A delicious read

I don't know how I found the Chief Inspector Gamache books by Louise Penny, but I am forever grateful that I did. I read the first book, Still Life, in September of 2008 and I was instantly addicted. Most books that I read are mysteries and while I enjoy reading them, rarely do I read a mystery that has both an intriguing plot and interesting characters; it seems to me that many mystery writers pour all of their creativity into the mystery itself and not into the characters.

Not so with Ms. Penny - her books have intriguing plots and incredibly interesting characters. Most of the books are set in the small fictitious village of Three Pines in southern Quebec. Her descriptions of the village and the inhabitants are so vivid that I want to get in the car and drive there. I want to eat at Olivier and Gabri's bistro, browse books at Myrna's shop, dodge rude comments from Ruth as she stalks around the village green followed by her duck, Rosa. And if tragedy ever enters my life in the form of murder, I want Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beavoir to investigate.

Nothing is black or white in Ms. Penny's books but there is lots and lots of gray. Her characters are multidimensional: the good guys aren't always all good and even the bad guys have certain good qualities. And she isn't afraid to leave ends loose. I get weary of books and movies that feel the need to tie up everything in a neat package by the end. Nor do her books always have happy endings, another quality that I admire. Life does not always have happy endings so why should a book? I like that her books leave me unsettled, raise questions and linger in my thoughts for days, weeks on end.

When I saw that Ms. Penny had a new book coming out in September, I did something I never do: I bought a hardcover edition. Not only did I buy it, I pre-ordered it from Amazon so it would be shipped to me immediately upon publication, so I would not have to wait for the book on reserve at the library.

The Beautiful Mystery did not disappoint. While I easily could have stayed up all night devouring it, I forced myself to read it slowly and take pleasure from every chapter. I don't gobble a delicious meal or chug a luscious glass of wine, I savor every bite or sip, and I did the same with this wonderful book. I couldn't wait to get to the end, yet I did not want the book to end. And when it did, I was both pleased and devastated - no happy ending to this book.

The following passage from Louise Penny's website explains much of why her books appeal to me:

My books are about terror. That brooding terror curled deep down inside us. But more than that, more than murder, more than all the rancid emotions and actions, my books are about goodness. And kindness. About choices. About friendship and belonging. And love. Enduring love.

If you take only one thing away from any of my books I'd like it to be this:

Goodness exists.

No wonder I crave her books. 

Where the skeet have no fear

If aliens in the form of clay disks ever attack Earth, don't look to me to save the world; you people are on your own.

We had a fun afternoon yesterday at the Fall Sportsmen's Days at Carpenter's Brook Fish Hatchery. Sponsored by the same organization that presents the Women in Nature workshop that I attended in April of last year, this event allows people of all ages to try various outdoor activities, including trap shooting, trout fishing, tomahawk throwing, archery, fly fishing, canoeing and muzzle loading.

The first station we encountered was trap shooting. Aidan was disappointed to learn that he was not old enough to try (twelve being the minimum age) but he watched us give it a try:

The best part for me was the adorable codger who was giving me instructions: 

That dear, patient man let me keep shooting until I finally hit one.

While James was fishing, Aidan and I went to the tomahawk throw:

 All three of us took a turn shooting a BB gun:

James and Aidan tried a compound bow, and we all three really enjoyed trying out the crossbow:

 
Aidan walked across a rope bridge, safely avoiding the fierce alligator below:

Some students, possibly/probably from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, demonstrated some lumberjack skills:

Despite the on again, off again rain showers and lots of mud, we had a great time and left many skeet for others to shoot.

New eats

By now it has to be evident to those who know us that we like food. Not only do we really like food, we like trying new recipes. When we were in Ontario last month, we ate poutine that was bought from a chip truck (that would be a french fry truck here in the U.S.). Poutine is a French-Canadian dish consisting of french fries topped with beef gravy and [traditionally] white cheddar cheese curds. James remembers it fondly from his childhood in Nova Scotia (although he remembers it topped with mozzarella) and asked me if I would make it at home.

Over and over as I looked for poutine recipes online, I kept finding recipes that called for a jar of beef gravy. Ugh. No offense to the jar gravy industry, but there was no way that I was going to pluck a jar of beef gravy off the grocery shelf and serve it to my family. I finally saw a recipe from Emeril Lagasse where the gravy was made using a roux and beef stock, which met my threshold of acceptability.

I do not, however, deep fry anything; not because I don't like foods that are deep fried, but rather because I don't like the mess. So I did cut a corner on our poutine by sending James to McDonald's for a couple orders of fries. He wasn't exactly thrilled with the substitution but found that to be a better alternative than baked Ore-Ida frozen fries!

In case the poutine was not a hit with everyone (and by everyone, I mean Aidan), I also made chili cheese fries using leftover Cincinnati chili and cheddar cheese. Here is the messy, incredibly decadent and not at all healthy dinner that we enjoyed on Saturday night:

In case it is not obvious, the chili cheese fries are on the left and the poutine is on the right. Delicious!

While searching for the poutine recipe on foodnetwork.com, I somehow came across a recipe for chili from Jamie Deen. I am not at all a fan of Paula Deen or her sons, but the recipe sounded so good that I was willing to overlook his parentage; as long as I don't have to watch them or listen to them, I will cook their food.

