please pray for simba

This morning Simba suffered a spinal cord injury as he was chasing a squirrel. His hind quarters have been paralyzed ever since. The vet gave him a steroid shot to reduce swelling of the spinal cord, and a pain shot, and now we're hourly checking his hind feet for a pain response. So far, so good, we squeeze his little toe and he tells us he can feel it. If he stops feeling the pinch, it means nerve cells are dying and he will need emergency surgery. Please pray for him. It is breaking my heart to see him like this.

The rest of the story

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caption not-contest #6 recap

As usual, we had some very fun entries in the caption not-contest last week.

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Lynne thought Simba was feeling imperious: "Hey! Put down the camera and let me in! This isn't powdered sugar I'm sitting on, you know."

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Elle gave her Simba a slightly sarcastic tone, "Yes, I want you to open the door. I left my opposable thumbs with the snowman."

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Faith-in-Capitalism thought Simba was suffering from the dread stuck-lip syndrome:

(1st photo)
*snuffle, pppttthhhbbbbttt, snort, puh-puh-puh*

(2nd photo)
My lips are still stuck.

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Ilsa exercised vicariously (her favorite way), with:

"and now for the neck exercises, up and back, now, and one, and two, and one and two! feel the burn!"

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And Barbara, knowing full well Simba's disdain for stardom, adds:

(1st photo)
"Alright, where is she? Hey, I'm sitting on snow, my butt is cold, where are you? I hope she;s not getting that camera again..... "

(2nd photo)
"Oh there you are.....taking more pictures of me (again). I know it's hard to resist but .... *Flash* OK you got your picture, now let me in!"

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Thanks, everyone, for joining in the fun, you guys are awesome! Sorry it's taken me a while to get this thing up. On top of the busyness of the season, I've just entered into a contract to do quite a bit of work for a client (hurray!), so you can expect to see fewer posts from me over the next few months ... although I do hope to keep up with my regular Cloudy Mondays and Wordless Wednesdays at least. Hope to see you here!

more pictures of Simba

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cloudy monday #8

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meringue cookies

The Huz and I started our marriage with the idealistic view that we would share chores equally, and that whatever chore needed doing would be done by whoever was available and able to do it. In other words, gender wasn't going to determine OUR roles, nosiree!

But, of course, the heavy lifting really needed to be done by the Huz, and his interest in cooking was just about nil but I enjoyed it, so things started to shift and settle a bit. When we were both working full time, at the same workplace no less, we ate out most weeknights, and quite a bit of our weekend meals as well. And our deal was, if one person cooked a meal, the other did the cleanup. It was a fair deal, and one we mostly lived by. Not particularly onerous, because if either one of us didn't care to shoulder our portion of the deal ... out to eat we went. No problem.

But gradually over the years, things shifted and settled more. He did the outdoors work, I did the indoors work. He took out the garbage, I did the grocery shopping. He grew the food, I grew the flowers. And before we knew it, we had a nearly perfect traditional division of labor. It's really pretty funny.

But there's one way in which our roles are reversed of the traditional, firmly and apparently permanently: he's the chocolate lover in the family. The only dessert that will tempt him away from chocolate is a creme brulee/caramel, with the occasional exceptional fruit pie or vanilla ice cream ... but even the ice cream usually has chocolate sauce on it!

As for me, give me a sugary treat nearly every time. I love jawbreakers, plain sugar cubes, sugar cookies, and, yup, meringues. I do make the occasional chocolate detour, usually to something that includes salty peanuts. But my heart's just not in it in the same way the Huz's is.

I discovered meringue cookies when I saw a package of these beauties from Miss Meringue at our local cooperative food store. At about 8 or 9 calories per cookie, they're a dieter's dream, IF you're the sort of person who can stop at just a few. I had to stop buying them, though, because I couldn't stop myself eating a 5-oz tub of these light & lovelies in two sittings (or less)!

