(no subject)

[fenchurch]

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!

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[julietvalcouer.livejournal.com]

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.