Weekend at John's

Hera and her battle scars.

Hera played hard! 

Hera is doing very well! I was so happy to see her bright eyed and active, and begging for play. She is regaining some weight. Her coat looks better. She isn't staying in that sad, sick cat position, settled upright, with a downcast head, she is sprawled all over the place, in her ungraceful Hera fashion. Yahoo!   She even went Crazy Cat today for a while (for non-cat people, that is a good thing for a cat who has been seriously ill). Except for her battle scars (the shaved tummy and paw), you'd never know she was near euthanasia a few weeks ago. The vet even gave John her cell phone number, just in case, as it was the weekend and Hera was in grave condition. I'm very hopeful.  Good for you Hera, and for John, for being patient and getting her the care she needed. I love that kitty, she's a corker. I'd like her to be around for many years to come.

We ate very seasonally this weekend, lots of garden goodies. Garden is doing very well. Lots of peppers and the tomatoes are small, but plentiful. My zinnias are still glorious.

I had tea made from my ginger mint. It was delicious.

We tried this recipe for a Zucchini Appetizer I got out of a free kindle download. I used garden zucchini and dried my own parsley from the garden. It also had sweet onion, parmesan cheese, eggs, bisquick, oil, and seasonings. It was delicious.  The leftovers were even better, warmed in a skillet, and all the parmesan cheese browned up. Yum.

I also made bruschetta with tomatoes, basil, and parsley, all from my garden, and some Kalamata olives.

I made Lemon Balm Chicken, with lemon balm and sage from John's garden, mixed with butter and rubbed under the skin and stuffed in the cavity along with a lemon. Tasty stuff.

John made pesto in his super cool vita mix. Much nicer than cleaning that food processor. On the left is carrot top pesto. I had snipped some young carrot tops when I picked my basil, and they smelled so good! I popped one in my mouth and yum, it was good! John said take a  look on the internet for carrot top pesto? And I'll be darned, there it was! On the right is a parsley & basil pesto with the usual goodies, lemon, garlic, sesame seeds and walnuts. Good stuff.

The traditional pesto turned into this, and we had it with a beautiful salad, with some lettuce from John's garden . . .

Pesto flatbread.

The carrot top pesto went on some marked down whole wheat cheese tortellini from Kroger. It didn't photograph well, but gosh, it smelled so good, and it was sure tasty with some of the lemon balm chicken and a salad.

And for dessert, we had Paula Deen's zucchini bread. Paula knows zucchini bread! Kay needs to know more about zucchini bread. It looks so perfect  . . . how could the middle be totally raw?! John thinks I need a bundt pan, since I been having some raw middle problemos. That zucchini was huge! I can't believe I didn't spot it until it was that big. I used it in that appetizer recipe, I made zucchini bread,  I even put some in scrambled eggs. And there was still some left in John's refrigerator. I'm sure he'll use it up.

I had my own kitties to the vet. Finn is fat! He needs to lose some weight. His new special satiety diet food cost me $35! Is there a food like that for fat people I wonder? And I don't know how to keep him from eating at the neighbors a couple of houses down. I was talking to them one day about the neighborhood strays and along comes Finnegan! The neighbor said "Oh there is that big shy cat, he's here every day." I said "That is MY cat!" lol  What a hoot. Finn masquerading as a stray. And last blog post when Midge was hiding in a box, turns out she didn't feel well. I got her up on the table at the vet and we were waiting and I noticed that she looked funny, she had a strange double chin . . . unsual for her, my "little" cat. I had the vet take a look and Dr. Dave found she had a puncture wound or a sting or something on the underside of her chin. Now that I look back at the box pic her chin was big there too, poor kitty. She needed an antibiotic, and she is such a tiger (she really is!), I spent an extra $35 to get her an injection instead of cat wrestling with her 3 times a day and getting that damn pink antibiotic everywhere. And she needs her teeth cleaned. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. But they are good expensive kitties and I am quite fond of them.

Another week of eye drops for my cataract eye. I got released from the surgeon and have to go see my own eye doc this week. The bills are rolling in and wow! Thank God for good insurance is all I have to say!

The rest of the fam is doing well. No excitement (which is a very good thing!).  Reunion is coming up in a couple of weeks. I can't believe August is nearly here.  I'm so glad the miserable heat they were predicting missed us. Nice to have windows open and not be miserable.

Kay :)