Still Life, With Cats

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Life

My kind of fun

Posted on 15 December, 2024 8:50 pm by Jennifer Comment

This afternoon we hosted a board game / cookie exchange gathering. We’ve got a regular group that’s met monthly for a while now, and when I suggested we do a cookie exchange for December, everyone was enthusiastically on board.

There were cinnamon coffee cookies, eggnog cookies, lemon bars, dark chocolate cherry cookies, and gochujang caramel cookies, and mini gingerbread whoopie pies with cream cheese filling.

Also there was a veggie tray as a nod to health, but let’s face it, today was all about the cookies.

I was also going to make the one remaining GBBO bake (opera cake) but ran out of time so instead I made some tiramisu fudge, which although delicious, didn’t completely set, so was more like thick frosting than fudge.

The crowning glory of the afternoon, however, was the Cat Butt Pie.

Why no, none of us made jokes about probing things when the pie was cut, because we are far too mature…oh who am I kidding, probe jokes *abounded*, because we are all grown adults with senses of humor.

Anyway. Many cookies were consumed, and games were played, and more than once we were all laughing hysterically, so it was a very good day.

* * * * *

Oops, I don’t think this car care set is going to be up to the job.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



I welcome these earworms

Posted on 14 December, 2024 9:12 pm by Jennifer Comment

I’ve got some social events coming up that include cookie exchanges, so today I cranked out a whole mess of cookies in preparation.

I also went out to dinner with a friend (delicious Thai food), and we attended the Kitka concert in Davis.

Kitka is a women’s ensemble based out of Oakland, CA. Their main focus is on Eastern European style music. Tonight’s concert was a series of songs from the country of Georgia, which they visited recently in order to attend a festival and learn from actual Georgian choirs.

They are absolutely fantastic, and have an incredible sound, with all the voices blending perfectly together. Here’s just a few of the songs from the concert to catch your interest.

If they perform anywhere near you, I’d highly recommend checking them out.

* * * * *

This fox looks quite pleased with herself.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Self decorating decor

Posted on 13 December, 2024 8:47 pm by Jennifer Comment

We put the trees up a week or so ago, with the usual assistance.

Timmie investigates the tree box to make sure we didn’t miss anything.
Guffaw makes sure we assembled the pieces correctly.

Today we finally got around to decorating them.

Here is the tree for the cats.

Foster kitten Cartwheel perched in the Christmas Cat Tree

It is decorated with jingle balls, and also cats.

Sherman judges all of you from his Christmas Cat Tree throne
Timmie keeps an eye on things from beneath the Christmas Cat Tree

And here is the tree that is also for the cats.

The fake tree, fully assembled and decorated

The decorating scheme for this tree includes sparkle balls, crinkle balls, and large grey ornaments that move amid the branches at will.

Sherman in the branches
Guffaw in the branches

* * * * *

This lady doesn’t seem all that thrilled with her brand new lawnmower.

‘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.



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.



Hitting the ground singing

Posted on 1 December, 2024 9:13 am by Jennifer 4 Comments

Welcome to December, wherein I try to update this (sadly neglected) blog every day for a whole month! And happy 25th anniversary to Holidailies!

Today has been a very long day. We flew back Washington pretty late last night, after spending several days at my younger sister’s house, with all the family, for Thanksgiving. I don’t sleep well in the best of times, even in my own bed, and traveling makes it even worse, so I was pretty wiped out by the time we headed home, and the cats were very needy after being all alone* for years and years**.

(* We have a fantastic pet sitting service, so they were well taken care of.
** It was only 3 days, despite all the tales of sadness and woe they told me in the wee hours of the morning.)

Today was Richard’s family’s Thanksgiving celebration, so we assembled a veggie casserole for him to take, plus a big pot of potato cheese soup, since it’s definitely soup weather. I, however, could not attend, since today was also recording day for our upcoming concert, so he headed off alone and I instead went and sang for several hours straight.

But at least there was some time this morning to kick off the month with some new advent calendars. This year we each got one of our own, plus one to share. We had such fun with the Escape Room calendar last year that we decided to try another one.

Exit brand Advent Calendar: The Search for the Golden Book

Sadly, we were both completely confused and had to end up looking at the clues for today’s. I am telling myself that that is because we were both still so tired this morning. Hopefully by tomorrow we’ll have better luck with our guesses. Ha.

My individual advent calendar is another jigsaw puzzle one, although this time instead of all the days combining into one big picture, each day is its own little surprise scene, which is definitely more my style.

Jigsaw puzzle advent calendar

Here is Day One. I’m definitely going to enjoy these.

A small jigsaw puzzle showing two cartoon donkeys, holding a hot water bottle between their rumps.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Dark in all the right ways

Posted on 3 February, 2024 7:36 pm by Jennifer Comment

Be of good cheer, my faithful readers, because today I did not make soup! Instead I made focaccia. Chocolate focaccia, that is.

When King Arthur posted this recipe as their bake-of-the-week, I knew I had to give it a try. The yeasted dough is similar to a traditional focaccia recipe, with the addition of black cocoa to the batter (plus a tiny bit of sugar to counteract the bitterness of the cocoa), but then you knead it for 15 (!) minutes before stirring in some chocolate chips. After the first rise, it then goes into a pan prepped first with a puddle of olive oil – focaccia dough actually rises in an olive oil bath, which helps give it that characteristic slighty chewy outer texture. At the end of the rising time, another healthy glug of olive oil is drizzled over the top, then you use your fingers to poke it full of holes (I have no idea why focaccia has holes; I just know they’re required), and sprinkle some pearl sugar over the top.

I wasn’t entirely sure how this would work, since chocolate plus yeast dough isn’t always a winning combination, but oh my goodness, this turned out delicious!

It’s got the focaccia texture and open crumb interior, but with little pockets of chocolatey goodness, plus the occasional pop of sweetness from the pear sugar on the top.

Definitely worth the effort.

Making a thing a day for Thingadailies.



You had me at ‘bacon’

Posted on 2 February, 2024 7:26 pm by Jennifer Comment

Day 2 of Thingadailies, and it’s time for more soup, mainly because we fell behind and needed to catch up if we were going to stay on track with the one new recipe a week plan.

Tonight’s soup was Chicken Bacon Chowder. While yesterday’s soup was light and chock full of veggies, this soup swings in complete the opposite direction, combining chicken, onion, leeks, mushrooms, and of course bacon, in a crockpot and cooking it all day so that the entire house smells amazing by dinner time.

A crockpot full of delicious chowder

Unlike yesterday’s soup, we were definitely not hungry after eating a bowl of this chowder. I think next time we make it I’ll cut back on the salt, and maybe do a couple healthier tweaks (subbing in coconut milk instead of the cream, for example, or using only half the bacon), but it was exactly the thing for a cold night when it’s been a long day at work and all you want is food that doesn’t require any effort (because all the effort happened 8 hours before).

We did, by the way, eat more of the cauliflower soup for lunch, although this time we paired it with grilled cheese sandwiches made on the Sourdough Sandwich Bread I baked this morning. Yum.

Making a thing a day for Thingadailies.




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