First attempt at a holiday mantel

We don't feel safe putting up a tree because of our two energetic cats, so I decided to try a mantel instead.

I got some apothecary jars (50% off at Sears) and brought down a curly framed mirror from upstairs. With these items, it seemed to be going in an old-fashioned direction, so I collected all the vintage and vintage-look ornaments (including some that belonged to my grandparents). Looking for things to fill the jars, I found whole walnuts, pods for the coffee maker (LOL!) and some stick candy... and then I thought, oh, nutcracker "sweets"!

So the little nutcracker ornament was joined by two big guys and we ended up with this (so far). It may not look like a decorator (or someone with a clue ;)) put it together, but it makes me smile!

(As always, click to "biggify" the image.)

Tea for 2x2

Yesterday the four of us scavenger hunters went to a holiday tea party at Gore Place, the 19th century home of one of Massachusetts' early governors. (And before you ask, yes, I asked, and they were only distantly related to Al Gore.)

While we were waiting to be seated (there was a children's tea with Santa immediately prior), they funneled us into the gift shop. (Oh clever, clever people!) I found traditional Christmas crackers on sale, and immediately thought they would be a perfect addition to the box I am sending out to my family. What fun for the kids!

We were then ushered in for tea. We were struck by the very grand, high ceilings but noticed that the lines of the room and ceiling lacked the architectural ornamentation that you might expect to see in an old European mansion: all the detail was in the elaborate French wallpaper! The paper in that first room was stripe in salmony pink (with grapes and leaves) and teal (with either corn stalks or acanthus). Imagine a whole room filled with this going from chair rail all the way up over 15 feet the ceiling! As Tim Gunn would say, "that's a lot of look!" You can see it in the background of several photos here. Lovely, eh? Of course, by candle light in the evening it would have been a lot more subtle. ;)

Tea soon arrived (perfectly brewed English breakfast-style tea), followed by blueberry scones with clotted cream, an array of finger sandwiches, and miniature frangipane tarts, lemon squares, raspberry thumbprint cookies, pumpkin bread, and other little bites of yum. I don't know what 19th century ladies and gentlemen would have eaten at an afternoon tea, but this menu did seem designed for modern tastes and obviously with modern resources. (It would have taken some good magic to get fresh berries in December back then.)

Well, old or new, the tea was delicious. In fact, our 'menfolk' agreed that the scones were the best they had ever tasted, and Sara successfully petitioned her father (with much urging from the peanut gallery, ahem) to procure an additional scone from another table. ;)

After tea, several costumed tour guides led us through the rest of the house, introducing each room and its furnishings and purpose, and presenting Jane Austen quotes of interest. Lovely! I was left, as always, with a sense of just how very much has changed since then - so much we take for granted that they could not even imagine - and yet, how much still endures...

Shifty Nifflers

We used our latest free scavenger hunt card this weekend to do the "Wizard School" (e.g., Harry Potter) themed scavenger hunt at the Museum of Fine Arts.

DH had not read the books, so he took charge of the navigation, which was invaluable (especially since some of us don't really have a sense of direction!).  After he got us to the correct room, we'd read the clue, then would translate the creatures and character names for him.  Then we all just had to figure out where they were in the works of art!

For the most part, we managed to do that pretty well, although there were a few questions that were perplexing or just plain unclear.   Happily we ended up with extra time so we could revisit those stumpers.

One of them involved counting the instances of a particular facial feature on some Japanese demons pictured on an accessory smaller than the palm of your hand.  This was above our line of sight, so the guys dutifully boosted (hauled?) the girls up so we could get a closer look.  Oof!  A magnifying glass sure would have come in handy!  But after conferring, we reached consensus on a number, and came out of that room feeling better about our answer.

Another one was a "which one of these items is NOT depicted somewhere in the room" question, which required all our eyeballs to scan everything in the room over and over.  Ultimately, we could not find two of the things exactly as described, but deciding that, although a type of animal and receptacle were slightly different than in the description, we had to regard them as close enough given that we couldn't even find the approximation of the other thing.

(I am being kind of general and vague here so I don't ruin the hunt for others if they happen to sign up!)

Finally there was a massive carved fireplace that supposedly had a particular mythical creature in its vicinity.  We spent forever staring at it, and just could not find this particular beast, although there were plenty of others (including lots of mashup monsters).  The question specifically asked the construction material of said beastie, so we just went with the material that appeared in the greatest quantity.  ;)

That was because we needed to start heading back to the entrance so we wouldn't be late - museums are big!  We debated team names on the way back and settled on with DH's variant of my suggestion: the Shifty, Nifty Nifflers.  

