BOOK REVIEW #3: HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN

I have been reading Louise Penny since I was lucky enough to win a signed copy (my name was drawn) of Still Life from the author herself in 2008 while participating at a mystery author panel at my local library. Although it was an non-event in her blog (mentioned in future but no follow-up commentary on her extensive blog), it was the start of a beautiful relationship to a series of characters that continue to entertain. Here is Louise Penny's blog: http://louisepenny.blogspot.ca/2008/10/first-snow.html

I have to admit that I was forced to abandon mid-read another promising book in favour of this newest creation, but it certainly was the right choice for the moment! (So many books, so little time!)  Louise Penny has outdone herself this time, and Gamache has led us to the pinnacle of his story. (How's that for not having a spoiler alert?!) Don't miss this book!

Honestly,  (SPOILER ALERT) there was a part of me that felt that the Surete was getting the better of Gamache, and I was grieving a little over Beauvoir and his apathetic slide into addiction. I still loved the characters, and each book held a new nuance that I enjoyed, but prepare to leave that all behind! This book goes back to the familiar Three Pines, adds the visit of famous recluse, a disaster potential all too real to Montrealers, and let the fun begin! This is Inspector Gamache playing chess and you won't be able to guess who is going to call check-mate!

To all serial followers, read on and enjoy! There are threads to follow that you have almost forgotten, and many new threads spun,  but the author weaves these them all expertly, and ties them most of them up in this nice little yarn!

To those new to this series, don't start here yet. Invest in a few stories, if only for the first Still Life and the previous A Beautiful Mystery.

Visit Montreal for the Christmas holidays in Dead Cold.

Visit a resort hotel a la Manoir Hovey in The Murder Stone.

Visit Old Quebec City in Bury Your Dead.

The more you invest in the stories, the more fun this book will be!

Long way home is the next book due out the end of August. I can't wait to see where Louise Penny will take us!

BOIS-D'-ÎLE-BIZARD

Don't you love the colours of sumac in the trees? This was a warm day - started close to  -8 but was near zero the way back. It was tough uphill but lots of traffic with happy skiers and a beautiful day. In term of SWIX wax, it was a GREEN day!

HAPPY 13TH BIRTHDAY NANCY DREW!

According to my brother, my cat does not look at me adoringly, but that this is look of annoyance. 

I do think that my daughter enjoyed the human cake as much as Nancy Drew enjoyed her cat version!

SNOWMAN SNOW!

I remember when I was a kid - every day in winter seemed like a snowman day. As a parent of a kid, I find myself searching all day in winter for the very few perfect snowman days. I grab a handful on the way to the bus or out to the store, and most days the snow is too cold or too dry. But somedays, it is perfect, and on this day I was up early for my commute and phoned home to my family, insisting that they get outside (so I could live vicariously). Here was the result:

I don't know how clear this is, but this guy is lounging in our Adirondack chair! 

SUGARING OFF AT ST.HUBERT CHICKEN

My beautiful family picked me up from the train home from work and we unanimously agreed to use our Christmas gift card on a dinner inspired by the season at St. Hubert! It was a nice variation on the theme! I honestly feel like we live in the most beautiful place in the world! Maple syrup in the spring, vibrant coloured forests in the fall, amazing skiing in the winter and summer anywhere in the moderate climates is a dream!

Well it's cold and the only maple buckets I have seen had frozen syrup! That aside, we have made a long and gusty walk to my new favourite sugar shack in the middle of Cap-St-Jacques. My husband seems to think there is a disadvantage to having a CabaneASucre in the middle of the woods and is actively looking for a drive-through version, but I love that only those of us on foot or ski were able to have Tire (Taffy) on the snow, a hearty pea soup, crepes and hot chocolate, all for the same price as one all you can eat out of the city (although that's still on my list of things to do this spring)!

Vive le Syrup D'Erable!

