Vote for Suzanne!
Good Mood Gig from SAM-e
I finally got the Anderson Kitties Calendar for 2010 put together (you can see it in the sidebar to the right). I’ve got the pictures for the Foster Kitties 2010 Calendar narrowed down – now I just need to put names on each picture and get them uploaded. I expect to get that done later today, and will add it to the sidebar.
I don’t expect anyone but us is interested in a calendar of chicken and pig pictures, but I always put one together for Fred to put up in his office, so I’ll link that in the sidebar as well, once it’s done.
This year, I’m adding $2 to the base cost of the calendar. As always, any money that’s made off the calendars goes straight to Challenger’s House.
I’m sorry it took me so long to get them put together. The problem is that I copy all the pictures I take, all year long, into a folder and then when it’s calendar time, I have to go through them. And I take a freakin’ LOT OF PICTURES in the course of a year!
I’m going to experiment with a new way of saving pictures that will hopefully save time next year.
I have been a canning fool this week. Monday, I made two batches of Caramel-Apple Jam and then experimented with a couple of jams. One of the jams was a definite NO, so that batch got tossed on the compost heap. The other batch is a maybe, so we’ll see.
Tuesday, I canned 13 pints of applesauce. It’s amazing how you can have a huge pot of apples, cook them, puree them, and end up with a relatively small amount of applesauce, let me tell you. My applesauce is probably boring to the average applesauce connoisseur, because it’s literally nothing but cooked, mashed apples, and a little bit of water. No cinnamon, no sugar. Just good ol’ apples. I use most of the applesauce I can to make sweet habanero hot sauce. I also use it to make 88 calorie brownies.
(Hmm. I haven’t made those in a long time. I need to!)
What else did I do? I spent a lot of time bottle feeding kittens and hanging out with the Wonkas. I got laundry folded and put away, did some decluttering.
I had to take Miz Poo to the vet because the rodent ulcer on her upper lip was starting to act up again, so she needed a shot of steroids. Because she was way overdue for her yearly vaccinations, I had them do a Combo test on her (she was negative for everything, as I expected – but the vet tech discovered that her veins are in odd places. Miz Poo, a weirdo? Say it ain’t so!).
My New Year’s Resolution for 2010: keep everyone current on their shots and stop being such a slackery slacker! 90% of the time when I get fosters, they’ve already been tested – but when things happen like Fred coming home with the Wonkas or the lady down the street bringing us the Cookies and they’re too little to be tested, all we need is to get a batch with Feline Leukemia, and watch it take down the Crooked Acres gang.
(We do keep the fosters separate from our guys ’til after they’ve been tested, and we’re super careful about washing our hands after spending time with them, but you just never know, do you?)
As I was paying, a woman came in with three medium-sized dogs. She said she had two more in the car, and she wanted to get rabies shots for all of them. I smiled and told her she had her hands full, and left.
In her car, in the parking lot, were her two other dogs. One was a Great Pyr (like George and Gracie) and the other was a black lab. And her car was NOT any bigger than mine. Those two dogs were taking up the back seat of that car, and I could only wonder how she managed to fit all those dogs AND herself AND her daughter in the car at the same time.
Just as I snapped the picture, the Lab dropped out of view, of course. But still – is that one FULL back seat, or what?
I tell you what, I don’t know what the hell else I did this week, but I kept busy and got a lot accomplished, believe you me!
Today I’ve got some more jam experimenting to do, need to make some hot sauce, and get some laundry done. Also, I’d like to get some decluttering done around the house, but I don’t want to be TOO ambitious!
Okay, here’s a question for those of you who shop at Publix: Where the holy hell do they keep the canned pumpkin? I swear to god, yesterday I must have spent ten minutes walking up and down the freakin’ aisles looking for it. It’s NOT where the canned sweet potatoes are, and I couldn’t find any near the pie crusts. What the hell? Where IS it?
Anyone?
Wait. I’m thinking maybe I didn’t look near the canned fruit. That’s where it is, isn’t it? FIGURES.
I need me some pumpkin! Well, the fosters do, anyway. I think I’ve mentioned that I believe the only place pumpkin belongs is in a pie, haven’t I?
How is it that I stopped at the super craptastic, always disappointing Pet Dep0t yesterday and ended up signing up for a freakin’ “savings card”?
