A Sunday roundup: 14-cup commercial food processor, a foster cat, friend visit, misc
/Y'all will be as thrilled to hear, as I was to experience it, that I have had the dreaded relapse that so many people have succumbed to following round 1 of this horrid virus going around. Not even kidding I have gone through FOUR boxes of Kleenex since Thursday. Don't even talk to me about phlegm and nosebleeds and that disgraceful chap pattern I now have under my nose.
That said, my dear friend, Anne, came to visit Thursday - Saturday, and as it always is when you spend time with someone who makes you pee in your pants laughing and also shares their deepest secrets and you yours and doesn't mind watching you go through two of those four boxes of Kleenex or eating leftover pizza from the double-slumber party you host one night during her visit for dinner, it was marvelous.
As evidenced by that picture.
Also last week I received a new kitchen toy, Hamilton Beach's 14-cup dicing food processor. My friend, Christine (I call her Burratine because we first truly bonded over a plate of burrata and have been fast friends since; was that two years ago, C? three?), writes the snappy food blog, Chew Nibble Nosh, and recently had a giveaway sponsored by Hamilton Beach. Out of 175 entrants, my name popped out of the Promo Simple winner generator. Y'all, I was thrilled. I don't think I've EVER won anything. And then, faster than I can type Hamilton Beach, this puppy was waiting by my front door.
I used it yesterday to mandoline three Meyer lemons in the blink of an eye for a Shaker lemon pie and again today to DICE many pounds of green peppers and onions for the chili verde I make most every year for the Superbowl.
Because I was BESIDE MYSELF thrilled by the speed and mostly-accurate dicing and mandolining of all these things, which otherwise takes not an insignificant amount of time, I neglected to take any action shots. You should click here as Christine photo-documented her entire maiden voyage with her dice-chop magic appliance. It dices tomatoes without crushing them. WTF?! #winning
I cannot wait to use this bad boy to deal with potatoes in a million different ways. Latkes, hash browns, you get my drift! Thank you to Christine and Hamilton Beach!
In feline news, a beautiful little cat has been wandering our neighborhood for weeks, collarless and thin. It has emeralds for eyes and is the sweetest, calmest ball of silky fur and purr ever. Many of us have come to believe it's homeless, and so today we took him in.
I promised T it was just a foster cat (he does NOT want another cat), and I have put signs up all over the neighborhood and also reached out to a friend who recently lost her beloved cat of 17 years to see if she might want to adopt this honey. But y'all know the truth: the boys and I want to keep this cat. Big time. Right now he's sound asleep, still purring, in bed with Jack.
As I scooped this sweetie up today, and felt unabashed love literally course through my body, it all felt so simple. Such a perfect counterpoint to all the ugliness and complete lack of love and respect and care being spewed from the White House. It's so much easier to be kind and put a little goodness out there. #resist