(That's my solution to all my addictions: they're not allowed in my house. If we receive them as gifts, they go to work with The Huz. If I make something that I realize is likely to be impossible for me to resist, it goes to work with The Huz. Fortunately, we no longer share a workplace! I don't know what I'll do if he ever retires. Perhaps by then I'll have matured enough to have some will power!)

Anyway, when I was looking for something yummy to put in Christmas treat bags this year, I decided to try my hand at meringues. And lo, they were good, and I ended up taking them to parties, too (along with the pictured incredible chocolate Soho Globs, which I will find time to blog very soon, work and holiday schedule permitting).

Not having made them before, of course I set about searching the web to learn the scoop, and I found a wonderful article at JoyOfBaking.com. Because the article is so comprehensive, I will just link to it here, and add a few comments. Please go read The Article now!

Are we back? Then here's what I learned that I can add. As you've just read, the basic approach is to whip up the meringues, put them on a baking sheet, and bake them very slowly, with several hours more drying time at the end. I discovered that you can extend the baking time slightly to cut down on the drying time quite a bit. I had these largish meringues and baked them for an extra half hour, so that rather than leaving them overnight I could just leave them for about four additional hours of drying at the end.

I also discovered that the larger size is not great for eating out of hand, because the cookies are so crumbly. My second batch was made bite-size. I added a bit of pink food coloring to the second batch when I was about halfway through pressing them out onto the baking sheet, so I had a lovely combination of pink ones and white ones. I'm sorry I don't have a picture of that batch.

And, finally, feel free to place your meringues cheek-to-jowl, as long as they're not actually touching. They don't spread, and it doesn't increase the drying time as far as I can tell.

Making these meringues was simple, but amazing pleasurable. Following the directions carefully, you end up with the most beautiful, glossy mixture to put into your pastry bag for piping. It was a pleasure to watch it develop in my mixing dish. I don't know, there was just something so beautiful and pure about it. And with only three ingredients, any kitchen except one resembling the Huz's bachelor kitchen will most likely have the ingredients on hand. It takes time, but not a heck of a lot of effort. Give it a try and let me know if you enjoyed the process too! (Not to mention enjoying the end result, which looks as if you worked a lot harder than you actually did!)

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creamy mints

I'm making a variety of items for a treat bag to drop in stockings on Christmas eve, and am I ever having fun! The bags will have an old favorite, honeyed walnuts, one purchased item (espresso coffee beans), and a couple of new recipes. This is one of them. It's so easy, so delicious, and fun to put together besides. I made the pink ones today, in wintergreen flavor, and also plan to make some pretty green ones in peppermint.

3 oz cream cheese, softened
½ tsp flavoring (wintergreen, peppermint, or something adventurous?)
food coloring if desired
~3 cups powdered sugar
granulated sugar

Mix the cream cheese, the flavoring, and the food coloring. Gradually add the powdered sugar until you've achieved a texture similar to a pie crust, perhaps even a bit drier. (see picture)

Pinch off a piece the appropriate size for your candy mold, roll it into a ball, and roll it in the granulated sugar. Press into the mold (press firmly if your mold has ridges like the ones above do) and then immediately unmold onto a flat surface covered with waxed paper or parchment.

(You can also just pinch, roll into a ball, roll in the granulated sugar, and press flat into a disk shape if you don't want to buy the candy molds ... but they're really inexpensive and don't they make the candies look pretty?)

You can sprinkle some granulated sugar on the paper if you'd like a little extra sugar on the bottom, but it's not necessary to prevent sticking. Allow the mints to dry for several hours; you can also put them, uncovered, in the refrigerator to dry and firm up. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.

I looked all over town for wintergreen flavoring, and was about to give up when I spotted it in the King Arthur Flour store. That surprised me, because they don't have it in their online catalog. So now we know that if we want something cooking related and we don't see it in their catalog, we should call them up and inquire. They're legendary for their service, so I'm pretty sure they would ship you something from their retail store.

