Kitty surprise

In honor of Hello Kitty's 34th birthday, I make beet and walnut dip. Like hummus, but with beets instead of chickpeas. This should make a good sammich spread too. Hello Kitty won't be able to eat this because Hello Kitty has no mouth.

Pretty pink pizza dough results from being too lazy to wash the food processor bowl after making beet dip. Hello Kitty serendipity has gotten me thinking about making a baguette that's pink inside. How awesome would that be? Now that we have pizza dough, we're ready for tonight's pizza flight.

Vegetarian surprise pizza. It only appears to be a gorgeous late summer vegetable pizza. But one bite into it... SURPRISE! A hidden layer of prosciutto! Surprise bacon! Your eyes say it will be delicious, but your tongue tells you it's even more delicious than you first thought. Surprise Bacon!

This one is made with mushroom paste, caramelized onions, artichokes, pecorino and gruyere. Home made pizza crust is so incredibly crispy chewy delicious that I stretched the dough out so each piece has two crusts. This is the most incredible crust I've ever made. I tweaked the dough recipe with rye flour for a more substantial flavor. And of course, I made it pink.

Seriously, this is the bestest most super number one pizza I've ever tasted in the 34 years of Hello Kitty's existence. Perfect thin crispy chewy crust, fresh ripe heirloom tomatoes, pancetta, mozzarella, fontina, and parmesan cheeses. Even tastier than the coal baked pizza I had wandering around the canals of Venice. This is now the new gold standard. The secret is a drizzle of olive oil. Olive oil with a surprise anchovy whisked in.

 

Squeeze play

Still weeks to go until Halloween and I'm already hitting the candy pretty hard. I always have to buy more candy on Halloween day because I've eaten most of it by then. Will I ever learn? Yes, my OCD is showing.

Preston has a new nemesis.

Perfectly curled Preston tail. I did not know it was physically possible for his tail to bend this much. Maybe 12 years of me accidentally stepping on it has loosened things up.

Pussy cats

Roomba vac did it's best feline impression when it ate a houseplant and coughed up hairballs.



All of the product photos on Amazon.com have managed to avoid showing this particular angle of the Furminator. Egad! All I can say is Egad! Sure makes brushing out Preston's undercoat an adventure each time.



I managed to stay up late enough to catch the night-blooming cactus flower. Thankfully, I managed to avoid blatant sexual imagery like Georgia O'Keeffe and the Furminator.

Freaks on a leash

I'm a last minute pinch hitter at this year's Minnie's Moonlit Madness puzzle and scavenger hunt event for the Orange County Food Bank. These are the kinds of pictures you take when one is stumbling around Disneyland at midnight tied to 3 other clumsy people with a short piece of rope. Most of us have imbibed a drink or two right before the event. Puzzles this year involved blowing bubbles at mermaids and drawing cats on paper plates. My crayon cat drawing was judged to lack soul. Beeyotch. Kudos to Holger for the "Alan Menken" question. Out of around 350 teams this year, we came in 13th. Which put us firmly between the scary Disney Freaks and the crazy borderline sociopath Disney Freaks.

Cat in box

I'm going to gift wrap this and give it to Preston.

Sing songs of quince

Oh how I love the quince. It fills the air with delicious fragrance when warmed by the morning sun. I want to carry quinces in my pockets just so I can smell like quinces all day. I want cologne that smells like quinces so I don't have to walk around in public with strange bulges in my pockets. As a bonus, nobody knows what to do with quinces, so they're only $1.50/lb vs $2.50/lb for apples at the farmer's market.


New England clam chowder. Fresh clams, bacon, cream, and potatoes. What's not to like? Instead of raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, Julie Andrews needs to sing about Littleneck clams and hickory smoked bacon. Now those are a few of my favorite things.