Seeing Double

There are several Caitis in my life right now. My sister Caiti and Little Caiti are the two that I actually like. All the other Caitis started coming around in the fall when it was dark after I got home so at first it was hard to tell the difference. All the Caitis are varying shades of orange with white stripes and all about the same size. Thus the confusion.

Evil Caiti comes around at night. In the fall she came around several times. She's a little bigger than LC and much fluffier. That's the easiest way to tell the difference. I try to chase away any cats that I don't want to stay around here but at first it was pretty hard to tell the difference and I scared LC a few times (maybe that's why she won't let me pet her). This Caiti is evil because she scared the kitties. Anytime EC came into the yard my kitties would run and hide. And EC has stopped being scared of me. I would chase her away and she wouldn't run, just amble away. I need to get V after her.

Doppleganger Caiti look exactly like Caiti. Same color, same size same everything. Finally I started staring out the backdoor enough to notice that DC's fur is a little darker and his face looks kind of smooshed. But the kitties didn't seem scared of Doppleganger Caiti. They ignored him while he was eating their food, but they didn't hide.

Caiti Cinquo has only been around once. She was about Inky's size and her face looked exactly like LC's. I might have kept Cinquo - she was cute. But she ran away once I walked toward her and she hasn't been back since.

Tonight there might have been a sixth Caiti. I'm not sure yet. It was eating the kitties food so I ran to chase it away and it didn't seem to scared of me. It also had a very fluffy tail so it could have been Evil Caiti with a shave. I took the food and water inside and it hasn't come back. I hope the cat isn't eating the kitties food during the day. I'll have to watch for the cat to come back to find out if it's a 6th Caiti or not. Hopefully not.

Creamed Spinach

Tonight's dinner was a mish mash. I planned our dinner to be pork tenderloin, creamed spinach, and Italian bread. Unfortunately, the tenderloin took about twice as long to cook as the recipe said and V and I were too hungry to wait. So, my dinner was creamed spinach and bread. V had creamed spinach, bread, and leftover pizza. We are such adults.

The creamed spinach was amazing. It was creamy, garlicy, and rich. It's another recipe from The Pioneer Woman. It was very easy to make and I changed the recipe around a bit to suit my cooking style. However, no matter how tasty the dish was, it was definitely meant to be a side, not a main dish. It was soo rich! My tummy hurts. V thought it would be better as a dip than a side. It probably would be good that way. Or it's good by itself, just as a side. But soo good.

Creamed Spinach

1 stick butter plus a few extra tablespoons, separated

1 small onion

3 garlic cloves

8 tablespoons flour

2 cups milk (I used 2%)

Salt

Pepper

Fresh ground nutmeg

20 ounces spinach (she called for 24 but the only packages I could find were 10 ounces, not 8 ounces)

Melt stick of butter. I cooked the onions at this point because I like soft onions. She added the onions at the same time as the garlic. Add in the flour and stir. Let it cook about 5 minutes to brown (I forgot to do this and it was fine). Add in the milk slowly and stir the whole time. Add in the garlic and allow to cook while working on the spinach, stirring occasionally. Melt a few tablespoons butter in another pan, wilt in the spinach. At this point, I would sieve the spinach to get out as much excess liquid as possible. I didn't do that and mine was a little thin. Stir in spinach, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Serve.

Assets

The kitties seem to be obsessed with butts. They like to show me theirs, they like to put theirs in each others' faces, they love them. Inky likes to walk behind me when I'm petting her and head butt me and then walk in between my legs. She loves headbutting me a lot. Every chance she gets. And the kitties also show me their rear ends quite a bit. They'll come up to me, stretch, and then turn around and show me their rears for a minute then come up for me. So, I have a new plan for how I'm going to get Little Caiti to trust me. I think she needs to see that I trust her enough to put my rear toward her. However, that's easier said than done. Inky just helps herself when she wants to go behind me, but LC won't. So, I've been trying to strategically place myself when putting out the wet food or petting Inky so she is facing my rear. It doesn't seem to be working too well. But she has started letting me pet her one time a morning when I am putting out the wet food. So maybe my tush is making her trust me after all.

Chicken Pasta Casserole

Tonight for dinner I made a casserole I found on The Pioneer Woman's website. I wasn't the biggest casserole fan growing up but they've come a long way, baby! V loves casseroles and is always begging me to make them so I'm on the lookout for tasty-looking recipes. Tonight's was pretty good, V said it was a keeper anyway. I didn't quite follow the recipe because I don't get home from work until 5:30 or so so I took some short cuts. But it was still good.

