The Threat - Can Cats Read?



The experiment - Can cats read?

By Angie Quantrell Angie Quantrell

 

My husband walked into the kitchen with a guilty grin on his face.

"What?"

"Nothing," he smirked.

Seeing I wasn't convinced, he added, "I'm just laughing at your book on CD."

Ok. Weird. But I let it go.

After dinner, I went out to tidy up the patio and harvest strawberries. And then I saw why he was giggly.

On the chalkboard we have mounted to a wall (for the grands, of course), someone had drawn and written a message.

To our neighborhood bully cat, Mr. Mustache, or Stache. From our gray girls, Mabel and Monet.

Can cats read? Do they understand a threat? Is humor lost on them?

It seems my husband thinks so.

Did his threat work?

I'm sorry to say, but no, Stache has still been around spraying on our windows and chasing the girls inside.

To conclude this experiment in cat communication skills, we may assume that:

1. Cats cannot read.

2. Cats don't care if you threaten them.

3. Cats don't get humor.



Stache, boldly making his visit



Or maybe, cats just don't read message boards.

Read more about Stache, the Bully, here.

Testing Pinterest

Maybe I should have been a scientist.

I do love to experiment and see if things really work, or see how they work.

Take Pinterest. So many wonderful, fabulous, awesome ideas. But I've learned that not all of them work and some need a bit of tweaking.

Tweaking is my middle name. Angie Tweaking Quantrell.

Last Saturday, I tested Churro Cheesecake Bars. This recipe worked just fine, though I decreased the sugar by half. As I am on a diet, I couldn't eat any other than a sliver to test flavor. The rest were inhaled by kids at church and all adults that happened to walk by. This is a keeper recipe if you love cinnamon and cream cheese.

Yesterday Big D and I tested the salt dough recipe. We tested ONE of the recipes. There are hundreds. The one we found worked fine, but did not make very many handprints.

Today we tested ice cube painting. While simple in concept, I had to make quite a few tweaks. Last night I filled the ice cube tray with water and added food coloring to make colored blocks. I placed clothespins upside down in some to test how that worked.

Results:

~ A few of the clothespins fell over and froze at an angle. That was not big deal. Donavyn loved this activity.

~ Directions suggested painting on paper. This did not work other than smearing a tiny bit of color on it. Failed.

~ On the shiny metal 'big chair' tray, the ice painting worked fabulous! It melted fast and swirled all around. This was a big hit with our 2 year-old artist.

~ We also tried foil, since that is shiny. Nope. Definitely not. Fail.

~ Tried a cookie sheet. Yes. Not quite as good as the high chair tray, but close. Plus the edges kept melted water from rolling off.

~ Benefits included no concern for Mr. D who constantly sampled the different colors and total amusement for a good chunk of time. Rainbow fingers and tongue let mommy know what he was up to at Nana's.

Inspiration from Pinterest? Fantastic. Reliability? Not always there. One needs to be ready to tweak.

Better to view Pinterest pins as an experiment and an adventure.

 

Ginger Root Experiment

 We live in central Washington. Winters can be brutal to all sorts of crops, from fruit trees to flowers to bulbs and tropical sorts of plants.

But I have discovered success growing ginger! Yes. The root plant from which wonderful flavor and fragrance are imparted to delectable dishes.

Over the last several years, I have been inclined to experiment and see what happens. Usually my idea begins with something that starts to root in the kitchen or a find that needs some sort of immediate attention.

Growing celery from the leftover butt of the plant? Failure.
New garlic from sprouted cloves? Still waiting for results.
Potatoes in a bag? Too hot outside for bags.

Mid-summer or so, I had an overly dehydrated piece of ginger root hanging around with the garlic in the kitchen basket.

Ok. Let's bury it in the garden to see what happens.

Lovely green leaves and shoots grew to about a foot and a half tall. The dried up piece of ginger root seemed to be thriving in the heat of summer. I was desperate to dig up a bit and see how things were going underground, but resolved to wait until we had a good freeze to kill off the top.

Today, after several good freezes and pretty dry conditions, I dug out a portion of that old husk of a hunk of ginger.

Et voila! The citrusy scent greeted my nose as the shovel and my hands scraped away soil. New, fresh ginger root.

People in colder climates, there is hope. Take that old lump and bury it. What can it hurt? A raised bed is a wonderful option.

I left most of the plant in the ground. This is also a continuation of my experiment. I dug out plenty for us to use right now, but left the rest for future consumption. Maybe. If the ground does not freeze solid and destroy the roots.

And then, perhaps, we shall see what comes up next spring.

The experiment that keeps continues on . . .

Tomato Experiment Results

The after picture of heat-dried tomatoes. Yummy, right?

The tomato experiment was a success, though I did dehydrate them a little too long.

Now, instead of sun-dried tomatoes, I have heat-dried tomatoes. Ready for soup, casseroles, meat dishes . . . you name it.

The tomato experiement before drying

Ready to go experiment some more.

Tomato Experiment

Beautiful tomatoes in the dehydrator

As per many wonderful suggestions on a certain social site, I am embarking on a tomato experiment.

