Just as Julie Powell cooked her way through Julia Child’s famous Mastering the Art of French Cooking and wrote a blog about it, our very own Eat, Shrink & Be Merry cookbook will be the subject of a year-long weight-loss-journey blog written by Leslie Teal of Ontario! Leslie’s mission is to lose weight and feel great by next summer, so beginning TODAY, she’ll cook her way through the pages of ESBM, recipe by recipe, chapter by chapter, until she’s cooked every single recipe in the book. Leslie’s an excellent writer and has a wonderful personality. For motivation (not that she really needs any!), we told Leslie that when she arrives at the final recipe in our cookbook, the “Died and Gone to Heaven Chocolate Layer Cake” (splurge-worthy!) that WE would bake the cake and deliver it to her and the three of us would enjoy a slice together! (I mean, we’d EACH enjoy a slice…we wouldn’t share ONE slice…I’m not driving all around Ontario to share a ONE slice of cake with two people….unless they are George Clooney and Brad Pitt.)
We’d LOVE it if you’d visit Leslie’s blog and cheer her on! This is a very big deal to Leslie, since she’s made a firm commitment to lose weight and change her eating habits once and for all, so we’re sure she’d appreciate your support.
Here’s where you’ll find her:
http://eatshrinkandmeetleslie.blogspot.com:80/
By the way, should they decide to make a Hollywood movie out of Leslie’s journey, I’m wondering who will play me????? I often have people tell me I look like “a younger Morgan Fairchild” (thank God for the “younger” part…isn’t she in her sixties??) or Marla Maples. People tell Janet she looks like Leah Remini from King of Queens. I posed this question to Leslie and she said, “I see you two being portrayed by Cameron Diaz and Sandra Bullock.” Now you know why we love Leslie!!
13 responses so far ↓
1 Ola S. // Aug 21, 2009 at 10:38 am
This is awesome! Way to go, Leslie!! This will definitely be an interesting undertaking to follow!
As far as celebrity look-alikes go, I definitely agree that you look like a young Morgan Fairchild! (I oly know her as Chandler’s mom from “Friends”. Shows my age, doesn’t it? haha) As for Janet, personally I’ve always thought that she’s the spitting image of Kelly Bishop (the mom from Dirty Dancing, and Emily Gilmore from Gilmore Girls) - but also “a younger version”, of course!!
2 Greta Podleski // Aug 21, 2009 at 11:06 am
Hmm. After looking at photos of Morgan Fairchild online, I don’t think I look anything like her!! She is 59 years old, by the way, and her “real” name is Patsy McClenny. I think I’m going to change my name too. I want a celebrity name…something like…Lexi-Faye Banderas. Yes, yes…Lexi is my dog’s name…but I’ve always really like it. I chose “Banderas” because I like Spanish-sounding names. (By the way, did you know that Julia Child’s birth name was Julia McWilliams?)
3 Ola S. // Aug 21, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Well Lexi-Faye, you don’t look EXACTLY like her but kind of! Enough at least that I can see why people would say that you do. Who would YOU say you look like, in that case (if anyone)? I’ve been thinking that if someone made a movie about my life, I’d get Amy Adams (from “Julie and Julia” :)) to play me because everyone tells me that I *am* Giselle from “Enchanted” (the Disney movie Amy starred in a couple years ago - and incidentally one of my favourites - so I really love that! :D)
I’ve always thought about what my “celebrity name” could be, too! Adding an “L” to my name and making it “Lola” has always appealled to me because I think it sounds really glamourous! Plus, it could make for a very elegant autograph. (I think cursive capital L’s are really fancy!)
….Okay, now back to reality! haha
4 Jenny // Aug 24, 2009 at 7:06 am
Great for Leslie.
I’ve made that cake, btw, for a big gathering. My cake was dessert for 40 people and it was rich enough that there was plenty to go around! Quite the incentive.
5 Lady Downsize (Sheri) // Sep 1, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Congratulations to Leslie! I hope she does well. Now, wouldn’t it be great if you had all three cookbooks going on at the same time? I’m game for either Crazy Plates or Looney Spoons, and weightloss is definitely something I need. What is your opinion?
6 Feather // Sep 3, 2009 at 7:41 am
Very interesting, Leslie! I really enjoyed Julie and Julia, and since I actually cook out of Eat, Shrink and Be Merry all the time, I think I’ll enjoy your blog that much more! Also, only one more day until the new season of Eat, Shrink and Be Merry … YAY!
7 Mélodie Luci // Sep 23, 2009 at 8:41 am
HHHoO My GoD you are sssssoooooooooo funny…I can’t even focus on the recepiece because i’m laughting too much
thank you, thank you :p
Melodie
8 Sandy Schellenberg // Sep 30, 2009 at 11:29 am
On birthdays I always make your died and gone to heaven chocolate layer cake. I always wonder if I add the melted chocolate wrong when I add it to the eggs. Is there a trick to this?
After I add the dry ingredients I worry that I beat it too long to try and get it smooth.
Any suggestions?
9 Elly // Oct 15, 2009 at 9:28 pm
I was enjoying following Leslie’s cooking trail but seem to have lost her. Is there a secret I don’t know about to going beyond day 39?????????
10 Ola S. // Oct 29, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Ya, what happened after day 39? Is Leslie just not blogging anymore?
11 JesseMegan // Oct 30, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Are you guys not blogging anymore either?
12 Jessica // Nov 10, 2009 at 9:01 pm
I post a lot of your recipes on my blog. I have all three of your cookbooks and LOVE them!
http://web.me.com/decanio/Real_Food_for_Real_Life/Main_Menu/Main_Menu.html
13 Lisa // Feb 7, 2010 at 7:29 am
I am blogging my way through some of Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks, but make the occasional recipe from other cookbooks I own as well. I have Crazy Plates and Eat Shrink and Be Merry, but last night I made your Hearty-Choke dip from the TV show version of the recipe (different from your book) and I loved it! I blogged about it, too.
Too bad Leslie seems to have quit blogging, I just discovered it last night and thought it would be fun to follow her progress.
Leave a Comment