I made refrigerator dill pickles over the weekend to use up all the cucumbers in the refrigerator, and for the rest of the day my hands smelled like dill, and it was surprisingly pleasant. Now I’ve got a package of fresh dill in the fridge and the cucumbers are mostly played out, so I don’t think there’ll be any more refrigerator dill pickles. I’ve been half-assedly searching for recipes to use the dill in, but haven’t really seen any that strike my fancy.
What’s your favorite way to use fresh dill?
I didn’t grow dill in my tiny herb garden this year, but only because I thought I’m not crazy about dill. As it turns out, it’s the dried stuff I’m not crazy about. I grew cinnamon basil, but one day last week I finally got around to trying a leaf of the cinnamon basil, and it had a black licorice aftertaste to me. I loathe black licorice, so I yanked the cinnamon basil up.
I’ve got sweet basil in the herb garden, lemon thyme, and rosemary. I planted cilantro, but it died out (probably Jane was sending hate rays toward it).
Yesterday for dinner we had pork shoulder steaks (if I haven’t mentioned it before, pork shoulder steaks, when grilled, taste exactly like beef steaks), zucchini sticks, zucchini pie, and pineapple casserole. It was a pretty fabulous meal, and the best part is that there are plenty of leftovers.
Apparently I’ve got food on my mind this morning.
I made these no-bake cheesecake bars on Friday, and realized (or I guess I should say “remembered”, since I always seem to forget somehow) that I’m not really so crazy about cream cheese unless it’s on a bagel. I liked the whipped cream part, and the melted chocolate drizzled over the top part, and of course the graham cracker crust part, but the chocolate cream cheese part? Not so much.
I’ve got nothin’ to say today. I’m going to blather on about the kittens, then vacuum the house, spend some time with the kittens, and catch up on some vital tv-watching.
Stay cool.
Los Gatitos are now at the adoption center. I haven’t heard that any of them were adopted, so I’m assuming they were not. That surprises me, honestly, because I was sure they’d be snapped up in no time flat.
However, I DID get to witness Garrity and Franco being adopted, FINALLY. Friday marked three weeks since I took the Rescuees to the adoption center, and while Sheila was adopted fairly quickly, the boys just sat there, unadopted. Every time I went into Petsmart the four of them were either playing or snuggled up to each other, and they seemed happy enough, so I wasn’t too worried about them.
Garrity and Franco were adopted by two girls, roommates (each girl adopted one kitten), so they’ll have each other to play and hang out with. That leaves Lieu and Gavin, and I hope it won’t be long for them.
When I put Los Gatitos in their cage, Pancho was all “Hey, look! TOYS!” and Evita and Hermano went into the litter box to hide.
I HATE IT when they hide in their litter box!
They’ll adjust, they almost always do. I’m not surprised that they were scared at first, but I’m glad that they have each other for comfort.
Meet Martin’s new sisters!
Moxie. Doesn’t she look like a little panther?
Melodie. She’s in the condo on the cat tree, snuggled up to her stuffed cat “baby.”
Moxie is a lover. She’s a people cat. She wants you to pet her. She wants you to snuggle her. If you stop petting her, she lets you KNOW that things have gone amiss and there is no petting going on, please resume the petting.
Melodie is a skittish, sweet girl. She’s a cat’s cat. She’s been hiding out in the condo on the cat tree a lot. I go up and hang out in the room, pet Moxie and Martin, and talk to Melodie. She usually starts out in the condo, then comes out to see what’s going on. A few times she’s come down off the tree to walk around the room.
She seems to like Martin. And for his part, when we walked into the kitten room and let Melodie and Moxie out of the carrier Friday night, you should have SEEN Martin’s face. Oh, did he think it was Christmas! He said “You brought me friends to play with!”
Moxie, for the most part, thinks he’s annoying – but she’ll play with him when the mood strikes.
Melodie definitely likes Martin – and when I walked into the room yesterday afternoon, who came out of the condo?
Martin! Have you been SNUGGLING with Melodie??
So far, things are going well. I’m letting Melodie go at her own pace. I always greet her when I come into the room, pet her (and she starts purring immediately, so underneath the skittishness she’s a lover, too.) I know she’ll come to me asking to be petted when she’s ready. We’ve already had a few “conversations” where she meows at me and I meow back. I don’t know what I’m saying to her, but it gets her to come out of her cave, so it can’t be bad. I hope!
“What? We’s snugglin’. Go away.”