Let me shout out a great big thank you to all who contributed ideas. Thank you!

These ideas are a necessary part of my life right now as I work my way through 50 pounds of potatoes, 50 pounds of onions, and a huge box of Roma tomatoes.

The very ripe tomatoes need immediate processing. One can eat only so many in a day, juicy though they be. Lacking adequate freezer space for that sort of preservation, and an absence of canning supplies, I decided to take the short cut and fill the dehydrator with sliced tomatoes.



Quart-size storage bags of dehydrated onions

What could go wrong except they take days to 'heat-dry' or get all crispy crunchy, which would be odd for tomatoes?

I suppose experimenting with tomatoes could prove disastrous, but I am willing to take a chance. The other viable option is throwing overripe tomatoes at the big black and white bully cat that is daily harassing my kitties and chasing them through the cat door.

So here we go.

Vines in my backyard, gorgeous colors for me to enjoy

Onion update: approximately 8 large onions fill my tiny dehydrator. One dehydrator of dried onions fills one quart-side storage bag to the brim. I now have two quarts of dried onions.

Potatoes: Still considering my options.

In the line-up: sage and parsley. As long as there is no overnight freeze I can safely plan on popping them into the dehydrator ASAP. Alas, an overnight freeze is looming, perhaps this weekend.

The view on my evening walk

Let the tomato experiment commence.

Harbinger of Preliminary Garden Success

As per the instructions from my gardening friend, Ann, I (with my 3 year-old assistant) carefully covered the bottoms of two IKEA blue tote bags with garden dirt.

This of course, was following the 48-hour curing stage of potato eye sections (or they will rot, said other directions).

We placed potato chunks, eyes looking up, on top of the dirt and covered them with another 2 or so inches of soil. Water and wait.

And wait. And wait. When the eyes were blanketed beneath warm earth, the temps were wonderful. Perfect. Even hot.

And then came the cold and colder spell. It is after all, April. Hello. I should have waited.

But look! The beginning peeks of potential potato plant success! Leaves are climbing from the mud and cat prints in the midst of the totes.

The rest of the directions are to recover the shoots once the greens reach 4-6 inches in height. Continue doing that. Ok, I really have no idea how long that part will go on. Will I reach the top of the IKEA bag and just have to stop? Or do the plants only get so high, bloom, and then give me some new potatoes?

(Shrugs shoulders). Don't know. When the blooms fall off, the potatoes are done.

Thinking this garden experiment is going to be very interesting.

The theory, of course, is that it's easier to find the potatoes when they are contained in a certain amount of dirt. Instead of an entire garden.

We shall see.

But for now? Perfection.

Pumpkin Soup on Pumpkin Day

Technically, I chose a lovely squash. So, Pumpkin-Like-Squash Soup on Pumpkin Day it is.

Once upon a time, this chef (a loose definition of the word, please) saw a lovely recipe on a very popular social media site. This recipe featured cooking soup in an actual pumpkin - in the oven - instead of in a pan on the stove top. I posted the recipe to my page.

Never to find it again.

So I am chef/experimenter/food explorer attempting to make up my own recipe. Let's see what kind of meal that gives us on this last day of October, Pumpkin Day!

Pumpkin Soup for Pumpkin Day

Ingredients:

- perfectly sized pumpkin for your soup bowl (It has to fit in your oven. Do not use a carving pumpkin. I am hoping a squash of similar size and shape will work. The meat of this squash was wonderfully deep orange in color and very rich smelling.)

- one leek, washed and thinly sliced

- 3 cloves of garlic, diced

- 7 or 8 fresh sage leaves

- chicken broth, anywhere from 3 to 6 cups, depending on the size of your pumpkin bowl

- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese for the soup, additional for sprinkling on top of cooked soup

- fresh ground black pepper

- dash of cayenne pepper

- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of nutmeg, depending on your love of this spice

OVEN: 400 degrees F.

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Cover jelly roll pan with parchment paper.

2. Prepare pumpkin (or squash). Remove lid and scoop out seeds and stringy parts of the pumpkin. Keep the lid. It goes without saying, but I will anyway. Do not pierce the base of the pumpkin or make holes in the sides! The soup will surely leak out. Put the pumpkin shell on the parchment paper-lined pan.

3. Add leeks, garlic, and sage. Fill the remainder of the pumpkin with chicken broth. Fill to the top of the inside of the pumpkin, leaving room for lid to close and enough space to add cheese and spices.

4. Add 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, peppers, and nutmeg. Replace lid.

5. Bake in oven for two hours. Pumpkin should be steaming hot, with soft, cooked flesh. Oh, you are going to love the fragrance of this cooking soup pot!

6. Remove lid. Scoop bits of cooked pumpkin flesh and soup into a bowl. Top with additional parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!


PS After cooking and devouring this fragrant soup, I decided that crumbled bacon bits and some half and half would go very well with pumpkin-in-a-shell soup.

Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater,
Had a wife but couldn't keep her.
He put her in a pumpkin shell.
And there he kept her - very well.

I adore pumpkins. But I don't imagine I would enjoy being kept in a pumpkin shell for very long.