I always walk into that store with high hopes, and always walk out without buying anything -except yesterday, when I went in looking for canned Fancy Feast Medleys (which is what I give our cats at Snackin’! Time!) and left with a bag of bird seed. They have six thousand different kinds of dog food, but like three kinds of cat food and it annoys the shit out of me.
Lady Asian Beetle season has hit in full force, and the Wonkas are finding it rather fascinating. The mornings are okay, but when the sun hits the end of the house where their room is, the beetles start squeezing in around the windows (looking for a place to hibernate, I guess?) and the Wonkas find it much fun to jump and leap and try to catch them.
I’m sure they’ve gotten their paws on plenty of beetles – there are SO MANY of them, it drives me nuts – but I suspect one or two bites of the nasty things has shown them that they’re not food.
This would have been SUCH a beautiful picture, they sat there POSING for a good long time. But I was laying on my back (they were actually sitting on my stomach) and just couldn’t seem to get a good shot of them. ::sigh::
I find it hilarious that the kitten who was the slowest to come around (if you’ll recall, he was Mr. Standoffish for several days) is the biggest baby, and will lay like this in my lap for ages.
Isn’t he a smug little brat?
Gus isn’t ALWAYS the laid-back one.
“I dub thee… Sir Poopypants! Hee hee hee!”
He haz claws.
I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with the Cookies. All five of them have been spotted eating either canned food (TimTam, Lorna Doone, and Keebler) or crunchy food in the form of Baby Cat (Milano, Keebler, and Hydrox). I didn’t think Hydrox was ever going to show any interest in real food EVER. A few days ago I put a little canned cat food in his mouth, and he looked SO disgusted, it was like I’d shoved Metronidazole in his mouth, he was so horrified. But yesterday I saw him eating pieces of Baby Cat off the floor, and then later he was eating it directly from the dish.
I’m seeing an end to the days when I have to get up at 4:30 to feed them!
(Dear God: That is not an invitation to send more bottle babies my way. Love, Robyn.)
this is either Milano (Pink) or Lorna Doone (Orange), I’m not quite sure which.
“Who, me? NOTHIN. Okay, I was checking to be sure it’s machine washable before I go use the litter box, step in my poop, and track it all over the bed, if you MUST know.”
Fred and I were snuggling with the babies after feeding time one night, and he decided he had things to do (sitting on the hardwood floor starts to hurt him after a while), so he got up and left. Every Cookie followed him to the door and HOWLED for several minutes, their feelings hurt that he’d abandoned them so coldly.
The girls gave up after several minutes, but Hydrox was determined to call Fred back to the room. Look at him standing there, so determined, howling his little head off. And he’s usually the quiet one!
I had to pull everything off the bottom shelf of this cupboard because ants showed up to swarm all over a poorly-cleaned bottle of corn syrup, and after I’d cleaned the shelf, Sugarbutt wandered along and was like “Oh, hey, what’s this?” He fits perfectly – but he found it wasn’t terribly exciting.
Previously
2008: WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH SCOOP HANDS?!
2007: I thought if the remote was lost, you were screwed.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Did you think I was writing this from The Great Beyond?
2003: Wonder if I appear too old and feeble to help with the loading of the groceries.
2002: That’s your trivia fact for the day. You’re welcome!
2001: Amish country.
2000: No entry.
1999: Hey, this is some exciting stuff, isn’t it? What will I talk about next, dryer lint? Woohoo, somebody stop me!
I heard that there was a shortage of pumpkin this year?
Me too! After I heard that I had an overwhelming urge to bake pumpkin type things. I had a small can and jumbo can. Now I only have half the jumbo can frozen in a ziplock bag. Figured I better save a bit for Thanksgiving. 😉
All your cats get vaccines every year? What do they need to get every year? Mine have gotten the ones they get when they are kittens and the 2 rabies shots and thats it, really, that is it, I never get them any other shots, they also never go back to the vet because they never get sick. My oldest cat died at 17, he had been to the vet 2x, once as a kitten for his shots and once when he had a clogged urinary tract. They are indoor cats though, so that may make a difference.
My Publix says there’s a pumpkin shortage this year and that they only got in 4 cases of pumpkin, which quickly disappeared. I asked my friend to pick some up for me at Kroger and she found it with out a problem.
I’ve got the beetles at my house too. Mostly on the front porch in the sunny afternoon, but I noticed some bug juice on my ivory silk curtains the other day, ick. . . .
Maybe for next year, you can upload them to flickr with a “calendar” tag, and then when it’s time to put the calendar together, you can sort by most viewed or have your readers vote on them?
