I'll admit, I didn't think it was the year of the cat at the Brash household. I spent so much time nursing one cat to her eventual death that I didn't realize how bad the other cat was doing until the sickest one went off to the sweet hereafter in April.
It was then that we realized how old and thin and sick our last kitty was. He was losing the use of all four legs, just like our other cat. He didn't run around anymore, and his coat was getting pretty shabby. I thought he probably had some kidney disease as well.
Around this time, we started eating the epi-paleo diet in earnest. That means lots of seafood. Our vet had told us to put the other cat on a lower protein diet because of the kidney problems, but then I got to thinking about what that diet would be for a cat, specifically. Neither liked the low protein food our vet carried, so I started giving both of them bits of cream and butter, especially the frail cat who had trouble keeping any other kind of food down.
Now with all the seafood around here, there is lots of salmon skin, shrimp cooking water, sardine cans and other seafoody goodness. I have quit cooking meats in any kind of spices and seasonings so he'll eat the leftovers. He is especially fond of lamb fat and salmon skin cooked in coconut oil. He also has a seaweed fetish and goes nuts over chlorella so much that I have to keep it on a high shelf. I give him as much as he wants.
He always has a cat-smile on his face after a meal of salmon. Since we have salmon 4-5 meals a week, this means he is quite happy most of the time. I noticed an immediate improvement in his fur and energy level. He's still not all that good at grooming anymore, and so has trouble with his claws, but he has started to run around again, and howl at the imaginary beings in all the corners of the house.
Honestly, I didn't think he would be alive by Thanksgiving and he seems to just be getting better and better.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Gaines Burgers
..Continuing with my series on food-like products. Remember Gaines burgers?
I just loved the Gaines burgers commercial when I was a kid. The burger-shaped product, and like most food-like products, suitable only for dogs, came in an individually-wrapped package, just like today's cheese-products in our kids lunchbox.
Even though I was young, I thought it would be really fun to open one up and crumble it up, just like playing with jello or tapioca pudding. It was always opened up by a housewife with an immaculate manicure that surely she kept that way by not opening up all those stinkin' cans of regular dog food.
When the crumbled burger went into the bowl, the dog, starved for days, wolfed it down.
I wanted to buy these, crumble them, and feed the dog. Unfortunately, we didn't have a dog. Maybe we could get one. The neighbors had dogs, but nobody had enough money for these burgers. They were in another class, along with those packets of laundry detergent you just toss in, central air conditioning, and sugar-sweetened cereal all-you-can-eat every every morning.
What I never got is how they stayed so fresh in the cupboard and why they went to the trouble of creating a burger and then always served it crumbled. When I got older, I realized that unlike Denise Minger, these burgers were not made of meat. I also found out that dogs would eat anything. I also found out that there is no end to the creativity of the food technologists, giving us novel, dopamine-increasing fun stuff like pop rocks, chicken nuggets, Happy Meals and Cracker Jacks prizes. Unfortunately, I also learned that when you start by making mud pies and then graduate to modeling clay, baking bread and making your own pasta isn't far behind.
I just loved the Gaines burgers commercial when I was a kid. The burger-shaped product, and like most food-like products, suitable only for dogs, came in an individually-wrapped package, just like today's cheese-products in our kids lunchbox.
Even though I was young, I thought it would be really fun to open one up and crumble it up, just like playing with jello or tapioca pudding. It was always opened up by a housewife with an immaculate manicure that surely she kept that way by not opening up all those stinkin' cans of regular dog food.
When the crumbled burger went into the bowl, the dog, starved for days, wolfed it down.
I wanted to buy these, crumble them, and feed the dog. Unfortunately, we didn't have a dog. Maybe we could get one. The neighbors had dogs, but nobody had enough money for these burgers. They were in another class, along with those packets of laundry detergent you just toss in, central air conditioning, and sugar-sweetened cereal all-you-can-eat every every morning.
