Tabby Tuesday

Tinsel, caught in the act of bathing.

Thanks for the photo, Tinsel! Now get back to work. One must have a clean tummy!

Feline Friday: Lily's Puffball Game

Lily demonstrates her Puffball Prowess while Tinsel looks on. Good times at our house.

Thanksgiving in Review

My poor blog has been neglected of late due to several pressing deadlines. It's all good stuff...just a lot to do at one time. And something always has to give. Actually several somethings.

In the midst of everything, we of course had to take a couple of days out for Thanksgiving -- one to prepare and one to celebrate. I'll admit that I didn't feel much like having Thanksgiving this year. I'm incredibly thankful for everything in my life, of course, but this year was the first that Bailey wasn't with us for the holiday. I was sad about that and truthfully would have preferred to skip the whole thing. She's such good company at family events. Plus she's quite handy in the kitchen.

But I somehow managed to prepare Thanksgiving dinner on my own (okay, with some help in the mashed potato department from Spouse). And no one had to be hospitalized as a result of my cooking, so I deemed the meal a success.

Tinsel spent the afternoon on high alert watching neighbors try to walk off their Thanksgiving dinners.Yep, keep on walking, she said...

Lily didn't seem to care much about that, preferring to sleep off her Thanksgiving dinner in a sunny spot.

And I couldn't help but notice how Lily's perfect meatloaf form resembled a roast turkey. (No, that is not my turkey.)

So Thanksgiving is over and done for another year. It was a different kind of holiday, probably the first of many to come. The truth is that change is an inevitable part of life. Change has always been hard for me, but I've learned that it's far easier to embrace it than to cry over it. 

And if you can get at least one decent cat photo along the way, it's all the better. When fun doesn't come to you, you have to make your own fun. :)

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

How I love those dear little feet!

Feline Friday: Boxes!

Our coffee pot cracked this week, so Spouse went out on an emergency run to buy a new one. We seem to go through coffee pots pretty quickly, so there's no use spending a lot of money on anything fancy or high-tech. 

 

Plus, as anyone knows, the BOX is the best part of the deal anyway!  And this box is the perfect size for Lily. Or Tinsel. But not both at the same time.

So to keep the peace, I rounded up a second box for Tinsel.

They can be next door neighbors.

Or enjoy the high-rise life.

Life is good with new boxes in the house.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Re-posting a favorite Lily moment from a few years back. I used this photo on my Thanksgiving cards that year and wondered why no one wanted to come for dinner. I was just kidding, guys!

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving!

Recipe: Spiced Cranberry Pear Sauce

I love cranberry sauce, but not the disgusting, gelatinous stuff you extract from a can. I'm talking about the made-from-scratch cranberry sauce which is full of texture and just the right blend of tangy and sweet. For the past several years, I've been making an old Martha Stewart recipe for cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving, and I do believe it's the best thing ever.

In light of this, I'm not sure why I decided to try something different this year, but this recipe for Spiced Cranberry-Pear Sauce from Clean Eating magazine looked good and easy, so I thought I'd give it a try. I whipped up a batch today, since it can be made several days in advance. Click on the photo to read the recipe. (And yes, the Pear Pie recipe next to it looks pretty good, too, but is much, much more involved. And quite possibly beyond my skill level.)

The verdict on this recipe is that it is simple, healthful, and a nice change, but I still prefer my previous recipe. I'm glad I tried it, but next year I'm going back to Martha.

The recipe calls for all of 6 ingredients plus water. I can handle that.

Cranberries are surely one of the most festive foods around. They look pretty before you even do anything to them!

The combination of cranberry, pear, ginger, and honey sounded really good to me. And it is!

Add the cardamon and sea salt, and this recipe starts to take on a bit of an exotic flair. I have only used cardamon in Indian cooking, but I read on the container that it is also used in Scandinavian dishes.

Cook it until the cranberries start breaking down and the mixture begins to thicken. I got distracted (cat-related incident) and let it cook a little bit longer than it should have, so my final product isn't as lumpy as I expected it to be.

