Rain is chili, yo. (and a real find...)

So it has been cloudy, and raining and whatnot, and the subject of dinner came up, and what are we gonna make, and so on and so on and so on. There was talk of the comfort of baked goods, and the idea of chili and cornbread came up, so Mrs. Cupcakes undertook the chili prep and I set out to make the cornbread.





There were fabulous improvisations in the chili-making, and it turned out great. The mushroom marinara was inspired.

The cornbread was great going into the oven, but then I made the fool-ass mistake of adjusting the shelf height. It slid right off, onto the floor, in s-l-o-w m-o-t-i-o-n...





It hit the floor right side up, and 80-some-odd percent slopped out onto the floor. I was upset, but Mrs. Cupcakes was there with the emotional fire extinguisher. Also beer. We did a repeat on the setup, I adjusted the shelf, and round two went into the oven.





All swell that ends well, and I threw the unspilled, unspoiled first attempt back in the oven to finish it off.





The chili was all set, and both cornbreads looked great. S-U-C-C-E-S-S that is how we spell success...

All that drama was last night, and today was the Wesleyan Library Book Sale, so we went to check out the scene and support the library. I found some local history/info, but as I was staring at a pile of books on the sci-fi table, a particular dust jacket spoke to me...





"Closer...", said the turtle wearing glasses...
"...intrigued?...", sang the young man playing the Future-Lute3000™...
"...come hither...", spake the otter in the Robin Hood outfit...
"...buy this book for $1...", whispered the woman with the 3 1/2ft. long shins...





No really, look at what is happening here. What is happening here? At this point in the book sale they were selling plastic bags of books for a dollar and I brought this one up and said I would give them a dollar just for the dust jacket, just for this art.

Upon returning home, Mrs. Cupcakes rushed to her laptop and found the web site for the artist who painted the cover art, Steve Ferris. He was contracted with the Nelson Doubleday sci-fi book club, painting cover art until cutbacks ended their relationship in the mid-eighties. Which is a relief, knowing that the art was contractually required to be produced for the book, and not entirely a product of his own imagination.

The otter, standing upright, and in it's Robin Hood-ian garb is what really makes it for me. I'm still contemplating the Escheresque physics of the Future-Lute3000™.