Get Tagged...

[click on images to enlarge]

Welcome to Sher's cookbook tag party.

I had fun photographing the favored few I have pared down to and included my 40-year collection of precious-to-me recipes [the red folder, which resides permanently in a hurricane evacuation box].

Several I have hung on to for the pictures alone, so inspirational when it comes to pretty presentations [Sher, you shine in that!] and ideas for when the well runs dry.

Lo & behold, I discovered the original Jelly Pizza recipe, typed out, with a scribbled note in pencil for a pretty decent cream cheese, pound cake recipe [do they still make Presto cake flour?].

Last but not least, for those of you unfamiliar with my Friday cat blogs, I have an old kitty, Taboo, who has a favorite nesting "cave" in a closet. I was thinking that this week I should at least try, for a change, to photograph her when she's up and about, wandering the house looking for her human family, plaintively crying, "is anybody home?"

So it is a little personal spoof on myself to display my books in her cave, peeking out much like she does. No kitties were harmed to take the cookbook photos, though she did get a little frustrated when she couldn't go to bed on time. She's there now, racked out until her next meal.

Here's a list of my cookbooks:

The Dinner Party Cook Book [for the pictures!], edited by Hilaire Walden
Not Afraid of Flavor, Recipes from Magnolia Grill, by Ben & Karen Barker
Salad, by Amy Nathan
The Martha Stewart Cookbook
Williams-Sonoma Vegetarian [a Goat Cheese & Leek Tart to die for!]
Martha Stewart's Pies & Tarts [was there ever a prettier display of fruit in pastry?]
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Child, Bertholle & Beck [sigh, soupe à l'oignon, gilding the lily with both wine AND Cognac]
The Food of Greece, by Vilma Liacouris Chantiles
The Complete Book of Home Baking, by Ann Seranne [published in 1950, surely impossible to replace, it too should be stored in the hurricane box]. I've had a paperback version since the early 70s. I used it tonight to make the sweet potato biscuits. In fact, I use it all the time like you would a dictionary or Google even -- as a valuable tool to look everything up.

Thanks, Sher. That was a great idea you had, though I'm sorry to have to confess there's nary a Mexican recipe in my whole collection -- not an intended cultural slight, just lack of exposure.

I Hope I'm Not Too Late...

...to board

Friday's Ark!

Hello to all my feline friends at

Weekend Cat Blogging
hosted on 11/25 by
House of the (Mostly) Black Cat

Dreyspotting...

[click on images to enlarge]Thursday's wind and rain came

and blew off the fall leaves,
revealing that which had been hidden.

A Routine Checkup...

[click on image to enlarge]

NOT!

It was originally scheduled that way, but the passing storms the night before blew a brown, ground skink on to the porch, where Taboo promptly crunched off it's wee head & tail, leaving it's cylindrical torso with 4 little legs all akimbo.

When I spotted it this morning, I wondered aloud, "What the hell?!?" I thought at first it might be....er, might have been a salamander but then I recalled skinks are a lot more common around here.

Googling around for pictures and stories, it was possible to find testimonials regarding scary neurological syndromes ["lizard brain"] in cats having devoured five-lined skinks, with the pretty blue tails.

The vet seemed more concerned that she might have been exposed to a salmonella infection. I sure hope not, but we're keeping a close eye on her for any tummy upsets, which she does not need obviously.

I took a picture of the remains of the day, but decided it was either too gross for mammal lovers or too disrespectful to reptile lovers to post here for

the Friday Ark

or

Weekend Cat Blogging,
hosted this weekend by
Catsynth.

If you can guess what's in the white container with the black lid next to Taboo's carrier, I'll send you a photo of the remains as a consolation prize.

It's That Time of Year...

[click on all images to enlarge]

The first photo is in honor of Sher's foster kids.
They'd feel right at home in that sour gum.

Un-wanker Of The Day...

jurassicpork, at Welcome to Pottersville:

This was because these arrogant maniacs actually believed the tide would never come in, that they could continue adding turrets and so forth to the sandcastle and that it would never collapse on itself through sheer weight and incipient aridity.

Read the rest here.

Freedom...

Resting...

[click image to enlarge]

...my old lady kitty feets.

Get pampered on board the
Friday Ark.

Good morning to new friends at
WCB, graciously hosted by
Skeezix's Scratching Post.
Drop by and show your sweet faces, or tootsies!

The President's News Conference...

barkbarkbark.
barkbarkbarkitybarkity.
barkbarkbark

STFU.

I Voted...

[click on image to enlarge]

Funny, I never before noticed the mural painted on the wall over the voting machines of my local precinct. [Guess where? Duh - in a church.]

Maybe it's new.

It struck me that a case could be made out of this as on-site illegal campaigning.

Then I got confused and tried to vote for Jesus, but disappointingly he wasn't on the ballot.

Drat! It didn't occur to me until just now I could have written his name in.

Maybe it's all for the best. From the look of the graphics behind his name, he might could be a pro-war candidate.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, gonna have a war -- way too scary!

I asked first if it was okay for me to take a photo, and a very sweet lady said she didn't know but that it probably meant I couldn't. I gave her a prissy smile and turned to another very nice lady, who pondered, "Hmmmm.... There was a journalist here last year who stopped by to take a picture, so it's probably not illegal."

She suggested I stand back at the entrance so as not to interfere with voters or their privacy.

I said that was cool. [I was really only interested in documenting the mural, not in taking portraits of people voting. In fact, I blurred any faces that seemed identifiable before posting this photo.]

Room Service...

On a cold morning, breakfast in a toasty warm bed.

Hold out for this kitty bonus, feline boarders,
over at Friday Ark #111

Be sure, also, to drop by and mew bonjour to
Lali et Cie,
graciously hosting WCB.
I bet there are lots of yummy treats there.

Ronronnement!

Note I sent To McCain...

Dear Mr. McCain,

While you're pondering on apologies and who owes one to whom -- you owe one to John Kerry.

In your heart, you know you do.

In your heart, you know he was not disparaging the troops. [watch here]

So maybe you spoke too soon, before you had all the facts, before you heard your old friend for yourself and could come to your own conclusion, rather than knee-jerk respond in the heat of battle.

So I ask you before it's too late: come clean on this and YOU apologize. Otherwise you look like a darn chump and one of Bush's minion -- not your own man.

Sincerely...

Because of Iraq...

New ad says the world is more dangerous… because of Iraq

The VoteVets Action Fund, a 501 (c)4 made up of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans, is running an ad that challenges the “These Are the Stakes” ad that aired recently. VoteVets.org reminds Americans that the world is a more dangerous place because of Iraq.

What Christy Said...

On Iraqi Orders,
Bush Abandons American Soldier
To Al-Sadr’s Militia