peeler, that way you don't waste ginger.)
Cook the soup on high for 2-4 hours or on low for 4-5 hours.
Because the soup doesn't contain any protein, I made grilled chicken marinated in coconut milk, fish sauce, garlic and red pepper flakes, and tofu broiled in asian bread crumbs with lettuce wraps. I served these with a variety of sauces and toppings - peanut satay dipping sauce, chili garlic sauce, lime slices, spicy thai cashews from Trader Joe's and cilantro. Pair that with a glass of Cupcake Chardonnay and you have a meal!
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