What I never got is how they stayed so fresh in the cupboard and why they went to the trouble of creating a burger and then always served it crumbled. When I got older, I realized that unlike Denise Minger, these burgers were not made of meat. I also found out that dogs would eat anything. I also found out that there is no end to the creativity of the food technologists, giving us novel, dopamine-increasing fun stuff like pop rocks, chicken nuggets, Happy Meals and Cracker Jacks prizes. Unfortunately, I also learned that when you start by making mud pies and then graduate to modeling clay, baking bread and making your own pasta isn't far behind.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Improving on Edible Food-like substances
On a whim, I picked up a package of turkey bacon at a really great price. Upon further inspection, I realized that the turkey meat was re-formed. I checked the label and it was the regular pork label. (Gee, hope there isn't any gluten!!!!)
I put a few slices into a frying pan, and a couple of minutes I realized that THIS JUST WON'T WORK and that the bacon was burning instead of frying. I always thought people bought this stuff because they were keeping kosher, but now realize that most folks probably buy it because they think it has a "healthier" level of fats. For this formed product, I think that meant no fat.
So, hey, I know how to rescue this sorry meal. I went into the fridge, grabbed a tub of pork fat carefully saved from the last batch of ribs. The bacon was OK, and at least it quit sticking to the pan.
This morning, I didn't horse around, and added the necessary pork fat right at the beginning. This step made a perfect non-curling strip of bacon-like breakfast-like product.
I ate it anyway.
I put a few slices into a frying pan, and a couple of minutes I realized that THIS JUST WON'T WORK and that the bacon was burning instead of frying. I always thought people bought this stuff because they were keeping kosher, but now realize that most folks probably buy it because they think it has a "healthier" level of fats. For this formed product, I think that meant no fat.
So, hey, I know how to rescue this sorry meal. I went into the fridge, grabbed a tub of pork fat carefully saved from the last batch of ribs. The bacon was OK, and at least it quit sticking to the pan.
This morning, I didn't horse around, and added the necessary pork fat right at the beginning. This step made a perfect non-curling strip of bacon-like breakfast-like product.
I ate it anyway.
Monday, December 10, 2012
More Winter recipes - Hatch Bombs
This time of the year brings a bit less "garden variety" than in the summer months, but I still have plenty of peppers, both hot and medium. I don't fertilize in the later months because you never know when a deep frost will take anything out. So, the peppers are smallish, but a few hot days will create a still really hot pepper even in December. I have plenty of New Mexico, or Hatch, peppers, in varying stages of ripeness, so there is a seasonally-appropriate mix of red and green.
Hatch Bombs
Take several Hatch peppers (or Jalapeno if you can't get the good stuff)
cream cheese
green olives
bird peppers for garnish
Cut the hatch peppers lengthwise and scoop out the seeds.
Fill the peppers with cream cheese
Top with a slice of green olive (this is the only "doughnut" you will find in my home!)
If you are brave, replace the red pimento thingy from the olive with a ripe bird pepper.
Down the hatch!
I can eat dozens of these around the holiday time.
Hatch Bombs
Take several Hatch peppers (or Jalapeno if you can't get the good stuff)
cream cheese
green olives
bird peppers for garnish
Cut the hatch peppers lengthwise and scoop out the seeds.
Fill the peppers with cream cheese
Top with a slice of green olive (this is the only "doughnut" you will find in my home!)
If you are brave, replace the red pimento thingy from the olive with a ripe bird pepper.
Down the hatch!
I can eat dozens of these around the holiday time.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Try my new Fave Winter Recipes!
This first dish was just something I whipped up after discovering that the sale package of chicken gizzards I snagged contained a few chicken livers. I fished the livers out of the pile and set them aside, but I didn't have enough to make it worthwhile to package them away for another day. I added them to the dish-in-progress instead.
I don't have much coming out of the garden right now, but I am trying to harvest all of the sunchokes before the gophers get them and before we get another warm spell that causes them to sprout. They were confused about winter several weeks ago, and I have noticed that some of the recently-harvested roots are sporting sprouts on top and have become a bit pithy.
I seem to have lots more of these puppies, as the gophers and other ground animals take a few and spread them all over the garden. Oh well, maybe that was me, with my non-standard composting routine. (EPIC FAIL! on turning the windrow 5 times or reaching the appropriate temperature in my in-vessel or static aerated pile system~)
I harvest my sunchokes well after the stems start to dry out, wash and drain them carefully, and pack them loosely in large plastic containers in the fridge. The bulk cookie containers from Costco work great (after you have thrown away the cookies - you weren't going to eat them, were you?)
