With a pinch of nostalgia

No, I haven't forgotten you.  It's been a busy few months though and blogging, especially when I am not feeling particularly pithy or insightful, tends to take a backseat at times such as these.  Anyhoo...

Food, as is often the case, is foremost on my mind, but more so because of Christmas.  I have always known that there are some foods I only prepare around the holiday (even though the family enjoys them and have said more than once that they wouldn't mind getting more frequently), but it never hit home exactly why.  Then a couple of days ago, C and I were trying out a new cookie recipe and I had a huge, "oh duh" epiphany.

The cookies were a basic chocolate chip recipe but instead of chips we used semisweet chunks and we also added chopped pecans and Heath bar bits.  Just for the heck of it we sprinkled some sea salt over the top:

Chewy texture, chunks of chocolatey, toffee goodness!

Then we tasted the cookies.  Since there are so many recipes out there, our unspoken agreement is all new recipes have to be outstanding enough, as is, for us to make them again.  I glanced at C.  He nodded his head and said, "Good."  Just good?  "Well, it's a good recipe and it's a good cookie."  But, not great?  He chewed thoughtfully for a moment.  "Well, it doesn't have any nostalgia."

Sharp kid, my son.  And that's when I had my epiphany.  So many of the things I make, especially around such an emotionally-charged time as Christmas, I make because of the associations I have with particular recipes.  Crunchy jumble cookies are very good cookies but I especially love them because I got them from a respected colleague (now blissfully retired) and I typically make them on the day we decorate the Christmas tree.  Passion fruit jello is a recipe from my aunty who has been so afflicted by rheumatoid arthritis she is no longer able to cook; this recipe was a staple at our New Year's brunches at Grandma's place.  Blueberry banana jello mold is my grandmother's recipe; she got it from her younger sister and I loved it so much she made it at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  When she was no longer able to make it, I copied out the recipe from her box of cards and have been making it ever since.  It's the same thing with her pumpkin chiffon pie.  Though they aren't "Christmas" recipes, I often make guacamole and ratatouille because they are foods my brother and sister made for me when I visited them at their respective homes in Seattle and Boston.

"Good" food feeds the body but "great" food feeds the heart.  I can't believe it took me that long to figure it out.

Merry Christmas to all!

S'more Sunday

It's probably a bad idea for me to have too much time on my hands on rainy Sunday afternoons; idle hands, are the devil's playthings and all that.  I blame my friend N. 

 She posted a recipe for Giant S'mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies on Facebook (see http://smells-like-home.com). With pictures. Envision a cookie with a 6" diameter.  Now imagine the cookie with an entire s'more baked into its center.  Yup.  Disgusting stuff.  I had to make them.

E made a grocery store run for me and when he came back with 2 bags of marshmallows, I admit I was slightly puzzled/annoyed.  That's an awful lot of marshmallow when I only needed 4.  Then I noticed that one bag was special:

Yup, flat marshmallows especially made for s'mores!

Perfect for my recipe and the flatness did not change the taste one bit.  I know 'cause I ate about 5 of them.

A blob of cookie dough, topped by graham cracker, chocolate and the nifty marshmallows

A graham cracker topper

Then the whole thing is covered with more cookie dough

A brick of chocolatey goodness!

The cookies had to be placed 4" apart so only 2 per sheet

When the dough started to melt down, I got worried--it looked like the dough was going to sheet right off of the s'more

They flattened out a bit while they were cooling but it was still obvious that something was hidden under there.

A chewy cookie with a gooey center

 I really liked the way the graham cracker maintained some of its crunch, but I did wish there was more marshmallow.  It's a rich, decadent treat that you will probably want to share.  Or not.

Sausages!

I don't think I've mentioned Radishes before--a couple of years ago, some of my foodie friends decided to create a group dedicated to the learning, the cooking and, of course, the eating of different foods.  We meet every other month and there are two basic rules:  there is always a theme which the food or beverage must fit and the dish(es) must be homemade.  Most of our themes have centered around regional cuisines; Russian, Scottish, North African, and so forth.  A couple of times we went with a general topic; comfort food, picnic, you get the idea.  The results have been extraordinary--not only is the food enjoyable, but I find it fun to discover a little about the chosen region and its traditional ingredients.  This month we are meeting at a beach park and the theme is "Sausages 'n Stuff". 

