Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Sunday Afternoon Roast Beef & Garlic Mash

Here is a little photo essay of our Sunday afternoon meal. It's obviously a heart attack waiting to happen. Since we haven't had a pot roast in four years, I decided it was okay. So, yeah, we'll stick to that four year plan.

























Sunday, October 16, 2011

Cat Hospital

Our plans to travel up North to visit Ry's family this weekend were thwarted on Friday when our kitty became so ill we had to take him to the animal hospital. Call me naive, but I didn't even know such a thing existed. It does exist and it is very expensive!

Late Wednesday night after we had Courtney over for dinner, Silvio became lethargic and started vomiting uncontrollably. Poor little guy stayed up all night puking and trying to go number two until he had nothing left in him. I checked on him several times during the night and he was just downstairs trying to take care of business in his litter box. The next day he sat around in a sick lump all day and refused to eat.

We took him to our normal vet who examined him, ran blood tests and gave him fluids. Since there are no take-home kitty IVs, cats get subcutaneous fluids which is a fancy way of saying a big ball of fluid was shot into his abdomen. That night Silvio still refused to eat and spent his time in a lump either on a piece of egg crate in the basement or the plastic bag rug in the kitchen. He barely had his eyes open and wouldn't, probably couldn't, do anything due to his fever.

Friday morning the vet called me with the results of the blood tests and said Silvio's liver numbers were very high. He told me we had to take him to the animal hospital for an ultra sound ASAP.

We took him to the hospital in the early afternoon. He had his belly shaved for the ultrasound and was diagnosed with pancreatitis (aka super swollen pancreas) and anorexia. Seriously, cat anorexia. I guess in the technical sense in relation to cats it just means, "cat that's not eating", but cat anorexia just sounds like a funny concept to me.

They recommended he stay overnight but the price tag was so high ($1200!!!!) Since there was an intermediate step before cat hospitalization, we tried it. He got an anti-nausea shot, fluids and we had to force feed him liquid "recovery" food through a syringe for three days.

Needless to say, force feeding a cat is not an easy task. It borders on ridiculous, especially when he normally only nibbles at food. He's not a mow-down kind of feline. First we tried wrapping him up in a blanket as they suggested, but that proved more struggle than useful. It's definitely a two person operation and we got it down after the first day. He didn't like it at all but he complied and is slowly getting better.

Today we didn't force feed him at all and he choose to eat the liquid food and some of his normal food on his own. He's doing some of his normal things and has come up out of his "cat infirmary" (aka the basement) to spend time with us. He's not 100% by any means, but just today he meowed to be let into the linen closet where he chilled, drank water from the bathroom sink and made an unsuccessful attempt to jump to the top of our stacking washer and dryer.

I never thought I'd spend so much money on a cat or go to such lengths to ensure he eats, even when he doesn't want to. What can I say, I love the little bugger! I'm so thankful that he's on the road to recovery.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Spaghetti al Limone



Super simple and satisfying Cook's Illustrated recipe.

If you want a tangy, slightly creamy dinner in 15 minutes this is it:

table salt
1 pound spaghetti
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium shallot, minced
1/4 heavy cream
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1/4 cup juice (approximately three lemons)*
1 ounce Parmesan cheese (we sub Pecorino)
freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh shredded basil leaves

* My very important side note here is that if you are not going to use real lemons don't even attempt to make this. It's crucial for taste. Also, this recipe is best in winter time when you can get lemons in season.

Boil pasta with one t salt. Cook until al dente. Set aside. Reserve 1 and 3/4 cups pasta water. Set pasta aside.

Heat 1 t of oil in Dutch oven over medium heat. Add shallot and 1/2 teaspoons salt. Cook until shallot is softened. Whisk in 1 and 1/2 cups reserved pasta water and cream into pot. Bring to a simmer and cook two minutes. Remove from heat, stir in pasta until coated. Stir in remaining 3 tablespoons oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, cheese and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

Cover and let stand 2 minutes, stirring periodically. Add additional reserved pasta water if needed to adjust consistency (you don't want it to be too dry). Stir in basil and add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with some additional freshly shredded cheese.

And...voila! The easiest, nummiest dinner you ever did put in your belly.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

We Eat Like Kings

Tonight we invited my college friend Courtney over for dinner. We have rarely invited people over to our house in the past year. Mostly because it's felt like chaos and it made me anxious. However, this dinner was easy, joyful and delicious. It was a veritable feast of entirely homemade vegetarian goodness!

It also reminded me of the fulfilling nature of simple, homegrown hospitality. Forget all this hanging out in bars business; the dinner table is the place to be!

Unfortunately there are no pics of the meal because I've been too lazy to buy batteries for my camera. Soon enough, soon enough.

Here is the menu from our totally homemade meal fit for kings:

First course -
Romaine salad with apples, grape tomatoes, almonds, Pecorino and poppy seed vinaigrette (Courtney)

Main course -
Southern-style black eyed pea, collard green and brown rice soup made with fresh veggie stock (Megan)

Dessert -
Blueberry buckle - a simple butter cake - with vanilla bean frozen custard (Ryan)

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Rows of Neat & Tidy Spices

After leaving my job for a less stressful one and more time at home, I'm beginning to realize just how many things I've been neglecting. From self-care to home maintenance to cleaning, I've been saying manana to all of it for a couple of years now.

I believe that it's important to take care of even the simplest of our possessions so that we use them thoughtfully and reduce waste. It's not always easy to put this value into practice in daily life because, frankly, it's not glamorous and isn't always fun.

But we are trying to turn our patterns around bit by bit, mostly by cooking more at home, having a mini weekly conference to plan for the week and creating a chore list. These might seem like "duh" kind of things, but I'm not in a regular habit of taking care of the details of my life.

I decided to clean the fridge and organize the pantry this past weekend while listening to the Ueck cover a little Brewer play-off action. I disposed of ten jars of half-used, spoiled condiments and dug through layers of disorganized, flour-covered-junk in the pantry to see what we really had. These tasks took a damn long time and illustrated just how much we have and waste on a frequent basis.

I was amazed at how much wholesome real food we had in our pantry, especially after so many nights of looking in and saying "we don't have much, so let's just go out." Funny how tidying this small closet brought me a measure of peacefulness.


Rows of grains, legumes and other nummy whole foods.


Good thing we have so many empty jars because when you buy turmeric from the Indian store you are in for a commitment. But it's pretty to look at, so it's alright.


And since I've turned into some kind of totally psychotic cat lady, it's hard to resist a new pic of the feline. Plastic bag rug - a gift from my boss' 93-year-old mother. What a perfect combination of Silvio's two favorite things: rugs and plastic bags.