Friday Cat Blogging

I wish you wouldn't take my picture, you know how much that flash hurts my eyes.

Recipe: Baked Fruit Roll

The Carnival of The Recipes falls on April Fools day, So in keeping with the theme, I start off with the question. Are carrots a fruit?

TRUE or APRIL FOOLS
Answer at end of page

Baked fruit Roll

1 cup flour
2 tbsp. Butter
1 heaped tsp. baking powder
1/3 c. milk (about)
Raspberry jam
1 med. granny smith apple
2oz. Dates (I used dried apricots)
2oz. golden raisins
3tbsp. Cinnamon sugar



Sift flour, chop in butter until the mix is crumbly.
Stir in baking powder, then mix to a firm dough with milk.
Roll out on a piece of floured waxed paper.
Spread with raspberry jam, and cover with chopped fruit.
Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over.

Form into a roll, sealing edges with a little milk.
Place in greased pan and pour over syrup made with :
1tbsp. Butter, 3 tbsp. Sugar, 1 cup water, boiled together.
Bake about 1 hour at 350F

Spoon some of the syrup over the roll when it is removed from the oven.
Serve with whipped cream, ice-cream, or vanilla custard.

Answer - True
Carrots reclassified as a fruit
Bureaucrats in the European Union did classify carrots as a fruit in a 1979 directive, apparently because the Portuguese use carrots to make jam, and anything used to make jam, in their eyes, must be a fruit.

So if carrots are a fruit you could use them in the fruit roll, hmmmmm, I think not.

Traditional Maori Food

The pit has been dug, the stones placed, and a fire lit on top to heat the stones

The fabric covering being removed to expose the Kai (food). The traditional method the Maoris used, was to cover the food using leaves.


Kai is the Maori word for food. Maori, New Zealand's indigenous people, were hunters, gatherers and crop farmers, who gathered food from the forest, stream, sea and garden. Their diet was traditionally birds and fish together with gathered wild herbs and roots. Gardens grew root crops including potato and kumara.

New Zealanders today continue to enjoy traditional Maori cuisine and delicacies. On special occasions feasting includes traditional foods and cooking methods. Food is often cooked in a hole dug in the ground, in a traditional style known as a hangi.
Food is placed on hot stones which are overlaid with cloth and covered with a mound of earth to allow the heat to cook through. This whole process takes several hours.

In the thermal areas around Rotorua region however, Maori use geothermal steam and hot pools instead of traditional 'in the ground' cook methods.

There is nothing quite like sitting around with a bunch of your friends, enjoying the delicious food cooked in a hangi, washed down with a beer.

How Good Is Your Eyesight?

Besides animals, there are other creatures and critters from the Animal Kingdom to discover. Can you find them ALL? Let me know how many you find.

Click on picture for larger view.

New Zealand Native Plant.

New Zealand has many beautiful native plants. The kaka Beak (Kowhai Ngutu Kaka) is one of my favorites.

The name Kaka Beak comes from the shape and colour of the flower which looks like the beak of the Kaka, one of NZ's native parrots.

Kaka Beak is one of the few ornamentals cultivated by the Maori. It was used to feed caged Tui's. These native birds were kept in captivity to attract and capture other birds.

The bright red flowers are held in groups from arching stems, well clear of the delicate fern like foliage. Each flower holds copious nectar at the base of the flower attracting Tuis & other nectar loving birds.

CWSA Hanging plate shoot

Today was the first hanging plate shoot of the season. The weather was a little cool, but we have been to shoots in far colder weather.
I did fairly well, coming in 6th place out of ten shooters in optical class.
Mr. completely has photos and more information HERE

FIFTEEN DOLLAR PORSCHE

A fifteen year-old boy came home with a Porsche and his parents began to yell and scream, "Where did you get that car???!!!" He calmly told them, "I bought it today." "With what money" demanded his parents? We know what a Porsche costs." "Well," said the boy, "this one cost me fifteen dollars."

So the parents began to yell even louder. "Who would sell a car like that for fifteen dollars?" they said. "It was the lady up the street," said the boy. I don't know her name-they just moved in. She saw me ride past on my bike and asked me if I wanted to buy a Porsche for fifteen dollars." "Oh my Goodness," moaned the mother, "she must be a child abuser. Who knows what she will do next? John, you go right up there and see what's going on." So the boy's father walked up the street to the house where the lady lived and found her out in the yard calmly planting petunias! He introduced himself as the father of the boy to whom she had sold a Porsche for fifteen dollars and demanded to know why she did it.