I am ridiculously proud of myself.  I made sausages today; as in, ground, spiced meat, stuffed into pig intestines.  I have no idea how they taste but they look pretty nifty and the sausage stuffer I bought worked like a charm.  I love when things work the way they are supposed to! I started with two basic sausage recipes--one is pork with fresh parsley, sage and maple syrup and the other is pork with brown sugar and a bit of cayenne pepper.

Fresh parsley and sage, maple syrup

 I refrigerated the sausage mixtures for a while and then put the hog casings in warm water to soak--I didn't know how many of the casings I would need and I didn't realize how many were in the package.  Unfortunately, I had to toss the ones I didn't use.

They kind of look like kanpyo...

The casings were very thin and fragile looking but they were surprisingly easy to work with and none of our sausages burst.  C, who acted as my sous chef, said he, for one, was glad to know that intestines don't burst as easily as I had anticipated.  I see his point.  

The stuffer is pretty much like a caulking gun

I loaded the first batch of sausage mixture into the tube and snapped the stuffing nozzle onto the front of the gun.  C screwed the tube onto the handle and we were ready for the casing.

Yes, we both chuckled over the fact that it looked a lot like putting on a condom...

Once the casing was threaded onto the nozzle, C started pumping the trigger and despite the simple mechanism, the meat flowed out in a fairly steady stream.

It took a little practice to get the sausage nice and even.

We had 4 pounds of pork mixture and used 6 casings.  It was a fairly easy process but we definitely had our system down pat by the last sausage.

Definitely need two pairs of hands.

When each sausage was completed, I squeezed out as much air as possible and even used a pin here and there so there wouldn't be any bubbles.  Then I twisted the long piece into links.

Sometimes I forgot which way to turn the next one--they need to alternate.

The final product looked much more professional than I had hoped for.  The sausage stuffer wasn't too complicated to clean but I will definitely buy a bottle brush for the tube.  

Sure hope they taste good!

The real test comes tomorrow when we grill these babies and serve them up to our friends.  Hope it's a happy Sausage Saturday!

The Endless Food Summer

So a couple of people have asked me if I had given up on my Food Summer.  The answer is definitely not!  It's just that it occurred to me that writing about taste-testing recipes was growing monotonous and if I was having a hard time writing' em, well, my extremely small group of readers probably didn't want to read 'em either. Henceforth, I will only blog about my recipe tests when I have hit upon one that is worth writing about. Here's a couple of them.

Last week, T and I made Apple Pie Bars. And they are sooooo worth writing about.  My family loves pies and this one looked interesting; basically it is apple pie for a group larger than 8:

Tangy apple filling encased by two flaky, buttery crusts...it's a pie lover's dream.  I liked the fact that the pie crust was pretty easy to work.  Our humidity does cruel and frustrating things to pie crust so having this one roll out smoothly then peel off the waxed paper neatly was a huge, huge bonus.  The flakiness of the crust was incredibly rewarding for a frustrated pastry cook like me.

We cut the pie into bars as the recipe suggested.  They sure didn't last long--all the bars were gone by the next day.  Another bonus--refrigeration didn't make the crust soggy!  Definitely a make-again recipe!

Tonight I decided to make shrimp and grits.  Except I didn't have shrimp, I had slipper lobster.  The only thing I missed about the shrimp is its pretty pink color when cooked.  Slipper lobster is rather bland-looking by comparison, but the taste more than made up for it!  Nothing that bacon, garlic and onion can't fix!

