Secret Kitties

In a house of six girls, two have cats and one has allergies. This has produced a state of "secret kitties," where the felines remain clandestinely hidden behind barriers and closed doors. This is the closest Argus gets to the wild outdoors, except for that time last week when he ran away for half an hour and freaked out in the brush out back, which my right knuckle is still healing from:
Pictured here in my bathroom window, Argus, Eugenia's adolescent meow meow, enjoys performing his stirring rendition of "Halloween Cat," bidden or unbidden, and is frequently locked in the bathroom at night after two or three incidents of "being a penis" (Eugenia's words). While he has moments of great sweetness, be wary to not hold him too close to your face.

Second secret kitty, Audrey, is of the same type of cat as Argus, except somewhat older, and much fatter. She is also a squeaky, tender feline, the type that will sleep on your head at night, or your side:
It actually seems to be working out quite well...
Occasionally, Argus will hear Audrey squeaking downstairs, and then jumps over his barrier to investigate. Their through-the-door interactions haven't gone so smoothly, so we'll see how it goes this summer when Emily moves out and the cats run free...

Beth's Birthday Torte

My dear Beth had her 22nd birthday on Thursday and we celebrated this palindromic occasion with friends, a back porch, a grill, beers, hotdogs, and Dorie Greenspan's Fifteen-Minute Magic: Chocolate Amaretti Torte. After seeing so many incredible delicacies arising from Greenspan's book Baking: From my home to yours on TasteSpotting, I bought the book for myself and chose this recipe when Beth answered "chocolate. dark chocolate" in response to her cake preferences. I nearly went with the Tarte Noir, but the Amaretti Torte seemed to be a little less serious, and a little more fun.



Instead of flour, the Amaretti Torte uses ground up almonds and Amaretti cookies, a delicious almond macaroon from Italy that I frequently see at Marshall's and TJ Maxx. The "fifteen-minute magic" refers to the amount of time it takes to prepare the batter, which is easily done in the food processor, and thankfully the torte doesn't require any fancy equipment, just a cake pan and icing spreaders.




For the chocolate, I used Valhrona bittersweet dark which mixed seamlessly into the torte, making it velvety and rich, all the things you would want a torte to be, while the ganache stands to satisfy your pure chocolate needs. I chose to keep the decoration simple, using leftover almonds and amaretti cookies, which inevitably produced tensions over who got a cookie piece. To conclude, Dorie Greenspan's Amaretti Torte is chocolate and almond heaven, decadent and full of character, and cemented my position as a culinary talent.















"Better than oral sex."

Family and Food

In spite of schoolwork and work work I managed to make a visit with my family at the bay for Easter Sunday. Being a family of mostly agnostics, Easter didn't actually have much to do with it, but we did enjoy a good dinner of rotisserie chicken, and started off with Dad's Cold Asparagus Soup.


Here is Dad, pictured with soup

























Made with the "rag-ends" of your asparagus, it doesn't force you to choose between eating asparagus and making some soup, but rather putting to use what would otherwise be thrown away.

We all happily sipped at our goblets of cold, creamy soup although Dad, highly pleased with his culinary product, drank them, and finished most of everyone else's too.

The Recipe, in Dad's words:

Cut bottom half of Asparagus stalks into 1" pieces and put in pan with water and boil til soft. Add some chicken stock and simmer a good while (an hour or more). Let cool a bit and put into blender and puree. Put thru a sieve using wooden spoon to shove it thru. Pour liquid back in pan. Add milk or 1/2 and 1/2. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add a pat of butter. Warm but dont boil. Serve, or put in refrigerator and serve cold the next day.

Another shot, with a view over the bay

First Blog, First Post

Being a crafting twenty-something with a new blog, it seems only appropriate that I start with a post about my cat.


This is Mocha Boca














I got him when I was 12 and had just moved to rural Virginia from Atlanta. Mom thought that a cat might make me resent the move a little less, so a few weeks after we moved in, Mocha became my first post-move pal. Mocha was born under a trailer, had ear mites, and was referred to as "Bubba" by the trailer's inhabitant. His name stems from my twelve-year-old obsession with Starbucks' Mocha Frappuccinos, and Boca simply rhymed. As you can see, in the last ten years he has blossomed into a beautiful, furry feline friend who sleeps on my bed all day.
















Now you know me