Kitty Love

Introducing Katiya and Mischka, our beautiful, curious, spunky, affectionate, hypoallergenic, raw food eating, spoiled rotten by my husband, Siberian Forest Cats.  

Two early pics - this one, and above - were sent to us from the lovely breeder at Ellinet.

This long overdue post is just a FEW of my favourite first few months of pics from June to September, 2016... when these two came into our home and turned it all upside down.  

No surface is safe from their curious noses and scampering paws.  No floor space isn't littered with their much played with toys.

Just enjoy these cuties.  They will make you smile.

Gotcha Day, June 6, 2016.  

This sweet picture features sister Chloe - she went to another home that same day.

Our beautiful Katiya.  We were told she is the shyest one of the litter, but she warms up quickly, if you're not too noisy, lol.  Katiya is quite the princess.

Mischka is the oldest of four siblings. 

He is daring and curious and a bit clumsy.  He is a big, sensitive, cuddly teddy bear.  He makes us laugh every day, from his unlimited (nearly human!) facial expressions, to his funny little meow.

These two just melt and swell my heart every single day.

Whole 30 - Garlic Mayo

(insert picture here)

Small batch Garlic Mayo (W30)

In a tall vessel, place:

2 large roughly chopped cloves of garlic 

1 very fresh egg yolk

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp sea salt

freshly ground pepper to taste

squirt (1/2 tsp) dijon mustard

1/2 to 3/4 cup oil combo...  I use a generous 1/4 cup extra light olive oil and a scant 1/4 cup pure canola oil for better flavour (spare use of canola oil is recommended in W30 - just make sure there is NO soy)

Put immersion blender into the bottom of your vessel and buzz thoroughly until the garlic is pureed and you see the white mayo beginning to form.  THEN, slowly pull up to include all the oil.  It will be very firm if you buzz it too long.  Can easily be thinned with more lemon juice or ACV, or other wonderful vinegar.  Experiment with champagne or other white wine vinegars and see what you like!  I eyeball all quantities.  Can vary the herbs and seasonings as well, depending on what you're using it for.  Great for dipping or making into aioli sauce for garnishing meats.  

(adapted from Food Wishes / Chef John video recipe)

This pic is from my first attempt (full batch)

Breakfast Love: Hash

I'm not a huge breakfast kind of gal, but I do love a leisurely Sunday brunch, and our Sundays almost always have some sort of cooked breakfast with bacon.

This is the first of a "breakfast series" ... where I do a simple picture dump and I include the recipe, or the process of how I make it.  I am big into improvisational cooking, so my "recipes" are less about quantities and more about playing with whatever is on hand.

The breakfast plate pictured above was from yesterday.  It was so good, I can still taste it in my mind.  What was it?  A breakfast hash.  In other words, it was a frying pan full of lovely things I found in the fridge.

I started with some bacon pieces (I like to cut them with the kitchen shears), and half of a leftover onion (chopped).  I then added two potatoes that I had quickly precooked in the microwave.  But there were only 5 chopped slices of bacon in the pan, since our nephew Matthew was here all week and he loves his bacon as much as we do!

So... I added 2 leftover baked potatoes (chopped), and a red pepper that was starting to wrinkle.  It still didn't seem like very much food, so I looked in the fridge... and found some uneaten french fries and a big chunk of chicken breast.  I chopped them roughly and threw them in.  I then added some garlic powder, a bit more salt and freshly cracked black pepper (I season as I go), and a few bits of tomato... and then snipped and added in some freshly chopped basil from the glass in our kitchen window.

Suddenly this pan of leftovers was overflowing with crispy goodness.  It was smelling amazing and I realized I didn't even need to make any eggs to go with it, because it tasted delicious!

What do you like to eat on a Sunday morning?

More Rhubarb Love

Doesn't this pie look goooood? 

Our love of all things rhubarb continues.  This is a rhubarb pie I made that spontaneously became a hybrid of pie and rhubarb crisp, simply because I didn't have enough rhubarb to mound it all up as I usually do.  Hubby wanted pie, so this is what happened. It was.... AH-MAZING!!!!!!

This was my sad attempt at making a lattice pie with a frozen "cheater crust" from the grocery store, lol.  Above it (on the right) was the gluten free version I made at the same time with our niece, Rachel.  Her crust was a simple gluten free shortbread cookie crust pressed together with butter, the filling was just the fruit with some sugar / cinnamon / cornstarch, and the topped was more cookie crumbles.  Obviously, my focus was on getting hers right.  Both tasted delicious!!

Speaking of "cheater crusts" ... I bake a mean butter tart using a similar type of (grocery story frozen) shells above, as I simply don't have the patience most days to make mini pastry shells from scratch.  This time, I baked some tarts filled with rhubarb (from our own garden!) and strawberries / blueberries... boy, they were yummy!

Finally, this is the strawberry rhubarb pie I made with our nephew Matthew last night.  Ummmm, oh man, strawberries and rhubarb are a match made in heaven.  Have I mentioned how happy we are that the rhubarb season has lasted so long this year?  

I'm going to have to freeze some, for when we need a lift from the wintertime blahs.

Aha.  You are seeing this picture correctly.  These two adorable kitties are ours.  We got them on June 4th and they have totally taken over our lives... in the very bestest and cuddliest and craziest of ways.  They deserve a post of their very own... it will be coming soon... they are very funny and photogenic at the same time.  Yup.  They bring such joy.

In the meantime, I will leave you with one more picture of our last rhubarb dessert.  Doesn't it look great on top of my Oma's crocheted table runner?  Love.  Love.  Love.