So, I might have put a little basket of laundry (dish towels and cleaning rags) on the table, and Bolitar might have found it and turned it onto its side and climbed in to hang out on the clean laundry. Annnnd three days later, it might still be there. What? You don’t leave your clean laundry on the table so the cats can sleep on it? It’s a good excuse not to fold laundry! (Which will need to be washed again, I suppose. At least the stuff on the top of the pile.)
One day I should walk around the house and take pictures of all the boxes I have sitting on the floor just in case the cats want to sleep in them. In the kitchen alone are at least four boxes. When WILL House Beautiful call to ask if they can feature my fabulous home, do you suppose?
It’s gotten consistently hot enough outside that even Newt is spending his days inside trying to stay cool. Now THAT’s hot.
Previously
2009: And no one was even drinking!
2008: No entry.
2007: I think y’all know that I happily contribute to charities and have donated to a lot of your causes and will continue to do so, but I don’t support Blogathon, haven’t for a couple of years, and don’t intend to in the future.
2006: I may have Hepatitis.
2005: But not to worry, it was just cramps. Whew!
2004: I want to rip her goddamn fucking ::fliiiip::TAP::TAP::TAP::FLIIIP::TAP::TAP::TAP::FLIP::TAP::TAP::TAP::FLIP::TAP::TAP::TAP:: head off her stupid fucking goddamn neck
2003: No entry.
2002: I caught the eye of one of them, who noticed my intensely guilty terrorist-like face, and waved me over to wand me down.
2001: No entry.
2000: Because, you know, my life is so damn chaotic. Yeah.
I love dill in cole slaw. I don’t like sweet coleslaw at all. My regular recipe is: one bag angel hair shred cabbage, a few shredded baby carrots, bits of thin sliced green pepper. Salt well, pour a bit of boiling water over the veggies and knead it in to soften up the cabbage. Finish with mayo, salt, pepper, and dill, to taste.
I had a friend over Saturday and I had no dill, but the cole slaw was a-waitin’. She finished it w/a bit of ranch dressing powder and one minced jalapeno (w/o the seeds & membrane.) It got way more rave reviews than my dilly cole slaw.
I used to live in Austin, and there was a little sandwich shop that had this really great egg salad that was bursting with dill. I always got it in ww pita. I could never reproduce it, but now that you compared fresh and dried dill I realize that was the difference! I’ve always tried dried. I am genuinely excited! I’m off to boil eggs (ahem, w/oil and baking soda!) RIGHT NOW!
Is that really Spanky snuggling? He must be mellowing 🙂
I’m so glad Martin has friends now and they are already getting along. Yay for Franco and Garrity! I always worry about the black kittens so I’m thrilled Franco got adopted. Lieu and Gavin won’t be there too much longer and neither will Los Gatitos. It took us a little while to get all those siamese babies adopted. It’s a little slow right now.
I don’t like black licorice or black jelly beans.
My husband is a huge fan of this chicken salad – fresh dill, red bell pepper, feta cheese, cubed chicken breast:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fancy-Chicken-Salad/Detail.aspx
No dill recipies-dill is MY cilantro and I adore black licorice so the Cinnamon Basil sounds very interesting to me. I’ve never grown herbs but would like to try it-maybe next year. Lemon thyme sounds good too. I’ve never heard of Pork Shoulder Steaks may have to try those too-anything to get beef boy aka my better half off the beef. I’m surprised he hasn’t grown horns. He quit smoking cold turkey three weeks ago (only took some scary health complications!) and he is now obsessed with food, food and more food. He would like those cheesecake bars I bet. I have trouble digesting cheesecake these days. Not such a bad thing since I really do not need it. You had your gallbladder out didn’t you? I blame it on the gall bladder but maybe it’s something else-like 50 yr old abused digestive system haha.
The heat has broken here finally. It is a balmy 68 A/C degrees and Whiny McWhinerson is cold. I called him that to his face and he was pissed. I did not tell him I learned that turn of phrase here. Get a blanket pal it’s my turn to be comfy. It was 79 in the house Saturday and yesterday until a storm rolled in and finally broke it. Ollie wants in he is doing his uber snotty WOOWOO bark at the back door.
Do you like smoked salmon/lox? My favorite way to have fresh dill is scattered over a plate of smoked salmon, over which crème fraîche (or sour cream) has been (HEAVILY!) drizzled and a handful of capers sprinkled on top. Even better if all of this is on top of freshly made blinis, but that’s asking a lot. http://bit.ly/9fKaGs
Poor Newt just can’t seem to get comfy.