The grits were a really nice change.  I told E that I could see why farming families ate it--it is so economical and so filling.  I love that it is such a versatile vehicle for all kind of flavors and toppings.  I put cheddar cheese in my grits so they could definitely have been a side dish in and of themselves:

The farmer's market at Windward Mall sells Nalo Farms' greens--I bought two big bags of baby kale for $5.50 each and a smaller bag of Swiss chard.  The kale went into a pot with seasonings and smoked turkey legs.  They were a great accompaniment to the grits dish:

Hmmm--not highly attractive on the plate perhaps, but they were an awesome meal.  A said she thinks I am actually a closet Southerner.  I'll take the regional foods but they can keep their weather; they have even more humidity than we do! ;-)

Food Summer, Part III

I needed something fast and easy last night because E and I had a date for karaoke with a couple of our friends.  I put together a marinade, cut flank steak into thin slices, then threw them into a ziploc bag to soak up some flavor.  I had to resist the urge to improvise on this very simple marinade; it consisted of shoyu, oil, garlic and dried oregano and I thought a shot of sake was called for.  C reminded me that the whole point was to try the recipes, as is, to see which ones were worth keeping and which ones got axed.  Fine.

The meat was very tender at the end of a few hours but not very flavorful.  I ended up cutting it into strips and stir-frying it with baby bok choy and some oyster sauce.  It was very good over rice but I wouldn't follow this particular recipe again.

For tonight, Recipe 8 had a lot of promise--Thai Spicy Chicken Wings.  We all love baked or fried chicken wings and 3 out of 4 of us like Thai food a lot.  I marinated the wings in a combination of soy, oil, garlic, ginger, sugar, cracked black pepper and Thai chili sauce.  Couple of major problems:  the recipe said to cook at 400 for 20 minutes (turning halfway through). I cook wings a lot and I know that 20 minutes is not anywhere long enough for them to be cooked through.  I was right.  It took a total of about 45 minutes at that temperature.  Second problem:  the recipe photo showed wings that were a rich mahogany color.  Even after 45 minutes, my wings were a light brown and not crispy at all.  The sticky sauce was starting to burn to the pan though--I was glad I covered it with foil first.

The chicken was tender but not particularly flavorful.  We dunked them in additional Thai sweet chili sauce and that was pretty good.  I wouldn't make this one again either though.

Recipe 9 is probably one of Emeril's simplest dishes with only 6 ingredients:  cauliflower, salt, pepper, garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese.

I love cauliflower and this simple baked dish topped with shredded cheese was yummy.  But again, not particularly special nor something I couldn't have come up with by myself.

A good meal.  Just not an outstanding one.

Food Summer, Part II

C and I got ambitious today.  Between the two of us, we made 3 new recipes:  C concocted a lovely Surprise Meringue cookie; it was light and sweet on the outside and the inside was a slightly chewy texture full of mini chocolate chips and chopped pecans.  Yum!

Of course, the humidity in Hawaii is going to quickly render these little guys gooey.  Fortunately, I doubt they'll last that long!  They are so light, it's awfully easy to eat them up!

Salmon with dijon and pecans is up next.  I got two big slabs of salmon from Costco and smeared them with a mixture of melted butter, honey and spicy brown mustard.  I topped the salmon with a combination of panko bread crumbs, chopped parsley and diced pecans, then baked it at 375 for 25 minutes.  The result was a very delicately seasoned and very moist piece of fish.  A definite keeper!

 Recipe 6 is green beans with almonds and onions.  The original recipe called for a diced red pepper and shallots but since I had neither, I went with diced onions.  I let the onions caramelize then doused them with some white wine, salt and pepper and a couple of tablespoons of sugar.  I steamed the beans in the microwave for three minutes, drained them and tossed them with the onions.  A simple dish but very satisfying.

The beans went well with the salmon and the meringues...well, they go with just about everything as far as I'm concerned!  Three for three tonight!

Food Summer 2012, Part I

So far I've tried three new recipes; last night it was a chicken and eggplant casserole which I found on the internet.  It was pretty much either a chicken parm or an eggplant parm.  Depending on what side of the meal you were looking at. 

 

I didn't have mozzarella cheese to top it with so I sliced up some Fontina; I think the substitution worked out well. I served the dish with spaghetti but I didn't realize how much of the sauce the eggplant would absorb.  The unfortunate result was there was not quite enough sauce to coat the noodles as I would have liked.  The dish refrigerates well and the flavors were, understandably, even more melded this morning.  I'd say this one is a keeper.

Tonight I made two new recipes. The first is a creamy oriental salad dressing that I got from the culinary teacher at Farrington.  This one has all the elements I like in a dressing; it's creamy but the vinegar prevents it from being too rich.  There's a touch of shoyu and a touch of sesame.  Yum.  We ate it over a combination of mushrooms, romaine and green lettuce.

