Ellie@Home by Nicole Kapise-Perkins

I'm not a die-hard Martha Stewart fan...in fact I don't actually recall reading her magazine anywhere but at the dentist's office. So why did I feel the need to pick up the issue I saw at the grocery store? Absolutely for the promise of the ropa vieja recipe. Who doesn't love the smell of  slow-cooked beef stew? Because this is a slow-cooker recipe, I'm able to toss everything together and left it quietly do it's thing, slowly filling the house with deliciousness while I scrub the bathroom (no fun but entirely necessary). I am not ashamed to admit that most of Martha Stewart's recipes are over my head. I'm a home-cook, not  an uber-cook. (That title belongs to my sister who has a degree in culinary arts and has worked in amazing places like Wales and Cape Cod. For those of you home-cooks who can whip up a Martha recipe with one hand stirring and the other guiding you young reader across the page, I totally salute you. Please excuse me while I wallow ...

     A promotion at work has thrown my writing schedule into a tailspin, so the only logical thing to do was to apply to the American Women's College at Bay Path University for fall classes. Makes perfect sense, really.      I have until September 4 to cram in as much of my 'for me' reading as I can, and I've been doing my best. Many of my latest reads were amazing books, ones I feel I should have shared here in Ellie's Home, and I may spend some time this weekend doing a retro-review. In the meantime, here are two books I have coming up (they are currently 'In Transit' according to my library account) Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur   Milk and Honey         milk and honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. It is about the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. It is split into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose, deals with a different pain, heals...