TRAVEL/FOOD : Page 95 of 97 : On the road and at home, it's always about food and fun!

Claudia Sanders Dinner House

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My first stop in Kentucky last week was at Claudia Sanders Dinner House in Shelbyville, a large Southern Colonial style building with a long front porch, tall white columns and a row of rocking chairs. It’s the type of place Scarlet O’Hara would have been comfortable hanging around.

If the last name Sanders sounds familiar, it’s because Claudia was the second wife of Harland, better known to most of us as Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. And before we got any further, the title of Colonel is totally honorific, conferred by the governor of the state. It’s a Kentucky thing.

Claudia and the Colonel met when she was a waitress at the gas station in Corbin, Kentucky where he served his Southern-style cooking including fried chicken, gravy, biscuits, country ham, string beans, okra and other such fare. After word spread about how good the food was Sanders got rid of the gas station part of the business and enlarged the building to seat 142.

In the late 1930s Sanders restaurant was listed in Duncan Hines’ “Adventures in Good Eating” and for those of you who think Duncan Hines is just a brand of cake mixes, here’s an interesting aside. Hines was a traveling salesman who between 1935 and 1955 started compiling a list of restaurants that he recommended to fellow travelers. The list turned into a series of books and Hines also started writing a thrice weekly newspaper column which was syndicated in newspapers throughout the county.

Here’s his listing for the Colonel’s place.

“Corbin, KY. Sanders Court and Café

41 — Jct. with 25, 25 E. ½ Mi. N. of Corbin. Open all year except Xmas.

A very good place to stop en route to Cumberland Falls and the Great Smokies. Continuous 24-hour service. Sizzling steaks, fried chicken, country ham, hot biscuits. L. 50¢ to $1; D., 60¢ to $1”

Of course, eating at a restaurant associated with the Colonel and his lady (when the place originally opened it was called The Colonel’s Lady), I had to order the chicken as well as some true Southern sides—corn pudding, chicken and dumpling soup and mashed potatoes with milk gravy. If you’re shaking your head at the number of calories in this meal, at no time did we say it was lean cuisine.

Anyway, back to the Colonel and Claudia.

“The Colonel was a really good guy,” Charlie Kramer, owner of Kentucky Backroad Tours,
tells me over dinner (yes, I was eating again but more about this place in a future column). Charlie worked at the dinner house staring in the 1970s and so knew both Claudia and Harland.

It seems that the Colonel was a perfectionist when it came to cooking and not only did he come up with the secret recipe of herbs and spices that made the batter so “finger-lickin’ good” but he also realized that a new way was needed to cook fried chicken. The answer was a pressure cooker, a relatively new appliance in 1939. It was better than pan frying which took too long and deep frying which made the chicken greasy and dry. Pressure cooking not only sealed in the chicken’s flavor it also preserved its moisture without being greasy.

“He’d go around to these restaurants around Louisville and showed them a better way to make chicken,” Charlie told me. “He’d take a pressure cooker and the spices and herbs and show them how to do it. He’d ask them to pay him a nickel for every fried chicken they sold and he’d stop by later and collect the money.”

It may seem like an odd business model but it worked.

When I-75 opened, the Sanders Café was off the main road which is why Claudia and Harland moved to Shelbyville and opened the dinner club.

The Colonel eventually sold his business to John Y. Brown, Jr. who would become the governor of Kentucky and then later to PepsiCo and its name changed to KFC. The Sanders kept the restaurant where the original recipe is still being used. Both Claudia and Harland are gone now, but the restaurant remains very popular. It was crowded when I was there at lunch time on a Wednesday and it seemed like a lot of chicken was being served.

As for the recipe for the real Kentucky Fried Chicken, here’s one that is said to be real. I don’t know if that’s true but it supposedly was found in a home belonging to a Sanders’ family member when some remodeling was going on. The claim that it is the secret recipe (which is supposedly kept locked away and known by just a few people all sworn to secrecy) resulted in a long-running lawsuit between KFC and the family that says they discovered it. I do find it interesting that one of the secret ingredients is ground ginger—not an ingredient I’ve ever encountered in a fried chicken recipe before.

The Maybe-Secret-Original-Recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken

2/3 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon thyme

½ teaspoon basil

1/3 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon celery salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon dried mustard

4 teaspoons paprika

2 teaspoons garlic salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

3 teaspoons white pepper

2 cups white flour

Mix all ingredients together.