Near the end of the cooking time, I sampled the mixture and determined that the honey wasn't a strong enough sweetener, so I cheated and added a couple of teaspoons of sugar. It's no longer sugar-free, but it tastes better!

Let the sauce cool then seal in an air-tight container. 

Go, me! One dish is ready to go for Thanksgiving!

Tabby Tuesday with Lily

Hai, guise! Heer I am on dis stairh!

Mi mommeh tells me not to lai heer becuz I mite git stepped on in da dark. But I doo it aniways!

Now I iz gitting silly an shoween off mi tummie....

OOPS! I rolled down da stairhz!

Uh, I ment to do dat...

Feline Friday: Baked Goods, by Lily

One Word Wednesday

One word: AWWW!

EASY Crockpot Recipe: Cowboy Chicken Taco Bowl

I recently ran across a recipe for Cowboy Chicken Taco Bowl. It appealed to me because it is one of those "dump-it-in-the-crock-pot-and-forget-it" recipes. So that's what I did. And when I got home at 5pm, the house smelled wonderful. Dinner was ready! I love those days. I just wish they would happen more often.

I'll admit that my photo of this dish does not do it justice. Yes, I got a little carried away with the cilantro. (I bought such a large bunch of it that I hated for any to go to waste! You can see that I didn't even cut off the stems!) AND the blue flower bowl hardly works with the "cowboy" theme. If you can overlook the flowers and peer past the layer of cilantro....well, just trust me, this recipe is a keeper!

Cowboy Chicken Taco Bowl

2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 (16 oz.) jar salsa (your pick!)
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can sweet niblets corn (or 1 cup frozen corn)
1 (15 oz) can of diced tomatoes
1 (4 oz.) can chopped green chilis
1 tblsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
cooked rice
shredded cheddar
chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish

Layer the chicken breasts along the bottom of your crock pot. Dump the salsa, black beans, corn, tomatoes and green chilis over the chicken. Sprinkle chili powder, cumin, garlic, cayenne, salt and pepper over mixture and stir. Slow cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Using two forks, shred chicken while still in the crock pot and then give everything a good stir. Turn up the heat to high and allow to continue to cook while you prepare rice.

From the Southern Food Network website: "When you are ready to serve dinner, put some rice in a bowl, ladle on some of the chicken stew and top with shredded cheddar and fresh cilantro.  If you wanted to make this a tailgating recipe, simply ladle some of the chicken stew over nachos and top with cheese, cilantro or chopped green onions, and serve with sour cream on the side!"

Feline Friday: Before the FALL...

Lily likes to walk on our second floor railing, but it always makes me nervous. She's not the handiest kitty in the world. Unlike Tinsel, Lily's not a great jumper and often misses her targets. That's okay most of the time, but it's quite a drop to the first floor from the railing!

So it was with some degree of alarm that I heard her running wildly through the house a few days ago, headed straight to the railing. Without slowing down whatsoever, she jumped and landed squarely on it. I'll admit I was impressed!

Looking somewhat cocky, Lily began her balancing act. So I grabbed the camera to catch a few pictures of her in full SHOW OFF mode!

Look, Mom! I can stand on dis cornur!

This is what that pose looks like from below, where I planted myself in case she fell. Not that I'd like to catch Lily and all of her sharp little claws, mind you...

Look, Mom! I can sit on dis post thingie!

Now I iz a gargoile!

Yes, it's a long way down, Miss Gargoyle. Be careful!

Ohai, Mom! I can ezen chase mi tayle whyle im on da raling! Look at mi trik......oh noez!!!

And with that fancy little trick, Lily tumbled head over paws all the way to the ground floor, landing hard on her side on the second step. She didn't land on her feet, like kitties are supposed to do. (Perhaps the quick drop didn't give her enough time to rotate properly...) I was there in an instant to see if she was ok, and of course she was. 

As if to say, "Ohai, I ment to do dat!" she trotted right over to her food bowl, ready for a post-show treat.

This little fall didn't faze Lily, but I'm sure it cost me one of my nine lives!