Happy Birthday Rosie Hawthorne!!!

Rosie Hawthorne of Kitchen's are Monkey Business is having a birthday today! Whoot!

Hoping your day is f'ntastic and that no one gives you a birthday cake from Grandma Lorraine, a plate of cat poo truffles, or a champagne cake with disco balls on top.

Rachael Ray helps out with the corn

I must still be twelve on the inside as this had me cracking up!
Thanks to Food Network Humor for the video.

SHCWSL- Homecoming Tailgate

Here's a link to the The Food Network's website

"zesty Buffalo Chicken Pizza, Chipotle Java Rubbed Tenderloin, Chocolate Coconut Almond Cake and a Homecoming Punch."

How come 'zesty' isn't capitalized? Did 'zesty' misbehave or something? Why isn't her salad mentioned? Why do I care so much? *confused*

Now let's take a moment and breathe deeply because there's a beef tenderloin on Sandy's menu today and I don't know about you but, watching her abuse expensive cuts of meat just really gets to me.

Ready? Okay, into the fray we go...

First up, most people who tailgate do not bring along pom poms, sweatshirts, and flowers so that they can spend time decorating the parking lot.


Chipotle Java Rubbed Tenderloin
Please note that Sandy has already done a coffee crusted beef tenderloin before so this newest incarnation should ideally be an improvement over the old one. ( Yeah, I know but, we are talking ideals here *not* reality!)

Let's look at Saveur's recipe for a Coffee Crusted Beef Tenderloin and compare this recipe to the recipe that Sandy is making today. The Saveur recipe calls for variety of ingredients including three different varieties of chilies. Both the Saveur recipe and Sandy's most current one, call for ground cinnamon while only Sandy's most current recipe calls for *eyes bug out* instant coffee and a seasoning packet?? *laughs hysterically then realizes the recipe is for real and begins weeping for the poor defenseless tenderloin that met it's demise through Sandy's machinations* Okay, neither Sandy nor her recipe reminds us to remove the string before serving which is troublesome. So perhaps receiving a piece with string attached is like getting the baby in the King Cake? Floss for later? Should unattached guests in search of a significant other place it under their pillow in hopes that it will bring them dreams of said person?
Hell, if I know!

I will say that following that seasoning packet link did answer a burning question I've had about why Sandy says we can "see flavor" besides the oh so obvious shriketastic answer to any and all mysteries of the Sandyverse.

Great Grilled Romaine Sandy, I'm surprised at you! This title needs some more words that start with the letter 'G' so that I can use my Tony the Tiger voice. Your dressing has garlic in it so why not call it Great Grilled Romaine with Garlic and Gallon of Gin on the side?

Okay, I'm just having a little fun with alliteration there. Unless I blacked out while watching this and missed some horrible thing, this is not a bad recipe if you enjoy grilled Romaine and blue cheese dressing. You put some olive oil on your Romaine, grill, put on the dressing and eat. Be careful to not overcook the Romaine! I'm pleased to see her making her own blue cheese salad dressing so I must give her credit for that. Whoot! Go Sandy!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza
All righty then, for this recipe we need:
1 pound chicken tenders, cut into small strips, 1 cup buffalo wing sauce plus 2 tablespoons, 1 can refrigerated pizza dough, 1 cup blue cheese dressing.

For some unknown reason, Sandy brought out a bottle of salad dressing instead of just making up some extra dressing when she made the salad. Huh? Why would she go to the trouble of making homemade blue cheese dressing for one recipe on and not for another recipe on the same show?? *throws hands up in air and walks away muttering*

On that note, why are we instructed to slice up chicken tenders before we grill them? They are already on the small side so won't they fall through the grill if you are not extremely careful? Sorry, but I call foul on her fowl. *ducks to avoid being hit by various flying objects being hurled for having the nerve to attempt such a horrific pun*

Sandy chose a red onion and sliced it up herself. This was odd to me because I was certain that chopping or slicing onion fell under the "monkey business" heading in her world. *confused* She then confided that she selected a red onion for this recipe because it matched her school colors. *rolls eyes* She tells us Buffalo sauce is smart which is very disturbing because I'm almost certain that none of *my* condiments are sentient.

