Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells recipe by Jason McCrellis
The Author
Born on a Louisiana cotton farm, Rebecca Wells grew up with stories.
She wrote on her website “I came from loud, funny people who would fight over who got to read the latest volume of Readers’ Digest Condensed Books. When my novel Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood became a bestseller, I couldn’t help but think of how I used to get confused that both books and milk could be condensed. This confounded me as a girl and still does.”
After graduating from Louisiana University, her next stop was the Naropa Institute where she studied Tibetan Buddhism and creative writing.
Her studies didn’t stop there.
Rebecca has a lot of talents. Studying acting in New York, performing off Broadway, she teaches too, and has held classes at universitates across America.
And these are the less interesting forays.
She has been hired as a fortune teller for her sorority reunions. Toured with her one woman show where her play was called “one of the glories of the decade” by the Seattle post-intelligencer. She’s even performed as an erotic dancer.
Rebecca’s first book, ‘Little Alters Everywhere’, came out in 1992 and introduced Siddalee Walker, her mother Viviane and her mothers friends, characters in ‘Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood’ and in others.
It came out to huge applause and won the Western States Book Award and became a New York Times Bestseller.
The book Foodie Book Club chose for November was released in 1996 and was Rebecca Wells second book. Again, a great success, becoming another New York bestseller along with a lot of other awards. It was also adapted into a film in 2002.
Now living in Washington state where she likes to write hike, reads and dances.
Rebecca Wells
The Book
As mentioned above, this book was released in 1996, the second in a set of three chronicling the Ya-Yas.
It is a book about mothers, daughters, female friendships with a little spirituality and alcohol thrown in.
The book follows Siddalee Walker as she gets ready to marry the love of her life and after an article is released where her mother is mentioned in a less than flattering light.
It explores the complicated relationship between her and her mother, and has her mothers lifelong friends navigate the breach between them by going some way to explaining the scrap book her mother kept throughout her life.
Delving through the scrap book, Siddalee begins to gain a better understanding of what makes her mother tick.
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
What I Think?
I’ve a confession.
Over the years, I have read this book at least five times, and even after so many times exploring the pages, it was still a joy to revisit.
A book about relationships, women, friendships and motherhood. It’s a book full of humour, sadness, joy, confessions and making amends.
With strong females, written with empathy and with thought for the small points of their personalities and personal stories, each female character has multiple layers which shines through in the writing.
The dynamics between the friends is one I envy and seems something out of reach to me, but in a book, it’s something I like to read about.
The closeness they have and the intimacies the author writes and alludes to, is real.
Mothers have a lot of power over children, especially over daughters and this is clear in the relationship between Sidderlee and Vivi (her mother), and is evident in the toxic relationship between Vivi and her own mother.
The writer makes the links clear and juicy enough to want to carry on reading until the end, with a hope that they both gain a better understanding of the other.
There was no hurry to end the book, no rush to tie up loose endings in the writing, letting the book come to an easy conclusion with all the characters in the paces they should be at the end of a good nook.
Not far off the perfect book for me, and I know for a fact I will keep recommending it and re-visiting it.
I give this book a 5 gold egg rating!
5 Gold Egg Rat8ing
Chef
Jason McCrellis is a chef who kindly gave up his time to do a live cook for our Lockdown Lunch series during the pandemic. He also gave us a recipe and let us have a live chat with him.
The following is what I wrote then and you’ll be able to watch Jason cook live in our Foodie Book Club YouTube along with lots of other amazing chefs and celebrities who gifted us their time.
Read on!
Jason, McCrellis, another up and coming chef to keep an eye on in the future, and if you’re lucky enough to be in the Nottinghamshire area, then I’m very envious, because you can sample his food and book him for events. Click here for the link to see what fab food they are providing.
Jason says: “The company is called McCrellis & Wilkinson pop up events ltd . We have a street food element to the business called Hip Hop Food Shop., and that is street food from around the globe but with our twist and take on it .Click for their Facebook page.”
I’ve got it a little easy this week because Jason has written his own bio, so I’m going to sit back and enjoy the reading. Don’t forget, if you’ve missed seeing Jason cook live, you can see him on our Foodie Book Club YouTube channel along with all the other fabulously talented people who are gifting us their time and recipes from their kitchens during lockdown.