Just a few weeks ago I was cleaning out the fridge for Thanksgiving, and discovered a large container of sunchokes way in the back, from last season. They were still in very good shape, though they were sprouting. I "planted" them in the ground in an out-of-the way place until I get the time to amend the soil at their final destination.
Sunchokes and Liver Soup
(This is for two servings, and works great if you have purchased a whole chicken and have only one liver.)
1/2 cup chopped Jerusalem artichokes
1 T lard or bacon fat
1 chicken liver
1/4 cup chicken broth
4 T heavy cream
4 T parsley
1/4 t dried thyme
1/4 t dried hot red pepper
salt and black pepper to taste
Fry the sunchokes in the fat until they are tender. Add chopped liver and cook for a minute. Add broth, thyme, salt and hot pepper. Simmer for a short time until the liver is cooked. Pour mixture into soup bowls, add the heavy cream and top with chopped parsley.
OK, it is a bit grey, and it sounds pretty awful on paper, right? Try it anyway. I could eat this every day in the winter. Really. I couldn't even tell it was liver. I like liver anyway anyway and feel no need to hide it, but honestly, if I hadn't made it myself, I might never have guessed.
One serving contains 233 calories, 7 grams carb, 20 grams fat and 6 grams protein. One of the carb grams is fiber, but I usually count sunchoke carbs as half, since they are mostly inulin. YMMV on how you react to sunchokes. The C/F/P ratio is 12.4/76.6/11. Each serving contains a whopping 11 grams of arterycloggingsaturatedfat, which is why it tastes so good and I didn't eat much else for supper.
Coming up: part 2: Hatch bombs
I don't have much coming out of the garden right now, but I am trying to harvest all of the sunchokes before the gophers get them and before we get another warm spell that causes them to sprout. They were confused about winter several weeks ago, and I have noticed that some of the recently-harvested roots are sporting sprouts on top and have become a bit pithy.
I seem to have lots more of these puppies, as the gophers and other ground animals take a few and spread them all over the garden. Oh well, maybe that was me, with my non-standard composting routine. (EPIC FAIL! on turning the windrow 5 times or reaching the appropriate temperature in my in-vessel or static aerated pile system~)
I harvest my sunchokes well after the stems start to dry out, wash and drain them carefully, and pack them loosely in large plastic containers in the fridge. The bulk cookie containers from Costco work great (after you have thrown away the cookies - you weren't going to eat them, were you?)
Just a few weeks ago I was cleaning out the fridge for Thanksgiving, and discovered a large container of sunchokes way in the back, from last season. They were still in very good shape, though they were sprouting. I "planted" them in the ground in an out-of-the way place until I get the time to amend the soil at their final destination.
Sunchokes and Liver Soup
(This is for two servings, and works great if you have purchased a whole chicken and have only one liver.)
1/2 cup chopped Jerusalem artichokes
1 T lard or bacon fat
1 chicken liver
1/4 cup chicken broth
4 T heavy cream
4 T parsley
1/4 t dried thyme
1/4 t dried hot red pepper
salt and black pepper to taste
Fry the sunchokes in the fat until they are tender. Add chopped liver and cook for a minute. Add broth, thyme, salt and hot pepper. Simmer for a short time until the liver is cooked. Pour mixture into soup bowls, add the heavy cream and top with chopped parsley.
OK, it is a bit grey, and it sounds pretty awful on paper, right? Try it anyway. I could eat this every day in the winter. Really. I couldn't even tell it was liver. I like liver anyway anyway and feel no need to hide it, but honestly, if I hadn't made it myself, I might never have guessed.
One serving contains 233 calories, 7 grams carb, 20 grams fat and 6 grams protein. One of the carb grams is fiber, but I usually count sunchoke carbs as half, since they are mostly inulin. YMMV on how you react to sunchokes. The C/F/P ratio is 12.4/76.6/11. Each serving contains a whopping 11 grams of arterycloggingsaturatedfat, which is why it tastes so good and I didn't eat much else for supper.
Coming up: part 2: Hatch bombs
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Wheat Permutations
I have had the opportunity this week to sample what regular people are eating out these days. This is the time of the year for Christmas parties, recognition luncheons, anniversaries, birthdays and other celebrations. Eating out is the common way.