The one setback is the dressing is very thick--it's hard to trickle a small amount onto your individual serving; it works better if the whole thing is just tossed together.

The second recipe is from a magazine.  It was a first-place winner in some cooking contest and the winner claims it's a recipe her mother got from Hawaii.  Naturally it contains pineapple.  And coconut.  Basically, it's oven-roasted Cornish hens basted with butter then basted with a mixture of the pineapple juice and steak sauce. With all the basting I did, I would expect the Cornish hens to be spectacular.  It wasn't.  Good but not incredibly outstanding.  

The pineapple coconut stuffing, on the other hand, was very good--crushed pineapple mixed with shredded coconut, melted butter and chopped onions then tossed with bread crumbs and salt and pepper.  I used some of the mixture in the hens before I tied them shut.  The majority went into a baking dish and was heated after the hens came out of the oven.  The top got a bit crusty and the rest was moist and fruity.  I don't normally like sweet stuffings but I did like this one.

Three recipes down.  Many more to go!

Food Quest, Year 2

So summer vacation is here once again and in an attempt to pick up and improve on where we left off last summer, the boys and I are back on the Food Quest track. 

There are two major goals this summer:  the first is to make our way through the unbelievably large stack of recipes I have accumulated but never tried over the years.  C pulled four recipe cards that he personally wants to try and I have selected two.  The idea is that by the end of the summer, we will have cooked our way through most of them, discarding those we don't like and filing the ones we do.  Soon to be cooked:  pineapple cornish hen and ginger lime carrots.  Among many, many others.

The second goal is to check out restaurants we haven't tried before and sample their offerings.  Today we went to Max's of Manila--a restaurant tucked into the parking lot of Costco Iwilei.  The overflow parking at Costco is ideal for this endeavor; it's a short distance from the restaurant and parking there keeps the craziness associated with Costco to a bare minimum.  The boys and I parked and were seated within minutes of entering the zone of madness.

Max's features a smallish but separate party room and a dining room that is larger than it first appears.  A limited amount of patio seating is also available out back.  Fried chicken is their specialty and it can be ordered in several combination plates with pancit Canton or pancit bihon, steamed rice, jasmine rice, fries or garlic rice, lumpia in the Shanghai style.  The rest of the menu is family style. 

Since their menu was advertising "adobo festival" and C is a big fan, we asked the waitress what her favorite is.  I wish I can remember her name; not only did she recommend the pork adobo and made several other recommendations from the menu, she also made suggestions on what combination to order some of the dishes in. She was also attentive without being intrusive. She gets 5 stars in customer service!

We decided on half a fried chicken, a large serving of the garlic fried rice, pancit bihon, and of course, the pork adobo.  We also started with calamari--it was interesting to note that you could order either the "calamares" which is the fried calamari rings or "tentacles" which are, well, you guessed it, the tentacle portion of the calamari.  The calamari were large but very tender, the batter was light and golden and they were served with a garlic vinegar dip.  Yum. 

The famous fried chicken was done up in a similar fashion; a very light but crisp breading.  Very tasty but the white meat was a tad dry--nothing that a little banana sauce couldn't help though!  The pancit bihon was very flavorful and came with lemons on the side.  The pork adobo--definite hit.  The chunks of pork were tender, tender and the traditional vinegar flavoring was just enough--C, who is a big vinegar fiend, would have liked even more.  Diced tomatoes and onions were served alongside.  The garlic fried rice was also a hit with the boys--the garlic was clearly visible but was in no way overpowering.  It added a nice touch to the chicken and pork.

We had enough chicken, pancit and rice to bring home for either one very significant meal or two moderate meals--depending on which of us gets to the leftovers first.  Total bill:  $51.  Very good and very worth it--we highly recommend it.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...

I was doing some research yesterday and came across Samantha Brick, a writer for the UK's Daily Mail.  It seems that Ms. Brick wrote an article on Tuesday entitled "Why Women Hate Me for Being Beautiful" that became an internet sensation which generated more than a million tweets and caused several of the newspapers I looked at to close down their comment section.