I've gotten most of my shopping done, but I'm still looking for stocking stuffer ideas. What are you planning to put in your loved ones' stockings? How's your shopping coming?

broccoli christmas trees, anyone?

I recently signed up to bring a dessert to a Christmas party, so when I saw the recipe for making a veggie platter look like a Christmas tree using broccoli as the tree and lots of cut little veggie cutouts for its decorations, I foolishly passed it by. Now I've agreed to switch to bringing an appetizer, and I cannot find the recipe anywhere! Help!

wordless wednesday

Hey, dog lovers! This Sunday night, we can expect to see lots of canine hijinks over at Weekend Dog Blogging at Sweetnick's place. Head on over for head shots, tummy shots, jump shots and what nots!

Follow the links in the sidebar to lots more wordless wednesdays. This is #26!

more pictures of Simba

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Geek. Dork. Nerd.

I'm a geek. When I say that, people rush to assure me that no, I am not, but I assure you, I'm proud of the fact. I love to write programs that make computers do things. When I was full-time employed at a local college, I was delighted that my office had more hardware in it than almost anyone else's. It was a virtual machine room. I am the very definition of a geek.

I am not, however, a nerd, which I think people sometimes confuse with geek and that explains why they experience surges of compassion and issue waves of reassurance when I declare my geekdom.

Tonight, though, I just may have acted like a dork.

Oh, all right, no "may have" about it. I acted like a dork. In public. Oh, yeah...

I made a late run to the local Price Chopper for a few items, enough to require a wheeled basket but not nearly enough to fill it. Price Chopper was deserted; 9:00 is a great time to go grocery shopping, as long as you don't require the attention of the people behind any of the counters other than checkout. I did have a nice chat with the produce man, who was replenishing the supply of eggplants depleted by a woman who came through just a few minutes before me and wiped them out. She told him she was making dinner for 150, a church dinner. Eggplant for 150? I hope she's prepared to find something to do with the leftovers, but what do I know? Maybe she has a fabulous recipe.

So, moving on from produce, I turned to go up the aisle toward the cough medicines, and went past someone who looked vaguely familiar. As I continued along, I realized where I had seen him. He had starred in our local professional theater's presentation of "I Am My Own Wife," a fascinating tale of a German transvestite who survived Nazi Germany. This actor played 30 different roles, switching seamlessly between them, totally convincingly. What a feat! He was truly amazing.

I believe he came here from New York City to play the role, so I was surprised to see him in the area a month after the show had closed. He was accompanied by another man of about the same age.

So, that's kind of cool, right? Running into an actor who, while not nationally famous, certainly did a wonderful, professional job during two weekends of shows locally. But I'm not one to approach people who don't know me, because I always think it would be so uncomfortable for them, that whole business about a one-way relationship where I saw and "knew" them but they have no clue who I am. When I used to deliver training campus-wide, I certainly was uncomfortable with my fame, such as it was. I would see a look of recognition on someone's face, and feel bad that I didn't remember them as they so obviously remembered me.

So I tried to behave as if I didn't realize who he was and went to get my cough syrup.

Now, the store is deserted, and they're playing Christmas songs, and I'm moving along the aisles, never seeing anyone else. So, who's going to mind if I start to whistle a little? I like to whistle. I'm pretty good at it. So, I'm whistling in counterpoint to the songs, and fooling around with little trills, kind of like those guys who do bird whistling songs on the radio, you know, really dorky. Really dorky.

And I look up and see Actor and Friend standing at the end of the aisle I'm in, grinning rather unkindly and pretending they're not laughing at this middle-aged woman bird-whistling her way down the aisles of the grocery store.

Ahem.

Well.

There's nothing for it but to just keep on doin' what I'm doin'. I finish up my shopping, not whistling as much because the next song isn't as counterpoint-able (really! that's why!) and check out, feeling kind of dejected, you know. I'm extra nice to the checkout clerk, wanting to demonstrate that I have social skills. As if anyone was watching.