"Well," she said, "this morning I got a phone call from my husband. I thought he was on a business trip, but learned from a friend he has run off to Hawaii with his secretary and really doesn't intend to come back.

He claimed he was stranded and asked me to sell his new Porsche and send him the money. So I did."

Carnival of the recipes #84

Greetings ladeeez and gentlemens! My name is Christine and I'll be your server this morning/afternoon/evening. Our chefs have prepared a truly splendid selection for you. Please take a moment to look through this week's menu of delectable and delightful dishes, gathered for your approval here at the 84th edition of the Carnival of the Recipes. I'm sure you'll find something to tickle your fancy. Our special today is ... everything! Take your time, I'll be back in a moment with your drinks.

You have read what Christine says, so go on over to Morning Coffee & Afternoon tea and check out the menu.

A little Cat Blogging

Actually I am not little, I am big with an attitude to match. They, meaning the people who live in my house, named me Rocket because I run around my house at a great rate of speed.
It is my job to take care of Keewee and Mr. Completely by making sure no mice get in the house, and prowling the house by night to make sure all is well.
It is a huge responsibility watching out for my family.

Recipe:Grape peach scones

What to do with more Grape-Peach juice than I wanted to drink. Why not use it in some scones

2 cups White whole wheat flour- King Arthur
2tsp. Baking powder
½ tsp. Baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
2tbs butter
2/3 cups chopped dried peaches
½ cup buttermilk
½ cup grape peach juice

place flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a bowl, and stir.

Chop in the butter using knives or a pastry blender.

Stir in the chopped fruit.

Mix juice and buttermilk in a small bowl and add to dry ingredients.
Mix just until the dough sticks together.

Turn out onto floured wax paper (makes for an easy cleanup)

Knead just enough to form into circle about a 9 inch across, and 1½ inches thick. Cut into six evenly sized wedges.



Place on a sugared oven tray, leaving space between each scone or leave them in a circle separating them so there is about ¼ inch between. This leaves them, when cooked, with nice crusty tops and soft sides.

Brush tops with buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake 400F for 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven
Mine takes about 20 minutes in the pan.

I have a 1950’s Guardian pan I love to use.

Now go set your table with a nice tablecloth, your favorite china, and make a nice pot of tea to go with the scones, which you serve with butter and peach jam.

NAG, NAG, NAG

Hi folks, I am not only writing this story to let you know how I did with my Colonoscopy, but to NAG any of you who are putting off having one done for whatever reason.

I was at the hospital at 7:15 am and back home again at 10:30am taking a well needed nap.

The worst part of the whole procedure is the prep. After having clear liquids for the day before, you are then required, that evening, to gag, ummm, swallow a very salty tasting liquid to cleanse your system.

I found the secret to swallowing this liquid, is to drink it through a straw, with the end of the straw towards the back of your throat. This way you taste very little of the preparation, also have a glass of sweet juice on the side to drink after the Phospho- Soda solution.

Be prepared to get very little sleep the night you take the Phospho as you wiil spend most of the night on the toilet.

I had a wonderful nurse who managed to get my IV in the first time, started my drip and made me comfortable. I was then put on my gurney, and rolled into the procedure room, where another nurse gave me my drugs to put me to sleep.

I remember answering questions from a tech. about my Irish ancestry, then it seemed just two minutes later I am waking up, back in the room I started out in. There was no pain or discomfort at all, and best of all my Doctor gave me a clean bill of health.

The doctors news was the best I could hear. My father died from colon cancer, if he had gone in for the test, the cancer may have been caught in time and he would still be here with his family today.

PLEASE do not be Whimpy about doing the test, especially if there is a history of colon cancer in your family, Your life is precious.

Eyeballs afloatin'

I have a sneakin' suspicion I will be spending quite a lot of time in the dunny, (kiwi for outhouse) today.

Tomorrow I have to experience my first ever colonoscopy (groannn), and in preparation, today I am required to be on an, all clear liquid diet.

I have fruit juice, by the gallon, many little containers of various flavored jellos, water and tea. I was wondering if a few good stiff drinks could be included, darn, didn't think so.

Joke or groan of the week

Snake solves problem

I was driving down a lonely country road one cold winter day when it began to sleet pretty heavily. My windows were getting icy and my wiper blades were badly worn and quickly fell apart under the strain.

