Diet Time

I'm paying for my baking binge at Christmas and I have simply got to change my ways.  I signed up for the Flat Belly Diet through Prevention Magazine today.

I headed right out to the store to buy my first two days' supplies.  Wow.  The only thing that looks good to me is the sassy water.

Yeah, sassy water.  You know, water with sliced cucumber, lemons, grated ginger and mint.  You have to make a fresh batch each evening, then drink it down in its entirety the following day.

Well, I'm desperate enough to try anything - even almond milk, another new taste I've not experienced.

I know for sure I had better sign up for team support, also offered by the program.  I'm gonna need a lot of encouragement to hold this spoiled baby in the road.

The New Kitten

She came from the pound with the name Apple.  Definitely not a fit.  Next we called her Honey, 'cause all kittens are sweet.

Now her name is Jingle, because she is so active that the sound of jingle bells echoes through the house most of the time.

I love to bake...

even though it isn't a good idea.  I can't eat just one.  At this stage in my life, fat is attracted to me like a magnet.

Even so, my favorite catalog to arrive in the mail each month is the King Arthur Flour baker's catalogue.  I love it.  Each time I browse through it, I see another baking tool I covet.

This issue has a great little scone pan - bite size scones!  What a great idea.  I hardly ever finish them.  When I was on vacation at Thanksgiving, our B & B hostess made scones and they were so good, I hardly recognized them as such.  Turns out she got a pre-packaged mix from a company that specializes in cooking products for B & Bs.  Another clever idea.

They also throw in a few good recipes each time.  This time they are featuring double-shot mocha chunks - very chocolatey cookies with espresso power in them.  You can snag the recipe on their web site - http://www.kingarthurflour.com/.  And then there's the german chocolate sheet cake recipe...

I've got a little wish list, and any time a gift occasion comes up, I'm not shy, I pull out my KA list.  Right now, I'm hankering for a butter keeper - keeps butter fresh and spreadable on the counter in a cute little crock.

The Food Bank for Pets

I was watching tv the other morning and saw this lovely lady interviewed who has started a food bank for pets.

She realized that a lot of people are having trouble feeding their families, much less their pets, which has resulted in pets being dumped on humane societies.  She reasoned that if she could collect pet food donations, she could help families keep their pets until better times arrive.

I think that is a wonderful thing to do.  I am taking some kitten food that my new pet doesn't like over to a local collection point, the Buckhead Animal Clinic.

There are many ways to 'minister' in this life and it sounds as though this lady has found one.  Hopefully, it will become a national effort.

Katherine Hepburn's brownies

Everyone has their own idea of what the perfect brownie tastes like.  Some prefer a cake-like texture, and other folks just want it to be a gooey mess of chocolate.

I confess to being one of the latter.  Yesterday, my sweet tooth started aching, so I looked through some cookbooks for something chocolate to make.  I found this recipe for brownies by Katherine Hepburn, in an old Food & Wine Desserts cookbook.  It makes just twelve, decadent brownies.  I froze half, so I can have another treat next week.

As the cookbook states "pin up your hair, stand up straight, suck in your cheeks and get cooking".

2 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts

Preheat the oven to 325.  Butter an 8inch baking pan.  In a heavy saucepan, melt the chocolate with the butter over low het.  Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar.  Next, add in the egg and vanilla. and "beat it like mad".  Stir in the flour, salt and nuts, and mix well.

Bake for 40 minutes. "Take it out, let it cool, cut into squares and go crazy!"   Thank you, Katherine

Hell to pay

There is something awe inspiring about the energy possessed by kittens.  They are a small, constantly moving affirmation of life, of joy, of enthusiasm.

It's just that perhaps all members of the household don't feel that way.  Q T Pi, who was the "baby" of the household until recently when my sweet male, Dude, died unexpectedly of cancer, hates the new kitten.  The whole point of getting a kitten was to relieve Cutie's loneliness after the death of her friend.  Dude was really more like a parent to her, giving her baths in the morning at the breakfast bowl, as though she were still a kitten.  Cutie coyly submitted and thoroughly enjoyed this attention.

Dude defended her from other animal visitors, including my neighbor's cat, a huge, neutered tom who thinks his mission in life is to kill anything smaller than him, including other cats.

So for a week, I watched Cutie run in and out of the house, searching for Dude. She sat for long periods on my deck, staring into the yard and hoping to see him stroll down the path in his usual languid manner.

Finally, I called one of my daughters and we went to our very state of the art city pound where we found a three month old named Apple.  Apple is now Honey, but answers to "Hey!" best, as she is constantly on the move and is usually threatening the integrity of something I cherish.

Cutie rejected the kitten immediately, which is normal.  I fussed over her and gave her treats and let her go her own way.  I knew better than to try to rush the relationship.  Cutie began to hiss and growl at the newcomer, and also to stay out all night.  Since it's the coldest time of the year where I live, this worried me.  But, she was insistent.    I figured she would get over it and envisioned the two small animals enjoying life together as they decimated my living room.

When I took the kitten in for her free exam, destined to enslave me to the vet for life, I mentioned our compatibility issues and the vet gave me a very helpful handout.  Unfortunately, it was too late to do the things it suggested, which included restricting the newcomer to one area of the house, feeding the animals on either side of the door, and many other solutions to psychological trauma.  What happened to the good old days when you threw the cat in barn and cussed it out when it didn't catch mice?

Now, a cold war rages in my household.  It has been three weeks and Cutie has done everything she can to let me know she now hates my guts.  If she could fly, she would be towing one of those banners from a small biplane over the city.

When my other daughter comes to visit, Cutie pours her heart out to her, giving her all the sordid details in long, drawn-out meowing sessions.

Where will this all end?

Christmas gifts adding up...

I've now made several of the very pretty scarves from rainbow mohair.  The third pair of fingerless gloves is underway and I'm planning to make a more playful pair from the leftover yarn from the first three.

I saw a little pattern for mittens with buttons sewn on them, and I may give that a go.

Found a great pattern for the marvelously colored Rowan biggy print - it's a toque and took perhaps an hour to make.  Totally cute and fun.  I plan to make a couple more of those - so easy.

I'm also planning to crank out a few more of the fun cotton dishcloths and perhaps a few cat toys from the left over cotton yarn and my catnip plant.

Making personalized gifts is so much fun!