According to Ms. Brick, her physical attractiveness has cost her jobs, friends and created considerable tension in social situations--that is, if her employers, friends and social contacts were women.  The men, it would seem, adore Ms. Brick and their open admiration has garnered her drinks, great service and the animosity of, it would appear, every woman she has ever had contact with. Even her friends have a problem with her attractiveness:  "And most poignantly of all, not one girlfriend has ever asked me to be bridesmaid."

Predictably, most of the comments I saw had to do with the readers' opinions of Ms. Brick's beauty, or for the most part, the lack thereof.  Anyone who wrote this article would be marked as arrogant but she might have achieved grudging agreement for her comments if she had the looks to back them up.  Instead, she comes across as a delusional, ordinary-looking woman with an over-achieving ego.

I personally don't dispute the idea that gorgeous people may get treated in ways they find unacceptable or uncomfortable so my biggest beef with her article is her failure to back up her claims with anything other than her own personal experiences--experiences that are weak and naturally biased.  For example, she describes a time she was out walking and waved at a neighbor who was driving by.  The neighbor deliberately snubbed her Brick says and the conclusion Brick came to?  She was jealous of Brick's looks. 

I can't even count the number of times I failed to see someone I knew out walking while I drove by and didn't notice till they called it to my attention later on.  Sometimes I am deep in thought as I drive, sometimes I am singing, and sometimes, I am actually paying attention to my driving while I'm in my vehicle. 

But I can't possibly understand what Brick has gone through; though she is only 5 years younger than me, I am exactly the kind of woman she describes as being hostile to her:  older, heavier, and "with the bloom beginning to fade."  I just don't have the experience she has had to feel sympathy or compassion.  And that so does not bother me.  I've been a bridesmaid four times. 

Shapewear is Evil

I probably shouldn't have eaten dinner before I went shopping for shapewear the other day.  For the uninitiated, shapewear is specialized underwear whose main purpose in life is to mold a person's body into a more attractive shape using strategically placed control panels of lycra and spandex.  Used appropriately (meaning, if you get the right size and type for your figure), shapewear smooths out unflattering bulges, accentuates curves (in the right places) and provides a nice line beneath your clothing.

Did I mention:  If you get the right size?

Now, I support a thin woman's right to purchase shapewear; after all, they deserve a smoother line, too, but what I can't understand is why every store I have gone to in the last two weeks (5 of them) has tons of smaller sizes and very, very few of the larger.  Sears at Ala Moana had RACKS of the stuff in preparation for prom season and though there were dozens of 34B in different styles and colors, there were maybe a total of five in sizes that an ample woman could wear.  One would think that the larger woman is the target audience here.  One would think.

I need a beige colored piece to wear under my chorus costume.  We are going to competition next month and any other color would be very visible under the thin purple material of our tops.  Naturally, I have black, but not beige.  I thought I'd lucked out when I saw the display at Sears and though I was disappointed at the lack of selection in my size, I did find two that I thought would work. 

Did I mention that shapewear also comes in different "controls?"  Light control is when you need a bit of a tuck, medium is for slightly stubborn bulges and firm is for those who have come to realize that gravity is not a friend.  My first choice was just all wrong--it was too sheer on top and wasn't long enough for me.  The second choice was, unbeknownst to me, firm control. 

If I had been thinking more clearly, I would have pulled it up from the bottom (as it should be), rather than attempt to make an over-the-head entry.  If you can imagine about 783 thick, heavy-duty rubber bands stretched around your head, holding your arms against your face, you have begun to understand the evil that is shapewear. 

I was fortunate that my right arm was extended at a slightly higher angle than my left; by bending my wrist as far downward as I could go, I managed to grasp the material and gave it a good yank.  I'm glad I wasn't wearing earrings that night. 

Shapewear 2.  Judy 0.

Li Hing Who?

Whenever we have a few minutes to spare, I like to play a 20-question type game with my students.  I'll give them a category (animal, person, place, etc.) and they try to figure it out by asking me questions that I can answer with a "yes" or "no".  They can ask as many questions as they want but I do time them to see which class can come up with the answer in the shortest amount of time.

