Cause for Excitement

Excitement #1: Cool Weather finally seems to be descending upon us! This morning, Jason called me outside, and it was chilly! Right now, it is noon, and not even 80 degrees! Hurrah!

Of course, you know what that means - get the oil lamps all shined up so they can beautify our cozy winter evenings! Make sure all the blankies are clean and ready for snuggling! Get out the warm clothes, put away the swimsuits! Oh, excitement!

Of course, that also means that the pure enjoyment of one of my new favorite Dishes, the Greek Salad (Caryn introduced me to it!) is not going to be on the menu for a while (winter 'maters? ick!). So, we had it last night, and it was goood:

Excitement #2: It has potato salad over romaine lettuce, topped with onions, tomatoes, pepperoncinis, cucumbers, pickled beets, pepper slices, kalamata olives (which we were very sadly out of last night), feta cheese, and anchovies.

Mmm...

Now, before you go sayin, "Ew, anchovies!" understand that I always felt that way about anchovies, too. No more. This salad has completely changed my appreciation for the little fishies. So much so that when I went to get extra anchovies for my salad, my fingers got all fish-oily (yes, apparently we lack utensils 'round these here parts) and without thinking, I licked my fingers clean. Before I had this salad, the mere smell of that fishy oiliness would have sent my stomach reeling. Now, I'm licking my fingers as if it were chocolate pudding. The anchovies totally make the salad.

Here it is with the recipe. Double click to enlarge the picture.

De Grande, you'll be pleased to know that I photocopied the recipe at last, so I'm able to part with your cookbook now! :) I also highly reccomend using blocks of Feta and crumbling it yourself - insanely tasty.

So, when we were done with that scrumptious repast, we saw our new friend, and gave her some very old anchovies to eat.

Excitement #3: This is our new friend. She is a wild kitty (and she may be a he, but we're not getting close enough to look!) In the light, she is such an odd color of grey that she actually looks blue. So, we've named her Blue Cat. Blue, for short. Aren't we just the originalest?

Jason is sure that this is the cat he saw a few months ago, sitting under the streetlamp in the middle of the night. He thought it was a Jaguarundi, but it was probably just the late hour and sleepy stupor he was in that made the cat appear larger than it was.

A week or so ago, he saw the cat again, and stopped to talk to her (I'll call Blue a Her until we discover elsewise). They had a friendly chat, and Jason came home with every intention as adopting her as our "yard cat."

Sho nough, we starting seeing her routinely lurking around our house. We think she was searching for some more kind words from the handsome gent (Jason). A few nights ago, as Jason was eating some crab, he picked a bit of lumpmeat for her and I set it out on a plate on our back stoop. She came up, cautiously at first, and then snarfled it down.

Jason picked more lump, and I put it out. Again, she snarfed it down.

Last night, I set out some old oily anchovy fillets when I saw her milling about. She came quickly to eat them, and then spent a good hour or so sitting all kitty-like on our stoop like a guard. She licked her chops and watched the sun go down over the water.

We're happy to have a little friend (to take care of rats and snakes). She's happy to have a friend (to provide some extra food outside of rats and snakes).

Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.