Unable to drive any further because of the ice building up on my front window I suddenly had a great idea. I stopped and began to overturn large rocks until I located two very lethargic hibernating rattle snakes. I grabbed them up, straightened them out flat and installed them on my blades and they worked just fine.

What! You've never heard of . . . wind chilled vipers?

Thanks to ahajokes.com

Groannnnn!!!

Smaller than a Dinosaur, larger than a kiwi

Top Ten Things
that everyone should know about Moa

1. They’re extinct.
For several hundred years, at least.

2. Some were BIG.
As big as Big Bird from Sesame Street. But the smallest were turkey-sized.

3. They were eaten to extinction.
By indigenous Maori, along with much else.

4. There were 10 different species (not 13, or 26, or 38).
And the two largest have females twice the size of males.

5. They were ratites.
Other ratites include ostrich, emu, cassowary, rhea, and kiwi.

6. Most lived in forest, not grassland.
They weren't feathered cows. And there was no grassland to speak of.

7. They probably didn’t stand around with their heads in the air.
Unlike some museum mounts. It makes them look impressive, though.

8. You can still find their bones.
Mostly in caves, swamps and sand dunes.

9. They aren’t the only extinct New Zealand bird.
Geese, ducks, rails, adzebill, wrens, swan, pelican, eagle etc etc.

10. Moa (sing. and pl.) is pronounced more like MORE than MOWER.

Info. Duke University

An Exciting Milestone

YAHOO! YIPPEE! WHOO HOO! I have reached the 10,000 mark.
What a rush.

My 10, 000th visitor came from Saint Louis, Missouri

Carnival of the Cats #104

The 2nd Anniversary of Carnival of cats is being hosted by Kimberly over at Music and Cats.

There are some rather good looking moggies, but none as handsome as me.

signed: Rocket

First Time Ever

Yesterday Mr. C and I attended the *first ever* Steel Challenge Match at the CWSA range in Coupeville.

I really did not want to go to this match, but decided to get over my attitude, go and do my best. I think my attitude came from lack of sleep, nerves at not having shot one of these matches before, and it was so darn cold outside.

The day was cold, but after I had shot my first round, and heard the plunk- ring, plunk-ring sound of lead hitting metal, I knew I had performed better than anticipated, my attitude dissolved, and I kinda' enjoyed the rest of the day.

I did not have my camera with me to record the event, but Mr. C thought to put his into his range bag, so you will find pictures and a more in-depth report at Mr. Completely's

The Carnival Of Recipes #83

Richmond, at One For The Road says, "No better way for me to celebrate my first year of blogging than to host a CARNIVAL. I love a good party."

Richmond has done a fine job of organizing all the delectable recipes, so I suggest you stop by, to see all the tasty treats.

Calorie-burning activities

Proper weight control cannot be attained by dieting alone; however, many people who are engaged in sedentary occupations do not realize that calories can be burned by the hundreds by engaging in strenuous activities that do not require much (or any) physical exercise.

Here's the guide to calorie-burning activities and the number of calories per hour they consume.

Beating around the bush . . . . . . . . . 75
Jumping to conclusions . . . . . . . . . 100
Climbing the walls . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Swallowing your pride. . . . . . . . . . . 50
Passing the buck . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Pushing your luck. . . . . . . . . . . 250
Making mountains out of molehills .500
Hitting the nail on the head . . . . . . 50
Bending over backwards . . . . . . . . 75
Running around in circles. . . . . . . 350
Climbing the ladder of success . . . 650

IRISH BLESSINGS

May the frost never afflict your spuds.

May the leaves of your cabbage always be free from worms.

If you inherit a donkey, may she be in foal.

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light,

May good luck pursue you each morning and night

May you live as long as you want, And never want as long as you live.

Recipe: Pikelets

1 egg
¼ cup sugar
¾ cup milk
1 cup flour
1tsp. Baking powder
¼ tsp. Salt
1 tbsp. Melted butter

Beat egg and sugar until thick and creamy, then add to the sifted, flour, baking powder and salt, along with the milk.
Stir until smooth, do not over stir.
Lastly stir in melted butter.
Cook in spoonful size on hot greased griddle.

Serve with butter and jam, or the way my family did, with jam and sweetened whipped cream.

