I'm going to make Recipe Friday happen. It's fetch.

[st_aurafina]

It's so much cooler now. The sky is eerily orange from the fires in the Grampians, but there's nothing close to us at the moment. It's nice to be able to open up the house and get some fresh air into it. Now I'm watching lilacsigil play Lego Marvel Super Heroes. She's driving in New York. We couldn't figure out why everyone was on the wrong side of the road. Hopefully, they will just assume that Tony is wasted. It seems reasonable.


We ventured into the garden for the first time this week, and holy cow, the zucchinis are coming. THE ZUCCHINIS ARE COMING! Fortunately I have been stashing zucchini recipes on Pinboard, so I am ready. The basil is looking awesome. There are tomatoes everywhere but all still green. The pumpkins have gone ballistic in the heat - huge leaves, lots of buds. Watermelons are looking a bit sad; I think they were still a bit small when the heat came, and even though we had plastic over them, they've suffered a bit. The cos lettuce has bolted, but the other lettuces are doing well, and so is the spinach. Peas everywhere! So many peas! And beans! And the eggplant tree is looking alive, at least, even if there are no blossoms. We just can't eggplant here, and it's so sad.


Recipe Friday! Let's make it happen!

Something I've cooked recently:

Braised leg of lamb:

Basically, you get a leg of lamb, preferably with the bone in, stud it with garlic and sprigs of rosemary, and rub it with olive oil and sea salt. Then put it in a cast iron pot. Add a brown onion peeled and cut in two. Chop a head of garlic in half and throw that in, with a bunch of rosemary and thyme. (And maybe some peppercorns, maybe a bayleaf, maybe some brown sugar or honey, but this time we didn't bother because we'd left it too late in the day to be fussy.) Pour white wine over the lot, cover and cook it in the oven at 150C for five hours. Check it occasionally to make sure there's still liquid in the pot. Take the lid off for the last hour. It's done when it can be flaked with a fork.

We did this ahead of the heat, knowing we'd be unlikely to cook this week. The lamb, and some pumpkin rolls from the bakery did us for lunches, and with rice and veggies for dinner on a couple of nights when we were really flaked out from work.


Crispy Roasted Chickpeas:

I was totally inspired by the chickpeas in my Harvest Box last week - all the toasted lentils have been really tasty, and we always have a can of chickpeas to throw in curry, so it seemed like a good option. They were terrible! I don't think it's the fault of the recipe - the spices tasted great, but the chickpeas tasted like ass. I think I'll try soaking my own, maybe? Or a different brand of chickpeas? The problem is that the canned ones always smell really bad to me, and I could totally smell that bad smell, even covered in a billion spices and salt. I need to figure this out, because I love chickpeas, and I want to try hummus again soon.



Something I've got concrete plans to cook soon:

Well, we're going to chargrill the first zucchini tomorrow. The Weber barbecue is working out great! We bought outdoor furniture to go with it - I sit there with my iPad, reading fic and grilling like a boss, while lilacsigil potters in the garden. We chat over the balcony. It's really nice.


mergatrude's Super Easy Butter Cake:

Part of my quest for an easy cake - that recipe I linked last week was actually pretty complex, so I abandoned it. I will have cake that is tender and has a nice rise and doesn't taste like dry paste. I will achieve this. I will be precise. As ducened said, "Cake is your finicky English teacher who marks you off for forgetting the Oxford Comma."



Something I'm idly thinking of cooking in the future

Homemade Vanilla Bean Chai Syrup

This could be nice, right? You basically grab a can of sweetened condensed milk and stir in a whole bunch of spices to make a spiced syrup, then when you want chai, you stir some of the syrup into some black tea. It sounds like a good idea on paper, and I've got everything I need to make it on hand, so I'd like to give it a go.


Panini bread

We've got the sandwich press out, and I'd forgotten how nice it is to just squish good things into bread and toast it. I'm going to make some nice panini-style breads to toast. To follow on with ducened's analogy, unlike cake, bread is your mellowed out art teacher who wants you to get your hands dirty and feel for the right texture.



I've been trying to get this into a post but keep backing out of it: our elderly cat is on the decline.