If I'm not mistaken, she reused the same pair of unwashed tongs for both raw and cooked foods throughout this episode, eww. She let the whack-a-dough cook on the grill for a bit and then she dumped on some of the store bought *sighs* blue cheese salad dressing, the rest of the toppings and returned it to the grill to finish baking. I really think the bottom was overdone when she finally retrieved it which is not good. Really folks, there are other recipes out there for Buffalo chicken pizza so don't waste your time and money on this one.


Chocolate Coconut Almond Layer Cake

Earlier in the week, I read what Sandy was making before the recipes were added, and I jotted down how I thought this recipe would be executed. My prediction was:

She's going to use a white cake mix, and add almond extract, coconut extract, and cocoa powder. Then when the cake is cool, she'll probably take a tub or three of white frosting and add the same things to the frosting. The outside of the cake will be covered with bagged coconut and she'll dump some almonds on top while screeching about "attention to detail" and how putting almonds ONto the cake makes her the smartest thing on her obviously radioactive waste filled block.

I was so very wrong and was obviously thinking of her modus operandi from years past! Making a cake from scratch or even a cake mix is sooo early 21st century. *rolls eyes* I never thought I would say this but, I miss her frosting the store bought angel food cakes as at least those are readily available in most grocery stores for those who want to make her AFC recipes. Should I be on the lookout for a new chain of stores called "No Monkey Business Here!" featuring a entire line of unfrosted layer cakes, seasoning packets, booze, and items for creating tablescapes? *bangs head on desk muttering and crying about the future of food in the USA*

We are instructed to come up with: two unfrosted store bought *eye roll* chocolate cake layers, 2 (16 oz) cans of chocolate frosting, 1 teaspoon almond extract, 1 cup coconut, and 1/4 cup toasted and chopped peanuts. *looks very confused* Why does this recipe call for peanuts when the title is Chocolate Coconut Almond Layer Cake?!? *sighs in exasperation* I've spent time with almonds, I know almonds, I love almonds. Peanuts, you are not almonds!!

Maybe it was just my TV but, those cakes looked really dark on top. I know chocolate cake is supposed to be dark but they looked burnt to me. She used the cap on her bottle of almond extract to "measure" 1 teaspoon while chirping about how the extract will make the TWO tubs of chocolate frosting taste homemade which is a big fat lie to anyone who still possesses taste buds. Plus TWO 16 ounce tubs of frosting for that amount of cake is just plain overkill. I really don't know why anybody would invest their time and money in assembling this cake.

Homecoming Punch-

Sandy proceeds to tell us that she learned some great cocktail recipes during her college years. You drank back in college Sandy? Wow, I never would have guessed that! *busts out laughing* I went to parties back in college where they served Jello shooters and "trashcan punch" made with Everclear. I still think either one of those choices is better than mixing thawed orange juice concentrate, thawed pink lemonade concentrate, cranberry juice cocktail, brandy, and champagne. Ugh!


Tablescape:
*laughs hysterically and stops to wipe tears from face*

Oh boy! I hope if I'm ever seriously ill that someone sends me a DVD of nothing but her tablescapes to cheer me up. This one would definitely be on the aforementioned DVD!

She actually set up a big dining room table out there in the parking lot and had a maroon cloth on the table with.... wait for it... some very thin artificial turf on top with grey and yellow tape marking off the yard lines! She had dishes and everything! There were team pennants decorating the table and encircling the glass fishbowl/punchbowl. It was comedy gold!!

This episode reminded me of the one where she had a picnic in the park and brought her dining room table and chairs with her and hung a chandelier up in a nearby tree. Bwah!

Adventures in grocery shopping

Friday, I went out to do some grocery shopping. First, I went out to the Ultra-Super-Duper-Gigantico-MegaMart (USDGMM) as I had some things on my list that the other smaller stores in my area don't always carry. While there, I decided to go ahead and get some bay leaves for a recipe I planned to make. I was dismayed to find that the only container of bay leaves I could find was $5.64 (USA) for .18 ounces! I stood there muttering to myself when I remembered that USDGMM is one of those stores that plays dirty. By that I mean that there is another cheaper spice area on another aisle and this area is not mentioned on the overhead signs. I looked up and down the aisles until I finally found this area of spices on the international aisle. There I found a bag of bay leaves priced $1.12 (USA) for .25 ounces. I muttered an obscenity about USDGMM hiding the cheaper spices like that and then let out a small [Sandra Lee] Whoot![/Sandra Lee] as USDGMM hadn't fooled me.