Preheat the oven to 350

Cook a bunch of chicken strips (she says 2 cups) I think I had about 3/4 pounds

Break a pound of spaghetti into pieces

Cook the spaghetti in chicken stock - when you drain it save 2 cups of the stock (I forgot to do this)

Mix together the chicken, spaghetti, 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup, 2 cups shredded cheddar, 1 diced onion, 1 small green pepper, 4 ounces pimentos, seasoning salt, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper all to taste. Then, add in the saved chicken stock (I used extra beef stock since I forgot to save it) - until the mixture is moist but not soupy.

Put into a casserole dish. Top with another cup of cheddar. Bake for about 30-40 minutes until bubbly.

It's pretty tasty. Next time I think I would cook the peppers and onions in advance because I don't like crunchy onions. But it was still pretty good nontheless.

Relaxing

This weekend I decided not to do any outdoor work. I need a break and it's rained for the last two days so it's too wet to stain which is our next big project. V might powerwash again but I've told him that we need a break this weekend. But the pool's finally getting warm so we might swim!! I'm looking forward to swimming and mother's day shopping and just relaxing. Maybe a little baking.

I think television has become much better lately. For awhile it was all cop shows but now it seems like there are more comedies and more accessible shows. I'm obsessed with Glee and Modern Family. Parenthood is very cute and it's almost enough to make me wish my whole family lived in the same town like the family in the show. Almost. And Showtime and HBO always have great series. And the kicker.... Dr. Who is back! It's going to be a good spring.

Spinach Pockets

Tonight's dinner was another freezer special. It's spinach pockets from the Real Simple website but I messed around with it a little bit. It's basically like spanakopita and it's heavenly. Salty and flaky and I can pretend like it's healthy since it has spinach in it. This is our new favorite recipe. It's easy to make after work and it's also easy to make extra to freeze. If you want to freeze it put the pockets together and then put in individual baggies and freeze. Then defrost in the fridge overnight and bake as usual.

Putting them in individual baggies makes it easier to bake as many as you want. Which is nice since half the time V doesn't eat much dinner more than cheese and crackers. He's one of those weird people who only eats one meal a day. It's kind of nice because it means we don't have to make dinner every night because I like having cereal for dinner sometimes! But it can be frustrating too when I plan on a meal and then he's not hungry. So tonight when he wasn't hungry I just pulled out on spinach pocket and had it for dinner with no more mess than a bowl of Cheerios. Yummy in my tummy.

Spinach Pockets

• 20 ounces spinach (Real Simple calls for 3 pounds but I find that to be too much, I just buy two containers and that's plenty)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 2 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced (I just use my kitchen shears and cut them as small as possible)
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1 1-pound package phyllo dough, defrosted
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 cloves garlic diced (RS says to thinly slice it but I think it's easier to just dice)

1. In a skillet, combine lemon juice, water, garlic cloves, and 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Bring to a simmer and cook spinach in batches until just wilted. Drain and set aside.
2. Heat oven to 400° F. In a large bowl, combine the spinach, Parmesan, ricotta, scallions, egg, salt, and pepper. Mix well and set aside.
3. Fold 1 sheet of phyllo in half crosswise and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Brush the top with some of the butter. Top with another folded sheet and brush with more butter. Repeat one more time. Leaving a 2-inch border around the edges, place 1/4 of the spinach mixture at one end of the pastry. Roll up the pastry, tucking in the sides. Brush with more butter. Repeat to make 3 more individual pockets.
4. Bake in the oven until puffed and golden, about 30 minutes

Inky

Inky is the first animal to ever win my heart. When V and I were renovating the interior of the house she would sit and stare at us through the glass doors. She sat with Little Caiti when LC was trapped in the cage. She was the first of the kitties to let us pet her. She's freaking adorable.

Inky is almost a year old. For about the first six months of her life, all Inky had to eat was what she and the other kitties could catch. Because of that Inky was greedy for a long time. She had a hard time believing she would get food everyday and that there would always be enough. Whenever I would give the kitties treats Inky would run back and forth trying to eat all of them before LC could have any. Now she has calmed down a lot and doesn't try to steal food from LC. However, V and I think Inky is going to always be very small since she was so malnourished as a kitten. I would guess she weighs 4-5 pounds. And she has teeny tiny paws. Compared to Inky Little Caiti looks super fat.

Inky started letting us pet her a few months ago. It started when I ran my hand along her tail as she walked by one morning. Then she started walking in circles so my hand would continuously pet her tail. Then slowly we started petting now. Now she is a huge love bug! She tries to keep V and I from going inside the house whenever she can. She's better at guilting me into staying outside with her than V. She would like to come in the house but until she lets us pick her up without any problems she's not coming inside. So she sits and stares into our living room and tries to guilt me into going outside with her. And most of the time, it works.