Date Day

Mama and I had a wonderful date lunch today . . . and we deserved it.

(The idea came to me because a creative date time was a topic of Hibernate recently; it'd been a long time since we'd met for lunch.)

See, we'd spent the morning worrying about one of our NYCats, Patron, who has had some intermittent stomach issues this week, culminating in a trip to the emergency vet this morning for fluids and antibiotics.  It was only the ER vet because our regular vet is closed on Thursdays and we didn't want to wait a day for fluids.  We also had him ultrasounded to follow up on our vet's concern about an abdominal mass.  Turns out there is some intestinal thickening, either from something straightforward as inflammatory bowel disease or cancer.  Let's hope a change in diet and rest will reveal the former.  Either way, we're planning on going the slow medicine/palliative route; no one wants invasive or extensive treatments on an almost 15-year-old cat.  And if we can keep his symptoms under control, he's been pretty happy.  We knew this might be coming and we are better equipped to handle it, both from increased wisdom and experience, than we were with our cat Morgan, but it was still a pretty quick onset and a little disheartening.  He's home now and eating and purring and pretty happy; we've closed him and his brother Mojito in the basement alone to keep the Connecticats from harassing him.

All of which is to say, we were glad to have a midday respite at our favorite restaurant, Bloodroot. We had a peanut stew, a big marinated cabbage and tofu salad, special grilled cheese sandwiches on that incredible oatmeal bread, an incredible vegan chocolate mousse and our favorite butterscotch pudding!   Mmmmmm!   And a great chat with Selma and Noelle, the owners, about their upcoming trip to Italy, a new knitting project, and the secret ingredient in the mousse.   Restorative. And we brought some pudding home for Sis, who loves it, too.

If and when it snows this Saturday (or Monday or Wednesday . . . ), maybe we'll make some more.


Butterscotch Pudding
In a medium-sized pot, warm 1 cup milk and 2 cups heavy cream together with 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar.  In a larger pot, combine 3/4 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup water.  Bring to a boil and cook to form a caramel.  When sugar is golden brown, remove from heat and add milk mixture gradually.  It will boil up suddenly and violently, which is why the caramel must be started in the larger pot.  Be sure heat is off and all is combined.  Set aside.

Separate eggs; you will need 6 yolks.  Reserve whites for other purposes.  Slowly whisk hot milk into yolks, being careful not to curdle them.  Add 1 teaspoon Kosher salt and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.  Stir well.  

Ladle into 6 ovenproof custard cups set in a pan.  Fill the pan halfway with water, being careful not to get any into the pudding dishes.  Bake at 325F for about 30 minutes or until no longer wobbly.  Let cool; chill.

Serve with creme fraiche or whipped cream.

Best of Bloodroot, Vol. 1 Vegetarian

Damned Onions

What is it about our cat Albus that leads him to onions?

Onions, which you might not know, are very toxic to cats.  (Along with poinsettias and lilies and garlic and chocolate.)

He is fine.

But for the umpteenth time, he got hold of some onion skin that I had inadvertently left out (this time from cleaning out the veggie bin and forgetting his passion for onion skins.)  I heard the onion roll off the table from upstairs but didn't know that was it.  I found the abandoned but wet onion about 15 minutes later.

And had to call the ASPCA poison control yet again.   (888) 426-4435

Yep, I've called them about onion-eating before.

But I never know what the weight of the cat to amount of the onion ratio is.

Here we go, for next time:  in our 7 1/2 lb cat there is only danger after ingesting 1/4 oz (about the weight of one US quarter.)  That's actually a lot of papery onion skin.  Before that quarter ounce, there might be some upset stomach--we watch for vomiting and take food away for an hour; more than twice warrants another call to the hotline.  More than that quarter ounce might affect red blood cells, but even then there can be transfusions and other support.  (And they told me this time that onion skin vs. the onion flesh really isn't different in toxicity.)

But they don't expect him to be ill.

And he hasn't been any of those other times (I figure it's happened about 1 a year or so for his seven years.)

Still, stressful.

Makes me want to ban those damned onions.

Thank heavens for that ASPCA hotline though, just in case.

The Vet and the Athlete

The themes of the last several days, in addition to birthday and food, have been animals and sports. Sis's world revolves around animals, wild and domesticated, while Buddy is obsessed with sports, moving beyond his usual baseball fanaticism to embrace football and soccer too.