Then, I went over to another smaller grocery store to pick up a few of this week's sale items. While there, I noticed that the store had some bakery items that were marked down and placed on a rolling cart near the dairy case. I saw that there were a few bags of rolls, a couple of loaves of bread, and two decorated cakes on the cart. I looked a bit closer at the decorated cakes and discovered that one of them was some unknown Muppet-like character and the other one was actually a pair of cupcake cakes. These cupcake cakes were the kind where after the cupcakes are arranged in the desired shape, the whole thing is frosted and decorated like a sheet cake.

The top one was made up of five cupcakes, heavily coated in purple frosting, and had "I love U" written on it in pink frosting. The one below it was also made up of five cupcakes but heavily coated with pink frosting and had "Sexy" written on it in purple frosting. The frosting was inexpertly applied, and the lettering was poorly done. In other words it was well... ugly. I stared at the cakes and wondered to myself if the person who ordered "Sexy" had seen it and refused to pay for it, or did "Sexy" and his or her beloved break up after the cakes were ordered?

I pondered for half a second if I should buy "Sexy" because for some bizarre reason, I felt sorry for the unfortunate pair who had been banished to the bargain cart. I soon nixed that idea as I really didn't think I would enjoy the cakes at all. Still, I felt a little sad and hoped that someone would buy "Sexy" before time was up for the pair. It was Friday so maybe some college students craving sugar bought the two cakes and devoured them. I know it's strange but, I really hope "Sexy" went home with somebody.

My pantry is slowly getting better...

I'm slowly getting my pantry arranged in our new apartment. I'm very lucky that we have a nice closet in the study/craft/kitty room that I can use for this purpose. I still want to get some more of the sturdier metal racks that can easily support canned goods, sugar, flour, etc... I always have trouble getting started on tasks like this as my perfectionism gets in the way of getting started. I have to do silly things like make deals with myself that "I'll just put XYZ here for now and move it later" so that I can get started. I guess if you aren't dealing with those kinds of issues it sounds weird but, trust me, it can really make it difficult to get things done! Here's what it looks like right now:



Here's how the Aerogarden is coming along. The plant that still has the plastic cap over it is supposed to be cilantro. ( Click to see the big picture.) I think it's dead though as it should have sprouted by now.



That's all for now!

Clocks

I haven't gone nutty, I'm just sticking these up here for now to see how I like them. These are from clocklink.com if anybody else is interested in them.

Braciole

Can you tell this has been in the kitchen with me?





Look at the first picture to see what is in the filling.




I should have started this earlier. Since I was in a time crunch, I just added some red wine, black pepper, salt, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder to a can of tomato puree and let it simmer about 10 minutes before putting it in the baking dish.



Should have seen me trying to tie this up. It was humorous!
The glass cup on the left has my pepper mill in it. We dropped it on the floor years ago and a piece of the bottom broke off. It still works but, it can't stand up by itself so we just keep it in that cup. Obviously that's my salt mill on the right with some sea salt in it. I was supposed to put salt and pepper on the inside of the roll but, I forgot so I put some on the outside.




Sizzle! Pop! Ow!



Here's a shot where you see the filling coming out of the gap.
I don't have any tongs so I just used a wooden spoon to hold it up.






Heh, I was doing laundry at the same time as I was making this. When I came back from checking the laundry, there was splotches of tomato sauce on the wall and stove.



Just needs some sauce on top. The color is weird here. It didn't look that black on top in real life.






Ready for the lid and into the oven.



*Sigh* I need some minions to clean up my messes.



Whoot! Looks pretty good.






Did this while clipping off the twine. Glad it didn't land on me!




Caesar salad for Mr. Hairball.




Pulled some veggie/pasta mix out of the freezer for me. I boiled some penne as well so I had two kinds of pasta for dinner. I only had enough Caesar dressing already made up for one salad. I gave it to Mr. Hairball since I knew there was no way he would eat any of the veggie/pasta mix I made.




Mr. Hairball's plate minus his salad. I forgot to take a picture of mine. Just imagine everything moved over and some veggie/pasta mix on the plate for mine.



Here you can see that I didn't pound it flat enough and as the meat cooked, it wasn't long enough to reach all the way around. Oh well, My arm was getting tired and I was afraid I was disturbing my neighbors. Next time I'll take my time and do the pounding in the afternoon so I don't disturb anyone.