We ended up winning - and the guys thought that they heard that we won best team name also (although I wasn't sure.  I did hear the hunt host mention the name, but wasn't sure what she had said about it).  The people who came in second were two cute little kids with their parents, so we figured that, since we'd won before (plus the kids were small and had done really a great job), it'd be nice to share.  So we passed the prizes down to them.   :)

It was a fun afternoon.  (And I think we will probably go back - to linger over the art, this time, instead of the questions - to check out the new wing of the museum soon :))  

Happy Tolly days

We took kitty pics this afternoon so we could include photos when we send holiday cards to our vets, animal rescue orgs, etc. 

Tolly posed like a champ! 

I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

The crew prepares before the flight

After the balloon is partially inflated, the pilot turns on the flame

The balloon expands

Now inflated, the balloon is ready for lift-off; we climb in the basket and marvel at what we see

Up, up, and away!

We look out over a misty forest to a newly frozen lake

Drifting down over the lake, our balloon's reflection is visible in the ice

We gently tap the surface, breaking the thin shell of ice that has formed

Rippling water and cracked panes of ice are visible in our wake

We drift on through new, grassier terrain now

All too soon it is time to land.  Hovering ever lower in a clearing, we throw a rope down to the crew member on the ground, and he hauls us in

Back on the ground, we pause for a few moments to bid goodbye to our balloon before enjoying celebratory mimosas

Mine!

I had the laptop on the floor. Tolly came over to see what I was doing, so I played his fetching video for him. He had no idea it was him on the screen (of course; cats have no idea what they look like) but he absolutely recognized that toy: he pawed the screen every time he saw the mousie go by in the mouth of that "other" cat.

A gift from Eisa

When little Eisa was suffering from kidney failure, our vet shared Eisa's kidney panel numbers with us over email, and we were able to update her over email as well. We learned a lot that way.

Because I was (somewhat) familiar with some of the names of things, I took notice when I saw that one of these values was elevated on Tolly's allergies blood test.

The vet who ran these tests wasn't too worried. But because of Eisa, I asked Tolly's new vet to run a kidney panel and urinalysis on him, just to see.

From there, we progressed to an ultrasound today. Where we got the diagnosis of kidney disease: chronic renal failure, just like Eisa's.

Because we have the diagnosis now, we can start him on the kidney diet now, and keep him in peak shape for longer. And from personal experience, we know what symptoms to look for, what to do, and what measures we'll probably end up taking.

Because of what Eisa taught us, I am more sure than ever that we are the right parents for Tolly, and that here absolutely is the best place for him to be.

Tolly fetches!

Eating joyfully without gluten

DH is gluten sensitive.  It's not enough of an issue to show up on tests (so, not full blown celiac disease, lucky for him), but it does make a difference to his health when he cuts out gluten. 

For his birthday gift this year, I signed us up for something neat: a gluten free cooking demo/class at Stir.  It took place last week, and it was really yummy and fun!

10 of us sat around a table while a professional chef and assistant cooked a beautiful gluten free meal for us, and led us in discussion of issues, resources, etc.  Everyone was really nice, and the food was absolutely delicious, definitely worth having in the repertoire.  It didn't taste like 'dietary restriction food,' just like good, hearty, satisfying fare, so even gluten eaters are likely to enjoy it! 

It turns out most of the recipes are variations on ones that appear online.  Click through for delicious photos, recipes, and discussion!

* Gluten-Free Gougeres (Pão de Queijo) are little cheese puffs made with tapioca starch that really fulfilled the bread yearning.  If you need the recipe (which, fair warning, the chef said was finicky), let me know.
* Pumpkin Polenta with Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa Fresca was comforting and warm with a nice fresh brightness in the salsa
* Along with our entree protein we had Red Quinoa with Roasted Butternut Squash, Cranberries and Pecans.  If you have not had red quinoa before, it has a lovely nutty taste!  I think we'll definitely go red instead of white next time.
* Maple Frosted Pumpkin Cake.  This frosting was so good that I would happily have eaten it by the spoonful, and I generally find icings to be too sweet.  

Apparently every time they teach this class they offer a different seasonal menu, so if one wanted to splurge one could take it again and again for a new experience each time.  Yum! 