Otherwise, I dunno.
I think I’m going to change the way I save them on my hard drive – go through them before I save them to a folder, so at the end of the year I have fewer to look through!
I found the canned pumpkin hiding in the baking isle behind the canned cherries and blueberries and things for pie fillings. Granted, this is not a Publix but my little tiny town grocery store who likes to hide things in odd places. I still can’t find the bacon in the box that is already cooked though. *sigh*
I don’t have a Publix by me, but my store carries it normally in the aisle with all the baking goods (flour, sugar, spices, cake mix, etc.).
I love the picture of Sugarbutt in the cupboard. My cat Spot does the same thing, empty
box, bag, laundry basket, dryer, whatever’s empty has to be tested out by him.
All your pumpkin is here in Scotland! I had pumpkin pie just once in the past 5 years, and that was when I went back to Seattle for Christmas one year. Yesterday, I went into Lupe Pintos (Glasgow) and found cans of Libby’s Pumpkin and by my squeal of delight you’d have thought I’d just discovered gold. I limited myself to two cans, but the clerk said that of the 50 cases they’d imported they’d already sold 16 cases. That’s a lot of pie filling for a place where most people have never even heard pumpkin pie.
DAMN the Scottish!! 🙂
As far as the pumpkin puree goes- you can also make your own pretty easily. If you have a farmers market near you, pick up 1 or 2 “sugar” or “pie” pumpkins and you’ll be set.
Preheat your oven to 350 deg
wash the outside of the pumpkin then cut it in half
scoop all the seed crap out of the middle
put them cut side down in a roasting pan along with a cup of water
bake until tender (approx 40 – 60 minutes depending on size of pumpkin)
scoop the flesh from the skin and puree
I got 6 cups of puree from an 8 lb pumpkin last year which was good for 3 pies!
Hmmm. I’m betting it would be relatively easy to can, too. I’ll have to look into that – I could do a few hours of work and be set for a year!
Oh, Mister Boogers…love the picture!
If the foster kitty calendar has “All the little kitties in a row eating from separate dishes” and an appropriate “true bloods in a big cuddle to die for” pics, then I’m ordering it in a heartbeat! And I am also looking forward to seeing a pigs and chickens version.
It has the True Bloods on the chair, but not the line of kittens – that picture just wouldn’t fit right on the calendar page, unfortunately. I was so disappointed!
Canned pumpkin ’round these parts is with the other pie filling, which is in the baking aisle I think (Meijer, not Publix though).
Also, I heard there is an EXTREME SHORTAGE of canned pumpkin and prepared pumpkin pie filling because the pumpkin crops didn’t do so well this year. I dunno.
And, my cat, Stripe (pronounced stripe-y) was a very large orange tomcat, and he used to like to open and hide in the breadbox that was built into our kitchen. It had one of those sliding doors that looks sort of accordion-like, and you’d go to get some bread and reach in there and there would be a CAT! V. scary.
Oooh that little black kitteh is soooo cute! WANT.
The ants are here too, along with the ladybugs. Beau eats the ladybugs!
OK I’m stlll pimping our pups to win a bed for a local dog shelter, and apparently one can vote more than once AHEM. All you Crooked Acres folk who are so inclined, please go vote for ROSIE & TESS.
http://kuranda.com/blog/dog-of-the-week
Kathy, I clicked on that link, and when I scrolled down to vote, it said “thanks for your vote” (or “your vote has been counted” or something like that) and I hadn’t voted yet! Wah!
Hrmm, I get my pumpkin in the baking aisle, it’s with the canned pie fillings, near the marshmallows at my Food Dog. Our squash had a shitty year up here in VA because it was too rainy and all the leaves got powdery mildew. I bet for a long-season winter-squash like pumpkin, it must’ve been devastating. Hope you found some!! I am baking pumpkin bread right now! 🙂
Here is the recipe, from my favorite (out-of-print) Pillsbury Complete Book of Baking
In a medium bowl, mix:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
In a large mixer bowl:
1 cup oil
2/3 cup water (I find this to be too much, so I do half water and half molasses to 1/3 to 1/2 cup—I like the molasses flavor, use just water if you don’t like molasses)
4 eggs
1 (16 ounce) can pumpkin (2 cups)
Blend wet ingredients, then add dry. Beat for 1 minute on Medium speed. (I usually put the sugar in with the wet so it will dissolve a little better, THEN add the rest of the dry ingredients.)