It was very good even if it wasn't picture perfect.

My undying devotion to Alton Brown and a recipe for apricot fried pies

I've had a serious crush on Alton Brown for several years. It's mostly because he reminds me so much of Mr. Hairball. They are both smart, attractive, glasses wearing, science loving, sweet guys who like to cook. When we lived in Georgia, there was always that tiny, tiny, chance that I might run into Alton at Bed, Bath, and Beyond or Kroger. Sadly it never happened. Maybe that was for the best. I probably would have passed out or just stood there pointing at him with my mouth hanging open like a complete and utter doofus.

One of my favorite episodes:


Part II


This particular episode is one of my favorites because it reminds me of my late grandma. My grandma made these killer apricot fried pies and we used to fight over the darn things. One time when Brother Hairball was going to school and living with her, she made up a whole mess of pies for the relatives in her town and a batch for my family, the out of state Hairballs. So Brother Hairball leaves her house with about five dozen and started the long drive back home. He's got the pies on the seat beside him and they are calling to him with their flaky goodness and that perfect blend of sweet and tart that is the perfect apricot fried pie. Long story short, he eats at least 1/2 of the pies while driving back home. He walks in the house where we are eagerly awaiting the fried pies, (oh and him too!) one of us snatches the Ziploc bag out of his hands and says "where's the rest?" He sheepishly grins and reminds us that it's a long drive from grandma's house and he just couldn't help himself. So then an insane little game of hiding the remaining fried pies ensues. Father Hairball and I found them and hid them behind the toaster from Mama Hairball who then found them and hid them from us, etc.... until we ate every last crumb.

In reading over my grandma's recipe you will notice that she used a traditional pie crust instead of the biscuit-like dough that Alton prefers for his pies.

Grandma's Apricot Fried Pies
makes 10-12 pies
2 cups AP flour
2 TBS sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening
about 1/2 cup water
apricot filling - recipe is after the pastry

Pastry-
Sift together the flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in the shortening and add enough water to make a firm dough. Roll out dough so it is 1/8th inch thick and cut dough into 5 inch circles. Place fruit on one half of circle, moisten dough edge with water, fold over and press edges with a fork to seal. Fry in deep fat heated to 375F for 3 1/2 to 4 minutes. Drain on a rack placed over newspapers or paper towels and dust with granulated sugar. Let cool before eating.


Apricot filling-
Open package of dried apricots before use, place on paper towels, and check for any debris or bad pieces of fruit. Discard any bad pieces or debris. Then put the package of dried apricots in a saucepan, barely cover with water, and bring it to boil until tender. (It will take at least 10 minutes to reach the desired texture.) Take off the stove when tender and mash up the apricots and whatever water remains in the saucepan with a potato masher. Slowly add sugar to taste until still a little tart but, not too tart. The filling needs to be cool before you make your pies so leave it out for about 45 minutes and then place in the icebox *grins* for several hours or overnight. Later or the next day, make your pies as described above.


*I'm sorry but, I don't know how many ounces the original package of dried fruit contained. I buy mine in the big package at the wholesale club, and just dump some out in a saucepan. If I make too much, I keep it in the refrigerator and use it on toast, biscuits, etc...

Sandy makes some scary crap aka 'Apres Ski'

I don't usually get to watch ol' Sandypants on the weekends but, today I will be able to see a brand spankin' new episode. I'm going to start this based solely on the recipes as printed on the Food Network's website and fill in as I see what happens on the show today.

"Can I just tell you" that fruit with poultry *can* actually be good? Heck, I even had a minor freakout right in the middle of the grocery store a few days before Christmas as there were no fresh cranberries in the produce department. I stopped by another grocery store and much to my delight, not only did they they have fresh cranberries, they even had two different sizes of bags! I'm sure the poor folks watching the security cameras were laughing hysterically at my reaction to seeing that they did have cranberries in the produce department. I ran over to the display, grabbed the biggest bag and clutched it to my chest hugging the cranberries and smiling like I'd been nipping at the wine over on the "drunk and disorderly" aisle. Oh well, it was probably more fun for them than having to watch the customers adjust their undies over in aisle four. *grins*

Anyhoo, let me get this train back on the tracks. Today, I cruised over to the Semi-Ho group over at TWOP, read some of the pre-show snark, and followed the link from TWOP to see the recipes that Sandy will be using today. Of course reading the recipes and seeing Sandy make them is a totally different thing altogether. There are even times when the recipe seems like it might okay until you see what she did with it on her show. I've switched the order around of the recipes from the website to match the order they were presented on the show.

