Still Life, With Cats

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Jennifer

Coming up sconey

Posted on 11 December, 2024 8:51 pm by Jennifer Comment

Time for another Great British Bake Off bakealong post.

The three challenges for the finale were:

  • Signature – 2 dozen scones; 12 sweet and 12 savory, with appropriate fillings
  • Technical – An afternoon tea display consisting of 4 lemon sandwich cakes, 4 strawberry tarts, and 4 plaited egg and cress rolls
  • Showstopper – a 3-tiered hanging cake

Neither my sister or I were interested in doing the tea service or the hanging cake, so we decided to do the scones. I should note – for the purposes of this challenge, we went with British scones, which are pretty much what we in America refer to as biscuits.

I decided to make lemon scones for my sweet ones, and cheese scones for my savory ones.

Lemon scones

Because I knew I wasn’t going to be eating them right away, I didn’t time myself, although I know I would have been able to complete the task within the 2 hours because making biscuits is….not at all difficult. I suppose I could have used a biscuit cutter for more uniformity, but one of the lovely things about doing this at home instead of in the tent is that sometimes, I just don’t have to care about what Paul or Prue might think.

Cheese scones

I made both batches this past weekend, then tossed them into the freezer for later in the week. So today we had lemon scones with generous dollops of homemade lemon curd for breakfast.

…and then savory cheese scones filled with curried tuna salad and thinly sliced apples for lunch.

Of the two, I preferred the lemon scones (which are really just a basic biscuit with a little sugar and lemon zest added), so since we have the prolific Meyer lemon shrub in the backyard, I foresee this recipe entering the normal breakfast rotation. Delicious.

* * * * *

Santa really seems to have a vendetta against snowmen!

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



You have no idea how often this conversation occurs

Posted on 10 December, 2024 9:12 am by Jennifer 1 Comment

This morning, as I was puttering around filling food bowls and scooping litter boxes, I heard the telltale sound of a cat getting into something they shouldn’t. I turned around to find a cat (Timmie) on the dining room table, industriously pawing at the open doors on Richard’s dinosaur advent calendar.

Me: Um, excuse me. What are you doing?

Cat: Treasures!

Me: No, those are not things for cats!

Cat: If not for cats then why shaped like fun?

Me: Hey, come back here!

Cat, scurrying off with tiny dinosaur in mouth: Ith friend thaped!

Me, hastily rescuing the tiny plastic dinosaur: No, it’s a choking hazard!

Cat, stomping off in a sulk, because humans are SO MEAN.

* * * * *

Uh oh, I know how *this* movie ends.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Tis the season

Posted on 9 December, 2024 10:36 pm by Jennifer Comment

Is there anything better than soup on a cold day?

How about soup with a big hunk of freshly baked soda bread?

I made a batch of ginger carrot soup yesterday, plus a rustic loaf of soda bread. Both were super easy to throw together, both filled the house with delicious aromas, and both made enough for a very comforting and satisfying lunch today.

* * * * *

Took me a moment to figure out that this guy is on a boat, which is why the gift is so disturbing.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



The pitter patter of 28 little feet

Posted on 8 December, 2024 9:13 pm by Jennifer 1 Comment

Aside from Cartwheel, who is a special case, we’ve been foster-kitten-free for nearly an entire month. The last batch went to the center and were adopted in early November. Since we were traveling for Thanksgiving, we knew that, aside from any emergency short-term care, it didn’t make sense for us to take on a new litter, since the rescue would then have to find someone else to keep them while we were gone. So the morning after we got home, I texted the foster coordinator and said “Bring on the kittens!”

Say hello to Winter and her six babies: Christmas, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Solstice, Hanukkah, and Yule.

Foster cat Winter, momma to the #WinterHolidayKittens
Christmas and Kwanzaa
Solstice
From front: Diwali, Hanukkah, and Solstice
Christmas and Yule

Momma was taken in by a very kind person, who looked after her while she gave birth, while simultaneously working hard to find a rescue group who could take them in. She did a fantastic job of keeping momma and babies happy and healthy, so now it’s our turn to finish up their journey before they’re ready to be adopted (likely in January).

* * * * *

Is it wrong that I am finding Santa’s dark side of gift giving highly amusing?

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Wooly

Posted on 7 December, 2024 8:17 pm by Jennifer 1 Comment

Today we had a whole lot of chores we really ought to have been doing. But instead I hurriedly finished my second Clapoti, because I needed to have it blocked before my main blocking space is no longer available.

I started this at the airport while we were waiting for our flight up to my sister’s place for Thanksgiving, because I knew I needed a knitting project that required very minimal thought, and this pattern definitely fits the bill.

We also binged the entire first season of Human vs Hamster. It is a ridiculously silly little competition show, pitting humans against hamsters in species-scaled mazes and obstacle course (including eating contests), interspersed with educational facts about hamsters.

If you’re looking for something fun and fluffy to take your mind off the impending doomscape of a second shitbiggon administration, I highly recommend this. It is an absolute delight.

* * * * *

This puzzle is very silly, but I admit my first thought is ‘How does a creature with only hooves put a hat on their head’, and that probably says a lot more about how my brain works than you wanted to know, but there we are.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Uncertain, and yet…

Posted on 6 December, 2024 8:03 pm by Jennifer Comment

This is Cartwheel, one of our foster kittens. She’s about 7 months old, and ridiculously sweet, plus a serious lovebug (she adores cuddles). We got her and her two brothers Tumble and Somersault back in May. Her brothers were neutered and have long since been adopted, but the spay/neuter clinic refused to spay Cartwheel because she has a very serious heart murmur (a 5 of 6, for those of you who have any knowledge about such things, which we definitely did not until this).

