Category Archives: pets

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Brownies

I have a new favorite brownie. David Lebovitz is pretty much a genius when it comes to desserts and I really love his other brownies, but I have to admit, these are better. These are great. These are better than any brownie I’ve ever eaten, with the possible exception of the brownie I had in Belgium. I can’t say for certain that the Belgium brownie was better, but I do know the creme anglaise was pure perfection.

Caramel cream cheese brownie (homemade)
Frederic Blondeel brownie with creme anglaise

But I digress. These. These brownie. Really, I can’t say anything else. I followed the recipe (amazingly) except for the salt on top and I used caramel I had on hand and didn’t make any special for these. Try them. Make them. Delight in the perfection of a rich, sweet, chocolatey brownie with a little caramel cheesecake texture in the swirl.

And just because I was home for a few weeks and had time to spend with them … the pets.

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Never count a kitten out

The week of the November holiday that I shall not name, Bob and I noticed Leia was not doing well. She wasn’t eating much, didn’t have a lot of energy and had stopped cleaning herself. When she refused kitty crack (aka hairball malt) three days in a row, we knew we had to take her to the vet. I’m going to admit to being weepy and scared at this point since this year wasn’t so good for my babies, and bad things seem to come up during this time of year.

img_2157The vet checked everything you should check for a kitty that isn’t eating and it turned out her kidney values were really high. This , combined with her three pound weight loss, was just about the worst news I could think of given what we knew of this from Jessie last year, but cats can come back from kidney issues in ways dogs just can’t. If this is an infection, she can recover. If it’s chronic, she won’t.

The vet recommended checking her into the kitty hospital over the weekend for IV fluids and monitoring. I really didn’t want to do this, but Bob wanted to give her the best chance we could, so we took her. The hospital was great, and sent up updates on how she was doing and then transferred her back to my vet Monday morning. Turns out my little kitty had a really bad kidney infection with multiple kinds of bacteria. She gets a double dose of antibiotics to make sure we wipe the infection out, but she should recover.

img_2177Leia, as many know, is a scrappy little kitten. Abandoned by her mother at just a few days old, the vets didn’t give her much of a chance early on. She was bottle fed by a kind women until the rescue could take her – she didn’t want her and her brother to go to the shelter because she knew they wouldn’t make it. She survived that, she thrived despite her nose issues and she has done really well for ten years without much intervention. This was the first time she has been really sick since I brought her home, but she somehow manages to surprise everyone.

img_2181She is back to eating and drinking normally and she loves the new kidney care food the vet prescribed. I was shocked since Jessie wouldn’t touch the stuff, but Leia loves it. We are transitioning both her and Tigger to an all wet food diet and they love this. I am hoping that between the antibiotics, the other meds and a little TLC she will be around for another ten years. She is a scrappy little kitten, and one everyone who meets her adores. Even the vet tech who doesn’t like cats, liked Leia.

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Cranberry Curd Pie

I have a few days off and am caught up with school. Since this is a rare event, I decided to experiment in the kitchen a little and decided, as a nod to the holiday, to make a cranberry curd pie that I saw a recipe for. When I shared it with Val, she also got excited by it, but I ended up making it first. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, but close enough that I will still say it is the NYT recipe.

I started with the basic ingredients – cranberries, oranges and sugar. Since I love clementines and they are now in season, I have a bag of the on the counter, so I used two for this recipe. I picked up some beautiful cranberries at the store and cooked the zest and juice of the clementines with the cranberries and some sugar to make the base of the curd. One review said to not cook them down much, but I was fussing with the pie crust and ended up cooking it a little long. It still worked. img_2133

I used the mesh sieve method and strained the juice to make a really smooth curd. Here is where things started to get tricky. It took a while to strain the cranberry mixture. Probably more time than the author of the recipe intended, so it was pretty much room temperature when I finished. This does not lend itself to incorporating butter into the curd, so I returned it to the stove and stirred in the butter, one pat at a time, over low heat. It worked. The butter didn’t melt, but it did incorporate into the curd just fine. I took it off the heat, stirred a little more then added the eggs. The whole thing went into an oil based crust that I made (decided to skip the rice flour crust as I couldn’t find hazelnuts anyway) and then I baked it – slightly longer than there recipe said, but it wasn’t setting so an extra three minutes were in order. I made some whipped cream (new secret for whipped cream – use powdered sugar instead of regular granulated sugar. Super smooth and it helps stabilize the peaks) for the top and that was that. My arm hurt after the straining part, but still easier than the French Silk pie. img_2135

The results were delicious and I don’t say something I made was really good often. I usually find fault with it, but I can’t really find fault with this pie. Yes, it was suppose to be a tart, but I don’t have a tart pan. Yes, it should have a different crust, but this one worked out fine. Yes, it could have been a little fuller, but it didn’t need to be fuller. With this pie you get the tart of the cranberry, an undertone of lemon (without any lemon in the pie) and a clean flavor that is really nice after a meal. This probably won’t replace cranberry sauce at the holiday table, but it should. It really should.

