Sutter Home Book Club: Three Story House

This month’s book club feature, Courtney Miller Santo’s Three Story House, is a three-part book of love, friendship, and aspiration as discovered by each character.

Approaching their thirties, three cousins discover that the foundation for their future happiness may lie within the failures in love, career and family they’ve been trying to avoid. The renovation of a nearly condemned historic Memphis house, brings Lizzie, Elyse and Isobel together to face uncomfortable truths about their own failings and to uncover the insight that provides the women a way to get what they need instead of what they want.

A Recipe from Courtney Miller Santo

Among the three cousins in THREE STORY HOUSE, Elyse is the only one who knows her way around a kitchen. Lizzie, like many athletes, equates food with fuel, while Isobel, the former child actress, sees food as the enemy. During the year they spend renovating their family’s home, Elyse manages to open her cousins’ minds to the pleasure of food and most especially the joys of a meal made entirely out of leftovers. 

Day After Panzanella

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

1 cups roasted chicken

1/2 loaf rustic bread

4 large, ripe tomatoes

2 medium zucchini

1/2 red onion

1/2 cup Italian parsley

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 lemons

Pinch of sea salt

Pinch of freshly ground pepper

Instructions

Shred or roughly chop the roasted chicken and set aside.

Tear the bread into bite sized chunks. If it is not already stale, put it in a single layer on a baking sheet and into a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. If you want to get extra fancy, drizzle it with olive oil and throw in some garlic, salt and pepper. Set the bread aside.

Roughly chop the tomatoes into bite-sized cubes. Peel the skin off zucchini and then use the vegetable peeler to make thin ribbons of zucchini. Thinly slice the onion and roughly chop the parsley. Put all the vegetables and herbs into a large serving bowl and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the juice of the two lemons and the olive oil. Pour this mixture over the vegetables and use a fork to mix together. Add the chicken and then the bread, using your hands to mix all the ingredients.

Add salt and pepper to taste and let it sit at room temperature. It will be delicious for up to two hours afterward.