Weekend Recap

Saturday unwittingly became the first, albeit unofficial, Souper Saturday of the year. I had all those lovely organic vegetables to use up, and my first thought was ‘soup’.I found a recipe for Squash Soup on allrecipes.com, and modified it just slightly. I used the yellow squash and the zucchini, a yellow bell pepper that I already had (I thought it would be disguised better than a green one), and cheddar instead of processed cheese. Craig and I thought it was very delicious, and filling. No comment on the kids’ comments.

I also sliced the radishes and sauted them in some butter, then added the steamed green beans and tossed them all together with some sea salt. Craig and I enjoy green beans, but haven’t had a radish since childhood. Cooked, the radishes lost their bite and were quite tasty, almost nutty.

I’m planning to roast the sweet red peppers, and there’s a couple of beets under there that I want to pickle. I may try this recipe, which doesn’t involve canning.

Now an update on our wild ride of pet ownership. Our cat Daisy never came back, in spite of all of Craig’s attempts to find her or trap her. After the first 10 days or so, we never even saw her again.

So, of course, the subject of a new cat started coming up. Firstborn told me he had “a hole in his soul” because he missed Daisy. I certainly have my hands full with an adolescent dog and a puppy, but wasn’t entirely opposed to the idea, as cats are pretty self-sufficient.

I did say if we ever got another cat it would be an adult, a neutered male because I’ve always heard they’re the friendliest, and it would be declawed.

On a whim yesterday I checked craigslist (famous last words). There was an ad for “FREE 1.5 yr old tom cat, neutered, declawed, up to date on shots, good with dogs and people of all ages, exclusively indoor, very friendly”. His owner was a college student who didn’t have time to care for him and her parents didn’t want to.

You saw it coming, didn’t you? You were right. Here is our new cat, Owen Pickles. ‘Owen’ because that’s what we were going to name the puppy if it was male; ‘Pickles’ because when Firstborn was about four somehow it was decided if we ever had a dog we would name it Mr. Pickles and he took it seriously and has wanted to use that name ever since.

I fully expect Daisy to show up at the door in the next couple of days.

(My dad is going to be in town this week, so I may not be as active on the blog. I’ll try to check in a couple times though.)