On the pet front … Tigger, Leia and Arthas are all doing well. Arthas is up to two miles for his morning walk, and he is starting to ask to go for walks. He doesn’t bounce around like Jessie did, but he goes to the front door or to where my shoes are and he gets a little excited when he hears his leash. He is getting better with the cats, and they with him. We had a point of contention recently where Leia was on the couch when he wanted to go to sleep, but other than that, they are wonderful. I stopped by the shelter to donate some food I had gotten for Gracie (the other two won’t eat it) and they were super happy to see how well he is doing. As one volunteer put it, he just needed a chance to be a dog.

They really are good babies. I still miss Jessie and Gracie and Gracie’s loss is still really raw, but we are getting there. Tigger has become very affectionate recently and Leia continues to be the puppy cat she is – greeting us at the door, laying on laps etc.

Recipe Cranberry Curd Pie:

  • 12 oz. cranberries
  • 1 cup sugar
  • juice and zest of one orange (or two clementines)
  • 1 stick (4 oz) butter, room temperature
  • 2 eggs plus 2 egg yolks

Use your favorite pie crust – it will be fine. I pre-baked mine for ten minutes, just to set it.

Combine the cranberries, sugar and orange (zest and juice) into a sauce pan and cook on medium heat until cranberries pop and begin to break down. Stir often to prevent sugar from burning.

Preheat oven to 350 if not already heated from the pie crust.

Once cooked down, strain the mixture through a sieve or use a blender/immersion blender, to puree. If not warm after straining, return to heat for a few minutes, stirring frequently, then add butter, one tablespoon at a time, until fully incorporated. If mixture is hot, temper the cranberry mixture into the eggs then add eggs into cranberry curd and stir well to combine. (I didn’t temper here because the cranberries were fairly cool at this stage) Pour into pie crust and bake at 350 degrees for ten plus minutes to set. I cooked mine for thirteen minutes until the outer curd was set, then let it cool on the stove to set the rest of the curd.

Whipped Cream:

  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon (heaping) powdered sugar

Mix cream and vanilla together and beat with mixer on medium to high speed until soft peaks form. Add powdered sugar and continue mixing until stiff peaks form. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

 

 

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Fall Fix Up

In Jersey, the big yard work happens in the spring. Spring clean up. I spent a number of years avoiding doing yard work each spring (and raking leaves every fall) but now I’m the homeowner and I can’t avoid the yard work more than every other year.

In part as a distraction from Gracie and school and work and part just because it was necessary and the estimate to pay someone to do it was way too high, I spent the last two weekends cleaning out debris from the bushes and mulching. A lot of mulching. 11 lawn and leaf bags of debris (leaves, twigs, etc) and 46 bags of mulch later it’s done. Yes.  46 bags.  All hauled in my little car. But I have to admit, it looks pretty good.

We did have someone trim and clean up the trees. Those I can’t do myself and they really needed it. But the yard is done and I think I can now ignore it again for at least a year.

My garden is having mixed success. The hot pepper didn’t make it, nor did the lavender plant. My thyme is trying to hang in there, but it doesn’t look good. The kale is great. The kale looks wonderful and I am anticipating a great kale pesto soon. The rosemary is good and the oregano also looks great. My tomatoes … well, two plants are clearly dead but and the other two look interesting, but I have baby tomatoes.

img_2053Last count there were twenty baby tomatoes on these two plants. I’m trying to make sure they get water, but not too much water and birds don’t get to them. I’m anticipating a nice little sandwich with kale pesto and garden tomatoes and basil. If I could figure our how to make my own mozzarella (I could but it looks like it takes the and precision so I’ll just buy that part) I’d have a totally home grown sandwich.

The pets are doing well. Arthas made it two miles on his morning walk today! He was a tired little puppy at about 1.5 miles, but he did meander back the rest of the way. Leia and Tigger are getting use to not having Gracie around, and they are still super cute. I love the picture above because it really shows the size differential, but they are still super cute.

I need a day off from my weekend, but there are two more weeks before the holiday. Happy November!

 

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Chocolate Cake

I’m not a big chocolate cake fan. I know, that is practically sacrilege, but it’s true. I find chocolate cake to be either too sweet, too bitter, too dry or just very one note. I will admit my preference of vanilla cake with vanilla icing can be very one note also, but vanilla tends to have more depth of flavor all on its own. Chocolate, at least in cake, doesn’t. Don’t get me wrong – I love chocolate and will happily eat it. But don’t be surprised if I pass on the chocolate cake.

