Lost Little Big Friend

This morning I found our Maine Coon, Winston, lying dead on his side. He had a heart problem that a lot of Maine Coons have, and since he wasn't sick before and I couldn't find any evidence of another cause of death, I think he died of heart failure or a blood clot somewhere important. I think he had a seizure when he died, but I don't think he suffered long, if at all.

He was a very friendly cat. He was rescued by the Humane Society as a kitten with about 40 other cats from a Maine Coon cattery when the woman who ran it became senile. He was sick, and the Humane Society was going to have to put him down because they couldn't handle 40 cats at once. A nice law student from Wake took him in to save him, and I adopted him from her. He came with a broken tail, which you couldn't see because of his fluffy tail.

When I was going to law school at Syracuse, I would often take Winston with me for company. Once, he thought he heard someone coming up the stairs to my apartment and he trotted toward the door, growling! I'd never had a guard cat before!

Owen, our orange-point Balinese, died of cancer last July. Now we have two cats left: Muphus and Farfel. Farfel seems to miss him, but Muphus, boss cat, doesn't seem to have noticed much.
Winston will be missed by me. Ta-ta, little big friend.

My OTHER Blogs

So I have two other blogs - Light Planet on Tumblr and Kid Stuff Kritique, also on Tumblr. Kid Stuff Kritique contains my thoughts on baby and kid stuff so its content is easily separable; however, I'm having trouble figuring out when to post here and when to post to Light Planet. So I'm letting you know the other exists. And that I may just start posting everything there for simplicity. We'll see.

Cheers!

"Happy Husband"

Just for the record, I am not simply a domestic woman, cooking for mere words of approval from my H. However, I enjoy cooking, and I enjoy making food H likes to eat. I am not a very discerning eater, and he sets a higher bar. I enjoy the challenge of trying to make food we both like that is also healthier and less expensive than going out. Thus, Happy Husband recipes. I hope they are Happy You recipes, too.

Hence the sharing.

Happy Husband Recipe #2 Mediterranean Lamb

This one started from a cookbook I use often: Jeanne Jones' Healthy Cooking For People Who Don't Have Time To Cook. However, this is no 4-serving recipe as it purports to be. In fact, it wasn't quite big enough for just Dan and me. So I increased the amount of meat and other ingredients accordingly, and also changed some other details of the recipe. It's very good. I've only cooked lamb twice, and I've never actually liked it before.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 pound leg of lamb, trimmed of fat and cut into 1" cubes
3/4 of a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary, crushed
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1/4 heaping teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes

Directions:
Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Place over medium-high heat until the oil shimmers. Add the lamb and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often to avoid burning or sticking and to brown all sides.

Now add the rest of the ingredients. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 8 minutes, or until the lamb is fully cooked.

NOTES: This amount of cooking results in lamb that is not pink in the middle. Reduce cooking time for rarer meat.

Peas and couscous went very well with this dish, and the color combination was appealing as well.

Happy Husband Recipe #1 Apple-Merlot Pork Chops

I've decided to make a collection of recipes that Dan really likes. Here's the first one. I made the brine up myself, and the rest is roughly from an old farmer recipe.

Ingredients:
6 cups water
2 individual-sized bottles of Turning Leaf Merlot (187mL each)
1/3 cup coarse sea salt
1/8 cup Herbs de Province
3 to 5 thick-cut pork chops, with or without the bone (Dan prefers the bone-in kind)
1 apple (I prefer red)
1 tsp lemon juice per pork chop
2 tsp brown sugar per pork chop

Brine:
Boil water, wine, salt, and Herbs de Province. Boil for at least 20 minutes, or until it will fit with the chops in a 1 gallon Ziplock bag. Cool the brine. Place the pork chops in the Ziplock bag and then pour in the brine. Put in fridge for about 24 hours.

Cooking:
Preheat oven at 350 degrees F. Place chops in a large, shallow baking dish. Don't let them touch. If you need to, use a second baking dish to accommodate all the chops. Throw out brine. Put the chops in the oven. While the chops are cooking, core the apple, leaving the skin on. Cut it into 1/2" slices - enough to have three slices per chop. After the chops have been cooking for 1hr and 15 minutes, take them out. Place three apple slices on each chop, then sprinkle 1 tsp lemon juice and 2 tsp's brown sugar over the apples on each chop. Cover loosely with foil and bake for another 15 minutes.