TALENTED BAKER'S I HAVE MET

This was a delicious tower of cupcakes for our school's blood drive provided by a local baker I have come to love - this is white chocolate on red velvet, but check out the depth of this baker's repertoire:

Here's another local baker's finery, if you want some more eye candy!

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING IN LES GRANDS PARCS DE MONTRÉAL

This winter has been a cold one, and for a prairie girl, I loved the snow that stayed. It was fun to get back into a sport that makes the coldest days a fun one, especially when going skiing with a friend. It's hard to start cold, but that is the only way for this sport, because you do end up warm! I have had the good fortune of trying out the nicely groomed trails of Cap St Jacques (amazing views), Bois de liesse (sheltered and shorter) and, my favourite, Ile Bizard (quiet and woodsy). This is a boardwalk that overlooks the marsh. I'm almost ready to give up this winter, and look forward to walking this trail without the snow soon! Get a pass and visit one of the great Montreal Parks, even if its just on foot!

KNITTING 101

Recently I found my grandmother's knitting needles and a ball of yarn, and, thanks to wiki how's instructions, I managed to cast on, knit and cast off! It was a fun project and there are endless scarf recipient potentials in our house full of "stuffies"!

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!

Hope you ate something green!

WEEKEND CRAFTS

This was a most fun weekend in a long time! My daughter wanted to craft, and actually wanted to learn something from me! 

This princess has every My Little Pony cutie mark my daughter knows!

Birthday gift complete!

First time sewing buttons on a stripe-y sock puppet (use a darning needle - no bleeding necessary!)

First time making a pom-pom since camp! These fun colours are park of a KLUTZ kit that can be decorated as monsters   (see below)

I'M A LUFAVORE

This weekend, my friend invited me and my family to a greenhouse tour of the Lufa farm. The tour was of a rooftop garden that was an impressive testament to hydroponic technology.  It was pretty cool to have a tomato picked that day and served on fresh baguette with olive oil, and see cucumber vines growing from flower to vegetable in a subzero February day. The idea is that the greenhouse uses half the energy it would need if it were on the ground, and even cut the energy needs/cost of the building below by one quarter. The baskets are filled the same day the veggies are picked. It's a cool system of barter and trade among a whole group of local vendors. We were convinced by the fresh veggies, but can change up the basket any day with goods that vary from pastries and bread to various mushrooms and herbs and even trail mix. My husband convinced me to sign up and we are expecting to pick up our basket on Friday just a short distance from my house on Friday. Glad to be back in the local food movement, and if it continues to move towards more sustainable means with this quality, I might be a lufavore for life!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Lately I have been on a comfort food baking spree, motivated by my homesickness intensified with my parents winter snowbird adventure for 3 months. I have baked bread and homemade egg noodles and I found myself at the end of it with 3 extra egg whites. Well, I have finally been gifted a replacement hand mixer, and have learn with multiple failed attempts that egg whites are finicky unless at room temperature so I left them out for a few hours until this was so, and with a simple pavlova recipe, I added a couple drops of red dye, and watched them like hawks because they needed way less time than a pavlova to cook completely.
My daughter and I have come to love Nerdy Nummies and Ro has made a couple of meringue recipes that inspired me to try to elevate my game. I got out my reusable icing bag and my biggest Wilton attachment, and made some valentines.
Here's the picture of some of them.

They remind me of some family size meringues we saw when we visited Venice.

We visited a mall we had heard about  in Brossard called Dix30. It had one of my favourite restaurants, Elixor, so we ate there for this year's valentine's celebration. Our first choice was the lovely restaurant at  Auberge Handfield, but their winter hours do not include lunch. So we were happy to find Elixor, although the lunch was almost too big to consider the amazing cheesecake for dessert, but I powered through! I had the parpardelle with mushrooms and my husband had a great burrito with house made salsa and guacamole. Yum!

