So yeah, as some of you pointed out yesterday, despite the fact that I’d written about them over on Love & Hisses, I hadn’t mentioned anything here about no foster kittens.
We have foster kittens!
You can read more about them at Love & Hisses, starting here and I’ll update the sidebar here at some point today. Despite their scaredy-cat nature when we first got them, they have chilled out a little, and we’ve gotten all four of them to purr. They don’t particularly care for being held – YET – but they also don’t freak out too much if we pick them up, as long as we don’t go too far from the cat tree.
Speaking of Love & Hisses, I got my entries from our very first set of fosters back in May – July 2005 pasted over there. You can read a little about Mia and her babies, and follow the link on that page to see the entries about them.
We’ve had a LOT of foster kittens in the past three and a half years; I couldn’t even begin to guess what the number is.
It’ll take me a while to balance writing here about the fosters and writing there about them and what goes where and how. Be patient, I’ll get it figured out!
Christy in KS mentioned in my comments last week that they like to take their bacon, dredge it through brown sugar and put it under the broiler for 7 minutes. Yesterday, I got out a package of 4 slices of bacon (I thawed and repackaged one of the big packages of bacon a few weeks ago, because there are only two of us, after all) and told Fred I was going to make bacon and eggs for breakfast. He requested just salt and pepper on his bacon – unadventurous bastard – so I salt and peppered his two pieces and rubbed brown sugar, salt, and pepper on my two pieces.
Ho. Ly. GOD. That is some FABULOUS stuff right there. Not only is it fabulous, but making it in the oven on a foil-lined cookie sheet was so much easier and less messy than frying it in the pan that that’s how I’m making my bacon from here on out!
Thank you, Christy – you rock!
And speaking of food, for dinner on Sunday (and Monday!) I took a pork shoulder from the freezer, rubbed spices all over it, let it cook all day in the crock pot, took it out of the crock pot, drained the fat off (into the pig bucket, actually, shaddup), shredded the meat and put it back in the crock pot with barbecue sauce for a couple more hours.
It was SO good. It would have been better if I’d used our standby barbecue sauce – Gibson’s – but I tried something new that I ended up not liking as much. Still good, just not AS good. I also roasted a butternut squash (not one we grew ourselves, one I picked up at a local farm stand, but I think we need to keep butternut squash in mind for next year!) and mashed it, and we had green beans too.
I also made a big bunch of egg salad Sunday afternoon, and Fred and I had egg salad sandwiches Sunday and Monday.
I think it’s safe to say that growing our own food is working out pretty well for us.
Speaking of hard-boiling eggs (which I used for egg salad), I tried hard-boiling fresh eggs rather than older ones to see if slow-boiling them for 12 minutes then soaking them in ice water plus baking soda would make peeling fresh eggs easier, the way it worked for the older eggs I made deviled eggs with a few weeks ago.
Not so much.
I mean, probably less egg stuck to the shell than would have done so if I hadn’t added the baking soda to the water, but still far too much egg came off with the shell. We probably could have gotten three meals of egg salad sandwiches from a dozen hard-boiled eggs if so much egg hadn’t stuck to the shell instead of the two (plus a little more) we did get.
In case you were curious.
Last night (though I got no pictures of the momentous occasion), we got the kittens down off the cat tree. The boys stayed down on the floor with us for the longest time, rubbing back and forth and purring like crazy. In what I considered a giant step forward, Delmar got back up on the cat tree, saw Lem purring and rubbing on Fred, and then jumped down off the cat tree and came over for some more love.
Marion had no desire to be off the cat tree. Fred picked her up and walked across the room to hand her to me, and she ran back to the cat tree and shot him dirty looks. Claudette, on the other hand, stayed in my arms for several minutes, purring and watching her brothers ask to be petted.
Both Lem and Delmar have meowed at us, Delmar the most. You know how you pet a kitten and then you stop and the kitten meows at you like “Why’d you STOP?!”? That’s how he was meowing.