Her last blood test showed her blood nitrates were up, which means that renal insufficiency is becoming renal failure. The vet said that if she were a human, he'd put her on dialysis - he offered to get a dialysis machine up from the vet hospital in Geelong. (He loves Missy - he calls her his miracle cat, because she's survived for so long. He gave her six months to live, seven years ago. We've been so lucky.)

We both decided that dialysis is a step further down the quality of life pathway than we would like to go with Missy. She is not the kind of cat that would be happy in a cage at the vets several times a week for some hours. The vet has upped her medication, and given us antibiotics to have on hand at home - to treat the major symptom for her at the moment, which is mouth ulcers from the urea she's excreting via her saliva. From the health of her gums, and the way the infection comes back the minute she finished a course of antibiotics, I don't think the medication increase has improved her renal function at all. It might be helping stabilise it, but we haven't put her through another blood test just yet. There's not much point, since they can't raise her medication any more.

We're monitoring her eating and her weight - she can drop 100g in a couple of days if her gums are inflamed, which is bad, because she doesn't have a lot of fat on her and we don't want her to lose muscle mass. The next stage will be a visit to the vet for IV rehydration - it forces a lot of fluid through her kidneys and help her to clear some toxins. The vet said it was a reasonable gain in quality of life for a little amount of jail time. I think that's a better way to go than dialysis, at the moment. The boy cats know she's ailing and beat up on her sometimes - it's a cat society thing, the vet says. She's sleeping with lilacsigil most nights, because they're worst at night. It's not very nice to see my goofy guy being a bully, and it's not very nice to see Missy, who was top cat in the house, cowering. We may have to section off the house if it gets worse, so that she has a safe haven during the day when we're at work.

For now, she's still have good, happy days - dozing all day on the hot steps on the verandah, ushering us around the garden because monkeys can't be trusted on their own, and gobbling up food like there's no tomorrow, and sleeping on my knee in the evenings. This is the not-nice end of looking after pets, but we will do everything we can for her, keep her quality of life as high as possible for as long as possible, and then we will say goodbye. (Wow, I just typed that like I'm going to be fine. I'm going to look back on this and laugh bitterly.)


[Aeon, but we call her Missy, on her fourteenth birthday, 2013.]

Comments

[lonelywalker]

We couldn't figure out why everyone was on the wrong side of the road. Hopefully, they will just assume that Tony is wasted. It seems reasonable.
I'm just imagining Thor driving on the wrong side in the US. Because clearly everyone drives (or rides) on the left in Asgard. It's just good sense.

[st_aurafina]

I think, when you drive a chariot pulled by goats, you can drive it any way you want!

[realpestilence]

You're just lucky if they actually go.

[st_aurafina]

Goats are evil!

[ducened]

I love your art teacher analogy! I made brownies yesterday and the edges are a little drier than I would like. I may have to tweak the pan slightly (wrap the edges in foil?) or rotate it more or lower the temp next time.

I also send Jedi hugs for you and Missy. She's gorgeous. My own lot are also elderly, and I'm dreading the inevitable day(s) that I know are coming. I just want them to stay away as long as possible. Palliative care is hard, but it's the ethical thing to do.

[st_aurafina]

Brownies are tricky - you really have to get to know your oven to be able to pull them out at the right time, like, when they're just a smidge underdone. And that means making a lot of brownies, which means eating a lot of brownies, and I can never quite justify that. *sighs sadly*

[senmut]

Oh hon.

+pets Missy gently+

Cake recipe? I have a from-scratch Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake I don't find onerous to make.

[st_aurafina]

*hugs back* I'm going to try a Aussie recipe first because of the difference in our cups to yours - I think it's making my cake batters a bit dry? - but if things get going okay I'll definitely ask for your recipe.

[senmut]

I should look at doing a volume to weight conversion on some of my better recipes...

[st_aurafina]

Me too - I have a few good conversion sites but I want to form some trust with myself before I start tweaking recipes.

(Because I tried one on the weekend, and it was raw in the middle. I think my oven is running hot. Or something. Looking for my oven thermometer before I try again.)

[eleanorjane]

I'm very glad you and lilacsigil are safe from the fires (at least; I'm assuming you are from the tone of this post) - I had heard about them, and worried a little.

