Book Report!

Okay, so it's not REALLY a book report, because I'm still reading it and no one assigned it.  (Although, if someone had told me 20 years ago that I'd be reading this sort of book voluntarily, I'd have laughed!)

Our book club is doing cookbooks this year as a genre.
I KNOW....how odd is that?
We've been in the book club business for 14 years, now, if you can imagine, and some years are trickier than others.  We nearly folded this year because there was rumbling about how no one had time to finish the book before the next month, no one had time to meet once a month, etc.  But because everyone in our group loves to eat and are wonderful cooks, we decided to do cookbooks so there's no plot to follow and they're useful long after the meeting.

I was looking for something interesting, even though my turn isn't until February, and stumbled across....

It's not a cookbook, but it has a couple recipes in the back.  It's basically just about how Thomas Jefferson went to France after the American Revolution and before the French Revolution to drum up money for the new United States (since France was a key ally in helping us gain our independence from Britain), and dug around through the French culture to see what was useful to bring back to America.  

The book talks about the culture of the colonies at the time (austere and proud of it), the culture of France at the time (excessive and not ashamed of it), slavery (illegal in France), cuisine (see descriptions of the cultures), fashion (see descriptions of the cultures), personalities of the Founding Fathers (Ben Franklin was fond of kissing everyone in France, John Adams not so much) and so forth.  I can only read a little at a time because I don't HAVE time to sit down and read right through.  It's a little dry...no John Grisham here, folks...but since I just finished a novel about Marie Antoinette, it ties together rather nicely and I'm already there in my head, setting-wise.

(Every time I read it, I think of my friend Sara Hagedorn Calvert...)

Now then...

Any ideas for cookbooks?  Leave them in the comments!  So far, we've done a self-published Montana Silversmiths cookbook, Gooseberry Patch, and a Southern Living "Off the Eaten Path".  I was thinking of maybe doing a cocktail party in February, a la Breakfast at Tiffany's, which would mean canapes and cock/mocktails...what do you think?  

Tessie Lou

 

She's VERY busy.

First morning, she had a lovely point...on the pink flamingos in the yard.  Today, she gave them a good talking to, when they wouldn't play with her.

Alice-the-Cat has reservations about puppies.

And with good reason!
The funny thing about Alice is that she doesn't use claws, just sound effects and a good strong right hookless hook.  Tessie didn't use her teeth, just licked her.
Today, they're pretty good pals.
Jack Sparrow-cat. now, makes a big honkin' scene and acts as though he's facing the Big Bad Wolf, which makes chasing him very fun.

Very busy, very important puppy coming through...

This is how she looks when I'm unloading the dishwasher or stirring something on the stove.  She's always about a foot away from me.  Even now, as I type, she's snoozing on the floor under my chair.  Maggie looked over and smiled and said, "Just like Molly..."
It's bittersweet.

Gotta be a bird around here, SOMEWHERE!

Maggie and Tessie are really good friends!  Mags has been so good about playing with her and walking her around the yard...and snuggling her on the couch.  That's a pretty tough job, but someone has to do it...

Twilla and Tessie.
It's not going smashingly, but it's not going awfully, either.
As long as Tessie doesn't try to get in her face or on her couch, Twilla is cool.  She growls, but has only snapped once.  Tessie can't understand; doesn't EVERYONE want to be her friend?!?

You see a theme going, here.
Maggie really thought it was important that Miss Tessie wore the team colors and had a team bowl.  It's appropriate and poignant since THIS is the year that THE RED SOX WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!

It's so wonderful to have a Brittie-ful house, again...

Halloweeny Stuff

Here are my little hobgoblins!

Maggie THOUGHT she was a leopard, but after watching a big cat show on the Discovery Channel, she discovered that she was a jaguar. Either way, she was fast and elegant, even with her pink Bogg boots. The best part of the costume, she informed me, was the detachable tail.  

Angus, now, was some Star Wars guy called General Grievous.  That's about all I know about his costume. He and his buddy Ben are SERIOUSLY into Star Wars: The Clone Wars, so that's where he got the idea.  Everyone asked him what he was dressed up as.  He very patiently told them and explained it, but by the end of the evening, I think he was kind of wishing he'd gone as a pirate or something just as transparently identifiable....

And here are the pumpkins they painted at school!  Maggie did the cat pumpkin and Angus did the....
Okay, YOU get to guess what it is, because I got it completely wrong.

Angus's pumpkin is:
A. A cow
B. The moon
C. Dalmation dog
D. Ghost

We went trick-or-treating around Cohagen and it was so much fun!  There's only three families who trick-or-treat in Cohagen; the rest go to Miles City or Jordan, which makes total sense because the folks don't have to drive 60 miles to hit 10 houses.  But we really like seeing the neighbors and I dearly love Helen Green's popcorn balls.

The answer to the pumpkin quiz is (B), by the way.  I thought it was an adorable cow pumpkin and told him so, which rather insulted the little artist because it's OBVIOUSLY a moon...any fool can see that!