Claudia Sander’s Creamed Spinach

1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach

2 strips bacon, chopped fine

1 ½ tablespoons finely chopped onion

¾ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1 cup half-and-half

1 ½ tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon flour

Thaw and cook spinach 4 minutes in salted boiling water. Drain and set aside. In a skillet brown the bacon and onion. Add salt and pepper. Set aside. In a saucepan bring the half-and-half to a boil.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour. Mix thoroughly. Combine with the half-and-half. Cook until mixture thickens. Add the spinach and the bacon-and-onion mixture to the half-and-half. Stir thoroughly and heat.

Claudia Sanders Yeast Rolls

2 cups sifted flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon butter or corn oil or margarine

1 cake yeast

1/3 cup lukewarm water or milk

1 egg, well beaten

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Sift flour and salt together. Work in butter. Set aside. Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water or milk. Combine with egg and sugar. Add to flour mixture. Gently stir until blended.

Shape into rolls and let rise in greased baking pan for about 2 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.

Bake in a preheated 425-degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

Claudia Sanders Dinner Club is located at 3202 Shelbyville Road, Shelbyville, KY. For more information: 502-633-5600; claudiasanders.com

Jane Ammeson can be contacted via email at janeammeson@gmail.com

Hauntings of the Underground Railroad: Ghosts of the Midwest

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Before the Civil War, a network of secret routes and safe houses crisscrossed theMidwest to help African Americans travel north to escape slavery. Although many slaves were able to escape to the safety of Canada, others met untimely deaths on the treacherous journey―and some of these unfortunates still linger, unable to rest in peace. InHauntings of the Underground Railroad: Ghosts of the Midwest, Jane Simon Ammeson investigates unforgettable and chilling tales of these restless ghosts that still walk the night.

This unique collection includes true and gruesome stories, like the story of a lost toddler who wanders the woods near the Story Inn, eternally searching for the mother torn from him by slave hunters, or the tale of the Hannah House, where an overturned oil lamp sparked a fire that trapped slaves hiding in the basement and burned them alive.

Brave visitors who visit the house, which is now a bed and breakfast, claim they can still hear voices moaning and crying from the basement.Ammeson also includes incredible true stories of daring escapes and close calls on the Underground Railroad. A fascinating and spine-tingling glimpse into our past,Hauntings of the Underground Railroad will keep you up all night.

Hauntings

The Old Foodie: A Frenchman’s view of English food in 1823.

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The Old Foodie: A Frenchman’s view of English food in 1823.: In 1823 a French liberal economist called Jérôme-Adolphe Blanqui visited England and Scotland. The narrative of his travels was later publi…

The Old Foodie: A Frenchman’s view of English food in 1823.

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Fare Fit for a Founding Father

Historic Restaurants

When George Washington ate a farewell dinner with his officers after the end of the Revolutionary War back when New York City was the temporary capital of the newly formed United States, the fare at the Fraunces Tavern at 54 Pearl St. in New York City included chicken pot pie, roasted corn chowder, pan-roasted cod, breast of capon Madeira, Yankee pot roast, sirloin au poivre with Yorkshire pudding and lots of oysters, which they sold by on the streets in barrels back then. But besides our first president, other famous people in the early years of our country have dined here, including Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, who both attended a dinner for the Society of Cincinnati on July 4, 1803. Seven days later, Burr fatally wounded Hamilton as the two dueled at the Cliffs of Weehawken.

The large red brick building with wood-framed windows painted yellow was first built as a home in 1671 and then purchased in 1762 by Samuel Fraunces, who opened a tavern. I was in New York recently for the BookExpo America, which is billed as the largest annual book trade fair in the U.S., to sign galley copies of my two new books — “Murders That Made Headlines” and “Hauntings of the Underground Railroad,” which are both published by Indiana University Press and due out Aug. 1. And yes, the lines for books signed by Hillary Clinton, Stephen Kind and Scott Turow were much, much longer than mine. Being a fan of historic architecture and food, the Fraunces Tavern was on my definite list of places to visit while in town.

