Look at me now, I'm gettin' cat furrr.

Me channeling Troy Polamalu's hair, with my best friend.

I've been thinking a lot about yesterday's post...I love Balloon, but I've never really written or posted anything about Furball here anywhere I'm pretty sure.  His Twitter is silent, but that's not really his style.  He's been the star of the show for as long as we've known him.  Furball's time with us began back in 2007.  Zach and I were just looking at cats on Craigslist...we weren't really considering actually getting a cat until we saw the listing.  Irwin, PA.  I knew that cat!  Furball used to belong to my stepsister, who decided to give up her cats whenever she had a baby.  I emailed right away. One of life's greatest treasures didn't cost me a cent (up front, anyway).

Furball is Balloon's exact opposite.  He's beautiful, but kinda dumb.  He's great at jumping.  He loves catnip.  He can run really fast.  He'll eat just about anything, including things that he shouldn't (like the time I'm pretty sure he got a hold of a bay leaf and threw up 14 times in a row). If curiosity killed any cat, it would be him.  He's so noisy; if he doesn't like something, he'll tell you right away. Furball is incredibly snuggly, friendly and (with people) social. He's everyone's favorite, and I've heard it more than once "He's really more like a dog than a cat".

We love him so much we spent a lot of money bringing him on our 2700-mile move. Best of all, I've had him so long, I didn't have to take any pictures for this post.  I have plenty I've been taking them for years, doing nothing with about 1000+ pictures of Furball just looking amazing.  Here are some of my favorites.

Kiss!

Nappy.

Gettin' tore up on some catnip I grew last summer.

Exacting swift punishment on a catnip-filled pillow.

He didn't really "get" the leash.

Not Furball.  Hey, Baby J what are you doin' on here?

Furball's always been there when I need him...and sometimes I'll find a long, white whisker just when I need some extra encouragement.

Happy Easter

Just so you know, this is going to be one of those boring posts about my cats.  I've been working a lot and cooking not so much. I've been seeing the doctor a lot because I have been having some health problems (which are simply annoying, time consuming, and not life-threatening so don't bother worrying).  I'll soon also have a preview of a pretty afghan I'm making for my cousin's new baby due in September...but that is not done or sent yet, and I don't want to ruin the surprise.

That being said, cats are furry little angels that help you get through any and all hard times (even if they do barf and poop more than I do.)

Balloon is a comedian.  She's also a genius.  She does amazing things like open doors (both push an pull, Furball can only figure out push, but don't tell him I said that). She's really funny. I watched her pull herself across the floor on her back 6 inches at a time the other day.  She hates any treats except for cheese and gobs of plain yogurt (and butter if she can get it), and she mostly doesn't understand cuddling or toys.  But there is one thing she can't resist - Ponytail holders.  The thicker the better, she always attacks them, carries them around in her mouth, and throws them down the hall, only to go bounding after them (awkwardly, as she is not the athlete Furball is).  So as an Easter present, I give you Balloon in all her velvety soft glory.

Moving in for the kill...

BITE!  An action shot...

Balloon and her "Easter" bunny.  

Balloon:  Hey!! He didn't bring me any treats!

Please don't hesitate to notice her marbled toes.  <3   Happy Easter, all!

Balloon wants you to follow her on Twitter!  @Balloon_the_cat doesn't tweet much when I'm working, though.

Food of the Month: Smoothies

Recently Zach and I bought a blender to make smoothies.  Its so easy, good for you, and cheap.  Breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Many blenders now come with portable drink containers that you can take with you wherever you go...This makes it easier to enjoy healthy foods on the go.

My favorite recipe currently:
Juice from 1 blood orange
Frozen Berry Mix
Almond Milk
Plain Yogurt(optional)
Ice
Honey

Blend that.  Zach would add a banana.  Indeed that would be tasty.

All things Vegetarian...

After a few months of meat-eating, I am trying to go vegetarian again.  I've been cooking up some tasty foods to make the switch easier.  Here are the dishes I've been making this week:

Hummus is an easy favorite.  I try always to make it with chick peas I cooked myself, but this process takes a long time.  Chick peas must be soaked for about 4 hours, then simmered for 2.  I made the hummus over two days using a pretty basic recipe:  Lemon juice and peel, tahini, chick peas, garlic, salt and pepper + some olive oil during blending.  The hummus on the left has added sun-dried tomatoes, and the hummus on the right has a roasted red pepper added to the mix before blending.

:( the kitty-cat is upside down in this shot.

Cheesy tomato bisque is another favorite that practically doesn't need a recipe.  Two cans of whole tomatoes, 1 cup of chopped onions, garlic powder, sugar, salt, pepper, and (quite a bit of) garlic powder.  To this I added cream cheese and small cubes of cheddar.  I used my immersion blender to make it smooth.  Rave reviews from Zach who enjoyed dipping pretzels in it.  Ms. T always makes breadsticks with this soup, but I didn't have time last night.  I'm going to try next time though!  I might also try adding some plain yogurt next time instead of all the cheese, as my stomach is a bit upset from all the unbridled dairy I've been consuming.

Finally, for dessert last night I had some of these:

What are they?  They happen to be the bloodiest blood oranges I've ever seen. I have to go back to the store today and get another bag, because they are fantastic.  They are dark red, almost brown, and they stain your fingers like maybe beets or blackberries.  They are a bit bitter, and they really remind me of this soda:

San Pelligrino Chinotto is a apertif (that means it's bitter!) soda that you can purchase in a lot of Italian grocery stores.  Most stores, if they carry San Pellegrino soda its usually only the orange and lemon flavors.  Its kind of good, but I don't know if I'd recommend other people try it unless they're pretty brave.

