Julie S

Mocha, our 15 year old Ocicat went DEEP into hiding the other day, which was not like him. Yesterday we finally had to dig our way to Mocha and found him dead.

I thought I'd prepared myself for that possibility, but I was inconsolable. Although we have several other cats, Mocha was very special and (along with his inseparable BFF Abigail) was my husband's nightly "couch buddy" and even he shed a tear or two when we buried him yesterday.

I made cornbread with chili the other night and it tasted fantastic, but it crumbled when I tried to pick up or slice a piece. Not just a little bit, but it completely fell apart and I ended up with a pan full of crumbs. Since I have jumbo eggs, I only used one, but now I'm wondering if that second egg would hold it together better. What do you guys think?

My back has a nasty pinched sciatic nerve and I took a few Somas and now I'm really shaky and now I'm really feeling bad. Has this ever happened to anybody else?

I got a rutabaga yesterday, thinking I could carve a jack o lantern into it. Big mistake. You need a hacksaw or jackhammer to get into one of those babies, so I smashed it and threw it into the back yard to see if the deer would eat it. Just out of curiousity, I tried a bit of it and it actually tasted quite a bit like carrot. It wasn't half bad.

Does anybody like it? Have you ever cooked it?

I got a rutabaga yesterday, thinking I could carve a jack o lantern into it. Big mistake. You need a hacksaw or jackhammer to get into one of those babies, so I smashed it and threw it into the back yard to see if the deer would eat it. Just out of curiousity, I tried a bit of it and it actually tasted quite a bit like carrot. It wasn't half bad.

Does anybody like it? Have you ever cooked it?

I tried planting some pumpkins seeds in the back yard but they failed miserably. Now I'm reading that people have "accidentally" grown pumpkin plants from a smashed pumpkin left on the ground.

I'm wanting to try carving pumpkins for the first time in my adult life (one for experimenting and one as a treat for the deer that have made appearances in our back yard.) If I smash a good-sized pumpkin on the small unworked flower bed in front of the house, will it grow? Should I loosen up the soil first? Has anybody ever grown a front yard pumpkin patch? It sounds really cool.

I haven't actually timed the hours of sunlight the front yard gets, but it seems to be open enough to get quite a bit of sunshine.

I just remembered I had a pack of bacon in the meat drawer of the refrigerator. I thought about putting a little tiny bit in my chicken fajita soup, but the date says "Best by 06/19/11." It's been opened, but I only used two pieces of it and it's been firmly sealed up in an airtight freezer bag and has been in the coldest part of the drawer.

Will it make us sick or is it still safe?

Yikes! I just saw my husband literally mow right over my shallots (my fault for not weeding the patch, I guess). Are they goners or will they be okay since the actual fruit of the plant is underground?

My last batch of brownies was a failure and I discovered this recipe yesterday. I just made them and I tell you, they are the best brownies I have EVER put in my mouth. You guys HAVE to try them:

http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2009/09/16/chewy-fud...

For the sweetened chocolate, I used half a bag of Hershey's Special Dark chips and then folded the rest of the bag in the batter. Amazing!

One Friday I noticed somebody started a "Dumb joke Friday" post, so I thought it'd be fun to do it again. (Try to keep it fairly clean.) Here's mine:

A priest, a doctor and a rabbi were playing golf and were trying to decide how much money to give to charity. The priest said, "I know--we'll draw a circle on the ground and throw the money up in the air and whatever lands inside the circle we'll give to charity."

The doctor said, "No--we'll throw the money in the air and whatever lands OUTSIDE the circle we'll give to charity."

The rabbi said, "You're both wrong--we'll throw the money WAY up in the air and whatever God wants, he keeps!"

I sure do feel like it. A mama kitty and her kitten had taken up residence on our carport but since we already have five cats (three of them previously rescued from our extremely popular carport) in the house, we just couldn't take in another one. This was an absolutely gorgeous long haired baby we named "Furby." We couldn't afford to bring him into the house, but we were feeding them some kitten food and socializing him by bringing him into the house (much to his mother's dislike) for a few hours a day to play with our kitties. It killed me not to be able to make him a house cat, but I still considered him one of my babies and my husband really liked him too. He was fearless and loved attacking the only one of our big cats that'd give him the time of day. Every morning my husband made sure he was safely out of the way before he took off in the morning and Furby always ran & hid when his car started up.

This morning I had a doctor's appointment, so I put out their food to keep him out of MY way. Furby (who was perfectly happy on the carport and never got anywhere near the road) was nowhere to be seen. After spending several minutes looking for him, I was running late and had to leave. As I pulled out of the driveway I saw Furby dead in the road.

I was heartbroken but since I was already late (and the fact that our little subdivision is fairly secluded), I couldn't take the time to pick him up and figured he'd still be there when I got back. I was wrong. His little body was gone and now I'm beating myself up for not at least moving him. Unless I can track down who picked him up, we can't even bury the little guy.

My husband said that he never did see Furby but figured he was hiding under my car as usual. It appears that he had gotten up inside his car somehow (something else he'd never done before). He jumped out and my husband accidently ran over him.

The only consolation is that Furby jumped out in front of the house and we don't have to beat ourselves up worrying about what happened to him. I am absolutely distraught and my husband feels horrible.

For some reason, every time I try to "chicken fry" anything (last night it was pork chops) the coating comes off after it's done. I did the standard flour-buttermilk-flour double dip, but it still came off while trying to cut it. What am I doing wrong? Does anybody else have this problem?

He looked like the lone adult stuck eating at the kids' table. ~LOL~

...a HUGE bird with a really long neck tearing through our yard into the woods. What on Earth could that've been?

Our little kitten is hard to keep track of and we couldn't find a bell collar small enough for him, so I experimented and made one myself. It was pretty easy:

I got some decorative trim from the home decor section of our Hobby Lobby and cut it long enough to go around his neck comfortably (being extra sure to soak each end with Fray Check and let dry before cutting it). I found a matching button and sewed it to one end and made a good strong loop at the other end (I smeared some glue on the threads I made the loop out of so it'd be extra strong). This may take some fiddling and trial and error and it's not adjustable, but the end result is awesome. After making sure it fit Alexander just right, I stitched on a bell I'd cut off the one that was too big and then glued a piece of ribbon to the back for extra stability.

I'll be honest, it took a while (the first time, anyway), but it looks SO cool. I might get a fancy frog closure and make a pretty beaded one for Abigail. Try one yourself for any animal.

I've never eaten lamb, let alone cooked it, but there were some lamb stew pieces dirt cheap where I got my stew beef, so I thought, "What the hell?" These suckers are on big pieces of bone with tons of fat. Am I supposed to cut it all off the bone or what? I tried that with a couple pieces (much to the delight of my kitties), but it was a LOT of work. I browned the little pieces with just some seasoned salt for a couple minutes on each side and they were wonderful!

My husband won't eat lamb but this was so mild, he probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference once I cooked it with the beef. Can somebody tell me what to do with these bony, fatty chunks of meat? Thanks.