She’s been checked a couple times since then, since I guess in some cases, heart murmurs can resolve themselves as the kitten grows. But the last check, there was no change, and the only way we would get any additional information was to have an echocardiogram done.

That kind of procedure is expensive, so to offset, I ran my very first GoFundMe campaign to raise the money. Once that was done, we scheduled the appointment. The first one available was going to be in January.

Except last night I got a call – they’d had a last minute cancellation and could we get her in today?

So this morning I drove her out to the vet clinic, then drove back out at lunchtime to bring her home. And this afternoon we got the verdict.

Her heart murmur is caused by a pretty serious heart defect – something she was born with.

There is some good news. She’s otherwise a completely healthy little cat. She doesn’t need any medications. And best of all, they *can* spay her, although it will be a more involved procedure.

We don’t know what the future looks like for this little girl. She very likely isn’t going to be adoptable, not without someone clearly understanding the medical issues she has, and the potential things she could face. It’s possible she will only live for a few years. They want to do another scan in 9 months time to see how things are progressing.

In the meantime, she has a home with us for however long she needs. She has no idea she’s ‘broken’. So we’ll do our best to give her the best life, because it’s nothing less than what she deserves.

* * * * *

This jigsaw puzzle advent calendar is starting to get a little dark – this is the second one where the gift has not only shattered the window, but wreaked havoc once inside. Perhaps this is what happens when you outsource to drones?

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Marking time

Posted on 5 December, 2024 8:58 pm by Jennifer Comment

Today was a mostly usual day – work, chores, etc. – but then i got two different phone calls with much anticipated news. More on those in the next few days.

In the meantime, I feel like today’s jigsaw is an accurate representation of us attempting to decorate a Christmas tree, except instead of having a present hurled in from the window, we just have extremely excitable cats.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Fromage

Posted on 4 December, 2024 9:08 pm by Jennifer Comment

We had tentative plans to put up the tree today, but instead, after work, we camped out on the sofa and watched holiday baking competitions and the latest episode of Mistletoe Murders. Which, while not as productive as planned, was still a nice way to end a day.

* * * * *

Much like these mice, I, too, would be very excited to receive a giant box of cheese.

A small jigsaw puzzle showing a bunch of mice very excitedly opening a giant box of cheese.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Stitches, dropped

Posted on 3 December, 2024 9:27 pm by Jennifer Comment

A couple months ago Knitty.com re-released one of their earliest patterns: Clapotis, for its 25th anniversary.

I’ve made a couple of these over the years, since it’s fun way to use up variegated yarn, and the pattern is simple enough that you can do it almost anywhere, without having to constantly refer to charts or text.

I have no idea where this yarn in my stash came from, but when I saw they had re-released the pattern, I decided it would be perfect for making a couple more of these simple shawls.

I finished this one in late November. I started this long before the election, back when we all had hope that our fellow Americans were smart enough to vote for the obvious better choice, but the aftermath of that have rather tainted this, due to the color (let’s just say that I certainly did NOT vote for the orange shitgibbon and his facist compatriots). But I am trying to keep my distaste from all things GOP separate from my joy over having a new finished object. So here it is in all its (unfortunately red) glory.

Sherman was absolutely determined to ‘help’ me with photographing this, as evidenced by the grey blur at the bottom of the second picture.

* * * * *

The expression on the cat’s face in today’s jigsaw puzzle is everything.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



A cruel thing to do to caramel

Posted on 2 December, 2024 8:05 pm by Jennifer Comment

I mentioned earlier that we traveled for the holidays. It was my younger sister’s turn to host, so while we were actually in the same place (instead of doing it in our own kitchens) we decided to tackle one of the Great British Bake Off challenge recipes together (yes, at this point we’re both a little behind on those).

For the 70’s week, the challenges were three things that were apparently a big deal in that decade: profiterole stacks (aka croquembouche), banoffee pie, and gateau cake. Of those, both of us have done profiteroles multiple times before (they are actually not as difficult as they are often made out to be, but maybe that’s because I’ve been making them for as long as I can remember, and they weren’t ever that big a deal, who knows), and the gateaux cake was a bit more than either of us wanted to handle.

Originally, I was going to swap out the banana for some cooked apple discs in mine, because I eat approximately one banana a year, usually only when offered as a dipper for chocolate fondue, and otherwise avoid them because the smell is *obnoxious*. But since this was going to be for the whole family we decided to do follow Paul Hollywood’s recipe (it was the Technical bake), and just see what happened.

I’ve heard people gushing over banoffee pie for years, and….okay? It’s a pie crust filled with caramel, topped with banana slices, then a layer of whipped cream. It’s….not that exciting, actually. Maybe my distaste for bananas makes me miss the point?

Anyway. The caramel layer was quite tasty, and the crust was perfectly flakey. I might still try it with apples instead, or else maybe make just the caramel and eat that directly out of the pan using apples as a spoon, since that would be quicker anyway.

* * * * *

We were very pleased that we needed no extra clues to figure out today’s Escape Room advent calendar puzzle, and today’s tiny jigsaw puzzle made me giggle.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.




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