That's all for now.  I worked all last weekend, so the cookie of the week got put off.  Maybe i'll whip something up tonight.

cookies of the week

I'm a sucker for snacks.  I always want them, but when I'm at the grocery store, I always skip buying them just to make sure I don't eat too many.  Don't worry, candy still makes its way into my life.

March is a very dreary time here in Portland.  Its kind of cold, its windy, it rains a lot and its been doing this for months.  I had the brilliant idea of trying to bake a new kind of cookie I've never made before every week all month.  So that's 4 new cookie recipes to love or hate.

Now I am not a baker.  In fact, I'm not that remarkable of a cook either, so everything I do has to be easy.  That's how you know you'll want to make these cookies, too.  They take very little effort, and not a lot of ingredients.

Last week's cookie was this:  Trissalicious Pistachio Cookies.  (She wants us to CALL the cookies "Trissalicious" because they're from her blog. Major eyeroll, as these are a classic Italian cookie).  Even if the name makes you want to roll your eyes, the cookies are so delicious they will be gone in two days.  They come out fabulously chewy and nutty, though I kind of felt they were missing something when I made them.  My friend, who has a gluten allergy (and made these right away because they are flourless), alerted me that she added vanilla to hers.  I will certainly try that next time.  So maybe if you add vanilla you can call them "Hilarylicious Pistachio Cookies" because that's Hilary's version.

The Recipe is all in grams.  I could give you my conversions, but then you wouldn't get to try and use this awesome tool for converting recipes:  Gourmet Sleuth.  Hint:  you'll want to select "ground" when you convert the almonds.

This week's cookie was a bit different.  There is one left and I didn't get any pictures.  They came out kind of badly but this time I blame my oven and my laziness for that, not the recipe.

Mayan Chocolate Cookies.  The idea of this recipe is to make the plain-ish cookie and then top it with this mixture that is supposed to caramelize in the oven.  Welp, I didn't have any heavy cream so I used milk.  NOPE.  These need cream.  Or maybe the cinnamon sugar needs to be mixed with the cream instead of sprinkled. The cinnamon stayed...powdery and made me cough while eating them.  If you can get it to work, I bet these will be tasty, but for me they were a failure. Even so, they disappeared in less than 24 hours.  These cookies definitely turned me on to the flavor combination of chocolate-spicy-sweet-cinnamon.  There are plenty of mayan chocolate cookies out there, with chocolate and cinnamon and spicy pepper in them, and I might try another recipe, because I'm just no good at the two-step.

Have a Soup-er day.

The weather lately has been really cold.  It was especially windy and rainy today.  Soup to the rescue!  I threw together this easy soup that tastes pretty fantastic.

6oz Fully-cooked Chicken Sausage Meat.  Italian-y flavors would probably be best. Find them at Trader Joe's

1 large carrot, chopped

1 stalk of celery, chopped

1 small yellow onion, chopped

1 small tomato, chopped

4 cups of broth (chicken or vegetable)

1 can cannellini beans

cooked orecchiette or similar pasta.  About 1 cup, cooked.

2 tbsp butter

olive oil

dried thyme, basil, rosemary, oregano

salt and pepper

Melt the butter and add the Chopped Chicken meat.  Brown about 2 minutes, then add the carrot, celery and yellow onion.  Cook until the onion is transparent.  Add the broth, tomato, beans and olive oil, herbs and salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer.  Let it go about 20 minutes.  Add the pasta when you're ready to eat.  This soup tastes great reheated.

I got rave reviews from Zach.  Make it!  Enjoy!

Hello, gorgeous!

Last night I returned from my surprise trip to Pittsburgh.  Spending time with family and old friends always inspires me to do new things and continue to do things that I love.  It's like anti-depressants except it requires 4 plane rides and a $40 dollar cab ride home.

So today when I woke up and I wasn't scheduled for work, I got moving as soon as I could.

One of the first things I needed to do was go shopping.  Thankfully it was a gorgeous day, and I walked to Safeway.

I wanted to give frozen yogurt another try so I bought blueberries and a tub of Fage 2%.  So this is the recipe I came up with:

3 cups Fage 2% strained Greek yogurt
approx 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup blueberries.  Mine were fresh but you're freezing this so why not use frozen?

1/2 cup black raspberries.  They're a bit easier to find frozen.

honey and/or agave nectar to taste.

I threw this in my ice cream maker and went to town.  My first impressions are that it really is much creamier than the other version, but I think I like the texture of the low-fat regular yogurt I used the first time.  I like ice-y ice cream, and the first was more like soft-serve.  This is more like slow-churned ice cream.  It has a higher fat content but is nowhere near the fat content of ice cream.  I love the gorgeous pinkish purple color it came out to be after I mixed it.  It could really use some cookie pieces or graham crackers on top, but I don't have any.  Should be great for breakfast.  Balloon had some, she approves.  As soon as she realized I was eating one of her favorites, she raced over to try to steal my bowl!  She was pleased to finish it up when all the berries were gone.

The second thing I tried today was some crusty French bread. Using the easiest recipe I could find on Google, I made my first loaf in forever.  The only changes I made were to add some dry milk and also to use quick rise yeast instead of regular.  I find almost no difference, except for speed (for pizza dough, that is).  Do as the recipe suggests and spray some water during the baking of your loaf.  The crust will come out thick and delicious.  

 

It sure looks professional, but I haven't tried it yet...so I'm off do do that.  I'll  let you know!

Addendum:  Not the loftiest bread I've ever eaten, maybe a bit heavy. Maybe I should have let it rise a lot longer? Didn't stop me from eating about 1/5 of the loaf immedately.  Olive oil + oregano + sea salt makes a fabulous dip.  This bread will definitely keep me trying new stuff.

3/10:  Makes decent (albeit small) toast.