I use a small 2tbsp. size ladle to get the uniform size

Pikelets are really like a smaller version of pancakes, and are cooked in the same fashion.

Thursday Chuckle

OIL CHANGE

A woman's expense: $21:00

A man's expense: $4,165:00


Mr. Completely has the whole story HERE

Signs Of Spring

It was such a nice day, I decided to see what was in bloom around the yard.

The primroses have done well this year.

We should have plenty of plums this year to make some jam.

The rabbits found my Daylily before I put chicken wire around it for protection.

Some of the culprits.

The Forsythia needs pruning.

My Hellabore is not a tasty treat for the rabbits.

Julian's Pavement Art

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Another chalk drawing from Julian Beever. Julian Beever is an English artist who's famous for his art on the pavement of England, France, Germany, USA, Australia and Belgium. Beever gives to his drawings an amazing 3D illusion.

Carnival Of Cats

Rocket says, the carnival is up at justin's random thoughts, and you all need to go there to see the cats.

Carnival Of recipes # 82

You will find from Chowder to Cheesecake at this weeks Carnival hosted by Trouble in Shangri La, at her blog Dubious Wonder.

Drop by and check out all the wonderful recipes.

Boring Adventure

Rivrdog taking care of some paperwork while a couple of the guys thaw out their fingers

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Mr. C and I arrived home 10pm last night, a little worse for the wear.

As I said in my last post we were going to Boring, Oregon to help Douglas Ridge Rifle Club with their first bowling pin shoot.

Friday we left home around 11am, had a nice ferry ride across to the mainland, then set off south to Boring.

After travelling some distance, the weather turned nasty, we experienced heavy rain, light snow and hail, all this making the roads slick, and of course the inevitable accidents.

The first time we were stuck in a line of traffic for it seemed like hours, probably only about one hour, then after getting back up to speed once again, we came across another holdup due to another accident. As we crept by, we counted six wrecked vehicles, one vehicle was on it's side, and there could have been more that we could not see, and others with serious damage.

It was a good thing I had put together some sandwiches, snacks, and made a large thermos of coffee for our journey, we sure needed our picnic as we dawdled along ten feet, twelve feet, and sometimes even twenty feet at a time until the backlog of vehicles had cleared.

We arrived at our destination feeling as though we had both been dunked in starch, we were so stiff from the stress we could hardly get out of our RV and get our bodies moving. The one saving grace to the whole day was our dinner. Our friend Rivrdog took us out to Buster's BBQ restaurant where we stuffed our faces with nice greasy ribs, yummm ! you know you have had good ribs when you have BBQ sauce across your cheeks and almost up to your ears.

After a restless night, we woke up to the sound of Rivrdog banging on the RV, Geez, the birds were not awake yet! (no alarm clocks in our holiday home.) We then enjoyed a hearty restaurant breakfast before heading out to the range.

It was sooo! cold, did I mention I really dislike being that cold, anyhow, I braved the conditions and helped set up for the day.

All in all the day went by quite smoothly, there were the usual glitches when something new is being created, but nothing major.

Mr. C, and Rivrdog have more on our day, along with a couple of pictures, go on over and check it out.

KIWI WORD OF THE WEEK

Jersey: sweater

I believe Mr. C and I are going to be needing our warmest jerseys, as we are heading to Boring, just outside of Portland, to help The Douglas Ridge Rifle Club, with their first bowling Pin shoot.

The weather is reported to be very cold and wet.

Catch and Destroy

My family loves to play the game "catch and destroy" with me, where I attempt to capture the string as it is pulled across tissue paper. You should hear the fantastic sound the tissue paper makes when I roll on it and shred it with my sharp claws.

My tissue paper lasts only so long, and it seems every so often, all the small pieces seem to disappear, ( I am sure it is the female member of this family, who collects all the small pieces, and puts them in the trash) then pretty soon the tissue is all gone, but I know if I am really, really, good all year long, the Santa Kitty will bring me some new tissue this coming Christmas.

Chicken Pot Pie Muffins

Tired of sandwiches with your soup?
try a pot pie muffin with your soup instead.







2 c. Bisquick
2 c. cut-up cooked chicken
¼ c. margarine or butter
1/3 c. milk
2 tbsp. Vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
½ pkg. (10oz.) frozen peas and carrots. Thawed and drained.

Heat oven to 375 F
Grease muffin pan
Mix all ingredients until moistened, beat 30 strokes.
Spoon into cups (cups will be very full).
Bake until golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes.
Cool 10 minutes, then remove from pan.

