Saturday, January 30, 2021

Cauliflower Crack



 Really Maurice? Do you think that stalking birds at the feeder is a good idea?

Okay. So now I'm watching her as she is staring at a male cardinal on the feeder. Since that tray is about seven feet in the air, I don't think Maurice can leap up and snatch the bird. Hope may spring eternal but cats can't spring that high. I'm glad the cat is outside getting some fresh air and possible exercise. She was on our bed from around ten o'clock last night to early afternoon when I shooed her off the bed so that I could finally make it. She's taken to settling in on Mr. Moon's pillows to claim the bed as hers before Jack gets on it. She sleeps on the pillows until she Mr. Moon comes to bed and then she moves down to sleep next to or on me where she growls and snarls every time I try to move. 


This is about as peaceful and cuddly as you might imagine. I do try to cut her some slack, thinking of how she was probably raised by a feral mother in a van down by the river (or, to be more accurate, possibly at the dump) and I do love her but the constant threat of attack and injury is somewhat daunting. But just as with all cats, what her humans think about her and her ways is simply not her concern. 

Boy, did I have an exciting day! First off, I washed my bathroom rugs because last night after my shower, wanting to be a good wife, I started my husband a bath. I turned on the water and poured some epsom salts in and suddenly realized that there was water everywhere. I didn't have my glasses on and because I'm quite blind without them, didn't notice that the shower attachment part of the tub plumbing arrangement was on partway. At this point, most of the rugs and the front of my nightgown were wet. 
I hauled all of the rugs to the washer and mopped up the water as best I could with towels and changed my nightgown and then proceeded into the Glen Den where I gave Mr. Moon a small lecture on not leaving the shower attachment on when he leaves the bath and he apologized profusely and asked me to please just let him start his baths. 
I most certainly will. 
So today I washed all the rugs and also the towels that I'd used for mopping purposes and I did the crossword and swept some rooms and cleaned all the toilets and then I cleaned the hen house. 
None of this was nearly as strenuous as it sounds. The most difficult thing I did all day was to distribute three bags of leaf mulch in the garden and that was only hard because the bags were very heavy from rain getting in to saturate the leaves and the bags were old and they tore. 
It isn't easy being me. 
I also weeded a little which in my case involves kneeling and pulling and scooting about via knee-walking. 

So I feel lazy. Hell, the man's even going to grill us some chicken for supper. 
But I am going to make the cauliflower. I am afraid to ask him if he's tired of it yet because if he says that he is, I'll feel bad when I keep making it and serving it because I am not going to stop making it. I may tire of it eventually but not yet. 

Since this is quite possibly the world's most boring blog post, I will try to make sure that you get your money's worth by sharing the recipe for the cauliflower. Again, I hope the New York Times does not sue me. Perhaps the fact that I have recommended their app (which does cost money) about fifty times will save me. 



The changes that I make are that I use one strip of bacon rather than pancetta because I don't buy pancetta. It could probably be left out entirely. I don't add the cumin seed. I did once and it did nothing for me at all and I do love cumin. And I never serve it with the parsley or mint because again, I don't keep those. However, do with it what you will. As to the type of olive I use- just regular green ones although sometimes I do a mix of those and Kalamata. 

Happy cooking, y'all!

Love...Ms. Moon



22 comments:

  1. Maurice's chances of nailing a bird on the feeder are slim to nothing. A bird on the ground is another matter, but a bird on the ground either is a cat taunter or in its last mind.

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    1. Exactly. Not to say that Maurice has not caught a bird or two in her lifetime. But I think the ones at this feeder are safe.

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  2. I once asked a great cook friend what was pancetta. I had no idea. She said, oh, it's just like lardon, you know. So I went and looked up lardon.

    Just FYI: my long ago cat Victoria, a fat old tabby, could easily jump from floor to the top of the kitchen cabinet, right near the ceiling. All cats can't but there's always an outlier. Then there was dear Duncan who never jumped but climbed paw over paw, which accounted for a lot of punctures in the bedclothes.

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    1. Oh my goodness! That is a leaper! I have a small hole in one of my sheets from when I tried to remove Jack from the bed to make it and he was not ready to move.
      And I had to go google lardon too. I think I knew but I wasn't sure and yep- that's about what I thought. The name is sort of self-descriptive.