P.S.  Speaking of dietary restrictions, Tolly has now tried the duck and green pea and venison and green pea cat food, and likes them even less than he does the rabbit and green pea food (so Daffy and Bambi are safe from Mr Tolly).  He is now sampling the "hydrolyzed protein" food.  I was heartened to note when I opened the bag that it smells more like beef bouillon than like dehydrated peas.  We'll see how it goes...    

Scavenger hunt

A few weeks ago we went on a scavenger hunt with some friends.  It was a little different than your traditional scavenger hunt:

You’re not hunting for things (put back that Ming vase!) but for answers to tricky and humorous questions about the intriguing places and objects you discover. The team that answers the most questions correctly WINS.

The hunt we tried had us traipsing about the Harvard Square area, examining everything from statues to historic plaques to modern day eateries.  And in fact, food was the overarching theme here: it was a snack themed hunt, and our list of clues also included recommended munchies to sample along the way.  We didn't know how long the hunt might take, though, so we opted to hunt first and chow later.  (Turns out there was plenty of time!)  It was a lot of fun, and in fact, our group actually ended up winning, which meant that we got passes to do another hunt for free!

So this last weekend we headed up to Salem to take advantage of those passes.  As befits the time of the year, this haunted hunt took us through a cemetery, to several memorials, and to other locales that were significant in the witch trials.  We did most of the searching with flashlights in hands, which made it even more deliciously spooky!  If anything, I think we had even more fun this time.

Astonishingly, we actually won again, though just by a single point.  The second place team won 'best team name,'
and hearing the double entendres they crammed in, we couldn't help but bow to their outrageous naming prowess.   The fact that they managed to get the hunt coordinators to recite that naughty name aloud, three times...   well, it was almost worth turning over our free hunt cards to them in gratitude ;) 

Sorry, Daffy

Tolly has eosinophilic granuloma complex.  As I understand it, his body, in response to some irritant, ends up overreacting and attacking itself too.  On him, it seems to manifest primarily as a 2-week long Jay Leno chin or Angelina Jolie lip, but it can show up elsewhere on the body as well. 

It is hard to pin down the cause.  It can be triggered by something as simple as mosquito or flea bites or a food allergy, though, so once it's clear that the animal is bug-free (which he is), the vet will often have you feed them a hypo-allergenic diet.

I am sorry to say switching up dinner to "rabbit and green pea" was not a runaway success.  After some initial interest because of the novelty, Tolly gives it two paws down and says he would rather go hungry.  I guess we try "duck and green pea" next.   

Somewhere, Bugs Bunny is rejoicing.  My deepest apologies to Daffy. 

(Read more on eosinophilic granuloma here.)

Truffle knows when he is licked

Tolly is very thorough when he grooms other kitties.

Look how wet poor Truffle's shoulder is!

The naming of cats

But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,
A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
(-- T.S. Eliot, The Naming of Cats, from "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats")

Tolly is the name our new guy will wear on a daily basis. But in deference to T.S. Eliot, I wanted him to have a more formal name as well, a moniker that was chosen not just because it sounded like his former appellation but because it had some reference to who he is.

Before kitty ever came home, I had spun up four potential names that could plausibly be a formal form of Tolly. (Keeping in mind that the name Margaret can yield such disparate nicknames as Peggy and Daisy, you will understand that some of the ties to "Tolly" were rather vague.)

After I got to know kitty, one option stood out as being especially appropriate. Tolly has what his first foster mother describes as a "singing purr." He also shows a remarkable appreciation of music: when he heard Stan playing the piano for the first time, he was completely mesmerized. He hopped up on the kitty hammock, and curled up to listen happily like it was a personal concert just for him.

Clearly he is a musical fellow, and so his formal name would have to have something to do with music. The obvious choice among the four options, then, was Taliesin (tah-li-ESS-in).

The historic Taliesin was an ancient Welsh bard "who is believed to have sung at the courts of at least three Celtic British kings." Some rather fantastical legends sprang up around his life, putting him in the company of King Arthur and other famous figures; and drawing parallels, through resemblance of story, to the early life of Finn MacCool.

Rather grand, but how could I resist?   Taliesin it was! 