And then, as I head out to the car, I get a grip. Yep, I'm a middle-aged, geeky, dorky, non-nerd. What can I tell ya? So get over it!

P.S. Still looking for a few more captions for my Caption Not-Contest #6!

cloudy monday #7

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caption not-contest #6

It's been a while since we've had a caption not-contest for all you verbally creative type ... are you game for one? If so, leave a comment us all what Simba's thinking in these pictures. I know he'll appreciate your help getting his point across!

I'll do a recap later in the week.

Tonight I spent some time doing an index of Simba pictures, and added a link in my right sidebar called "Previous Simba photos." I know I will find it at least as useful as anyone else, as I'm forever following the trail of "wordless wednesdays" and other posts, trying to find a particular picture. I hope some of you who may be new to the blog will enjoy looking back at other shots of the little guy, too.
links to more simba pics

catching up

I despair of ever being able to take a picture that does justice to the beauty outside our windows on a sunny day after snow. It's so incredibly beautiful. But here's my best attempt, a goldfinch all puffed up against the cold. It's amazing that a little half-ounce bird can survive in temperatures like this. It's an intelligent design, indeed!

I feel as if I've been falling behind in my blogging, just posting pictures and brief comments and not really keeping you all "posted" on my cooking ventures. And there's a very good reason I'm feeling that way ... it's true! And today won't be the day to catch up, but that day is coming, my friends, it's coming. I want to tell you about a nutritionist I've been seeing and some thoughts about the eating changes coming from that. I've been planning some Christmas cooking and look forward to having some pictures to share, including of a new shrimp dish that will be featured regularly on our dinner table, it's so easy and yummy. I've signed up for a bread baking class December 18th, to see if I can erase my yeast bread insecurities; that will no doubt produce some fun posts. And I want to look back at the 5 food challenges meme that I joined way back at the start of the year, to see how I did with them, and perhaps think up some new ones for next year. Did you participate this year? How did you do?

So, that's what I'm planning to blog about soon. Meantime, take a look at these adorable little stocking stuffers: Egglings are available through Elsewares for only $8.95, with your choice of plant to water & grow. How cute is that?

wordless wednesday

Follow the links in the sidebar to lots more wordless wednesdays. This is #25!

snow!

It was nice to wake up yesterday to a dusting of snow. It never looks more like powdered sugar than when it's like it is right now, just lightly dusted across the tops of the stone cupcakes and the fallen-leaf caketops.

Between the snow and the fact that the squirrels have finally returned to our yard (it must have been a banner year for nuts out in the forest, because we've seen nearly no squirrels under our birdfeeders since July, much to Simba's sorrow), Simba wanted to celebrate all day yesterday. He stood at the back door, watching all the activities and whipping his head around to stare at me intensely whenever he saw something that particularly called him outside. I must have let him out 14 times yesterday, and each time he darted across the deck and sailed off the end of it, landing and making an immediate course correction to try to catch a squirrel before it could make it up a tree or under the deck. He stayed outside for long periods, patrolling the yard for more rodents, not even noticing that the thermometer never made it up to 30. It always brings home what a thick dense coat he has when I look out there and see him sitting down on snow. The very image makes me shiver.

Today he hasn't had so much fun, because I've been feeling awful and in bed with a cold. Today he's been my comforter. Today the squirrels ate in peace. But tomorrow is another day ...

cloudy monday #6

As is so often the case with cloud photos, this one caught me completely by surprise. I was driving along and had to find a spot to pull over to I could catch this brilliance in a photo. I'm sure a pro could have gotten an even better shot, but I was just thankful that I had my camera in the car so I could preserve this memory with this one. As we head into winter, this memory of warmer days is a happy one.

a favorite salad for the Fall Salad event

In the spring, we're thinking asparagus and fiddlehead ferns. In summer it's tomatoes and basil. And in the fall? Winter squash, or apples, or cold-hardy greens such as spinach. Although the weather we've had so far this fall can hardly be called cold. There are still perennials in my garden and here it is December in what we call The Frozen North! But that's neither here nor there ... (where on earth did that phrase come from, I wonder?)