Last night we enjoyed Jamie's Award Winning Chili along with Grandmother's Buttermilk Cornbread:

Dinner was, in a word, outstanding. I usually make a more traditional southern-style cornbread - coarse, not at all sweet - in a cast iron skillet, but wanted to try a sweeter cake-like cornbread for a change. Happily, both recipes yielded lots of leftovers, and you can be sure that both recipes will be prepared again.

Liftoff

Several weeks ago while driving out in the country from B'ville to Skaneateles, I noticed a sign by the road that read "Syracuse Rocket Club" followed by "Next launch: 9/15". Having never heard of the Syracuse Rocket Club, we were intrigued and made sure to look it up on the Internet when we returned home. We learned that SRC "promotes and encourages safe hobby rocketry in the Central New York area" and given that we enjoy building and launching rockets, we put the next launch date on our calendar.

This morning the three of us, along with family friend Ryan, drove the short distance from our house to the farm where launches are held. Although windy, it was a gorgeous morning and when we arrived shortly after ten, we found the launch site set up and ready to send rockets skyward:

The members span a wide range of ages and most members brought several rockets each to launch. The rockets spanned a wide range of sizes, from about six inches in height to one that stood about eight feet tall (the battery on my camera ran out of juice before I was able to snap a photo of that bad boy). 

We had a wonderful time talking with the members and watching the rockets liftoff:

The next launch date is October 13 and we plan to be there, this time with our own rockets to launch.

Home improvements

In addition to working at his new job of finding a new job, James has started two home improvement projects. The first project of renovating the downstairs bathroom is a fairly major one, since the plan is to remove the flimsy shower stall and even flimsier shower base, put in a sturdy shower pan that is actually sealed* and then tile the walls.

* It appears that the person who rehabbed our house never sealed between the shower pan and the shower stall, so that water leaks out anytime the shower is used. Sigh.

Just removing those awful sliding shower doors made an immediate, positive improvement to the bathroom by making it appear more open and light. And while we are a long way from painting the walls, we wanted to start thinking about the color. When I came home from my quick trip to Albany, I found a swatch of light blue on the wall. While James liked it - obviously, since he picked it out and put it on the wall - I did not. We went to Benjamin Moore last week and picked out 388 Cypress Grove as a possibility:

That is Cypress Grove painted over both the blue and the ugly color that was in the bathroom. Is it just me or should bathrooms NEVER be painted a color that might be found in a baby's diaper?

Anyway, although you can't tell it from the photo, Cypress Grove is a light greenish-yellow and while very pretty, I've already ruled it out. I was moving a shoe box the other day, remembered that those shoes were a lovely light biscuit color and realized THAT was the color I wanted. I held the shoe against sample after sample and found that AC-7 Adobe Beige is a great match. The Adobe Beige will be a wonderful backdrop to either a black and white toile shower curtain or a turquoise paisley shower curtain - the early frontrunners for a decorating scheme.

Meanwhile, the second and more minor project is taking place in the kitchen. We like the lighting in the kitchen, which has both recessed can lights around the perimeter and a decorative ceiling fixture in middle of the room, but we both wanted a pendant light over the sink. We like the look of a pendant light over a sink and particularly when the sink has a window over it, as ours does, and we like using it as almost a nightlight; just a little bit of light to find your way in the dark. James did all the cutting, wiring and patching a few weeks ago in preparation, then we picked out a light earlier this week and he installed it yesterday:

Gorgeous! After watching way too many episodes of The Bronson Pinchot Project and Rehab Addict, we really REALLY wanted a fixture with an Edison bulb and it looks perfect in our 1912 era house.

The same color in the downstairs bath was used on the kitchen walls. Not only do we just not care for the color but it is too close in tone to the kitchen cabinets - no contrast between the two. We think a nice sunny yellow will brighten up the room and have tentatively selected 339 Lemon Grass. James painted a white primer on the walls yesterday and today, which is already a huge improvement over the previous color, and we have swatches of Lemon Grass in three places. The jury is still out on whether we stick with the color or not, but we will definitely keep to a light yellow. Stay tuned to find out what we do next!

Back on track

It has been a few weeks since I took the time, since I had the luxury of available time, to sit down and post on this blog. August was such a busy, crazy month and since I did not get to do my usual end of month regroup/first of the month planning on the 31st, I am treating today as September 1. Guess you didn't realize that yesterday was the 36th of August, did you?

So what happened in August? Let's see...we went to Ontario for a long weekend to visit friends, Aidan and I rode the train to Albany for an overnight visit with friends, we went camping in Old Forge for a weekend, Mom came for a week-long visit and Aidan started school. Oh, and James ceased to be employed. Yes, unfortunately, you read that correctly: James is now officially between jobs. It was all very sudden, surprising and murky; the reason that was sort of given for his dismissal is that as General Manager of the Syracuse office, he was ultimately responsible for revenue and revenue was down. He was given a severance package so we have no financial worries for quite a while, but we still shake our heads and wonder "WTF?".

The upside (and believe me, there is an upside) is that James is sleeping better, is relaxing more and is no longer aggravated by an odd little twitch in a muscle on his chest. He is also taking on a few house projects BUT LET ME BE CLEAR: he is not working off a "honey do" list - these are projects of his own choosing. You can ask him if you don't believe me.

And we motor on. I am trying to get back into some kind of routine, including setting monthly goals. I am being conservative in September, only setting two goals: walking three times a week, and sorting through my clothes and accessories: putting away the summer items, getting out the winter items and getting rid of what I no longer wear.

It is good to have August complete, all 36 days of it, and be in September, which I hope will be a lot less tumultuous. Bring on normal!