As always, I am happy to share recipes, just ask how I make 'em.

Rhubarb Love

This blogpost was originally published in 2016...

I tweaked and updated it with more recent pictures (June 23, 2020)

It's rhubarb season again.  Rhubarb is my husband's favourite fruit.  He likes it stewed, in cakes, in pies, in squares... you name it, he likes it.

Fortunately, my mom has a really terrific recipe for the simplest, stir it into one bowl recipe.  It's called "Rhubarb Stir Cake" ... I think we originally got it from my sister's MIL Judy, but I have been making it for G for YEARS.  Suffice it to say, this is the most easy, delicious recipe... below is how I have tweaked it to my taste over the years.  

It is THAT GOOD, let me tell you.

In a bowl, cream (that means just stir) 1/4 cup very soft butter and 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar until combined.  I add 1/4 cup of water to this mixture, because I usually find the dough a bit dry, and it's easier to incorporate into the batter at this point.  Add in a single egg, a teaspoon or so of cinnamon, and a generous Tbsp of vanilla and glotsch it around.

On top of the wet ingredients, measure and roughly mix in 2 1/3 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt. It will be very dry at this point.

Add 1 cup of sour cream and 4 generous cups of chopped fresh (or even frozen) rhubarb.  Again, stir it up with a spatula to combine it.

See how the dough comes together after awhile?

Press it into a 9x13" pan.  No grease necessary.

Now comes the topping... I usually add more rhubarb and another kind of fruit, like strawberries or raspberries to the top of the cake, whatever is seasonal or in the freezer.  

Today, I loaded it up with a generous number of frozen blueberries, because I forgot to reserve some of the rhubarb for it.  Presto change-o... that’s the beauty of this recipe.  

In fact, after having made this over and over again, I have found I can get REALLY lazy, not mix the rhubarb in, and press the thick batter into the pan and THEN top it with the rhubarb (or any mixture of fresh or frozen fruit) and then finish it with the simple topping, like this:

 

The original recipe also calls for a certain (1/3 cup?!) amount of white sugar and (measly teaspoon) cinnamon to be sprinkled on top of the cake, but I never measure it.  I just sprinkle away generously until it looks good.  I told you this is an easy peasy recipe... almost anything goes!  Ain't it purdy?

 

Or this:

The takeaway message:  this recipe is very forgiving and you can definitely play around with it.  Once I didn't have any sour cream AT ALL... so I used a combination of vanilla yogurt and (I'm not kidding!) some mayonaise and a little water to get the "one cup of sour cream" and, aha... I really did.  

And it turned out perfectly.

There's no picture of this cake fresh from the oven, no... the hubs got into it before I was able to snap a proper photo of it... ha!

This perfect little slice goes so well with a cup of coffee or tea... for breakfast, for a snack, for a church potluck, or for a surprise little treat for my dad and mom.  

Yes, this rhubarb cake is quintessentially perfect.

I suspect I'll be making more rhubarb recipes in the next few weeks, before the season is over for another year.  How do you like your rhubarb?  

Let me know!

More Whole 30 meals

This is a yummy bacon wrapped pork tenderloin, just ready for slicing.  It's a winner!

See it sliced and served with new potatoes and a lovely green salad?

This is our Sunday steak dinner, served with more of those tender new potatoes, baby spinach, and both raw beets and carrot salads.

Friday's cast iron pan fried salmon with lemony asparagus.  Soo delicious!

Saturday night Burger Master at work!

It isn't pretty, but it sure was good!  (Ketchup was not W30 compliant... oopsie!)

Finally, a weeknight meal of garlicky ground beef and sausage, G's favourite broccoli salad, and some leftover raw beet salad and carrot slaw.

We're done with this round of the Whole 30, and our reintroductions have been uneventful, since I no longer cook with soybean oils / condiments and corn isn't in our diet any more - because of what we learned in last June's Whole 30.  Interestingly, our meals are still very much true to the plan.  I have enjoyed greater energy, better sleep, and continued weight loss beyond my expectations... which are all totally awesome benefits to forever eating this way!

Let me know in the comments if you want the recipes to any of the above foods!

Whole 30 - my current meal obsession

Shepherd's Pie - who doesn't just love it?  It's comfort food at its best... it's also economical, and if made ahead, it's super convenient, as it makes a huge amount and you can just dig into it anytime.

I have recently revamped my traditional shepherd's pie because I'm on the whole 30.  We've been eating a ton of roasted / baked / boiled potatoes with lemon, and I didn't want to make the "essential" top layer of mashed potatoes because I couldn't fill it with whatever milk / cream / butter / sour cream / cream cheese or any of that usual deliciousness.

Instead, I popped a whole acorn squash into the microwave... scooped it out, and now we have our topping on the side of our shepherd's pie.  And is it ever good!!!

I say that I am obsessed because I've been ever so sick with the flu and laryngitis this week.  I figured that the W30 would be taking a back seat to comfort foods like toast and tea with honey... but somehow I have managed to stay on track, since I had most of my meats prepped on Sunday.  I just stayed the course, and surprisingly, it worked!  This dish helped me through several small suppers this week with a minimum of fuss.

My appetite was definitely affected, so I ate much less, but I stuck to my three meals... they were just a little simpler and smaller than usual.  And who knew that raw, sliced garlic could be a condiment on the side of a plate of plain chicken or an egg or sausage with a few strawberries or a banana?

Try making shepherd's pie your usual way (leave out the dusting of flour to thicken your gravy) and cook an acorn squash (or other veg you like) with a little clarified butter and s+p on the side.  It's a twist that will surprise you in the most pleasant of ways.