fenchurch | (no subject)

We finally found a place that sells frozen passionfruit pulp! Yay!! It kept showing up in recipes, so we figured it had to be available *somewhere*. After exhausting all of our regular local grocery stores (including some specialty stores like PCC and Whole Foods), it occurred to me that I hadn't tried some of the REAL specialty stores... and stopped by the small Latino grocery store in Bothell. No luck there, but I found a bunch of other things I'll probably go back for later. I was going to hit Saagar next (the small Indian grocery not far from my house), but spotted a tiny little shop in a nearby building called A Loja Brasileira (which I believe translates to The Brazilian Store). I don't know why I'd never noticed it there before! It was almost more of a Brazilian convenience store (carrying mostly the sort of grocery items you'd expect at your average 7-11 or Circle K), but they did have a freezer section... which had frozen passionfruit pulp! For a pretty decent price too. Now we'll just have to see how it tastes after it's been frozen...

We took Polly to the vet for her annual exam last Thursday and had it confirmed that yes she is, in fact, blind. The vet was hesitant to try to guess at a cause, saying that every time he does that, the kitty ophthalmologist ends up telling him he's wrong. :-p And yes, you read that right... there is such a thing as a kitty ophthalmologist (well, she does more than cats, but you get the idea). We've got an appointment with her in late October, after we get back from England. Our regular vet did tell us that it wasn't from anything like diabetes or high blood pressure, so that's a relief.

Today I took Polly back to the vet to have her teeth cleaned (her blood tests came out good enough that they thought she'd be fine with the anesthetic), since they were really bad. I brought her home and she's still all wobbly from the anesthetic, but has suddenly developed a fearlessness about exploring upstairs. She wandered up there while I was doing dishes and wobbled around the living room, sniffing everything and hissing randomly at things she thought might possibly be Zoë, but very seldom were. She even hopped up in the living room window and sat there for a bit... just like she used to a few years ago. I eventually had to take her downstairs after she'd wobbled down to the bedroom. I was just a bit worried that she'd hide under the bed again and no bother to go down to the litterbox (she's done this before and it's not fun... but at least now we know why she was doing it). Right now, she's sleeping, curled up in her catbed (an old laundry basket with a few old towels in it to make her think she's sleeping on clean laundry) and apparently recovering from her ordeal.

I burned (or perhaps I should say "branded") myself this evening in a spectacularly stupid way. I decided to have one of the frozen Australian meat pies for dinner (the ones we got the last time we stopped in at Aussie Eats in Idaho Falls), which entails a bit of defrosting in the microwave and then heating in the oven for about 20 minutes. A very simple process. Except when the bottom of the pie ends up sticking to the baking sheet, the idiot trying to pry it up with a spatula forgets to put on the heat resistent glove and the phone rings at just the wrong time.

So. I jumped a bit at the sound of the phone... just enough to touch the side of the VERY hot baking sheet with my hand, which in turn made me jerk back and fling bits of meat pie all over the place (though thankfully not anywhere on me). I missed the phone call entirely, was able to salvage the bit of the meat pie that landed back on baking sheet and managed to acquire a lovely branded burn just up from the base knuckle of my left pinky. Ouch. And our nifty woven kevlar heat resistent glove was sitting right next to the stove, mocking me for my stupidity. At least I managed to save about half of the meat pie from splattering everywhere... with a large dollop of Fountain brand tomato sauce, it may not have been pretty, but it sure was yummy!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Must be the night for it- I stuck my right index finger in the flame of my blow torch while charring the skin from peppers for salsa tonight.

Julia, abandoned by workaholic men

Oh, owie. When they said "one must suffer for one's art," they probably didn't have meat pies in mind. Hope your hand is feeling a bit better.

Yes, there are now animal specialists out there. Sis' cat Binkey had a cardiologist come to the regular Vet's office to give her a heart ultrasound. He travels around with the equipment in his car and hooks up his patients just like a human. I also know there is a cancer specialist for cats and dogs somewhere in my County.
Sending a large bag of ice along for your burned hand.

Maybe the anesthetic will reset Polly for wanting to explore, again. A lot of those behavioral issues must have been from the loss of her eyesight. Now you know, at least.

And ouch on the burn! Those never happen in an intelligent or heroic way. It's always something silly. But you really wish you could say something like, "I was saving the world from terrorists and got this burn."

Nope. All you can say was, "A meat pie attacked me."

Sympathises for burn! My mother, a professional cook, did that sort of thing so often during her career that the number of straight burn scars on her hands make them look like a tabby-cat!

Would you like a long list of all the ways I've burned myself? My favorite was when the pan I was putting on the speed rack burned through my side towel (you'd be amazed how few cooks have oven mitts, let alone heat-resistant gloves) and I jumped and let go, and the pan rocked down and the corner burned my arm, too. That was in November and it's *almost* faded so you can't see it. And I have oven-rack burns on both arms.

I offer more sympathy for the burn. It's really a bummer.

In professional kitchens, you're not considered a "real" cook until you have a ladder of burn scars up and down both forearms. Mine are only starting to fade, but the one I got from a caramel-filled saute pan will be with me forever. So -- welcome to the Club of Kitchen Brands!

If your passionfruit pulp is made by Goya, it will be pretty good. The best is by Ravifruit, though.

Big sympathy on the burn. And that's very strange that anesthesia made Polly so brave. Like Valium taking the edge off, I guess. Maybe you swhould consider a mild sedative for her on a regular basis.

Kitties can still get around pretty darn well when they're blind, if you don't spook them. Mine still has full run of the house, gets up on the bed and on chairs, and leads a pretty dang good life. I hope that the kitty opthalmologist (yikes!) gives her a clean bill of health outside of the lack o' vision.

Also, YOW on the burn!