Babies!

Raccoon babies! It's as if they came to make me feel better after losing my beloved kitties, Nutmeg and Melody! I thought for sure they weren't coming this year, but I think the Mama just had them a little later than usual.

Here are three of them:

Goodbye, Nutmeg

Well, there are no more kitty-cats in the Pastore house now. Our old girl, Nutmeg, passed away this morning.

It is so strange, but she started going downhill after Melody died. In the past few days she wasn't eating or even drinking. She had a really bad smell about her, so I'm thinking cancer. Cats tend to hide pain, so who can tell how long she was suffering. It really didn't get bad until a few days ago. Mike found her in our downstairs, on the bathroom rug. I had put her in a basket with a towel but I guess she wandered out. Nick and Mike both looked in on her through the night. I can't really climb stairs too much. We think she died in the very early morning.

Both cats are buried in the backyard, where I buried Sasha many years ago. Mike bought some paver stones and I'm going to paint names on them. I also put some potted plants on the graves. 

My cats live good, long lives. I know they continue to live and I will meet them again with all my other pets!

I feel strange but not sad. The sad part was watching Nutmeg suffer. I'm glad she doesn't hurt any more.

Nutmeg, once known as Indy when she was in the shelter. Our beautiful tuxedo girl for nearly 18 years!

Dinner at Michael and Megan's

Michael and Megan had us over today for the first family dinner in their new home. Michael made a favorite dish, Western Hospitality Casserole, and it came out really good. John, Noreen, little John and Noreen's brother, Tommy, were all there, too.

I gave Michael his birthday gift (his birthday is Tuesday, when he turns 34), Alton Brown's latest cookbook. John and Nor gave them a spice rack for the house. We had a very nice visit! (Little John, who really isn't all that little, impressed me with his knowledge of animals. He also enjoyed playing with Michael's cat, Laser.)

Michael preps the shrimp we brought as an appetizer.

Megan tells us about their wood-burning stove.

Soup Season

It's a good thing that it's a time of year for comfort food like soup, because I am still hurting two weeks after surgery.

I had  my stitches out on the 5th, and Dr. G told me it might be 2 or 3 more weeks until I feel 100%. Not that I ever feel 100% but it will be nice to be able to stand, sit and walk for any length of time without my knee hurting.

I can get library books via my new phone, so I downloaded Ree Drummond's book about dinners. I made this amazing potato soup:

I did a little at a time over the course of two or three days, and I took a short cut by buying ready-cleaned carrots, onions and celery. A little more pricey but so worth it to reduce my time standing in the kitchen. My Chop Wizard toy finished the job of dealing with vegetables.

The recipe was probably meant for a big family (there are 6 people in Ree's) and I ended up with enough for a week's worth of lunches. I gave some to Katherine, who loved it.

I also made an oven-barbecued chicken recipe. I had the idea to start the chicken off on the real barbecue, like I do when I make fall-off-the-bone ribs. I had bone-in chicken thighs, something Nicky picked up for me by accident. (He was supposed to get boneless breasts). But hey, for $1.69 a pound it wasn't a loss.

So I put the chicken on the barbecue and check it once to turn it. I go back in the house and I swear, minutes later, the barbecue is on fire! Flames shooting up in the air! Baking soda took care of that, but left a hell of a mess. The chicken was black, black, black. I almost threw it out and then realized it was only the outside, and I could easily remove the skin. So I did this and dumped on the sauce (via Ree's recipe, which I tweaked anyway). I cooked it the next night and OMG it was goooood. Mike even came back for a second serving, and he doesn't generally like bone-in meats.

Anyway, I will definitely be making this again, but I'll keep a closer watch on the grill. I probably shouldn't try to multi-task when I'm hurting.

Today, we are going to Michael's for the first dinner at his house. I hope to write about it soon.

Garden's End

Here is the last of this year's crop. We had numerous issues, not the least of which was my inability to really work on this garden because of my knee problem (which still hurts, btw) but I have made notes on things I want to do next year for a better yield. Still, what we had was very enjoyable!