These kittens are adorable. Now I’d like to see them come down off the cat tree of their own accord, and then I’d like to see them play!
Look at Delmar over there on the right, giving me the sass as if he doesn’t fling himself onto his back at the slightest touch.
Such a good boy, our Spanky. (He’s not usually pink, for the record.)
Previously
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: “M-O-O-N!” Fred said. “That spells Tom Cullen!”
2004: No entry.
2003: I’m pretty certain “Never going to fucking go hiking with him EVER A-FUCKING-GAIN” crossed my mind at least once.
2002: Hotel room so big/ roomy, spacious, perfect. Butt/ is what it smells like.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
1999: Don’t get your bippies in an uproar, though; we’re not trying to get pregnant.
This has nothing to do with anything, BUT did you watch Real Housewives of Atlanta?
Poor Spanky. That’s what happens when you run him through the washer with a pair of red socks.
I cook my bacon on a broiling rack with the bottom pan covered in foil for cleanup. I’m not sure if you’d lose too much brown sugar that way, but otherwise it’s by far my preferred method.
About the eggs…I was waiting to see if that would work. My method is mildly successful; I boiled 8 eggs last week and only two had tough shells. I was hoping yours would be foolproof, sorry that wasn’t the case. I use store-bought eggs, and I put them in a pot with cold water. (this is the trick, I believe). I put them on the stove on high, and then once they boil I set the timer for 12 minutes. When they’re done, I take them out with a slotted spoon and put them in an ice-water bath to cool them off. Then I peel them under running water, cracking the narrow tops first and working my way down. I used to start at the bottom but I found I was making more of a mess that way. The two that came out “bad” were ones I started at the bottoms. But hopefully people will have more suggestions because I hate the way an unperfectly peeled egg looks.
I just wanna squeeeeeeeze Spanky!
Robyn, if you and Fred like butternut squash, you will *love* buttercup squash. It is absolutely the best for baking and then mashing with just a little butter. It’s hard to find in stores, but as easy to grow as any other squash. Highly recommended!
Did Fred try your bacon and want to switch?
Egg salad recipe – please.
Hmpff Dlemar is just letting you know that just because he will fling does not make him an easy puss!
*giggle snort* they are such cuties ; )
Peeling eggs :the easiest way is to add a splash of oil( maybe 1or2 tbs at most) to the water while it is boiling. The oil permeates the shell ( Remember in science class soaking the egg in oil til the shell was see through), the egg will not have any oil residue, but the shell will literally slide off.
Please share your recipe for the Mashed Butternut squash. Or do you make it like mashed potatoes? (except no boiling – but roasting?) Do you suggest anything for acorn squash? Sorry to be annoying, but I have both sitting in the vegetable basket and I’m kind of bored with the traditional roast and eat methods. I need variety! Or I eat cereal instead…
Pop those eggs in your vegetable steamer(if you have one) for 20 minutes; eggs cooked to perfection, minimal boiling egg stank and when they cool, pretty easy to peel!
I also do the bacon in the oven; so much easier to get other stuff (pancakes, eggs, fruit) done while it’s cooking away unsupervised.
Loves the new fosters!
We’re a cat/dog family. Two cats and three dogs (chihuahuas.) Yesterday I picked up some clothes that had been altered. The woman who did it was “cat sitting” her daughter’s persian cat. Let me tell you, it was love at firt sight. I’d never seen a persian in real life before. She was a light as a feather and as cuddly as could be. It was a good thing I’d left my purse in the car, or I’d have snuck her out. Every animal I’ve had in my life, except for 2, came from animal shelters. I see ads in our local newspaper, one after another, selling cats and dogs and my head explodes. My daughter volunteers as a cat cuddler at our local shelter. Two of our chihuahuas are purebred. Both (all of our animals) are spayed/neutered. When we were kicking around the idea of breeding them, we easily came to the decision that they are PETS, not INVESTMENTS. I admire the work you do for helping homeless cats. I don’t know how your shelter works, but our local one offers free spaying/neutering in exhange for two hours of volunteering at the shelter.