As part of their birthday celebration weekend, Mama took Friday off and we went to the zoo to see the special bird show. Sis was so excited to see live scarlet macaws, owls, and especially the singing parrot, who can perfectly imitate "Old MacDonald." Now, Sis imitates the parrot singing, with a funny way of saying "ei-ei-o." If you live in CT, definitely catch the bird show at the zoo; it's worth it. But it was Bud who was brave enough to give the raven a donation. Sis just watched. And Mama and I wore the little rubber bracelets with "Fly Free" on them. We also saw our usual tour--wolves, tigers, rainforest, otters, etc.--but this time the Andean bears were actually awake! I think that's a first in three years of going! Of course, the best part, as usual, was riding the carousel, which Sis did 3 times and Bud did 1. She gets very excited about which animals she rides, choosing the zebra, gorilla, and panda this time. She noticed that the panda was holding something. "Bamboo," Mama explained. She said she thought it was holding a whistle. And it does sorta look like that.

We picked up Goo after a car nap and went straight for lunch at a Tex-Mex place that Sis has now dubbed the "chip restaurant." She loved the crispy tortilla chips and Bud actually liked the spicy salsa. Then she inhaled some chicken fingers while he ate a whole plate of rice and beans, leaving quesadillas untouched. We treated ourselves to ice cream afterwards, receiving balloons for their birthdays. She got chocolate with M&Ms and he got strawberry with mini gummies. Mama got a special Pina Colada ice and I got tamarind ice, which was wonderfully sweet and sour. No one else wanted any so I got the whole thing to myself. We spent the rest of the day playing outside in the playhouse from Gommie and Pop and in the little pool. Buddy insisted on playing pretend baseball, where we pretend to throw the ball and he pretends to bat and then runs the pretend bases in a homerun. At least there are no balls to chase!

The birthday party was all animals. And Sis loved it. Bud had a good time, but it was Sis who was really in her element (which is fine; he liked last year's outside bubble party much more than she did). They both liked having the undivided attention of Goo and our babysitter, who came to help and help celebrate. (this made it so much easier to set up and talk to the people running the birthday). They got to pet bunnies, a guinea pig, a dove, and snakes. Yay, snakes. Sis was probably the most intrigued--I'm not even sure how many of the other kids touched the animals, though I'm assured by the moms that they had a good time--she even lay on the floor face-to-face through the cage with the guinea pig. The staff of the nature center were impressed by her rapport with them. Sis loves animals. She had, coincidentally, received a play vet kit from us for her birthday. And she proceeded to examine all of her stuffies, finding "wrinkly paws," other ills, and just pets who needed checkups. Even when she played explorer with the kit she got (or was it for Buddy? Sometimes the lines get blurred after the fact), she was looking to rescue animals. No wonder she selected Diego, the Animal Rescuer, as her theme for plates and napkins. And the animal cupcakes--with these wonderful photo transfers of various woodland critters (thanks, T!)--were for her.

Buddy had chosen baseball plates and napkins and had "Yankee symbol" cupcakes. He was so excited to see them! He spent the weekend, when we weren't at the zoo or the nature center looking at animals, or eating Tex-Mex, birthday cakes (including one from Junior's from Goo!!), and ice cream, trying to corral us to play sports with him. We played real and pretend baseball. And then we added other sports because he got this Diego sports pack for his birthday complete with little football and soccer ball (plus bat, baseballs, and glove). So he donned his new Yankees shirt, played baseball, and then switched to football, which he played with Mama and Sis at church. He has even got a good spiral on his pretty accurate throws. And he's slept with that football the last three nights! Mama suggested we get him an orange and white football while we're in Texas. I don't think Uncle Soccer would quite approve. Especially because I suggested we should substitute that for the ring pillow! But hopefully, they can play sports together. Buddy has even picked up on his new uncle's favorite sport, having watched some women's soccer (USA vs Brazil) with us. We ran around the living room trying to kick it under the coffee table, shouting "Goal!" everytime we did. He likes the celebration--running around for his homeruns and dancing with his arms up when he catches a pass are an important part of his game. We'll have to look into going to some local games (though, we did record the home run derby for him tonight, too).

So, a vet and an athlete. Not a bad way to spend a third birthday. They've even decided that those are what they want to be for Halloween. It's easier than a jaguar costume!