Food Co-op November 2008

November half share $14
2 lbs. Chicken leg quarters, 4 oranges, 6 kiwis, 2 avocados, 1 red leaf lettuce, 1 loaf Stone Ground multi-grain bread, 1 lb. bag rice, 1 lb package cube steaks, 1 bunch bananas, 1 bunch broccoli, and 3 tomatoes.

Order for December due December 5th. www.foodco-op.org

Another healthy side note: Jessica, Eva and Sarah went with me to walk (Jessica ran) a neighborhood 5K on Thanksgiving morning. We all made it to the finish and then walked home. We enjoyed walking with friends. Thank you to Janice for sponsoring the walk and setting it up.

Cat Mishaps and Veterinary Bills

Part of pet ownership is taking care of the animals in your possession. Our 12+ year old, little 7 and 1/2 pound cat is basically a DIY type cat-feral with almost anyone to the point of clawing to get away except with our family and my dad. (She behaves at the vet's office if we participate in holding her.) It took us three months just to catch her to have her spayed and when we moved ten years or so ago we didn't know if she'd stick around the new home. She's caught everything from mice and rats to a hummingbird that she had to show off before the death chomp. She rarely gets into fights with other cats-usually seeking to get away. Well, this time she wasn't so fortunate. Our vet thinks the other cat bit her in her right hind paw, judging from the three deep puncture wounds he found. The bite quickly became infected and we took her in after a few days of noticing it was not getting better-without know what was wrong other than her foot was swollen.They initially cleaned all the gunk out from her foot, put in a couple of drain shunts with bandaging and paired it with the oh so chic collar. They said she was a really sweet cat (Are they talking about our cat ?!?!?-She can behave when she knows she's hurt.) Throw in several follow-up visits, a couple of bottles of antibiotics and more bandages before she was finally healed enough for the bandages and collar to come off after a very long three weeks of having our outdoor cat inside.

She's like an outdoor dog-meows at the door to go out and rarely wants to be in more than an hour or so unless it is freezing with blowing snow drifts. It was just in time since she figured out a not so cute contortionist act of stretching her neck out of the collar to reach her extended foot so that she could chew off the bandage during the last 3-4 days of recovery. That's when we started slapping on a bandage ourselves with the home first aid kit of triple antiobiotic, a pad, cotton gauze wrap and first aid adhesive tape.

Her paw will never be exactly as aesthetically pretty as before but the wound is healed beautifully and she started purring loudly when we took off the collar.

Recovered cat with her casual, non-interested look, imitated by Eva-just hanging out together as Eva was reading a Garfield cartoon book from the library. By the way, our vet is really reasonable-the whole episode was only around $250 on the high end-but most places would have charged about three times as much. They are professional and caring at the Millcreek Veterinary Clinic. Dr. Foster has been our veterinarian for a long time now.

Fine Dining at LaCaille

I've never been to LaCaille before... so when I had the opportunity to go with Jessica for a fine dining course thorugh her school I eagerly accepted for both of us. (Parents were invited.) Jessica took pictures of the beautiful grounds.

The front entrance.

The beautiful pond with many birds from swans to peacocks.

The lighting was not the best but this is the escargot (snail) we enjoyed with a pieces of baguette and a garlic butter sauce. We both ate our single snail serving and found that the snails really had no discernible taste with the sauce and a texture similar to a meaty mushroom (like a Shiitake mushroom). The picture below is a clearer example.
(Thank you to Flickr and Williamnyk for the escargot picture above.)

I had the salmon and Jessica had the chicken. Everything was wonderful and I especially liked that the 6 course dinner was only about a small fraction of what it would have cost if we had just come in to dine off the regular menu. I'm grateful that LaCaille offers this opportunity to students (and some parents) who might otherwise miss out on the wonders of fine dining at this historic establishment.

Feed 1 Giant a giant breakfast sandwich

Mmmmm..... this was way better than anything on a fast food breakfast menu. We recently enjoyed this unusual dinner item and found it warmed up to delicious leftovers the next morning. I love food that that's good the first time and good as leftovers.













Breakfast Sandwich for a Giant

1 lb. round loaf French bread
4 to 6 ounces of thinly sliced deli ham and/or turkey
5 to 7 eggs, scrambled with salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese or cheese of your choice
1/2 red, orange or yellow pepper, thinly sliced
1 medium tomato, sliced





1-Cut a thin slice from the top of the French bread and reserve. Hollow out the bread to create a shell of about 1/2". (Use scooped out bread for something else or for the birds.)

2- Layer 1/3 of meat on bottom, then top with slices of pepper and half the cheese.

3-Top with scrambled eggs, then tomato slices, and next the remaining cheese and end with the last 2/3 of the meat, pressing down on layers if necessary to make them fit.

4- Replace bread lid and wrap loaf in aluminium foil. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until cheese is melted and loaf is heated through.

5-Slice into 6-8 wedges to serve for humans or just wrap whole sandwich in paper towels to serve a Giant.

2008 (and before!) Halloween

Sarah's pumpkin is on the far left with the homage to Charlie Brown's costume from It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
Eva went with a more traditional round nose and toothy grin for her upside-down crescent eyed pumpkin. Jessica's pumpkin is a cute puppy dog next to the mailbox with little round ears at the top, two round dots for eyes and a round nose with whiskers above a tongue.










Eva was a gypsy this year.




In previous years we've had more gypsies and mermaids along with wizards and other costumes.