My current students are seniors and the majority of them had me when they were sophomores so the game is very familiar to them.  Some of them have gotten significantly better at it, too; when they were sophs, the questions tended to repeat because they weren't listening closely to each other and some of the questions were not answerable by a yes or no.  They've learned to tighten up the questions and that's vastly improved their guessing times.

Yesterday our three words were:  tadpole, flash drive and li hing mui (the sweet-salty, dried plum treat of Chinese extraction).  I thought tadpole would be the hardest but the fastest time was an incredible 33 seconds.  Flash drive took something like 22 seconds.  Li hing mui took anywhere from 2 minutes to 4 minutes and 5 seconds--even though they quickly narrowed it down to a Chinese snack made of some kind of fruit. Why the big time discrepancy?

It seems that this generation of students just aren't big fans of the snacks my sibs and friends scarfed up on a regular basis.  For them, "li hing" is the red powder that flavors everything from cake to chocolate covered gummy bears.  There is a total disconnect between the spice mixture and the dried plums they traditionally coat in oh, so many mouth-watering ways.

My children are no different.  None of them want to gnaw the dried plum flesh from the seeds while their mouths salivate uncontrollably and their eyes just can't help but wink rapidly in response to the burst of salty goodness on their tongues.  Even the moist and succulent wiles of a juicy-type li hing mui doesn't tempt them.  The wretches.

A and T don't eat arare, AKA mochi crunch, AKA the rice cracker.  C will eat it occasionally because he is a fan of crunchy snacks, but I can't think of any snack that any of them eat because it tastes good AND because there is a nostalgic appeal. For instance, I love arare but I'm not always sure if it's because it tastes so good or because I remember buying little waxed packets of them for 10 cents from a tiny store on the corner, just a block away from the garage where I took hula lessons on Tuesday afternoons.  The proprietor made his own li hing mui, too; they came 3 to a packet for 15 cents and they were some of the tenderest and tastiest seeds I can remember eating.  On the way home from our lesson, the other neighborhood girls and I always stopped off for a packet or two.  It was just one more reason to look forward to Tuesday afternoons.

Well, arare and li hing mui may cost way more than 10 cents today and my hula days are long behind me; but the memories of my old neighborhood, a few prized treats and the friends who shared them with me are still fresh and sharp; they are the burst of juice from a lemon stuck full of li hing treasure.  Try that for a sore throat!

A Cat's Tale

My neighbor has an orange and white tabby cat and every time I see it, I think of Tiger, the first cat my family ever "owned."  Tiger actually started off with one of our neighbors; back then, spaying and neutering cats were just not commonly done so it was no surprise that this particular family had an overabundance of felines patrolling their property.  The mother belonged to them but the kittens, well, they just seemed to belong to everybody.

Tiger wandered over to our yard a time or two and after several surreptitious feedings on our part, he decided to hang around. Mom wasn't thrilled with the prospect; she was not particularly big on animals back then and I think she was also uncomfortable about whether or not keeping Tiger violated our rental agreement--it specified "no dogs" but the atmosphere didn't exactly feel welcoming toward "non-dog" creatures either.

Anyway, Tiger grew from a scrawny, affectionate kitten into a muscular, affection cat with the typical big-headed physique of the average unneutered tom. And like all sexually mature males, it was not long till he was off looking for action.  He would disappear for a day or two and return with gouges on the top of his head and teeth marks in his ears. That's about when one of the feral cats in the neighborhood went into heat.

There used to be a big empty lot behind our house and for the next week or so, it was a common sight to see Tiger and every other tom cat in the vicinity fighting for the opportunity to win the favor of the lady in question, an ordinary black cat with yellow eyes and a wild, frightened expression.  Their warning wails and battle cries, their ferocious attacks and determined chases stirred up the field and peace throughout the days and nights.  Then it was over.  Tiger was triumphant and his displays of, uh, affection, were highly public and highly vocal.

This is where it gets interesting.  At mealtimes, Tiger was suddenly disinterested; rather than scarfing his food as usual, he would sniff it and sit back.  As soon as we were out of sight, he'd meow and the little black female would scurry out from under the house and hastily gulp down his meal.  It happened repeatedly over the next few weeks as the female grew significantly heavier and rounder.

