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-   -   Maintainers weekly chat October 10 - October 16 (https://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/living-maintenance/244821-maintainers-weekly-chat-october-10-october-16-a.html)

saef 10-12-2011 09:19 AM

I'm way ahead of you all with the soup thing. I made Dutch pea soup the weekend before last, using some ham scraps that my mother had frozen. Also, I made black bean turkey chili with pumpkin a couple weeks ago. But I still have two cans of pumpkin sitting there unused. I really like that stuff as a thickening agent but haven't thought out clearly what I am going to do with it. Maybe pumpkin soup with a gingery or curry flavor to it.

Last night, I put a pork roast in the crockpot, along with a cup of cider and some dried apple rings & golden raisins & other stuff, following a recipe that told me, toward the end it had to be cooked for .... five hours ... in a crockpot. How had I not noticed that part of the recipe until putting it together, figuring we'd be eating it pretty soon afterward? I did this around 4 PM, which is usually more than adequate time for starting dinner. So, since I felt ravenous just two hours later, I ended up driving over to Wegman's, a perfectly wonderful Upstate NY grocery store, to get some takeout dinner: Pako-crusted tilapia with escarole and cannellini beans and garlicky broccoli. We'll have the roast tonight.

Today is markedly overcast. Thus ends our streak of perfect weather following last week's frost. This was our Indian summer, I believe. There are moments when I was able to bask in it, just for a little while, and moments when I looked on at it & felt it was being wasted on me.

Here's a note to myself: If mother starts ostentatiously cleaning in the room where I'm trying to work -- because it's still office hours & I still have work to do -- then I must take my laptop and leave. Because her choice of time & place for cleaning is not an accident, and it's usually motivated by anger. And it's best to get out of her way then. Yesterday I was a little too slow in making my escape to Target & Wegman's.

alinnell 10-12-2011 09:29 AM

Broccoli soup for our dinner tonight. And a rather healthy sounding recipe, too! I always have problems with crock pot recipes. They're either ridiculously long (9 hours) for a weekend or too short (4 hours) for a workday. For that reason, I rarely use mine. Instead I use it to keep foods hot for big dinner parties.

So I came home to near disaster yesterday. New kitty Louie had annihilated three more of my Christmas cactus plants (he sits in the pot and breaks off the limbs). Then not once, not twice but three times got up on the kitchen counter to attack a plant there. Sprayed with water each time, but it is obviously not phasing him. Then, DS was taking out trash and cleaning the cat boxes for me and I walked into the cat room (it's also our exercise room) to see Louie walk right past the newly cleaned cat box to the cat bed in we keep in there and pee in the cat bed. I threw out the cat bed (neither of them sleep in it). He was a total terror! So I determined that it's because he's HUNGRY. And here I have this big cat, Ringo, who needs to lose a couple of pounds, so I can't leave extra dry food out during the day (I intentionally feed Louie more canned food as he likes that and Ringo does not). So today, I'm locking Louie in the cat room (where he'll have a cat box and both food and water and toys). Ringo will get the roam of the house with Chico (Ringo likes to sleep under my bed anyway). He'll have access to water, cat box, and a toy or two--not that he really plays with toys much any more. Perhaps that will "teach" Louie to leave my plants alone, allow him to eat a bit more, and allow Ringo to eat a little less. Wish me luck.

krampus 10-12-2011 10:07 AM

I've been extremely restless lately...the airline in question is being slow to give us any more information regarding the next steps so we're all a little nervous and restless. I need to find a temp job to last me the next couple months!

Yesterday was glorious and lovely though...autumn in eastern upstate NY is gorgeous. I went apple picking with a friend in Kinderhook, stopped at a diner on the way back, and we made a pie which he gave me to take home (I have managed to only have one small piece thus far...go me!). Something about fall equals dangerous romance lingering in the air, which makes me want to instinctively cling to the nearest warm male body...

saef - I love Wegman's!!!!!!!! I'm so sad there aren't any in Eastern Upstate. This is the one time of year I think I truly love living upstate - I hope you can hang onto that almost-happy feeling at least for a little longer.

alinnell Sharing space after having your own for so long is trying for sure. I hear your frustrations with your father - mine is the same way, refuses to use a hearing aid.

Dagmar Well done on cutting yourself off from the focaccia bread - that stuff is dangerous. It's really hard to eat later when you're not used to doing so!

traveling michele Parents' weekend is going to be a great end to your busy hectic time!

Megan1982 Glad to hear the weather's nice enough to be out and about being walked ;)

Carolyn Use the power of persuasion to get your neighbor to bake you some! Enjoy all that salmon too.

bargoo 10-12-2011 10:13 AM

saef, your roast sounds wonderful. tell us how it turned out.

EZMONEY 10-12-2011 10:22 AM

I am teaming up with Angie tonight for dinner...

I am making the soup I posted the recipe for yesterday and she is making butternut squash enchiladas....