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  3. anything with bacon is already 100% OK. What is kosher salt?
    Wish I had a ginger cat to sleep on my pillow, not one that is sharp and pointy, but a sweet ginger cat who also knows how to do dishes. That is my wish.

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    1. Oh, don't worry about kosher salt. If you ask me, salt is salt. NaCl
      I guess that kosher salt has been blessed by the rabbi or prepared in a kosher facility or something.
      I wish Maurice wasn't sharp and pointy and could wash dishes. That would indeed be my wish too.

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    2. Actually kosher salt is not kosher in and of itself-- it is used in the koshering process for meat, which involves heavy salting. Most people buy kosher salt because they want coarse flaky salt for some culinary purpose (home-made pretzels?) that has nothing to do with koshering meat. It's pretty interchangeable with gourmet flaky sea salt, and probably cheaper.

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  4. We hunted down the cauliflower recipe when you first raved about it, for my birthday dinner, and we've been raving about it ever since. It truly has some knock-your-socks-off magic in those humble ingredients. We add parsley, because it's amazingly hardy in our northern climes, and pickable all year round out the back door. I just today lugged one of the pots of dead-looking mint indoors, in hopes it'll re-sprout quickly for another NYT recipe that has me salivating.

    Too much bath/shower excitement! And bless Maurice's gingery little heart...

    Chris from Boise

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    1. Oh! I'm so glad you found that recipe! It's just so damn good.
      That was a bit too much bath and shower excitement but we survived.

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  5. My mother actually stopped putting food in her bird feeders because her cats would sit like that beneath them, and she was afraid the birds were being lured to their deaths. I told her they'd have to be on the ground to get caught, which seemed unlikely, but in any case she never fed the birds again. (I am not recommending that course of action.)

    I love cauliflower!

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    1. Your mother was all or nothing, wasn't she? At least when it came to her birds. When I read about the bazillions of songbirds that cats murder every year I feel terribly guilty about not keeping mine in but if I had to choose between litter boxes or no cats I'd choose no cats. I detest those things.
      Maybe Dave could whip up that cauliflower for you!

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  6. I like the sound of that roast cauliflower. I shall try it out next time I get a cauli ! ( Mine will have bacon not pancetta too !)

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  7. My DH has a tendency to take showers that would scald me. I usually discover the error of my ways when I get in the shower without having first turned the taps down and proceed to get fried by the water. First world problem.

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    1. First world problems indeed! We're just damn lucky to have hot and cold running water, aren't we?

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  8. Was that the closest that you and Mr Moon have ever got to a proper row Ms Moon? As for cauliflower, I never imagined that it could be such a challenge to prepare and oven cook.

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    1. Oh hell no, Mr. P.! That wasn't a row at all. It was just me lecturing and him apologizing. We used to argue more than we do now. I have discovered that it doesn't hurt a thing to say, "You're probably right, honey," and move on. Unless it's something I feel very strongly about in which case I'll get more serious. We don't really fight though at all any more. Takes too much energy.

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  9. wouldn't you know it, yesterday you sent me the recipe and last night before I could mention the recipe to the main cook around here, he steamed the whole thing up for dinner last night.

    perhaps as Maurice ages she will become less bitey grabby. my cat did.

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    1. Oh, no! Marc! You did not steam that cauliflower!
      Oh well. They sell more of them.
      I'm hoping that Maurice finally gets a little less bitey grabby and a lot more gentle as she ages. She's better than she was. Marginally.

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  10. Watching birds at a feeder is Maurice's equivalent of listening to a podcast. Sometimes it's nice to be occupied by something other than your own thoughts as you go about your business. (Not that cats have any business to go about-- but they like to pretend they do.)

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    1. I think you are right! It's pure and simple entertainment for Maurice. Sometimes the cats just hang out and watch the chickens, too. They never go after them.
      And yes, cats certainly do put on a big front about having places to go, things to do, people to see.

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  11. Thanks for that recipe - it looks like it might be nice (and I could do with a little inspiration at the moment). After a walk today I stopped in at my son's. They have a ginger cat called Leni and it's a nasty, vicious little bugger, but now he's taken to rubbing up against my leg but if I go to touch him he lashes out with his claws. Must be something in gingers!

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.