Variations: replace chicken and vegetables with, chopped ham, grated cheese, and some finely chopped green onions.
Add some grated Pepper Jack cheese to the mix.

To make the muffins lower in fat, use Heart Smart Bisquit, eggbeaters for the whole egg, and low fat chicken soup. I use olive oil in mine.

Beer and Ice Cream Diet

Justification for beer and Ice cream! But stay away from the pizza!

As we all know, it takes 1 calorie to heat 1 gram of water 1 degree centigrade. Translated into meaningful terms, this means that if you eat a very cold dessert (generally consisting of water in large part), the natural processes which raise the consumed dessert to body temperature during the digestive cycle literally sucks the calories out of the only available source, your body fat.

For example, a dessert served and eaten at near 0 degrees C (32.2 deg. F) will in a short time be raised to the normal body temperature of 37 degrees C (98.6 deg. F). For each gram of dessert eaten, that process takes approximately 37 calories as stated above. The average dessert portion is 6 oz, or 168 grams. Therefore, by operation of thermodynamic law, 6,216 calories (1 cal./gm/deg. x 37 deg. x 168 gms) are extracted from body fat as the dessert's temperature is normalized.

Allowing for the 1,200 latent calories in the dessert, the net calorie loss is approximately 5,000 calories.

Obviously, the more cold dessert you eat, the better off you are and the faster you will lose weight, if that is your goal.

This process works equally well when drinking very cold beer in frosted glasses. Each ounce of beer contains 16 latent calories, but extracts 1,036 calories (6,216 cal. per 6 oz. portion) in the temperature normalizing process. Thus the net calorie loss per ounce of beer is 1,020 calories. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to calculate that 12,240 calories (12 oz. x 1,020 cal./oz.) are extracted from the body in the process of drinking a can of beer.

Frozen desserts, e.g., ice cream, are even more beneficial, since it takes 83 cal./gm to melt them (i.e., raise them to 0 deg. C) and an additional 37 cal./gm to further raise them to body temperature. The results here are really remarkable, and it beats running hands down.

Unfortunately, for those who eat pizza as an excuse to drink beer, pizza (loaded with latent calories and served above body temperature) induces an opposite effect. But, thankfully, as the astute reader should have already reasoned, the obvious solution is to drink a lot of beer with pizza and follow up immediately with large bowls of ice cream.

We could all be thin if we were to adhere religiously to a pizza, beer, and ice cream diet.

Happy eating!

Author unknown

Tuesday's Pavement Art

By Kurt Wenner

A Prize Indeed

While going through a box of books, I discovered this book, Birds of the Storm, I had received as a school class award back in 1963.

I was a kid who did relatively well at school. Average for the most part, and not often first in anything, so this award for FirstGeneral Excellence was a prize indeed.

These awards were given to students who were top of their class, or excelled in other various areas of school academia, at an end of year award ceremony at the Palmerston North Opera house, a rather large majestic theatre which had the capacity to hold all the students and parents.

I was so nervous walking across the stage to receive my book, knowing all eyes were on me, (I was the girl who always sat in the back row), and there was always the thought, “I wonder what crummy book they are going to give me this time “

Quite often you would receive a book which was of no interest to you at all, apart from the fact that there was an award certificate with your name and relevant information, pasted inside the front cover, this time it was a story of interest.

The story is of Marjorie Ozanne’s bird hospital on Guernsey in 1940 when the Nazis occupied the island.

Many of those who escaped the mainland left behind their pet birds, which Marjorie rescued and sheltered in her own home. Aided by her friend, Nell, she carried on her own secret “war” with the Nazis to save and protect the birds.

Marjorie would barter her clothes and shoes so she could buy food for the birds.

Her concern was such that eventually even the Germans helped her.

The award says, I was in 5th form (about 10th grade) first in class

Top picture is Marjori Ozzane, right, and Nell littleton, bandaging a gull's wing
lower picture, Calming a hen while putting its broken leg in a splint made with cotton-wool and sellotape.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

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I always take my camera to work to capture wonderful pictures.
From one day to the next, I never know what I will see to photograph, be it an eagle catching fish, or grey whales late March early April, or blue herons fishing for their dinner, or the squirrel who comes and peeps through the glass door of the spa, I have my camera ready to take that one of a kind photograph.