Have the cat/kitten adoptions slowed down since the economic depression hit? Sorry if you’ve addressed this before. I don’t skim, I’m just senile.
I must be hormonal because I almost WEPT when you described Martin’s happiness at having some new kitty friends. The loneliest kitty’s got some friends – Hurray!
I love to put dill on my carrots with some sea salt and butter.
I don’t know how you feel about salmon, but I saute some samon with lemon and butter and put some dill on it at the end. Oh God, is it good!
Well, my favorite way to use fresh dill is with cucumbers and a little vinegar and onion, but I guess you’re out of cukes?
Also, whole small salmon (or any whole fish)–chop a bunch of onion, celery and carrots and stuff inside with lots of dill fronds. Grill. Or wrap in foil and bake.
I like o put lots of dill in my simple chicken salad – just chicken, mayo,dill and salt.
Potato salad with fresh dill and sour cream instead of mayonnaise and mustard.
Pan-fried potatoes with garlic and dill are completely awesome. Also, I am seriously hungry all of a sudden.
I only have AC upstairs in my office, and last week was really, really hot. I don’t know why, because he’s a pretty smart little guy, but Cat could not seem to remember that the coolness was upstairs. He’d lay around on the kitchen linoleum looking miserable until I scooped him up and brought him upstairs, then he’d be all, “Ohhh, right” and hang out up there for a few hours. Until he went downstairs again, whereupon all knowledge of the upstairs coolness went out of his little head and he’d lay around looking miserable and hot again. (Long-haired, too, poor thing.)
Dill is fantastic just chopped into a salad. If there’s cucumber and radishes in the salad, all the better. I also mix finely chopped dill with sour cream, lemon juice, salt/pepper, and chopped capers for an awesome sauce for salmon or other seafood. It’s also great in hummus (puree canned chickpeas, olive oil, dill, sour cream or plain yogurt, lemon juice, cumin, paprika, salt/pepper, and warm water to your preferred texture). Ditto on adding it to chicken salad or tuna salad. I also like a simple salad of sliced cucumber, chopped fresh tomatoes, salt, pepper, dill, and a drizzle of olive oil.
Dill is my favorite herb, hands down. Can you tell?
Hey,
I don’t know if you are aware of a new group here in Alabama for getting legislation passed to help companion animals, cut down on kill shelters? If not, here’s a link to their website:
Alabama Voters for Responsible Animal Legislation (AVRAL)
http://www.alabamavotesforanimals.org/
Please pass it along to other rescue people/shelters, etc. that you know. Maybe we can create enough interest for some serious activism regarding abandoned/mistreated companion animals!
This is my favorite use of dill: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/06/dilled_white_bean_and_grape_tomato_salad It’s sooo good! I sometimes add tuna to it, if I want to have it as a meal on its own.
Here is a couple of recipes that I found while looking for something I make without a recipe. Didn’t find a recipe for it so here goes.
Peel carrots and slice them into coins. Blanch them in boiling water and drain. Then toss them into a ice water bath for a wee bit and drain again. Mix up a buttermilk dressing and add a TON of dill. Add the well drained carrots to the dressing and let it all marinate and mingle in the fridge.
I find it quite tasty myself!
Make a basic loaf of white bread and add dill-oh, it is lovely sandwich bread! Tuna on dill bread…mmm-mm or chicken salad…or just butter…its all good.
I suggest the following for the next batch of kittens: Williwaw, Piteraq, Oroshi, and Bora – these are names of Katabatic winds (like the Santa Ana). Katabatic seems apt for kittens and you know no one else will have used those names.
I have a food question that I thought someone here might be able to figure out. Remember that glowing, almost fluorescent yellow chicken gravy from back in the day? I’ve been wishing I knew how to make it, but I have no clue, and my searches have been fruitless. Can anyone help me in my quest for creepy gravy?
That Newt has the life. He can come and go as he pleases. If it happens to be too hot, he has a nice cool place to hang out. If it happens to be too cold in the winter, he has a nice warm place. I hope he knows how good he has it. Spoiled Anders0n cat. Hee Hee!
It’s supposed to get to 86 today and humid here in Wisconsin. I’m off to school, it’s air conditioned. I won’t turn on my air – trying to keep the electric bill low enough that I can afford to pay it. Sigh…