IMG_3257 - Copy (1) In an interesting aside, one of Fraunces’ five daughters, Phoebe, became General Washington’s housekeeper. Told of a plot to kill the future president by a besotted British agent, Phoebe, when serving peas to Washington whispered they were poisoned. As the story goes, Washington tossed them out the window where they were eaten by his free ranging chickens who all died.

For more information: Fraunces Tavern.

The following are recipes from Fraunces Tavern like the ones Washington might have eaten.

Yankee Pot Roast

3 pounds beef rump roast, cut into roughly 1-inch by 4-inch chunks

Vegetable oil

1 carrot, diced

1/2 onion, chopped

1 stick celery, diced

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup veal stock, or beef bouillon

1 bay leaf

Pinch thyme

2 tablespoons Madeira wine or sherry, optional

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Sprigs of thyme, optional garnish

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In an ovenproof baking dish or Dutch oven with lid, brown roast on all sides in oil.

Remove beef from pan; add carrot, onion and celery and cook in butter until caramelized, about 5 minutes; add tomato paste and cook until caramelized. Add stock, bay leaf and thyme; simmer for about 10 minutes.

Return meat to pot and cover. Braise in oven at 350 F until tender, 45 to 50 minutes.

Remove roast. Skim fat off juices; heat juices to reduce slightly; add wine, salt and pepper.

Serve pot roast with juices, Sherry Braised Cabbage and Corn Pancakes (recipes below). Garnish with sprigs of thyme, if desired.

Sherry Braised Cabbage

1 medium onion, sliced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 red cabbage, shredded

1 medium apple, peeled and sliced

¼ cup red currant jelly

1 bay leaf

3 allspice berries

Salt and pepper to taste

½ cup sherry

Preheat oven to 325 F.

In ovenproof pot or Dutch oven with lid, sauté onion in oil. Add cabbage, apple, jelly, bay leaf, allspice, salt, pepper and 1/4 cup sherry. Cover and bake for 2 hours; when done, stir in remaining 1/4 cup sherry.

Makes 6 servings.

Corn Pancakes

1 egg

1/2 cup cornmeal

Pinch salt, or to taste

1/4 cup milk, plus 1 tablespoon

1 tablespoon butter

Mix egg, cornmeal and salt. Add milk. Melt .5 tablespoon of butter; add to batter. Melt other .5 tablespoon butter to coat 7-inch nonstick sauté pan. Pour 1 tablespoon batter into pan. Cook on one side for 30 to 40 seconds; flip and cook for further 15 seconds.

Makes 6 pancakes.

Serve pancakes wrapped around portions of braised cabbage, if desired.

Chicken a la George Washington

1 cup steamed rice

1 cup cooked chicken, diced

1 cup braised and buttered mushrooms, sliced

1 cup cream sauce

Grated cheese

Melted butter

Fill half the casserole dish with steamed rice. Thoroughly mix chicken, mushrooms and cream sauce before pouring over rice. Sprinkle top with grated cheese and melted butter.

Place under broiler to brown.

Kayaking In a Glittering Light: Exploring the bioluminescent bay of Laguna, near San Juan – Puerto Rico

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Night is quickly approaching as we paddle our kayaks across Las Croabas Bay, maneuvering around the anchored sail boats whose halyards are snapping in the light wind. To our right is the vast Atlantic Ocean, but we paddle instead for the narrow mangrove canal leading way Laguna Grande, one of only five bodies of water in the world where bioluminescent creatures, often known as the “burning of the sea,” live year round.

It is dark and the moon is hidden behind a bank of clouds and so the only lights we have to follow are the glow sticks on the life jacket and back of the kayak ahead of us.

“This is just the way it should be,” says my friend Jody, who has taken this trip several times before. “If the moon were out, we wouldn’t be able to see them.”

By them she means the tiny phosphorescent creatures that live, 450,000 to the gallon, in Laguna Grande de Fajardo, accessible only through the mangrove canal and only by kayak as motorboats are prohibited.

A little light might be nice, I think, as we navigate among the mangroves whose roots, which twist up above the waters along the narrow channel in a latticework pattern, collecting debris from the falling leaves and palm tree fonds.

We are lucky on the way into the lagoon, as the current tugs us along. And because my 12 year old daughter Nia and I frequently kayak, we’re able to maneuver around the turns and bends better than some of the others in the long line of kayaks behind us.

