The Fixer Upper by Mary Kay Andrews, 2009

I started reading this before my vacation with the intent of finishing it on the beach.  The story is a light-weight, enjoyable story that refreshingly spends more time on the heroine piecing her life back together after a Washington scandal than her falling in love.

Of course, there is a love story.  Andrews's novels, however, contain more action, characters and plot twists than typical chick lit novels where action tends to culminate in a lowly assistant in the PR or fashion or magazine industry running in Jimmy Choos.

The majority of the story takes place in a small town in Georgia.

Similar to Andrews's Summer Rental, which I read last year, The Fixer Upper at 419 pages in hardcover is a (Southern) charming story that will keep you occupied while on the beach or on the plane ride back from the beach.

A nice surprise is the three recipes at the end of the book, each representing a female character.  One of the recipes is for egg salad, which I have always enjoyed, but never made.

Inspired by finding the recipe at the end of the book, I plan to tackle my first egg salad sandwich sometime in the next few weeks.  If this is not living smarter, living harder, then I don't know what is...!

Dempsey's Egg Salad
Serving: Four generous sandwiches

   8 eggs, hard cooked
   1/4 cup finely chopped celery
   1/2 cup mayonnaise (preferably Duke's)
   1/4 cup sweet pickle relish
   1 tsp yellow mustard
   Salt, pepper, celery salt

   Peel and roughly chop hard-cooked eggs.  Toss in celery.  Fold in mayonnaise, relish, and mustard.  Season to taste with salt, pepper and celery salt.
   For sandwiches, use multigrain bread; add lettuce and red pepper rings.

4/6/12 Update - I made this last night and do not like the taste from the sweet pickle relish.  It's a good thing that I halved the recipe on my first try.  I plan to try another egg salad recipe until I find one that works for me.