This being said, I needed something to make me feel a little better this past week. It was a rough week, but I did manage to finish my Educational Law class (yippie) and I am up to date on everything at work (a minor miracle) and the Leia and Arthas are actually (fingers crossed) seemingly getting along well enough. Well enough as in the walk past each other, sniff each other a little, and hang out on the couch without incident. It’s a precarious peace still, but definitely getting there.

So why chocolate cake? Well, because I saw the recipe and decided that it looked good. Really good. The creamy filling should keep it from getting too dry, the cake itself has coffee in it, which gives it a little interest and the chocolate whipped cream adds a nice element to it. So why not? What is the worst that could go wrong? … I won’t actually answer that because it didn’t and if I decide to make this again, I don’t want it to go wrong. It’s also a pretty cake – from all angles.

So this was pretty good. If I make it again, I am using regular whipped cream for the topping instead of the chocolate version. For me, I needed something to break up the chocolate and add another layer of interest. But it is good. Darn good. Bob had it for lunch several days good.

And because I love my babies and how cute they are and how far they have come over the last three months ….

Arthas is now going for walks approaching two miles. Tigger is hanging out with the family and not running away every time I walk by him. Yes, he started doing this about two weeks ago – not exactly sure what caused him to freak out suddenly, but he did. Leia is trying to get to know Arthas and be nice to him. She will hang out near him (see above) and even sniff at him every now and then. He is letting her, as long as she doesn’t try to sniff his face. It’s progress. I’ll take what I can get.

 

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Goodnight, Gracie

Nine and a half year ago I saw a three and a half week old kitten who stole my heart within ten seconds of meeting her. The little kitten looked straight in my eyes and meowed as if to say, “take me home. I belong with you.” Nothing in the last nine and half years ever changed my opinion of her. Gracie is my kitten. My little girl.

About a week ago she went out at night, which is not unusual for her. But she has not come home in seven days, and I have to admit, as much as I hate every part of it, that she is gone. I found some fur on the front lawn and have to believe that Gracie tangled with something, as she is want to do, and this time, got the worst end of it. I am still checking the back door when I get home, and I can’t count the number of times I’ve looked under the bed for her in the last week, but I know – somewhere in my heart of hearts – that she is gone.

Parents sometimes say, “I hope you have a child just like you one day” as a curse upon their children. Gracie was me in cat form. She demanded attention when it was most inconvenient – such as on the phone, or going to the bathroom. She was smart, but not so smart that it was intimidating. She did her own thing and really, really didn’t care what anyone thought. She was her own cat, and I love her for that.

Jessie’s passing took a lot out of me, but I knew that she had a peaceful death and the time was right. I was there for her, as I was there for Patches, and if I couldn’t prevent their deaths, at least I could be with them and let them know they were loved right up until the end. I can’t do that for Gracie and that is the hardest part of loosing her. It wasn’t necessarily the best thing for her, I wasn’t there to love her; a small part of me will always wonder if just maybe, I could have done something differently.  I know the answer and I know she probably died as she lived – on her terms, doing her own thing and doing it her way. That doesn’t make it any easier.

Leia and Tigger have started to notice that she is not here, that something is different. They don’t care all that much, but they do notice, and need some comfort  – generally at 3 am which is not ideal. Arthas did’t get the chance to know Gracie – the loving, sweet kitty that she was – but he knows mommy is sad and he tries to help.

Goodnight, Gracie girl. You are loved and missed. Every day.

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Tomato Kale Quiche

I’ve been lax in the food creativity department lately. I would like to say something pithy as to why I’ve been lax, but really, this Ed Law class and work are keeping me busy. Add to that the stress of trying to get Leia and Arthas to get along (I’d settle for feel neutral feeling from Leia at this point) and well … dinner is what dinner is. What I can remember to make, that is fast and does not require a lot of effort or brain power.

But … but I did make a very pretty quiche this weekend. I went to the farmer’s market with Mom and picked up some tomatoes and kale. I saw this recipe and wanted to try it, so … with modifications, I did.

I followed the crust recipe fairly closely, but I used a sheep gouda for the cheese since I had it on hand. (Yes, I have weird cheese on hand – Sarasota has a lovely little cheese shop that I like to patronize frequently so my on hand cheeses tend to be … different than most people’s.) But I mixed the egg white, the rice and the cheese together with salt and pepper and pressed it into a pie pan. I baked it at the requisite temperature and then mostly cooled. I say mostly because I was hungry and impatient and the quiche itself has to bake for 45 minutes or so … so … mostly cooled.