We had started earlier this evening, just after a heavy rainstorm, in the hip and lively Condida neighborhood of San Juan where we’re staying at Marriott there. 90 minutes later we arrived in Parque Las Croabas where several tour companies offer trips to the lagoon. Our group numbers about 45, some of whom had never kayaked before. No worries, Juan Ruiz, our lead guide at EcoAdventure PR, tells us as we clamber aboard, no one has fallen in yet. Reassuring, given that the waters are murky and dark.

The journey through the mangroves seems a long way from the sophisticated hotel, restaurants and shops that make up that area and my daughter is wondering why we didn’t stay by the pool overlooking the ocean. It is, she tells me more than once, hot and humid in the channel and the paddle so far, about 30 minutes, a little long. She is, unfortunately, entering those teenage years where such adventures somehow pale in comparison to going to the mall.

Bugs are not a problem as we slathered on organic bug lotion before we left. We’d also bought along some freshly made empanadas stuffed with cheese and chicken. We are prepared and after a sharp turn to the left, the mangrove roots start to spread out and within minutes we enter the lagoon.

Almost at the same moment as the waters open up, Nia gives a little cry. I look back and see that her oar, as it lifts out of the water, drips iridescent white froth and as it re-enters the water, the dazzling Champagne-like bubbles encircle the flat surface of the paddle. I dip my hand into the water, letting it trail along as my kayak glides forward. It is the same-glittery confetti lighting up the black lagoon–and though I know, from listening to Jody, this would happen, the experience is more more astounding than I expected. Mesmerized, I could endlessly watch the glow of stardust-like creatures slipping through my fingers into the water below. Nia’s shout of astonishment echoes as more paddlers enter the lagoon and their movements create swaths of glow stick-like paths.

These are, we have been told, bioluminescent organisms, living creatures that emit light– think tiny underwater lightening bugs and you get an idea of what they’re like.

It isn’t totally understood says Ruiz, why bioluminscents live in only a few bays. But all are similar–small, shallow (none are more than 14 feet deep), ringed by mangroves and connected to the ocean only by a narrow channel. Heading back, we battle the strong current running against us until finally entering Las Croabas Bay. Here the wind is even stronger and there is an uneasy chop to the inky waters. Then for a few minutes the clouds drift off and in the moonlight we see El Faro (the Fajardo Light House) and houses lining the hills. My daughter isn’t complaining anymore. She’d be willing come back soon even if it means leaving the hotel pool.

For more information: ecoadventurespr.com/

Wise Minded Parenting

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Been there, done that and hate it.

A serious conversation with our child suddenly devolves into a fight worthy of an elementary school yard. Instead of being able to settle the issue, we instead find ourselves upset and angry and our children feeling the same.

That’s not the way to work things out. But how do we get back on track?

Laura Kastner, PhD, author of Getting to Calm: Cool-Headed Strategies for Parenting Tweens + Teens and Wise Minded Parenting: 7 Essentials for Raising Successful Tweens + Teens, suggests that first we need to get control of our own feelings.

“In my first book, Getting to Calm, I talk about emotional regulation,” says Kastner, a clinical psychologist and clinical professor in both the psychology department and the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington. “When our kids push our buttons, we end up with what’s called emotional flooding. It’s where we have neurons fire in the emotional part of our brains. Our heart rate jumps, our thinking ability gets distorted and often we’re only thinking in very simple black and white terms—like I’m good; you’re bad. Unfortunately, our kids are probably at the same point and nothing is going to get resolved while you’re both in that state.”

What to do?

It’s all about gaining emotional regulation. First calm yourself down–unless your heart beat slows you can’t get into your thinking brain to evaluate how to handle the situation—take deep breaths, step out of the room for a moment or focus on serene thoughts. In other words do whatever it takes to get your feelings under control and return to a rational state of mind.

“Once you get to calm, then you can decide how to handle the problem whether it’s having just discovered marijuana in your kid’s sock or they’ve been drinking and can’t understand why you’re so upset,” says Kastner, noting that one of her favorite mantras for getting control is repeating “the only person you can control is yourself. You want to connect before you correct, if it’s not going well, back off.”

But getting to calm doesn’t make the original issue go away. Now a parent has to use their cognitive skills to be wise minded, to know their values and what they believe is right.