First up we have Colorado Chili. Lets have a moment of silence for the citizens of Colorado who deserve better than this.

I feel your pain as she's performed culinary abominations to dishes popular in my home state. I am so bummed out that Sandy didn't do her whole dire warning about matter and anti-matter colliding if we don't preheat our slow cookers before adding hot food to it. Whoa there! Does drinking ginormous amounts of alcohol just completely burn off your tastebuds or what? I like spicy food but, Hells bells, Sandy three freakin' cans of green chiles?? I'm also not understanding why there is both
salt-free Mexican seasoning and chili powder in this recipe. It depends on the manufacturers recipe but, the two products I have linked duplicate some of the ingredients. Wouldn't it make more sense to *gasp* use individual spices so that you had complete control over what is added to the recipe? *smacks head* Forgive me for trying to use logic to make sense of this show! Now Sandy, could you pretend to start the chili/stew stuff earlier or do the old cooking show standby of pulling out a finished dish and saying here's one I made earlier? We saw you start it and tell us to cook it for 4-6 hours and then the same one is done before the show is over? If somebody gets to travel through time it better be me instead of Sandra Lee! I also see that Sandy used "pre-chopped" onions from the salad bar and "real" bacon bits which is different than her own recipe. We don't have any grocery stores with salad bars where I live.I guess I could visit a local buffet restaurant and buy some "pre-chopped" onions from them. *confused* Oh wait! I could buy an onion at the grocery store and chop it up myself. *looks horrified and faints*

Second dish is Balsamic Glazed Butternut Squash. Shouldn't that be Balsamic Vinegar Glazed Butternut Squash? Sandy just seemed a little too proud of herself for knowing what the main ingredients are in lemon pepper seasoning. Once again, I don't live in the big city so some of these Semi-Ho pre-whatever foods are foreign to me like the 20-ounce package peeled cubed butternut squash. Is it really that hard to wash and peel that puppy yourself?? Sorry, sorry, I keep forgetting she's the queen of the garlic "inajar".


Next we have the Chicken Cherry Baguette Burgers which is actually a recipe sent in by one of her fans or Fandras as the folks at TWOP call them. Okay, we have three items that include the word 'cherry, in this recipe. We have frozen cherries, sweet cherry peppers, and black cherry jam. First up, does the author of this recipe think that cherry peppers taste like cherries or is this more of the 'things that look alike must taste alike' logic we've come to expect from this program? The recipe doesn't say whether the frozen cherries are sweetened or unsweetened which is troublesome as there are different kinds of frozen cherries available especially to those who live in larger cities. On the show, Sandy says something about the sweet cherries being good with the ground chicken so I guess it's supposed to be sweet cherries? *confused* That burger mixture just looked vile, vile, vile! Sandy, forming burgers is not what I would call "fun". The "glamour shot" of the finished ones did look better but that is not saying much. I also just can't wrap my brain around mixing black cherry jam INto mayonnaise. My stomach is lurching now just contemplating it. Oh man, if I had a hangover, I'd definitely be sprinting to the bathroom about now. She didn't mention baking the bread from whack-a-dough like in the recipe. I don't understand why you would put that nasty mayonnaise mixture on the whole loaf before you slice it for the burgers. Perhaps she screwed up and they didn't re-shoot it? I'm seriously considering that one of the shrikes at TWOP sent that recipe in. I mean what sane person would mix sweet chopped cherries INto ground chicken and make 'burgers' out of it? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

Now we have our dessert which is Coffee S'More Pie The recipe doesn't look too bad so this is probably one of those where she gets a little crazy with the booze since this recipe has coffee liqueur in it. Wow after seeing this on TV, it didn't look like Sandy poured in an outrageous amount of booze! Sandy are you feeling okay? I don't think she knows about chocolate graham crackers as she seems to think the chocolate graham cracker pie shells are different beyond the addition of chocolate. I loved watching her measuring out heaping spoons of cocoa with that big spoon from the silverware drawer instead of using a set of measuring spoons! There's other episodes where she goes on about the importance of correct measurements in baking but then she pulls this crap and her ever popular 'using the cap of the bottle of extract' instead of a measuring spoon. When we saw the unbaked pie in the oven, it looked all speckled like it wasn't mixed well before it was poured INto the graham cracker crust. What was that about? Uh Sandy, those are not the "teeny-tiny" marshmallows you proceeded to spill all over the baking sheet. The "teeny-tiny" ones are the ones like you find in some kinds of hot cocoa mix or cold cereal you brainless twit!