If you’ve any questions for Jason, I’m sure hell love to answer them. Check out his Instagram and find him on Twitter too.
“My name is Jason McCrellis I am 37 years old, originally from Birmingham, I have been living in Nottingham for about 14 years now with my wife and two young children.
I have always wanted to be a chef from a young age, I have worked in many different types of food establishments, from fine dining to corporate catering and everything in-between.
I have been cooking professionally for 20+ years and I think one of my high points came whilst traveling around the world after I got married. I was lucky enough to eat in some top restaurants in Australia as well as work at Rockpool, Chef Neil Perry’s flagship restaurant under head chef Phil Wood, I learned so much whilst working there. But my favourite and most recent high point was starting my business with a good friend of mine, its early days yet but the feedback has been really positive and in strange times like these it’s a god send.
This fridge raid frittata is a good recipe because it’s so adaptable and quick. You can change it up to whatever you have, once you’ve got the technique down just have a play with the recipe.”
Do you have a favourite knife?
“My Favourite knife would be my magussa Lite Japanese knife and that’s because I got it whilst I was in Australia, it’s really light and well balanced and razor sharp.
I don’t think knives really have a life span. All depends on how much you use it and look after it”
What’s your favourite ingredient?
“Favourite ingredient to use. I do tend to use essential cuisine range a lot at home as they have great products with so much flavour in one pot.
Favourite ingredient to eat. I really enjoy sea food and fish it so varied in species and very versatile to cook with.”
Which food fad are you glad has gone and which are you glad has arrived?
“Bad food FAD. Not sure it’s a fad but anything that is trendy but is done badly if that makes sense.
Good Food FAD. Again, not sure if I would class this as a FAD but I’m loving seeing all the small traders and local independents really rallying together to offer support to each other. Covid has hit the hospitality industry hard so we need to stick together and I hope this network of togetherness last long after covid has gone.”
What should a home cook put on their birthday wish list?
“One purchase that a home cook should have. A good knife, one that you can easily keep sharp and use for many jobs like 8inch cooks knife. For a home cook something like Victorinoxor Sabatier brand are good.”
Give us all one tip?
“Top tip for a home cook. Adding a little bit of salt goes along way especially in sweets and deserts”
Recipe
Watch Jason cook live here on Foodie Book Club YouTube Channel.
Fridge Raid Frittata
Equipment:
2X Mixing bowls
Cheese grater
Clean tea towel
20cm Non-stick frying pan (or any small non-stick frying pan)
Rubber spatula
Ingredients: -
180g Butternut Squash Peeled (or any vegetable you can easily grate)
130g Potato Peeled (can be any kind red, white, sweet, baking)
70g Shallot (again it can be any onion white, red, spring onion, if using spring onion slice as thin as you can)
50g Smoked Apple Wood Cheese (or whatever firm cheese you prefer)
3 Large Free-Range Eggs (beaten)
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 Tbs oil
Take a slice
Method:
Pre heat oven to 180c
First start by grating the cheese and place to one side.
Next grate all your vegetables, yes even the onion into a bowl and season with salt and pepper.
Once the vegetables are seasoned place them into a clean tea towel and squeeze the water out of them over the bowl or sink. This will help to keep the mix dry and compact whilst cooking.
Once the vegetables have been squeezed, combine with the cheese and beaten eggs.
Heat the oil on medium heat in a non-stick pan.
Once the oil is hot but not smoking, add the vegetable & egg mix into the pan and gently press down and compact the mix so the bottom and the sides get a good colour and seal. I find using a rubber spatula works best for this as its flexible yet sturdy enough to compact the sides of the frittata.
Once the frittata has been cooking for about 3-4 minutes check to see if it has a nice golden colour on the bottom and sides by gently lifting it up the middle should be just firm to the touch. If it has, carefully place a plate that is slightly bigger then the pan on top and flip it over.
Place the pan back onto the heat and gently slide the frittata back into the pan.
What was once the bottom of the frittata should now be golden brown and on top of the pan and the top on the bottom.
Cook for a further 3-4 minutes to get a good golden colour and seal on this side and finish in the oven at 180oc for 5 minutes.
Once cooked serve and enjoy.