Just as importantly, no matter the behavior, Kastner says we need to listen with empathy and create a connection by understanding your child’s emotions.

“Maybe they want to go to an overnight party but you’ve just learned no adults will be there,” she says. “Say something like I know you really want to go to that party, but no you can’t. Another of my mantras is you might be right but is that effective? If you are sympathetic and kind, there’s a higher likelihood that it will work than if you become a tyrant and just say no. Teenagers have their own moral reasoning and can really believe that it’s okay for them to do things they shouldn’t.”

When a teenager or a child is flooding to the point where they’re having a melt down, it’s not a good time to talk, says Kastner who compares that situation to trying to reason with a drunk.

“Touch them gently, shoot some hoops, look at animal videos but don’t try to talk about the issue,” she says. “Don’t leave the room without saying you’ll be right back because that feels like abandonment. And if you’ve gotten too upset, use I statements—say I was so angry, I really regret what I said, I wish I hadn’t. Tell them you’re going to hate my jurisdiction; I get it but I’m saying no. Validation is not giving in. It just lets them know we understand.”

Sidebar: Wise-Minded Mantras

In Wise-Minded Parenting, Laura Kastner suggests repeating these mantras to yourself the next time you’re losing emotional control.

· My teen is doing the best she can, given her age and stage.

· Good character does not guarantee good behavior full-time.

· My love messages really matter, even if my teen can’t resist expressing disgust or irritation.

· My goal is to demonstrate emotional intelligence, not to control my teen’s reactions.

· I will not cave when faced with high emotions.

Ifyougo:

What: Laura Kastner will be speaking at two venues on Wednesday, February 3. Tickets for both are free but registration required: communityparentnetwork.org/

Time: 9:30 am

Where: Wednesday, February 3 at 9:30 am; Royal Melbourne Country Club, 4700 Royal Melbourne Drive, Long Grove, Illinois

Time: 7 to 9 pm

Where: Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Performing Arts Center (East Building), One Stevenson Drive, Lincolnshire, IL

Polar Express Celebrates 30 Years of Holiday Adventure

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It’s been three decades since The Polar Express (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 1985) first came chugging into our lives, enchanting us with the story of a young boy who boards a train on Christmas Eve to take a fateful and reaffirming journey.

In the book which has sold over six-and-a-half million copies—and later the film adaptation of the same name starring Tom Hanks as the kindly conductor—author and author Chris Van Allsburg weaves a tale that he describes as not only fortifying traditions as well as intensifying feelings we already have about the holiday but also has a sub textural theme that also appeals to adults. It begins as a young boy listens for the sound of Santa’s sleigh bells hardly hoping to believe anymore after a friend has told him that Santa doesn’t exist.

“That theme deals with the coming of age transition that parents are reluctant to witness in their children,” says Van Allsburg who is on a mufti-city tour including a stop hosted by Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, to celebrate the book’s 30 years of popularity noting that is a time when children’s youthful innocence, faith and naiveté is yielding to skepticism and doubt. “Their children are leaving childhood behind and mom and dad are sorry to see it happen. The book addresses that issue and might even delay the inevitable for one or two Christmases.”

Van Allsburg, formerly a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, who used oil pastels to illustrate The Polar Express, giving it a dreamy fantastical look, describes that medium as unwieldly and “not particularly well suited for detail but goof for atmospheric effects.”

Interestingly, he hadn’t used it before and hasn’t since, adding to the one-of-a-kind charm to both the story and the illustrations.

When asked about the sustaining popularity of his book, Van Allsburg says that both the train ride and the anticipation of Santa Claus are two reasons he thinks the book remains a favorite.

“This makes it an ideal book to read as the holiday approaches,” he says, “when children are already primed by the season to hear a story about the remarkable event that is just days away.”

City Creatures

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Gavin Van Horn did not grow up in a city and he didn’t expect, after graduating college with a doctorate from the University of Florida with a specialization in Religion and Nature, to end up living in Chicago, the third largest city in the United States.

He also didn’t expect, outside of occasional pockets of wildlife in city parks and preserves, to have much interaction with such creatures.

That is until one night as he was reading a book in his third floor condominium when between the squeals of the passing L-trains, he heard the banter of coyotes as they communicated with each other.

