Cat Nap Wednesdays

As our regular readers know, Katie sleeps all afternoon. After she eats her lunch she heads off for her nap. I wash her bowls each day while she is sleeping. Late in the afternoon I snapped the photo above, just before going out in the yard, to wash the birdbaths. (Yes, I feel like I spend my days washing animal dishes.)  

 When I came in, 15 minutes later, I found Katie laying where her food and water should be. She was looking at me as if to say "Really! Where is my FOOD??" Ha ... Poor Kate! I don't think she'll starve!

~Michele

Macro Monday

Any idea what this might be?

Here is another hint.

One more.

Yep, it is a plate of chocolate cookies! 

Or, more accurately, a plate of chocolate shortbread and they're wonderful! We very much recommend this recipe shared below (we usually double it, however). One suggestion based on our chocolate snob-ness. I am NOT a fan of dutch process cocoa (cocoa processed with alkali). Use real/whole cocoa and the taste is far superior!

Enjoy,
Andy

• 3/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar (I like caster in these)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 and 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Combine butter and sugar in mixing bowl. Beat at medium until creamy. Add egg and vanilla and continue beating until well mixed. Reduce to low speed and add flour, cocoa and salt. Stop when well mixed.

Shape dough into an 8 inch long or so, square-ish log with about 1.5 inch sides. Wrap in plastic food wrap and refrigerate until firm; 2 hours or overnight. 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Slice into 1/8 to 1/4 inch slices and place on a cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. Bake for 5 to 6 minutes or until set. Because they are so dark and bake quickly, it is easy to burn them; watch them close!

Foodie Friday: Heirlooms!

Just a quick post in honor of the heirloom tomato. I love them and they're in season! I'll actually eat so many of these that I get canker sores. Terrible I know, but it's for the love of good food!

This is a quick, easy picnic salad to assemble and then head to the beach.

Andy

Add quantities of the items below to your taste and number to feed!  ;->

• Heirloom tomatoes, chopped
• Mixed greens, torn to bite-size
• Sweet onion, diced
• Avocado, small chunks
• Red pepper, chopped
• Pines nuts
• Goat cheese
• Fustini's Butter Olive Oil and Ginger-Honey White Balsamic with dashes of black pepper and French Grey Seal Salt.

Cat-Nap Wednesday

Taking a bath....

Recently I washed the rug that goes, in the window, under Katie's beds. I set it down to move her beds, so I could put the rug back in place. In 'classic cat behavior' Katie saw it and I'm sure she was thinking "oh look, something out of place ... I better check it out."  She decided it would be the purrrfect place for her nap. 

A bit of stretching....

Happy Wednesday!

Michele

Fast asleep....

Macro Monday

Do you have a guess on this subject?

Does this one hep?

Yep, another shot of an agricultural pipe for cherry processing.
Andy

Cat-Nap Wednesday

I'm getting tired.

Wait! Did you hear something?!

OK, all clear, everything's fine. Where was I? Oh yeah, I'm getting tired...

Andy

Macro Monday

Any idea on the name of the above subject?





Here is another clue.

You likely have it, but one more in case you don't.

It's a Lilly.
Andy

Foodie Friday - Banana Muffins

We love bananas and always have some on hand. But this time of year, with all the local fruit coming in, the poor bananas never seem to get eaten. I've been freezing a lot of the overripe ones and some "way too ripe" had to hit the compost pile. I decided to bake muffins with this weeks overripe ones.

Simple Banana Muffins

2 farm fresh eggs
1/2 C buttermilk (I used Shelters)
1/3 C vegetable oil
1 C mashed overripe bananas (2 -2/12 medium bananas)
7/8 C organic sugar*
1 3/4 C spelt flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon

*original recipe called for 1 1/2 C sugar and I cut it down to 7/8 C. I think the muffins were still too sweet, next time I would just use 1/2 C sugar.

Preheat oven to 325. In a large mixing bowl, slightly beat the eggs. Add the buttermilk, oil, and bananas and mix till well combined. Combine dry ingredients and fold into wet; being careful not to overmix. At this point you could fold in nuts or chocolate chips if disired.

Grease and flour muffin cups and fill about 3/4 full. Makes about 15 muffins. I made 12 muffins and used one mini loaf pan for the extra batter. Bake 15 - 20 minutes for muffins and the mini loaf bakes 25 - 30 depending on the size of your pan.

I enjoyed a warm muffin with some "Food for Thought" jam. Notice the neat handcrafted spoon that I got for Andy at one of our favorite galleries; "The Painted Bird."

~Michele

Cat-Nap Wednesday

Yes, she's big. BUT, she's happy, cute, and relatively healthy. Plus, she's been slowly losing weight! I stress slowly...

I know most pet owners anthropomorphize their animals and we are no exception. The second pic looks as if she is embarrassed of, perhaps, her weight! Alas, she knows not of it and has no body image problem we're aware of. Now . . . us on the other hand . . . that's another story.  ;->
Andy

Macro Monday - Misc Pix

No puzzle this week, but just some miscellaneous pix of small subjects. Some of these are a 1/4 inch long or so.

Enjoy!

Andy

Good camouflage!

Clarification: LONG Eared Owls!

Just a quick update on the owl posts from July, here for reference.

• Post 1
• Post 2

It's official from Rebecca Lessard, the Director of Wings of Wonder Raptor Rehab Center: they are LONG Eared Owls and NOT short eared. She says they are rare in our area and saw them perhaps 10 years ago or so. Then, this spring-summer, she's gotten several calls on them and has been nursing one back to health in her clinic! 


Thanks, becca!
Andy

Cat Nap Wednesday (On Thursday)

Katie enjoying her afternoon nap in the sun.

Where's her nose?

~Michele