(The grandeur of Taliesin also nicely balances the immense goofiness of one of his nicknames - "Hinge," bestowed because some people, ahem, feel his musical purr more closely resembles the sound of a squeaky door than it does a song! ;))

Tolly's story (as much as I know of it)

Floating like a boat in its waters,
I was thrown into a dark bag,
and on an endless sea, I was set adrift.
Just as I was suffocating, I had a happy omen,
and the master of the heavens brought me to liberty.

    (-- from the legend of Taliesin)

 
Once upon a time there was a couple who loved animals. Whenever they found a stray, or heard of an unwanted kitty, they took it into their home.

They fed the cats, spayed them, and gave them attention... so you would think that this was a happy story, wouldn't you? But 58 cats and two or three dogs is a lot, especially for a two bedroom place.

So one day the woman got fed up and moved out, leaving the man alone with the 58 cats and two or three dogs. And soon he couldn't take it any more, and tried to kill himself.

The man was brought to the hospital.

The city planned to "take care of" all the animals.  :(

But people at some local animal rescue organizations caught wind of the situation. They sent out frantic messages to a network of other rescue groups.  Each organization promised to make room for one or two, or as many as they could. And gradually all the little offers added up, until every one of those 58 cats had found a place with a rescue group!

One of these was Calliope, an itty bitty foster-based group founded by the women who facilitated Truffle's adoption.

When the Calliope rescuers went to pick out their cat, out of the whole kit and caboodle, one individual stood out: a skinny, scruffy looking black male. He wasn't the prettiest cat there, but there was just something about him.  He came up to them, made eye contact, begged for attention...   As Claudia wrote, "He was crying out to me to be picked, out of so many."

That was our Tolly.

So we don't know how old he is; we don't really know anything about his life "before." But we do know he will have his "happily ever after" here with us.

Fuzzy

A sweet moment, fuzzily captured on my crummy camera phone (in real life the blanket is green!!!).  It's Truffle curled up on the left and Tolly (who initiated contact) stretched out on the right.

Friends in a day?

Someone else has put in an adoption application for Tolly.

I didn't even know that this was really an option. On some level I thought that if we were "fostering with the intent to adopt" that he wouldn't even really be available to anyone else during this period.

Thinking I had the time to do it this way, I'd been taking things very slowly, in deference to Truffle. It was clear from their first interaction that Tolly would come out as the alpha cat, and I haven't felt like Truffle was at peace with that prospect. (Echo's wishes are much simpler: she just wants not to be messed with. She doesn't care about any silly pecking order; as long as Tolly lets her be, she's good.)

Now I have to fast-forward the process, because we are supposed to decide by tomorrow morning if we are okay with having someone else come in and meet Tolly this weekend or if he is to be our cat forever and ever.

I wish we had another few weeks to figure this out. I really, really do. It's a little much to expect these guys to suddenly become friends in a day.

Leapin' lizards!

I have a wall display unit that consists of three shelves that are 16.5" long and 5" wide, with 10" clearance between the shelves. I had seen Tolly eyeing that thing, and thought perhaps he wanted to reach up and play with the nesting dolls on the bottom shelf like Truffle does.

Oh no, Mr. Tolly had higher ambitions. I left him alone in the bedroom when I went out to take a phone call. When I came back, what should I see but Tolly perched on the middle shelf of that wall unit looking very pleased with himself. The silly guy had leapt up there from the trunk and had managed to land on the middle shelf, incredibly, without knocking over a single one of the items on that shelf (or knocking the shelf off the wall, for that matter).

I noticed he'd also leapt up to the top of the armoire to retrieve a cat toy too. But that's old hat for him, he's been doing it on a daily basis for the last couple of days.

When we took Tolly to the animal hospital last week, the vet said he had a 'click' in one of his hind legs. She said this made him more likely to develop early arthritis, and asked me if he seemed hesitant to jump.

Um, no. Mr. Tollypants is about the least hesitant jumper I've ever met.

Umbra and penumbra

(Truffle on the left, Tolly on the right)

Visit with family

My little sister was up in the area visiting one of the local schools to look at a graduate program. She came and stayed with us over the weekend.

It was a lovely visit! The remnants of hurricane Earl were wafting around the area so we decided to stay in on Friday night. We got Thai takeout and watched "A Very Long Engagement".

The bad weather cleared out overnight, and we had one of the loveliest days we'd had in a long time! After brunch with bagels, we drove into town and visited the aquarium. (We'd hoped to try a whale watch, but it'd been canceled because of the hurricane weather, alas!) Then we strolled around the historic North End, ruining our appetites with lovely Italian pastries, and then picking at our food at a little hole in the wall Italian restaurant. (Sadly we couldn't take home the leftovers, as we weren't heading home afterwards!)

