Louise McColl Book Club: July 2008

Monday, July 28, 2008

Marie has a fabulous backyard!

Marie hosted our marvelous book club last Wednesday evening as we reviewed the selection: Three Cups of Tea. We got to enjoy her wonderful patio with waterfall and bubbling brook, outdoor music, wonderful food and drink and....guess what? The weather even cooperated. It was a beautiful night and we spent the whole time outside!

Update: We tentatively chose "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy as our next choice. (#1 book of the past 25 years, according to Entertainment Weekly.)

Kathy will be hosting our next gathering at her home in Burnsville. We were thinking the next one will be 3rd or 4th Friday in September.

Looking forward to it!

Thank you, Marie, for the wonderful food, drink and company.

Katie

Beef Roulade

Beef Rolls:

2 lbs beef flank steak sliced very thin. (Ask your butcher to do this. Should result in 6 rectangular slices cut ¼ inch thick and approx. 12” x 8”). If you can’t get them sliced thin enough, place each slice between plastic wrap and use a meat pounder to flatten.

1 large green pepper, sliced into long strips about ¼” wide

1 12oz jar mild banana pepper rings

6 pieces mozzarella string cheese

6 slices prosciutto

3 green onions, sliced in half through the onion part and then in half lengthwise

Salt & pepper

Take each slice of beef and assemble as follows: Lay beef rectangle flat the long way. Lightly sprinkle top side with salt & pepper. Place 1 slice prosciutto the same direction as the beef. Then on the end closest to you, place about 4 strips of green pepper, 1 piece mozzarella string cheese, 3-4 pieces green onion, and about 6 rings of mild banana pepper. Tucking ingredients in as you go, roll the beef up until fully rolled. If beef is thin enough you shouldn’t need to secure it but you can use a toothpick to secure if needed. Lightly salt & pepper the outside. Next sear each meat roll by heating a skillet on high and then put a light drizzle of olive oil in the pan right before you put the meat in to sear. Leave meat rolls on high heat on one side for just long enough for them to sear. Turn them over and sear the other side and then remove from heat. Place side by side in a casserole pan.

Sauce: Depending on what texture you desire, you can coarsely chop by hand, use a food processor to finely chop, or cook ingredients first and then use a blender to puree. For the book club I used a food processor with raw ingredients.

1 large onion

1 green pepper

6 stalks celery

1 cup carrots

1 12 oz can chopped tomatoes (including the juice)

1 can Campbell’s Golden Mushroom Soup (another version uses 1 8oz can tomato sauce)

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

In a large pot, saute vegetables in olive oil until tender. Because there are a lot it will take a while (plan on 30 minutes). Add salt & pepper. Once tender, add the canned tomatoes along with juice and also Golden Mushroom Soup. Mix together and heat until bubbly.

Pour sauce over beef rolls to cover the meat and bake uncovered in 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes to melt the cheese inside the beef.

Serves 6

Source: Marie Hilliard

Books We've Read

11/22/63, Stephen King
A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
Among the Missing, Morag Joss
Before I Go to Sleep, S.J. Watson
Bue Christmas, Mary Kay Andrews
Bully Pulpit, Doris Kearns Goodwin
Celebrity in Death, J.D. Robb
Christmas Train, David Baldacci
Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
Crimson Petal and the White, Michael Faber
Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, V. Myron
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells
Drowning Ruth, Christina Schwarz
Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilber
Eleanor Roosevelt (Choose)
Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
Empire Falls, Richard Russo
Erotica (Choose Tropic of Cancer, Delta of Venus, etc.)
Exclusive, Sandra Brown
Faith Club/God Delusion
Finn, Jon Clinch
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Good Grief, Lolly Winston
Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, Mary Roach
Honey, Elizabeth Tallent
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
Inferno, Dan Brown
Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler
Katherine Graham: A Personal History
Liar's Club, Mary Karr
Murderous Urges of Ordinary Women
Narrows, Michael Connelly
Open House, Elizabeth Berg
Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
Plague of Doves, Louise Erdrich
Power of One, Bryce Courtenay
Probable Future, Alice Hoffman
Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky
Sarah's Key, Tatiana de Rosnay
Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon, Larry Millett
Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert
Sister of Grendel, Susan Thurston
Tall Pine Polka, Lorna Landvik
The Brain That Changes Itself, Norman Doidge, MD
The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
The Devil Wears Prada, Lauren Weisberger
The Dovekeepers, Alice Hoffman
The Fixer Upper, Mary Kay Andrews
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
The Help, Kathryn Stockett
The Hour I First Believed, Wally Lamb
The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, Jonasson
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
The Leftovers, Tom Perrotta
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
The Sweet Potato Queen's Big Ass Cookbook (And Financial Planner)
The Women, T.C. Boyle
Then Again, Diane Keaton
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
You and No Other, Jane Weiss and Bonnie Zahn
Zealot, Reza Aslan

Louise McColl Book Club

Monday, July 28, 2008

Marie has a fabulous backyard!

My Shelfari Bookshelf

Beef Roulade

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