Fold in 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts.
Grease bottom-only of TWO 9×5 or THREE 8×4 loaf pans. Pour in batter (2/3 full only!) and bake at 350F for 60-70 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans.
This bread is very tender and moist and cake-like. I have not found a recipe I like more than this one. Admittedly, I do alter this recipe, as I find the 2/3 cup of water is TOO MUCH WATER! If I add more than 1/3 cup of water, I can’t get the bread to set up, it stays soggy. The molasses adds a nice flavor, and some moisture without being soggy. Admittedly, this bread is not dietary in any means, especially if you serve it with a spiced cream cheese spread like I do. 🙂 HA HA! 🙂 xoxoxo (1 bar cream cheese, softened, 1 cup powdered sugar, or more to taste, pumpkin pie spice or whatever flavors you like, could even add apple sauce or apple butter, blend, add a little milk until it is spreadable consistency.)
Ahhhh, Amazon has it used: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Baking-Pillsbury/dp/0670847682
This is MY FAVORITE baking book, the recipes are all really simple and REALLY GOOD. It beats my King Arthur books HANDS DOWN, every time. I wish the KA recipes were this good, but they just aren’t. I’ve used my book so much that I have broken the spine and the pages are all falling out. My husband bought me a new / used one online for christmas last year but I refuse to use that one until this one is COMPLETELY DEAD.
Weird, I just went to review the books and realized that all 27 people who reviewed it use it as much as I do. ALL the reviews are five stars. Have you ever seen that on Amazon for ANYTHING before?? I haven’t, for sure.
I was interested enough to check out the book after reading your comments, but the 27 five-star reviews made me decide I had to have it.
Yep, I ordered it too. I hope you get a commission for the sales, Styro! 🙂
Ha ha, I think I just caused a huge run on this cookbook! Well, it’s worth having, hopefully y’all got it for a good price. It is awesome. You will LOVE it.
After weeks of searching for pumpkin myself, I finally found it on the top shelf to the right of the expensive pie fillings. There were only two cans across, so it was easy to miss. This was the store on Hwy 20. No telling where it is on Hwy 72 or County Line!
I’m hitting Publix tomorrow morning, so hopefully I’ll find it. And if I can’t find it, I’ll (gasp!) ask someone for once! 🙂
I couldn’t find pumpkin for months, finally called Libby-due to bad harvest there was a shortage. The customer service rep said they are processing new harvest now, and getting product out as soon as they could. About 2 weeks ago, cans started showing up in the stores, and now it looks like most stores are fully stocked. Like others have said-I also find it in the baking aisle with the cherry and apple pie fillings. I hope you find some for the kitties!
Love the adorable kitty pictures-the black one, fierce Gus and the Cookies crying for Fred. Your rooster curtains in the kitchen are really cool.
Thanks, Annette – I love my curtains still. I had a crisis when I bought them shortly after we moved into the house because they’re red, and the kitchen is yellow. Now the kitchen colors are red and yellow – crisis solved! 🙂
Sir Poopypants!
Robyn, that made me bust out laughing! I am going out to dinner in a bit with my middle daughter Keely. She is the one who Sweet Potato and Frances Bean live with. I am going to tell her about Gus. Just to see her reaction. 😉
Hey! Do you have a rss feed for comments? There are some days I don’t comment but would like to have the comments come to me. I know, I know. You give and give… and we beg for more! 🙂
Erin, I *think* (I’m not positive, but I *think*) that when the comments are opened, there’s an “rss feed” link right above the comments number (right now it says “32 comments”), and I think that’s the comments rss feed. If it doesn’t work for you (or you don’t see it), let me know!
Well, how about that! I never noticed that up there. It worked just fine. I tell ya… you learn something new everyday. 🙂
Here in Australia, we find pumpkin in the fresh vegie section, Im always like pumpkin in a can ???? when i read about it. Pumpkin is so nice, steamed or baked are my favorites.
Oh, it’s in the fresh veggie section here, too. But I want the convenience of having it canned, so I can just pop open a can and mix it with kitten food for the babies. 🙂
Looking back at your “previously” links, I can’t believe it’s only been a year since your scoop hands pictorial.
The new season of the OC Real Housewives show premieres tonight. I look forward to hearing your take on things, although I suppose we’ll have to wait an additional week for your thoughts on the show. And on Atlanta Kim’s warbling of ‘Tardy for the Party.’