What Did You Eat?

WHB: Asian Salmon And Rice Soup

It's here, the first anniversary for Weekend Herb Blogging, which was created by the lovely Kalyn one year ago.  What a success this event has been!  And with it comes the chance to vote for my favorite herb.  It wasn't hard to come up with my choice.  I need only look at  the herb I buy the most at the grocery store: Cilantro.  I do grow some herbs--oregano, thyme, tarragon, and basil. But, cilantro has always been hard for me to grow here in the hot Central Valley weather.  It bolts very quickly.  So, every week I buy several bunches of cilantro (or coriander to some people).   There's something so satisfying about picking up a bunch of cilantro, feeling the silky leaves, then putting them under my nose to inhale the unmistakable odor.   

While I knew I would feature cilantro as my favorite herb, I was very conflicted about which recipe to use.  I thought of making cilantro pesto or salsa. But, then I got sick and decided to make something soothing, healing and delicious.  And this Asian styled soup with salmon and rice fit my requirements.  I love the taste of cilantro paired with soy or fish sauce.  This soup also contains ginger root which always makes me feel much better. Cilantro is a good source of folic acid and has a reputation for helping restore good health. To me, just eating a dish flavored with it makes me feel happy. And that's beneficial in itself. 

WCB: My Favorite Herb

Mom has been talking so much about Weekend Herb Blogging, so I decided to name my favorite herb for Weekend Cat Blogging.  So here's herbs from a cat's perspective. OF COURSE, my favorite herb is catmint.  I've seen it featured by humans, but they always make tea or jam with it. Come on fellow felines--let's tell them how it's done.  First, make yourself a nice little catnip crown.

Bury your head in the catnip, sniff it, eat a little.   Feel the buzz.  It's legal.

Roll around.

Then go sleep for at least 8 hours.  And if your crown slips, that's OK.  Head over to House of the (Mostly) Black Cats to see a round up of other kitties on Sunday  And come back here tomorrow when mom will post her favorite herb.  She may even roll oround in it. 

Note To Self: Use Cinnamon Carefully

I haven't said much about my two weeks eating vegan.   Except for a few things that drove me crazy, such as soy milk in my coffee and the absence of fish, it wasn't a bad experiment.   Oh yes, I also missed parmesan cheese on my pasta. Those seem like little things, but my discontent with them grew larger and larger each day.  I never could solve the Coffee Issue and daydreamed about sardines and tuna with increasing frequency as each day passed.  I came away from my two weeks of eating vegan with some good experiences. But, my first non-vegan meal of red snapper curry from a local restaurant, (Sophie's Thai Kitchen for all you Davisites), was heaven and underscored what I missed during that period.  I think it's best to go vegan gradually.

For some reason, I became obsessed with chickpeas during those two weeks.  I cooked huge pots of them, to have on hand for one particular recipe, a Deborah Madison tomato and chickpea pilaf. I craved it.  The recipe can be found in an article I wrote about eating vegan in Fit Fare.   Yesterday, I decided to make an entirely different type of chickpea recipe.  I had a lot of cooked chickpeas in the fridge that I needed to use or they would wind up in the garbage.  The resulting meal was spiced with cumin, coriander seed, turmeric, and heaps of garlic. It also called for cinnamon. Now here's some handy advice, mainly for myself. If the recipe calls for a large amount of cinnamon, keep in mind the quality of the cinnamon you use. In my case, it was Penzey's Extra Fancy Vietnamese Cassia Cinnamon, the best and strongest cinnamon you can buy.   I should have used much less than the recipe called for. Much less.  The dish didn't shout "cinnamon", it bellowed it. 

Roasted green beans, tomatoes and onions

On Saturday I bought some good, freshly picked green beans at a local farm stand, stashed them in the fridge---and promptly forgot about them.  Today I wasn't terribly motivated to cook, but when I spied them in my crisper guilt compelled me to do something with them.  I also have some of my dwindling tomato supply, so I decided to roast them with onions and fresh oregano.  The odor of the roasting vegetables was so nice, it made me forget my inflamed sinuses.

This dish contains fresh oregano from my garden, which reminded me that the first anniversary of Weekend Herb Blogging is approaching. Go over to Kalyn's site and see how she's pulling out all the stops for this occasion, which will be this weekend. Now is the time to cook a recipe with your favorite herb! 

Congratulations Shannon And Barrett!

Both of them were hitched this weekend!  And now they're off to Japan, on their honeymoon. I'm looking forward to Shannon's stories and pictures on her site when they return.

Meanwhile I'm battling a whopper of a sinus headache (probably an infection too).  We had horrible winds here and it kicked up all kinds of nasty thingies in the air. Now, I'm dragging around, sneezing, and feeling very fuzzy.  I think I need soup. Must work on that. 

Back later.

WCB: My new Buddy

Well, I'm not sure about this stuffed dog--it smells like squirrel!  I got a second hand toy!  The nerve of some people.  Well, it was Atticus' toy and he was pretty cool, so I'll try it out.  It's Weekend Cat Blogging again and this week the lovely Sweet Sarah J is hosting again.  And it's her birthday, so go to her site and see the yummy looking cake she made for herself.

Oh, newsflash!  Mom finally combed me nice and proper. See how much fur came out?  We're going to knit some sweaters for hairless cats with it.

WHB: Fried Eggplant With Walnut And Mint Sauce

Last week, I incorrectly stated that this weekend is the one year anniversary of WHB, which was created by our Kalyn. Wrong!  It's next weekend, so if any of you would like to take part, you have a whole week to come up with a dish and join in the festivities. Go to Kalyn's site and she will give you all the info on how to be an herb blogger.  Try it--you'll like it. 

I picked the last of my eggplants this week and wanted to use some of them for WHB.  Yesterday, I fixed a very simple dish of fried eggplant and walnut sauce from Deborah Madison's cookbook, The Savory Way.  I think the dish took less than 15 minutes to make, and if I had made the walnut sauce in advance, it would have taken much less time than that.  The sauce is wonderful and very healthy, as walnuts contain lovely omega-3 oil.  It's taste can be changed according to the herbs you choose to add to it. In this case, I used mint.

Goodbye Atticus

Sorry to say this, but Atticus died early this morning. I knew he was fragile, but hoped he would be able to make it.  Most likely he had a failure to thrive and wasn't gaining weight as fast as most baby  squirrels.  He was a sweet little thing, and as often happens with an animal that requires a lot of care, I developed a great deal of affection for him. My tears have been shed.   There is some comfort in knowing he died in a safe, warm environment. Hope he's climbing a big tree right now near the Rainbow Bridge.

Boo Radley and Scout are thriving and graduated to a nice big cage.

Peppers Stuffed With Tuna

About two weeks ago I was outside picking the beautiful Cherry Bomb peppers in my garden, and I remembered the wonderful stuffed jalapeno peppers that my Aunt Scotty used to make. She stuffed them with tuna and packed them into jars, along with cracked crab legs and bottled Italian dressing. They were delicious.  I immediately decided to stuff my peppers with tuna, minus the crab legs. 

I quickly discovered that the Cherry Bomb peppers were quite potent, as I cleaned the seeds out of them.  The fumes were so intense, I was bent over gasping for breathe, with tears running down my face.  I tasted a tiny sliver of a pepper and yelled YOWZA!  These would be interesting stuffed peppers.

WCB: How To Get Even

Well, I'm still being ignored because of THEM.  So, this is what I do to get even. I go outside near the roses and lay down in the dead leaves.  You can tell it's nearly Autumn because that boring sedum plant is suddenly turning pink. 

I lay there in the leaves (which should be raked, but no one has time because of THEM)