BOOK REVIEW: PRETTY LITTLE SECRETS by Sara Shepard

There are not very many times that I read a book after the movie, but as tv shows go, Pretty Little Liars is fun, and the book is equally entertaining. This book is an afterthought in a well thought out time line. It's Sara Shepard's 11th book but it fits in time between the 4th and 5th stories. Actually, I found it a fun stand alone read, set in December, so involving Holiday frivolities.
The story is divided in quarters, each from the point of view of the main characters. If you haven't seen the tv show, read the books first! Unlike many shows, the characters do not match the books' descriptions, which is very confusing sometimes if you'll seen the show (I'm a visual person, so I remember the physical characteristics from the show better than the books' description). Some of the plot lines differ also, but this pretty little book is full of fun stories that do not confuse. They flesh out the characters a little better, because they are on their own for the most part, with their families and other friends, and you get to know them a little better with a little less stress than usual!

BEST BURGER IN MONTREAL OUEST:BURGER DE VILLE

BOOK REVIEW NUMBER ONE:NIGHT SHIFT BY BRIAN GOLDMAN

I have listened to the CBC podcast by Brian Goldman, called White Coat Black Art on and off for a while since I found subscribing a much more reliable way to listen than the radio. I have sometimes liked and sometimes disliked Dr. Goldman's take on a subject, but I always found them interesting.
This book is a collection of stories that happened in the ER. Although I suspect the times are fictionalized, it's written as though I was the observer following Dr. Goldman from his home to the subway in Toronto through the night in the Emergency Department and then back to the subway to make his way home again.
I felt like I really was working with Dr. Goldman. He is a human first and "ER doc" second, dealing with the person and the disease; managing crises and reflecting on the ironies, realities, and miracles of day to day human contact. It didn't seem to be frantic, or pointless, but he was well organized, flexible and knowledgeable.
If you want to take a walk through the emergency without losing a night of sleep, this is well worth the read.

THE DAY I BECAME A VEGETARIAN - MAY 2006

It's a little surprising that I never considered vegetarianism before. I guess being brought up in a meat and potatoes house was the main reason. So it was a process, brought on by motherhood, the book Fast Food Nation and the movie Food, Inc. and the preparation of a frozen salmon to serve this Jacques Pepin special (the puff pastry was homemade, with butter cubed by my own hand) to my friends. I was unable to eat it that day, and have been a vegetarian ever since!

SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER

When I moved away from my childhood home, I soon realized that I would spend a lot of Christmases without my family.  So I started some traditions on my own, all of which I try and keep still. Athough it usually happens that I spread them over the advent, and even up until the epiphany, I now share them with my new family. Over the last couple of years, the hardest tradition to keep is the watching of this movie, So I Married An Axe Murder, because I nearly always fall asleep at some point! So here I am, watching the last half of the movie I started on Christmas. I find it amazing that I still enjoy it, although it is the only one I can think of that I have watched over a dozen times! Just in case you are wondering, it all started in a hot little apartment with a miniature Christmas tree and a too short phone call with a long night ahead alone. Videoconferencing has made that no longer possible, but I still drink eggnog, eat chocolate, mandarin oranges, a pomegranate and watch this movie, in honour of that, the loneliest Christmas tradition. And why this movie? Can you believe that I have no idea anymore why this movie is the one?! It's not the best movie ever, and it dates itself a lot, but I have to say that I still love it! When I visited San Francisco a couple of years ago, I was able to retrace the movie's highlights, and every year, I revisit the city again in my mind while I watch. When I was San Francisco, I even found the scene of the movie's ballet dance at dusk, and adored the rich history of the residual buildings of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. It is an enjoyable travelogue of the city! Check it out, if you've never watched it.

FOODIE FRIENDS AND FINE CUISINE

I am lucky. I know a lot of ladies who know a lot about food. Back in the day, I had a few tricks up my sleeve. Now, I'm a little hit and miss. Luckily, my friends are not. Here are a few highlight over the last few years.

Dining at friends

http://healthishappiness.com/2012/12/09/amazing-vegan-bowl-recipe-with-nutritional-yeast-sauce/

I USED TO BE BETTER - AND, BOY, I'M HUNGRY!