Our food is starting more and more to resemble variations on Hyperlipid's crap-in-a-bag, but with a variety of extruded shapes, sizes, colorings and flavorings to keep the food reward high and to trick us into thinking we are eating some sort of variety.
Here are some the wheat offerings on the menu recently:
Boiled longish extrusions of ground wheat and water coated with a tomato-based puree.
Boiled spiral extrusions of ground wheat and water coated with a yellowed fat-based emulsion, chopped vegetables and chutney.
Boiled tubular extrusions of ground wheat and water coated with a garlic-based puree.
Boiled tubular, curved extrusions of ground wheat and water coated with an orange casein-based puree.
Boiled longish flat extrusions of ground wheat and water coated with a casein and cream-based puree.
Boiled short, flat extrusions of ground wheat and water served floating in a liquid described as having been made from chicken, but seems to contain no real chicken.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy and chewy, served with a selection of real and/or fake "butters".
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy and chewy, flattened and covered with an extruded casein product and tomato puree.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy and chewy, flattened and covered with a grated casein product.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy and chewy, then diced and served with celery, sage and more chickenless chicken liquid.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy, crunchy and chewy, then diced and served with lettuce, a grated casein product and anchovies.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy, crunchy and chewy, then diced and served with spinach, red onions and apple.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy, crunchy and chewy, then diced and served with baby greens, pecans and pear.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy and chewy, then mixed with high fructose corn syrup and artificial blueberry pieces.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly crunchy and chewy, then mixed with high fructose corn syrup and bits of chocolate.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it crunchy, then mixed with high fructose corn syrup and shaped into a Christmas tree, sprinkled with red sugar and white icing.
Ground wheat and water, mixed with oatmeal and processed in a way that makes it slightly crunchy and chewy, then spread over a mixture of fruit and fruit-like bits and high fructose corn syrup.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly crunchy and chewy, then served under an extrusion of frozen fermented casein emulsion mixed with high fructose corn syrup and flavorings.
Nom nom nom. (Just kidding. And I really hate that word nom and the people who invented it.)
Next up: Gaines burgers.
Our food is starting more and more to resemble variations on Hyperlipid's crap-in-a-bag, but with a variety of extruded shapes, sizes, colorings and flavorings to keep the food reward high and to trick us into thinking we are eating some sort of variety.
Here are some the wheat offerings on the menu recently:
Boiled longish extrusions of ground wheat and water coated with a tomato-based puree.
Boiled spiral extrusions of ground wheat and water coated with a yellowed fat-based emulsion, chopped vegetables and chutney.
Boiled tubular extrusions of ground wheat and water coated with a garlic-based puree.
Boiled tubular, curved extrusions of ground wheat and water coated with an orange casein-based puree.
Boiled longish flat extrusions of ground wheat and water coated with a casein and cream-based puree.
Boiled short, flat extrusions of ground wheat and water served floating in a liquid described as having been made from chicken, but seems to contain no real chicken.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy and chewy, served with a selection of real and/or fake "butters".
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy and chewy, flattened and covered with an extruded casein product and tomato puree.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy and chewy, flattened and covered with a grated casein product.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy and chewy, then diced and served with celery, sage and more chickenless chicken liquid.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy, crunchy and chewy, then diced and served with lettuce, a grated casein product and anchovies.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy, crunchy and chewy, then diced and served with spinach, red onions and apple.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy, crunchy and chewy, then diced and served with baby greens, pecans and pear.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly puffy and chewy, then mixed with high fructose corn syrup and artificial blueberry pieces.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly crunchy and chewy, then mixed with high fructose corn syrup and bits of chocolate.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it crunchy, then mixed with high fructose corn syrup and shaped into a Christmas tree, sprinkled with red sugar and white icing.
Ground wheat and water, mixed with oatmeal and processed in a way that makes it slightly crunchy and chewy, then spread over a mixture of fruit and fruit-like bits and high fructose corn syrup.
Ground wheat and water, processed in a way that makes it slightly crunchy and chewy, then served under an extrusion of frozen fermented casein emulsion mixed with high fructose corn syrup and flavorings.
Nom nom nom. (Just kidding. And I really hate that word nom and the people who invented it.)
Next up: Gaines burgers.
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