She disappeared and we assumed she was hiding out somewhere to have the kittens.  Tiger went back to eating his meals and we thought things were back to normal.  We thought.  A few weeks later, we saw Tiger sitting in the middle of the field.  He said, "mrow, mrow, mrow," and out of the bushes came 5 kittens--all were black with orange and white splotches. I will never forget my mother's tone when he started leading them to our house; all she said was, "Oh, no," but the dread, disbelief, horror, resignation she put into those two words!

When we weren't around, the kittens would sleep in his bed and eat his food.  Two of the kittens disappeared not long afterwards but three stuck around; one became very tame, one was moderately so and the other was nearly as wild as his mother.  Mom had to put her foot down on this one; a single cat was doable but not four.  The kittens were caged and dropped off at the Humane Society.

It was clear to me that Tiger was looking for them. He left some of his food at mealtimes, followed us around and meowed incessantly.  And, as if things could not get more unbelievable, he returned one day with a young cat--it was one of the two who had not stuck around with its siblings before!  This cat had been wild and untouchable previously but became affectionate and people-friendly, seemingly overnight, upon her return.  A few days after it became obvious that we were going to let her stay, Tiger left.  We never saw him again.

I named his daughter Squeaky because of her strangely high-pitched vocalizations.  She was with us for about a year; she mated once during that time period and had two stillborn offspring.  Not long after, she left and we never saw her again either. 

Since all of our cats lived outdoors, it is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that they were, unbeknownst to us, killed by a car or something, but the timing of their departures always made me wonder; Tiger brought home his offspring to us twice and left immediately after Squeaky was accepted.  Squeaky left as soon as she had her babies.  It's as though they knew their time with us was coming to an end and they wanted to leave us with a replacement.  A fanciful thought perhaps, but anyone who has ever had a cat knows that they are the uncanniest of creatures; what they do and think goes beyond our ability to understand.

February Doldrums

No, I haven't forgotten you.  Nor have I fallen off the face of the earth.  It seems I have been temporarily (I hope!) abandoned by my Muse.  Inspiration has been eluding me despite a few experiences that had definite blog-worthy potential:  a couple of good meals at neighborhood restaurants, encounters with stupid people, humorous conversations around the dinner table, and so forth.  I blame the windy and cold (for Hawaii) weather; as I grow increasingly more in tune with my turtles, I find that the cooler, shorter days make concentration downright difficult.  The desire to burrow under the covers and wait for spring is pretty darn tempting right now.  Or maybe it's just the month of February.  I seem to remember having this same problem last year. So give me a couple of weeks and hopefully, I'll be back.  :-)

Our Warrior Rests

I got really busy after my last post but I figured I'd have lots of things to write about in the upcoming months; the holiday season is always good for a blog or two and this past Thanksgiving, T was a member of the All-State Marching Band that was invited to march in the Macy's Day Parade.  The DC/NYC trip with my family and 700+ band members and their families in all its chaotic glory would have garnered blog-worthy fodder that would easily have taken me into the new year and, possibly, beyond.

Then in early December, my SIL, Jean, passed away and everything seemed to stop.  Perhaps her passing should not have been a shock; she had triple negative breast cancer that had metastasized to her liver and bones.  But Jean's strength, her tenacity and determination to beat this damn disease had me convinced that if anyone could get through this, it would be her.  She fought hard and with dignity for just over a year and for those of us who are so far away, the news that her treatment was no longer working seemed to come from nowhere.

I will always be grateful that I got to see her one more time. Her strength was evident even then; she was sitting upright in bed, her eyes alert and aware; there was no anger there, no bitterness, no worry.  Just a strong sense of peace and acceptance and what got to me the most, genuine concern for MY health and well-being.  I told her I loved her but I hope she also sensed how much I appreciated her; she was my friend, the mother of my much-loved nieces and the perfect person for my brother.  She was his partner in every way and I know he is more complete because she was in his life.

It took me a long time to decide to write this entry--not because I did not want to honor Jean, but because I couldn't imagine being able to adequately combine our sense of sadness for losing her with our sense of joy for having had her in our lives.  We will always miss you, Jean, but in so many ways you are still with us; in the holiday you loved so much, the food you made, and in the character you instilled in your children.