And much love and hugs for Missy. She looks like a lovely cat, and I hope her twilight days are calm and full of love.

[st_aurafina]

Yes, we're far from the fires, thank goodness. This time!

[vass]

THE ZUCCHINIS ARE COMING. BOARD UP THE WINDOWS. GRAB YOUR MACHETE.

I've never actually cared about if my cake has a nice rise or not, so long as it tastes good and is tender. Two out of three ain't bad. Whereas bread I have never managed. I always end up either with damper or dwarf bread. Neither of which is really bread in the sense I intended.

Many hugs to you guys and the cats. Missy is a grand old lady, and I hope her last days are as many and as happy as possible.

I'm so glad you have a good vet like that. They're worth their weight in gold.

[st_aurafina]

I don't know if we can stand the relentless assault of zucchini. We got a barbecue just in time!


You have cake-fu! I have bread-fu.

[kass]

char-grilled zucchini, om nom nom. <3

So sorry to hear about your sweet cat. Sending love.

[st_aurafina]

Char-grilled everything! I love my new barbecue!

[mossybomb]

Ah I was hoping the fires weren't anywhere near you. Good to hear you're safe.

The garden sounds fobbulous! Go the zucchini invasion! Eggplants are the most diva plant ever, right? Jealous of your fresh peas -- the weather's been CRAZY our side of the ditch and all our snow peas have mildewed but what can you do. I didn't put in watermelons this year so can't compare notes but it seems highly unlikely they would have done any better than yours. I think we've had about five days of straight sunshine so far.

I'm so sorry to hear about Missy. I hope her remaining days are gentle and as pain-free as you can make them. <3

[st_aurafina]

Oh, the oncoming zucchinis! Thick and fast, they come. And yes, eggplants are diva plants! That explains so much. It's been a very weird summer for us. Cold, and then briefly, intensely hot. Our nasturtiums all fried last week. (They'll be back, I'm pretty sure.)

[lurkingcat]

Your garden sounds amazing.

I'm so sorry to hear about Missy - it's the hardest part of caring for a cat. I hope her remaining time is full of knees to sleep on when she wants them, food to eat when she needs it and peaceful places to doze.

*sends internet scruffles for Missy and hugs for her humans*

[st_aurafina]

It's an amazing garden, mostly because the raised beds make it easy to work in it. They're a great idea.

We're doing our best for Missy. It's not the most fun time ever, but you have to do it.

[umadoshi]

Good luck with the cake, and I hope you'll report back on the Homemade Vanilla Bean Chai Syrup!

I'm so sorry to hear about Missy. *sympathy and hugs to all of you* I hope she has many, many good days left ahead of her.

[st_aurafina]

The cake was a disaster! OMG, there's something wrong with me, because I can cook, I really can. Just not cake.

*hugs* It's not much fun with Missy, but we've had so much borrowed time with her, we've been so lucky.

[wendelah1]

I'm sorry about your cat.

[st_aurafina]

*hugs* It's not the best part of pet owning, that's for sure.

[weaverbird]

That's sad news about Missy. {{{hugs}}} for you and for her. Hope her remaining time is peaceful and as comfortable as possible. You're certainly doing everything you can to that end. She's a lucky old lady to have you.

Canned chickpeas are nasty (IMO). I cook them up from dried, and they are delicious when roasted & spiced. And now I need to go put a package of them on to simmer. Thanks for reminding me. *g*

[st_aurafina]

Thanks - we're looking after her, and she's comfortable and happy for now, which is great.

I've got some dried chickpeas now, and I'm going to try it again. Actually, I wonder if this was part of the problem I've been having with homemade hummus, too. I had just been blending canned chickpeas. *ponders*

[realpestilence]

"This is the not-nice end of looking after pets, but we will do everything we can for her, keep her quality of life as high as possible for as long as possible, and then we will say goodbye."


That's really all you can do, and keep faith with her. It's selfish to put them through pain and trauma, just because we want to keep them with us. And it's so easy to say, to know in your head; so hard to know in your heart.

[st_aurafina]

Yeah, that's pretty much how it is. I keep reminding myself that we've helped her to stay healthy for a long time, and that helps. Otherwise, we're going day by day, and doing what we can.

*hugs*