It is going to be in the high 80's ~ low 90's here today...

perfect soup weather...lol

Love my old crock pots...but HATE the new ones where you can set the hours for cooking...both sizes I have of those seem to cook the food way too fast and " keep warm" it after cooking WAY-WAY too hot.

JayEll 10-12-2011 10:29 AM

Cats aren't children, and putting them in isolation doesn't teach them what they are doing wrong. It's not like you can say "Now Louie, here is why I'm putting you in this room." Like that cartoon says, they hear "Blahblah Louie blahblahblahblahblahblahblah."

Jay

bargoo 10-12-2011 10:33 AM

I have the old fashioned crock pot , the one where the inside does not come out. A pain to wash but not impossible. I use mine a lot for keeping things hot at potlucks, big dinners and the like.

alinnell 10-12-2011 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayEll (Post 4068018)
Cats aren't children, and putting them in isolation doesn't teach them what they are doing wrong. It's not like you can say "Now Louie, here is why I'm putting you in this room." Like that cartoon says, they hear "Blahblah Louie blahblahblahblahblahblahblah."

Jay

Do you have any other suggestions to keep him out of my plants? I've sprayed them all with Bitter End (he still chews on some) and covered my Christmas cactus in Saran wrap (worked for a couple of days until he got over his fear of the plastic). Spraying him with water doesn't phase him. Loud noises (hand clapping or a can of coins) doesn't bother him, but it freaks out the two that are doing no wrong. Also any other suggestion to keep the little one fed and the other one to lose weight? My friends on my Lab chat board said to separate them during the day. Ringo hates being isolated, therefore he'll get the run of the house. Louie was isolated for the first few weeks we had him and he never seemed to be bothered by it.

JayEll 10-12-2011 10:58 AM

What about getting Louie one of those planters with wheat grass in them that are made just for cats? Sometimes cats like something green to chew on. He might prefer the cat grass to the other plants, if it's the only one without Bitter End.

Otherwise, you may have to choose between the cat and the plants.

Feed the cats in separate rooms, and don't let the one that needs to lose get into the other one's food. If the cat that needs to gain doesn't finish all its food, take it away so the one that needs to lose can't eat it.

It can be a pain, but in my experience you can't make cats do anything. If they choose to cooperate, it's wonderful.

Jay

BillBlueEyes 10-12-2011 11:00 AM

I love Wegmans - go there whenever I visit upstate New Jersey. Sorta glad we don't have one locally since I have a bit of difficulty restraining myself when I start to collect hot foods for a meal, LOL.

EZMONEY 10-12-2011 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillBlueEyes (Post 4068087)
.... I have a bit of difficulty restraining myself when I start to collect hot foods for a meal, LOL.

YEP! that hot food counter at the healthy WHOLE FOODS store I get dinner from when working in 90210 gets me into BIG trouble....

WHOLE BIG trouble!

But oh so good :)

alinnell 10-12-2011 12:18 PM

Quote:

What about getting Louie one of those planters with wheat grass in them that are made just for cats? Sometimes cats like something green to chew on. He might prefer the cat grass to the other plants, if it's the only one without Bitter End.
I tried that. He tasted it once and then refused to eat it. Ringo doesn't like wheat grass, either (I got some for him when he started getting hair balls).

Somehow I think the Christmas cactus is because they are in big pots as I said he just walks and lays on those--he doesn't eat them. The two plants he does eat are in the kitchen and if they die, I won't be upset. I just have this thing for my cactus. The big one is 9 years old now and blooms profusely each year. I doubt I'll get any blooms from that one this year, and I may have to get some smaller plants to add to that pot, but you can't get them this time of year. I've actually repotted that plant several times, dividing it up and getting more and more pots of that color (red--the easiest to grow). I also have fuschia, white and peach with peach being the one that seems to be hardest to get to bloom.

If I am forced to do something with the plants, I may have DH build a glass barrier around them (almost all are in my front entry where they get a lot of light but no direct sun).

bargoo 10-12-2011 01:01 PM

Recipes. I requested information on a Pampered Chef recipe and got a response and referance to a great recipe site. It is new to me, if you are looking for a recipe they probably have it. Some of you may be familiar with it
www.recipegoldmine.com

midwife 10-12-2011 02:44 PM

Krampus, love the new avatar!

:wave: @ everyone else!

Mudpie 10-12-2011 06:10 PM

Allison It sounds like Louie is testing out the household to see what he can/can't do and exploring his new home. Putting a cat in one room during the day can be a solution but he will probably wreck stuff there while he's exploring. And he might get bored being alone - more wrecking.

We found that Mudpie rampaged around for about 3 weeks and then she was fine with everything. All the boundaries had been established, territories marked, etc.

We still have the fat cat/thin cat thing - 13 years later. Mishi gobbles his food and Mud picks. I feed them in separate rooms with the french doors closed. They get 30 minutes to eat while I'm doing stuff in the morning and then all the food goes away. Both are healthy although Mish is now beach ball sized (probably due to hypothyroid). We repeat the process in the evening.

Dagmar


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