It's cocktail time, "the best part of the day"!!! Today she's making the Coco-Cafe Whistler. Lets see what we've got here. We've got 1 1/2 shots brandy, 1/2 shot creme de cacao, 1/2 shot peppermint schnapps, and 1 shot heavy cream in each serving if made as the recipe reads. So we've got two and a half shots of alcohol in each drink if made as the published recipe. As someone who rarely drinks I'd surely be under the table if I had even half a serving of the cocktail. I saw her make this and that sucker looked stronger than the written recipe to me!

Tablescape time!! There's no room left on the table for food! Oh wait, that's a good thing! Whoot! I didn't know that sane adults would soak tongue depressors in water and use toothpicks to make little skis and ski poles for each guest. I've obviously led a sheltered life.

Pictures and assorted ramblings...

Went out to the meat lab and bought some more beef bacon, tenderized round steak, and summer sausage. Mr Hairball wanted to try the summer sausage so I got some of that. There is one really nice meat science professor who usually waits on us when we go out there and I always think of him as Dr. Bacon. *grins*

The round steak will be used for chicken fried steak, the beef bacon is for our Saturday brunches, and the summer sausage will be for Mr. Hairball's "party trays". He loves to make up a plate of munchies like olives, cheese, nuts, crackers, some kind of processed meat, etc... and calls it a "party tray".

I made a simple chicken stir-fry earlier in the week. Mr. Hairball doesn't like most cooked vegetables so he fished out all the chicken and ate that with some of the rice I made. He said it was good but, I sure wish I could get him to eat more cooked vegetables. He will eat small portions of certain roasted vegetables so in the summer, I pretend I'm Ina Garten and make roasted green beans or asparagus.

I'm tried out my 'new to me' bread machine, and it seems to work just fine. Mr. Hairball has requested that I make him some cranberry walnut bread so that is on the plan for next week. I'm thinking again about saving up for a grain mill as I've read about how freshly ground flour is more nutritious and that items made with such flour are mighty tasty.

We only have one piece of cake left so I think the next thing I bake will be Chocolate Dipped Orange Butter Cookies from Joanna's Kitchen. I ran into some good sales on butter so I'll use some of it up on some cookies.

Now from what I've been told, I should already be in the fetal position sobbing hysterically about the "birthday of doom" that I have coming up on 01/20/2009. The thing is I am as they say in my neck of the woods, "ornery" and just plain refuse to waste time gnashing my teeth about getting older as there is not a blessed thing I can do about it. You either get older or you die and I'm not ready to jump off this merry-go-round just yet. Every year I live I'm hopefully a little bit smarter than I was the year before.



There was a big sale on canned soup at the grocery store today. I had coupons so I really stocked up. I think 74 cans of soup should last us quite a long time! I also stocked up on peanut butter and frozen veggies. Knowing that I have lots of stuff squirreled away in the pantry and in my little freezer, means that I don't have an excuse to eat out on those nights when I'm sick or just don't feel like cooking. I think of it as "budget insurance" since stuff from my pantry or freezer is much cheaper than ordering pizza or going through the drive-through.



My MIL gave us an aerogarden for Christmas. Mr. Hairball is the gardener. One day we will have a real garden but, this is nice if you are in an apartment like we are.


This is the cat we adopted back in February of '98. She was pregnant when we adopted her.Twelve hours later, she had six kittens. It was a wild time trying to corral the kittens so that they didn't destroy the apartment while we were out. We found homes for the four boy kittens and kept Momma Cat and her two daughters. Sadly one of her daughters died in June of '08. Here's a picture of her. She is dearly missed.




This one is nicknamed Momma Cat Junior (MCJ) because she fawns all over Momma Cat just like Chester did to Spike in the old Merrie Melodies cartoon.

Tree for Two Scene
Uploaded by thadk

Momma Cat also smacks MCJ with her paw when she's had enough of her being in her face. I feel bad for MCJ but, it is also really funny as Momma Cat just has this look of complete exasperation on her face.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!