After ambling along part of the Freedom Trail, we headed over to see "Blue Man Group". DH and I have been a few times, and had tried to get tickets for Laura and Charles when they were out here many years ago, but the show was all sold out. Fortunately we had better luck this time. The show had been updated a bit since I last saw it, and I missed a few of the old segments, but it was still quite an experience (very much unique and hard to describe, so I won't even try!)

(On tap for Laura's next visit - which will be years from now, as she's heading off for a couple of years to do her master's at Oxford: whale watching, the whole Freedom trail... and we'll look into scuba in the area, since she's certified and expressed some interest in doing that here.)

Feed me, Seymour

He's here!

Tolly joined us Friday night, and has been staying in my office. He's an incredibly sweet and responsive kitty, will come over to see you if you talk to him or even click your tongue at him, and is just so grateful for every scrap of attention we can lavish on him.

The poor guy still has kind of a 'wild animal' look to him - scruffy fur and an underweight physique. We don't know how long he lived in his last environment, before he was rescued and brought to the home of his first foster mama, but it's going to take a while, with good nutrition and proper care, for him to fill out. Things are definitely moving in the right direction, though :)

Progress!

Tolly "has been diagnosed by [the] veterinarian. He had his biopsy last week and the results are in; the vet’s office will fax the results to us. He has an allergic reaction, isolated to his head area. It is not contagious, it is not fungal, and it is not auto immune. He’ll be getting a steroid injection very soon to see if that clears things up. The cause is not determined at this moment, perhaps stress, perhaps some other allergen. But first he’ll get the injection and go from there. Once we see him improving, we’ll touch base again. We’ll coordinate with the vet – once he’s improving we hope to be able to have you foster him, finally!"

Waiting, waiting...

We hope to have Tolly's skin biopsy report back in a few days... in the meantime, here are some pics of Truffle being cute and shiny and enjoying a new mod cat bed from LikeKittysville!

Left handed

We went back by to visit Tolly and drop off some food and toys.

He seemed quite a bit more at ease this time. His foster mother coaxed him out of the closet with one of the catnip mice we'd brought over, and he really seemed to enjoy having us stroke him while he played with the mouse and tried to munch on the catnip. I was so glad to see a bit of his real personality :)

He also seemed to like the EVO food we brought. (It is high quality food and is grain free, so if there's a food allergy involved in his skin issue, this should help.) He wolfed down a bunch of it, and then started playing a game: standing far away from the bowl, he'd extend his paw to fish a few pieces of food out of the dish; then he would find the pieces and gobble them up. He did this over and over, and always with his left hand, so we figure he must be left handed! (Well, they do say black cats are sinister...)

He's been started on a second antibiotic, and his foster mother says that his face looks better than it did. She's still waiting to hear back about the skin test results. (He didn't seem too bothered by it, as far as I could tell, which was good to see.)

It is hard to wait, but it's better for the health of all the kitties involved to make sure everything is resolved ahead of time.

Foolish humans

A 2002 study in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science that examined adoption rates over nine months in a California pound found that black cats were about half as likely to be adopted as tabby cats and two-thirds less likely than white cats. (cited here)

:(

Magic kitty dust

Poor Tolly is not responding to his antibiotics, so they are investigating further. Please send magic kitty dust his way so that he will heal quickly and join us soon!

Hello, Tolly

We'll shortly be adding a new kitty to our feline family. Our little old lady cat Eisa passed away, and it just doesn't feel the same without her :(

Brenda (who helped us with Truffle's adoption) and Claudia (who took his photograph as part of the Gifford fundraiser), started their own kitty rescue organization last year. Truffle has been such a joy that of course we went to them to see about our new kitty.

We met a few kitties, and I really liked a sweet grey and white female... but I couldn't get this black male cat out of my mind. He was so scared when we met him, but all the reports of his personality from his foster mom and rescuer were so positive. And I just thought, well, she's much more adoptable than he is; if he's always this shy, he'll be overlooked for sure. So can't we take a chance on him and see what happens?

We'll be bringing him in on Sunday and will officially be fostering him; if all goes well, and he is compatible with our two, we'll adopt him officially in a few weeks.