The final product was good. Really good. I can’t wait to have leftovers good. There was enough cheese in the crust to get a bit of cheese flavor, and I added a dash of mustard to the egg mix for a little more flavor. It worked. Bob didn’t complain about the kale in this – he really likes eggs – and I got another vegetarian dish that, if not exactly fast, is still really easy to make. Win!

On the pet front … Leia took a mini vacation to Mom and Dad’s for a few days. Bob and I decided to give everyone a chance to relax and not be on guard all the time. I felt horrible doing it, but it was necessary. Leia came home Saturday morning and she and Arthas are doing better. She is still watching him intently a lot, but she has stopped stalking him and has not (knock on all wood available) attacked him since she returned. He is still ignoring her for the most part, so we are seriously hoping this works.

I mean, really.  Look at how cute they are? They are so good individually and I’m hoping they can get to be really good with each other. Leia took a little while to warm up to Jessie, so there is hope. And Arthas does well with the other two (and they with him) so we are almost there (fingers crossed).

 

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What did Mommy do?

I’ve come to the conclusion that I am destined to always have pets. Not just cats, not just a dog, but pets. When Jessie died I thought we would be dog-less for a long time. I didn’t think there would be another dog that I just loved as much or who would fit into the house as well. She is irreplaceable, but I’ve learned that there is enough love in our house for another dog.

I discovered this because I went to the local animal rescue to look at a dog whose eyes drew me in. She, however, is not good with cats, so I didn’t even meet her. I did decide to look around at the other dogs. They were cute, but they were not right for me. That is, until I came to one little guy in his run. He, unlike the other dogs, didn’t run, jump or bark when I walked by; he walked up to me, smelled my hand, licked once and laid his muzzle along my hand. My heart started to melt. I took a picture to show Bob because I was beginning to think a new dog would be just fine.

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Bob agreed to look at said dog the next day. He was a little concerned but we agreed that if either of us was uncertain we would not adopt him and be without a dog for a while longer. We didn’t take him home on that first visit together, but later that day, the dog who needed a home and a name was ours.

Welcome Arthas – the newest member of the household. He is a little under a year and a half and had a very rough beginning. He was rescued from a hoarding situation in February or March, was severely underweight and extremely timid. He has some scars from fighting for food, but they don’t detract from how adorable he is. The rescue did a phenomenal job with him and he is super friendly with people. He now needs to loose a little weight, but he walks well on a leash, and he likes to play, so that should help. He likes his walks and will go wherever you want him to go. He’s a little nervous around cars, but he’s getting there. He has also learned the dog door in a day and he uses it regularly!

He is also a little bit of a couch potato.

Arthas has very limited vision (so he fits well with the family) and is totally blind in one eye which means, in part, that he wants to sniff the cats. He’s not aggressive with them, but he is curious. Ms. Leia is not amused and right now we are working on helping her get along with him. She is getting better, but it will take time. Gracie and Tigger are fine unless he gets very playful, then they just go to our room and hang out where he can’t accidentally hurt them. I can’t say this is the smoothest transition ever, but we are getting there.

Jessie will always be my baby and will always hold a special place in my heart. But like the kittens didn’t replace Patches, Arthas isn’t replacing Jessie. He is just a puppy who needed a home and someone to love him. He was the right dog and has already wormed his way into our hearts.

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EMT (Eggplant, Tomato, Mozzarella)

I love bacon, but I don’t like eating meat. I love the salty, smoky flavor bacon can give a sandwich or a salad. Given this, I got really excited when I saw this recipe for eggplant bacon. I like eggplant, I like smoky, I like to experiment in the kitchen, so let’s try it.

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I wasn’t exactly sure what I would do with the bacon once I made it, but I knew I would come up with something. I borrowed mom’s mandolin and Bob sliced the eggplant very thin for me. The fist baking went ok – but I have to remember to only use one rack in the oven at a time. The marinade was easy to make and the eggplant strips looked so good waiting to go in the oven.

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My first sheet, I way over cooked. The recipe called for a 350 degree oven and about twelve minutes. By 8 minutes my eggplant was charred, so I reduced my oven temp to 325 and kept the next sheet in for five minutes. This worked well. Really well.

I’m also a sucker for a good tomato mozzarella sandwich. I love the combination and decided – why not add bacon? I had some bread from lunch Saturay and I toasted those and then added a little pesto, the eggplant bacon, mozzarella, and tomato. I did begin to add some cabbage, but ended up ditching that – it just didn’t add anything. The result – fantastic. The eggplant actually added something really delicious to the sandwich and it satisfied the minor bacon craving without requiring that I eat meat. This is a definite do again, but I have to be cautious with the slices and the cooking time.

I also have a cute picture of Leia and Tigger. They do like to curl up together and I think it’s just adorable.