“One expect birds in the city,” says Van Horn, who with Dave Aftandilian, edited City Creatures: Animal Encounters in the Chicago Wilderness (University of Chicago Press 2015; $30). The book is the basis for an exhibit of the same name at Chicago’s Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. “But knowing there were coyotes in the city added another dimension.”

Coyotes became an icon for Van Horn, the director of Cultures of Conservation for the Center for Humans and Nature, a nonprofit organization that focuses on and promotes conservation ethics. He also writes for, edits, and curates the City Creatures blog at http://www.humansandnature.org/blog.

“I was very happy to find out how much bio-diversity there is in the city,” he says. “And there are so many people in Chicago dedicated to that bio-diversity as well.”

Divided into six sections, the book covers urban wildlife in an array of essays, poetry, paintings and photographs. It also helps readers know where to look for these city creatures. But, as Van Horn says, it’s not necessary to go to such places as Powderhorn Marsh and Prairie Preserve, 192 acres of woodland, prairie and wetland tucked away on the far southeast side of Chicago or Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary in Lincoln Park, a favorite of birders because of such sightings as the Red-throated Loons, Snow Owls, Lapland Longspurs and Semi-Palmated Sandpipers.

“If you’re a person who just likes being outside, you can see so much in backyards, vacant lots, public golf courses and even cemeteries,” says Van Horn, noting the later often has little corners or pockets where native plants thrive, attracting native wildlife. “No matter where you are at, there are things to discover. It’s letting yourself learn to look for them.”

To do just that, Van Horn says the first step is to pay attention and to hone your curiosity.

“Once you’re in a place and learn to recognize what’s around you it’s easy to discover the myth of the city,” he says. “And that myth is that there’s nothing out there but urban life.”

Ifyougo:

What: City Creatures: Animal Encounters in Chicago’s Urban Wilderness

When: Oct. 3 – Jan. 3, 2016

Where: Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, 2430 N. Cannon Drive, Chicago IL

FYI: (773) 755-5100; naturemuseum.org

Drew Barrymore opens up in 'Wildflower'

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Drew Barrymore would like us to learn more about her which seems like a very good idea. After all, this versatile actress, though only 40, has been around a long time starting at age six when she starred in the 1982 movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial directed by Steven Spielberg to the soon-to-be released Miss You Already. In between there’s a long list including The Wedding Singer with Adam Sandler, Grey Gardens which earned her Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards and, of course, two Charlie’s Angels films.

Now in Wildflower(Dutton 2015; $28), Barrymore shares her life in a series of personal essays which include reflections of growing up as a child star from a long line of famous actors and actresses, sky diving with best friend—and fellow Charlie’s Angel—Cameron Diaz, exploring religion in India and forming three companies—Flower Productions, Flower Eyewear and Barrymore Wines.

Oh and then there’s the need to balance work and parenthood.

“I just got right on the idea of, where do I need to be the most?” says Barrymore who is taking a short break from movies to focus on her family. “Fifty-fifty would be ideal but life doesn’t work like that–life is messy. It was just really challenging and I felt overwhelmed. I made a lot of decisions and I definitely changed my work life to suit parenthood.”

Barrymore also talks about her struggles with postpartum depression after the birth of her second child, 18-month-old Frankie. The depression, which lasted six months, came as a surprise since she felt “great” after Olive, now three, was born.

“I have wanted to write a book for many years but I didn’t want to do anything heavy,” says Barrymore who says she’s not known for being boring and wanted to make sure her book wasn’t either.

She also puts her own perspective on things. Someone once told Barrymore that her life seemed so sad.

“I was like, it’s not to me, but I could see how you would think that.” She recalls saying. “That’s the heavy perspective. Are you kidding me? My life is amazing.”

Ifyougo:

What: Drew Barrymore discussion and book signing

When: Friday, October 30, the doors open at 11 am and the event begins at 11:30 am.

Where: The Standard Club in Chicago, 320 S Plymouth Court, Chicago, IL

Cost: $60 includes a plated luncheon and a copy of Wildflower

FYI: Tickets available through Anderson’s Bookshop. 630-355-2665; andersonsbookshop.com

Also, Barrymore will be doing a book signing at 7 pm that evening at the Yellow Box Auditorium at Community Christian Church, 1635 Emerson Lane, Naperville, IL

Cost: $36 includes admission and one book. Tickets must be purchased through Anderson Bookstore.