Recent Content by catapault

The old rule is that if you wouldn't drink it (poor quality / taste) then you should not cook with it. Next time you are at the liquor store tell them what you are looking for, ask what is the smallest bottle of Martini & Rossi red vermouth and what it costs. Meanwhile, enjoy your pot roast -...

@susanm9006 I keep both red and white vermouth in the pantry, to use when a recipe calls for wine. Vermouth doesn't need refrigeration, and it does not go "off." I prefer Martini & Rossi but it's up to you what brand you might prefer.

Six years ago. Poor image of a Cooper's hawk plucking and eating a downy woodpecker it had killed

If it was "just" a window that the dove hit I would agree with you, @iPappy But this was a hit from a hawk, beak and two feet well armed with claws. There was a snowstorm of small feathers drifting in the air. I do not have a definitive answer. When a Cooper's hawk struck, killed, ate its...

This morning I did a load of laundry. Ran the dishwasher. Need to unload both. Added potting soil I mixed up yesterday to the three large pots I set in front of the garage. That emptied the garden cart of potting mix. And planted banana leaf cannas, Canna musaefolia. Went to the IGA...

Forget all packaged store bought bread. Bread needs to have a decent crust. Good New York City bakery rye bread. It's been years . . . The no-knead slow rise bread I bake is rather nice.

There was a great THWACK into a kitchen window. I looked out and tiny feathers were floating around like snow. Looked out and there was a hawk sitting on an upside down terracotta pot, a dead mourning dove on the ground. Must have struck, slamming its prey into the window. Hawk only somewhat...

This morning I maneuvered the two wheel garden cart out of the tool shed. There's some potting mix in it, and a partial (opened) bale of peat moss. Been sitting in the tool shed for a few weeks. Just now I wheeled it across the driveway toward the garage. Pick up the bale of peat moss and - out...

In summer I just put the slow cooker / crock pot out on the deck, plug it in, and make pulled pork or whatever outside rather than heat the kitchen.

Brief thunderstorm rolled through to start the morning. Not sure if we are getting more this afternoon. Or not. Wether forecast seems to be optional, depending on when you look. Potted up some more canna tubers that probably should have been done last month. But I didn't. Put them outside...

Himself went off to run a couple of errands this morning. One of which was checking out Staples as a place to get papers shredded. Indeed! They charge something a little over $1 / pound. Good deal. Yes, we have a shredder at home but he had about 13 pounds of vintage tax documents and it would...

We had a house guest from Thursday afternoon through Saturday early evening, Himself's sister. For dinner I broiled a salmon fillet, black beans and corn Friday we went out to lunch at the local Mexican restaurant, stopped at the independent book store, went to the IGA for coffee beans...

Meatloaf, baked potato for him, baked sweet potato for me, green peas.

You may be over-thinking this. If your cats were babies rather than adolescents it might be a matter of concern. I think they'll be fine. Our stairs are open, no risers except the flight down into the basement. Himself made a cat walk, which Domino enjoys. In fact he chases his tail underneath it.

Yesterday was an exhausting trip to the New York Botanical Gardens. Traffic came to a crawl before it even got close to the George Washington Bridge. The - what is is? about 82 miles) took two and a half hours. Park in the education building's lot but need to get into and upstairs in the library...