They have been calling him Charlie, and he knows his name (clever boy!). But my brother's name is Charles, and it would be a little strange to have a cat with the same name. So we have picked a nickname that sounds close enough to the local pronunciation of Chaahlie: Tolly. (Anyone read the "Green Knowe" series?)

I have several ideas for his formal name, but I think we need to get to know him first.

Saturday in New Hampshire

Truff photo session

We took these this afternoon to share at the cat shelter benefit. Thought you guys might like to see how Mr Truffle looks these days too!










This one makes me laugh!

Glass love

From my paperweights class:



seaweed




flame




fragile planet

Holding down the fort

DH's grandmother Yuki sadly passed away, so he flew back for the weekend to be with the family and attend the funeral service. Since he has to be back for work on Monday, and the flight takes half a day, he doesn't have much time there at all. He says the time there only slightly exceeds the time he will be spending on the plane, in fact. But it is important.

Meanwhile I am holding down the fort here with the kitties (poor Eisa struggling) and hoping everything and everyone will be okay.

Not so skinny

Eisa has re-gained 5 1/2 ounces since last weekend! Now some of this is surely just rehydration, but it feels promising. It will be interesting to see where she is a week from now.

New class

I have a modest collection of glass Josh Simpson planets, so I thought it would be fun to get a better sense of exactly what it is like to create glass spheres. (This will give me a greater appreciation for what a real, skilled artist can do.) So, I will be taking a class at Diablo Glass School:

The glass paperweight is the first step for anyone interested in working with hot glass. This introductory class guides the first time glass artist through the most crucial skills. First you will gather glass from the furnace, learn to shape and control, and how to apply color to the glass. In a fun and informative manner our instructors will introduce you to tools, safety and basic glass theory. Every student will leave with a gorgeous paperweight and a strong foundation for future exploration.

How neat does that sound?

Eisa update

Our little Eisa was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease last spring. She had been doing pretty well, but recently seemed to lose some of her interest in food. I weighed her and found that she had dropped yet more weight (1.75 lbs in a year, which is a lot when you were 6.25 lbs to begin with).

We took her in to the vet and came away with a hydrated pussy cat and some appetite stimulant. She seemed a little perkier, and that was encouraging.

The vet called back just now with the blood test results. We learned that Eisa's kidney levels have disintegrated quite a bit. Her phosphorus level, in particular, is really high. She's also quite anemic (side effect from the kidney disease).

We'll be adding three additional medicines - one to address the high phosphorus, one to help her red blood cells, and some fluids we can administer to keep her hydrated at home.

We know we are just treating the symptoms - you don't recover from kidney failure. But if she can be comfortable and happy and content, for whatever amount of time she has (I didn't ask about where we are on the timeline) then that is all we can ask.

Cupcakes

Minis cooling down before being frosted


Tips assembled


Icing demo


Raw materials


Coconut cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting


Sour cream citrus poundcakelets with lemon glaze


Queen Mother's cake (flourless chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache)


Spiced carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing


White wine cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream


The prettiest daisy!

Bread

Waiting for the loaves to come out of the oven


Loaves, rolls, and focaccia cooling


Beautiful challah braids


Rosemary focaccia


Decadent sticky buns


...bottoms up!


Dough to go (at various points in the rising process) for more yeasty goodness at home

Pie day

At the second session of my baking class, we began with a lecture and demo on pie and tart crust. The instructor used a bench scraper (a.k.a. pastry scraper) to integrate liquid into a flour-butter-salt mixture. This allowed her to avoid introducing body heat and building up those long glommy gluten strands that result in a tough crust.

Next, we selected from a list of recipes. I gravitated toward the blueberry white chocolate cheesecake pie (who wouldn't?!). Although this recipe initially was snapped up by someone else, it ultimately wandered back to me: the other student, upon learning that we would be serving our creations at the end of class, and that there were only enough blueberries for one, chose to switch to a different recipe. She recognized that if she made a duplicate, she'd be able to spirit her version away to a dinner party. Thus, I lucked into making the (to my tastebuds) yummier recipe!

Crust dough needs to be chilled for quite some time before it is rolled out, so we began with pre-made, pre-chilled dough. We rolled it out and filled our various pans. I trimmed my dough to the recommended overhang, deciding belatedly to flute my edges. (Ultimately, these edges looked nice enough when they went into the oven but didn't fare well in baking because I hadn't allowed extra dough for the technique. Plus one crust among many in a crowded oven is never as cossetted as a singleton would be. With foresight, space, and tinfoil, it'll be better next time.)

