Kitchen Kitteh

In recent months, Juno has taken to hanging out in the kitchen with me when I cook, bake, and eat - curling up on a kitchen chair at the table. I love it when she hangs out with her mum!

Jodi's Parcel

Once again, I have been blessed by the generosity of my wonderful blog friends.

Last week, I got an out-of-this-world parcel in the mail from my good friend Jodi. It was full of the most amazing baking ingredients I have ever had! Here is a shot of the contents:OMG - real, actual, in the flesh vanilla beans! I have never ever had any at my disposal before EVER. Up here, they are about $7 per bean! Jodi sent me three packages - and they are all different!

Also, dried sour cherries! I have never been able to find these here, either! So, now I have tons for all kinds of different uses!

Additionally, there were some smoked pecans, a selection of maple products (the maple sugar is really nice on oatmeal), a selection of nice hot chocolates, some citrus oils (I cannot wait to use these babies!), some chopped ginger in syrup, a can of almond paste, some seasoning mix, some nice chocolate, and a cookie cookbook! I plan on using the ginger for an upcoming dessert - it will be perfect for a gingerbread cake I'm making.

I am blown away by the vanilla beans...I feel so decadent with them and now am not sure what to do with them all! I have lots of ideas for the cherries, though.

Thank you, Jodi! This is an awesome gift! I will definitely post about the things I make with these luxuriant ingredients!

And Juno was happy, too! She loves a new box to play in!

Life is a Box of Chocolates, and Father's Day Dinner & Updates

So, one weekend my cat gets sick, the next weekend I get sick. There is obviously something in the water up here. Yesterday, I had to bail on work, but I was feeling well enough to go in this morning and bake, so that's what I did.

Technically, what I do at this place is categorized as volunteering, though I do get a supplement to my disability pension that makes life a lot easier for me, but the organization itself doesn't pay me. They are always telling me how well I do my job and how good the kitchen smells when I'm in there baking, and today I was presented with a lovely gift from the staff as a token of their appreciation. I got a really nice card, a huge box of chocolate, and a gift certificate to a store I regularly haunt. I was so surprised - even more so because I was up to my elbows in muffin batter at the time of presentation!
Nice, eh? It felt so great to be so appreciated. I can't tell you what this meant to me!

Sunday was Father's Day, as many of you might know, and my family & I celebrated with a dinner I held at my place. I made this chicken lasagne, which my father had been nagging me for since my article containing the recipe came out. My brother brought some focaccia bread from Safeway, and for dessert I served a selection of desserts: spicy molasses cookies, snickerdoodles, and sour cherry loaf.
And here is Juno, the cat who caused me so much stress a couple of weekends ago! She loves to roll onto her back, tuck up her feet, and show me her belly. I don't know why, because if I try to tickle the belly, she bites me. I always find it funny when she assumes this position; it reminds me of a seal!
FYI, I talked to the cook today about last week's Hawaiian Rice adventure, and he said it was great and that it was very much like a rice pudding! He really liked it, and said the residents did, too!