Since I've blogged quite a bit about apples and butternut squash lately, I thought I would share with you today a favorite recipe for a spinach salad. It is descriptively called "Wilted Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing." When it's cold outside, I'm not usually drawn to green salads nearly as much as in the heat of summer. But with this salad, the bit of wilting and warmth from the dressing is just the thing to make you want to eat greens.

I cannot for the life of me remember where I found the recipe. But, no matter, I'm sure I've modified it beyond recognition since finding it!

I've tripled this recipe for a crowd, and served it on individual plates, with half a sliced egg and a sprinkle of bacon crumbles on top. It's a beautiful presentation that draws appreciative comments from its intended audience, and there are very few plates that come back with any salad on them when the dishes are cleared.

This is one of those dishes that comes together quickly, so it's best to have the ingredients on hand and ready to go before you start it. In particular, you want to make the dressing all in one fell swoop so it's sizzling and aromatic and ready to pour on the spinach immediately.

Speaking of aromatic, you see the step where you add the vinegar? Don't stand with your head over the skillet. It's quite potent!

So, without further ado (I'm full of medieval references today), here's the recipe for

Wilted Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

Serves 4-6

6 oz baby spinach
3 T cider vinegar
1 T sugar
¼ tsp ground black pepper
pinch salt
10 oz (about 8 slices) thick-cut bacon
½ medium red onion, chopped medium (about 1/2 cup)
1 small clove garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1/2 tsp)
3 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and quartered lengthwise or sliced crosswise

• Put the bacon in the freezer for a half hour. Remove it and thinly slice it crosswise. (I often just pull it frozen from the freezer, slice it, and throw it in the frying pan. If you have thawed bacon and don't have time for freezing it, I recommend frying it in slices and then crumbling rather than trying to cut it while it's soft.)
  
• Place the spinach in a large bowl.
• In a small bowl, stir together the vinegar, sugar, pepper and salt until the sugar dissolves.
• Fry the bacon in a medium skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate.
• Pour the bacon fat into a bowl, then return 3 tablespoons bacon fat to the skillet. Add the onion to the skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until softened, about 3 minutes.
• Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds.
• Add the vinegar mixture, then remove the skillet from the heat.
• Working quickly, scrape the bottom of the skillet with a wooden spoon to loosen the browned bits. Gradually pour the hot dressing over the spinach while tossing it. It helps to have a second pair of hands here, but if you don't, then pour some, toss, pour some more, toss, etc. The spinach should end up slightly wilted.
• Divide the salad among individual plates, sprinkle the bacon and arrange the egg quarters over each, and serve immediately.

A big "thanks" goes to Gabriella over at My Life As A Reluctant Housewife for sparking my post about this favorite dish. She's hosting a Fall Salads event this week. If you have a recipe for a fall salad that you'd like to share, blog about it and send it to her by tomorrow, following the event rules which can be found here. If you'd like to see what others have come up with for fall salads, be sure to drop by her site mid-week to catch the roundup.

And, since my blogging has been so sparse and promises to continue to be so for a while, I think I'll have to make this post do double-duty as my entry in Cate's ARF 5-a-day event this week. Please drop by Sweetnicks Tuesday night to see the many other creative recipes focusing on anti-oxidant-rich ingredients that will be featured in her roundup. And be sure to stick around to browse through her fun pictures of sweet Nick and Eli and all the cooking goodies she loves to scout out for us!

And now I'm off to lovingly wrap Christmas packages for mailing Monday to relatives in far-flung places. May your holiday season be as stressless as can be and focused on the Spirit of the season!