As we mixed our fillings, an assistant loaded in and kept a harried eye on the baking crusts.

My recipe called for a white chocolate cheesecake layer topped with a cooked blueberry layer. These would be poured into the finished crust, then chilled til cold. There was only about 10 minutes to chill it in class, so it did lose some structural integrity when it was served, but it was so delicious! The lemon zest in the blueberry topping was perfect!

When our treats were ready, we wrapped up by making raw dough to use at home, completing the process (if in reverse order). My dough is in the freezer, waiting for inspiration. I have my eye on the savoury pesto quiche someone else made in class - my second favorite recipe finished that day! :)

Cream puffs

I caught a cold, so did myself and everyone else in my cooking class a favor and stayed home. Instead, DH took my place, and had lots of fun making these delectable cream puffs!



He came back laden with these puffs, as well as some unfilled puffs for us to fill as we like, and was brimming with enthusiasm about how much fun the course is. I am looking forward to next weekend :)

Ratatouille

Tonight we went out to get ingredients... tomorrow, homemade ratatouille for dinner and a showing of the movie "Ratatouille."

(And no, I don't plan to let any aspiring chef kitties take over the cooking!)

My baking class

As a holiday gift, DH gave me a baking class. No, this was not a comment on my current baking skills - I've mentioned before that it would be fun to take a course like this, so he found one and signed me up!

How delicious do these goodies sound?


Week One—Pâte à Choux: In week one, we will discover the
art of making pâte à choux, also known as cream puff paste.
Pâte à choux is a versatile paste that can be used in both sweet
and savory dishes. Students will prepare and sample dishes
such as assorted savory Gougère, Cream Puffs, Éclairs, and
Cream Puff Swans. The class also makes pastry cream and
glazes.

Week Two—Pies and Tarts: Students explore the fundamentals
of making the perfect pâte brisée (pie crust) in week
two. Each student will prepare a standard pâte brisée recipe,
learning how to roll out the dough and use it in various recipes.
Students will make Frangipane and Fresh Fruit Tart, Blueberry
White Chocolate Cheese Pie, Lemon Tartlets, Praline Sweet
Potato Pie, Cranberry Crumb Pie, and Cherry Pie.

Week Three—Breads: Students learn how to work with
yeast doughs, rich doughs, and batter doughs in week
three. The instructor will demonstrate how to knead,
shape, and bake the dough that is prepared in class.
Students will make Focaccia, Rosemary Garlic Bread,
Maple-Pecan Sticky Buns, Rye Bread, and French Bread.

Week Four—Cakes: This class instructs students to
prepare a cake from scratch and to bake and frost it with
simple decorating tips. Students will prepare various
recipes such as an all-purpose Butter Cake, Rich Flourless
Chocolate Cake, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing,
and a vast array of different buttercream, ganache and
simple glazes.

A title

Aly's girls came up with a name for the crane story! So it is now, officially, "Kiku & Mai Learn to Say Hi."

How adorable is that? :)

Mikey likes it!

I am very pleased to say that Eisa likes the new kidney-friendly food we offered her!

When she was diagnosed with chronic renal failure last spring, our vet gave us a packet with samples of all the different types of kidney-friendly food, as this stuff is notoriously unpalatable. She was fine with all of it. So we picked the most economical dry food and the most economical wet food and brought them home.

Once we had them home, she decided they weren't okay any more. She wouldn't even touch the dry food. (This is the least picky cat in the household, so you can imagine how bad this stuff must taste.) We switched her exclusively to the wet food, and she was okay with that up until last month. Then, suddenly, no interest.

Here's hoping this one has more staying power.

Playoffs

DH got tickets for the football playoffs, so we'll be watching those on Sunday. I'm still mystified as to why anyone thought it would be a good idea to have an outdoor stadium in this climate. (At autumn games you get sunburned; in winter games your toes freeze.) He says it is because our team wants to be seen as a tough team, and so they will have an advantage over the cosseted indoor players.

Maybe they could put the field outdoors and have the rest of the stadium enclosed?

Little Eisa

Please keep our little Eisa in your thoughts. She was diagnosed with kidney failure in May, and had been doing well up until recently. Now she is losing weight and doesn't want to eat, and she is so tiny there is not a lot of extra weight to tide her over...