Where the Crawdads Sing, Whiskey in a Teacup, and Crab Puffs

#WheretheCrawdadsSing #DeliaOwens #WhiskeyInATeacup #ReeseWitherspoon #BookClub #southern #crab

My book club recently read Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens. I was hook, line, and sinker in love with that book. It’s the story of a young girl, who spends her whole life struggling against the current, trying to find her way. It has everything – beauty, scientific curiosity, adaptability, trust, distrust, murder, plotting, hope, hopelessness, love, rejectance <I’m doubling down on that being a word>, and acceptance. She has a profound love and appreciation for her marsh, deemed unloveable by everyone else, echoing the world’s view of her.

I couldn’t wait to get together with my girlfriends and talk about it. It was a Reese Witherspoon book club choice, and she’s going to produce the film (yay!!!), so I thought it only appropriate to make Reese’s Crab Puffs for the gathering. The recipe is out of Reese’s book, Whiskey in a Teacup. I found someone who put the recipe up on Pinterest here, so you can try them, too. If you’re a fan of the Great British Bake-Off, you’ll realize you’re making something like a simple pate a choux. But this is Reese, so she just calls them puffs, and you can go along making this deliciousness without any pretense or thinking you should be intimidated. I love that. And these are divine. Please note that it says it makes 2 dozen. It makes 4 dozen. And I doubled the recipe to use up the crab and ended up with 8 dozen. LOL! It’s not a problem. They’re a bit addictive. And 6 of them are filled with plenty of crab, gruyere, and egg, with only 2 Tablespoons of flour, so it’s got a high protein, low carb ratio, making them pretty darn guilt-free to boot!

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I was so excited when I saw Whiskey in a Teacup. I ordered some lovely teacups at the same time to put my whiskey cocktail in. When I mentioned it at the table, my two teen daughters said, “Who?” I gasped realizing they’d never seen one of Reese’s movies, so I grabbed a copy of Legally Blonde (OMGosh! I just saw that there are 3 of them!) right away to rectify that. Yes, it is absolutely timeless. They both thought it was laugh out loud wonderful. A few months later, my daughter came home and told me her dance teacher had taught them a variation on the ‘bend and snap’. Bahahaha!

Whiskey in a Teacup has equal measure of positives and negatives about it. I think it might be important to disclose that I am not a salon girl at all before I get started talking about the book. If you are, I think you’ll like the book more than I do.

I loved the book club chapter. Her lists are great and she has a fun menu to go along with a book club meeting.

Her memories, mainly of her dear grandmother, are rich with detail and charming. And she shares a good deal of her grandma’s advice and some of her recipes. There are stories about the rest of her family, too, that paint a nice picture of her childhood.

There’s a chapter about her admiration of Southern icon, Dolly Parton, that I enjoyed. I had no idea that she sold shirts with What Would Dolly Do emblazoned across the front. Love that.

There’s a recipe for crab puffs. You know you want a crab puff! And there’s one for a tea cocktail, but there’s no whiskey involved. Lol!

Then the hair rollers. There’s a chapter on hair rollers that just seemed confusing. Back in the 70s, ladies would have loved this in fashion magazines, but it’s just so dated.

The chapters about monogramming and gifts felt out of touch, too. An add-a-pearl necklace for a little girl is terrific if she’d indicated that she wanted one, otherwise it would seem like you were buying them a commitment to go finish the necklace off. And monogrammed sheets that need hand washing – I just can’t see adding that kind of work to hectic modern life.

Then there’s little essays about things like honky-tonks. She spends the bulk of it talking about how everyone will dance with everyone, and no one judges anyone, and then undoes the whole thing at the end by saying she has a favorite dance partner she likes to bring, and that, of course, all the girls want to dance with him. Huh? Where’d the sudden interest in who’s good and who’s not come in?

The whole book is very upbeat and optimistic. And that’s great. But, it would have been a more interesting read if she talked about any sort of challenges she faced at all. Overall, it’s a very cute book, and will make you smile.

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Where the Crawdads Sing

Whiskey in a Teacup

Legally Blonde