Clouds in your life?

 Rabindranath Tagore quotes
"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky." ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Masquerade Ball

Masquerade Ball

Gearing up for a masquerade ball. Not exactly what I will be wearing. Any suggestions?

Beach Babe to warm your bones

Beach Babe cat

"The way to get on with a cat is to treat it as an equal - or even better, as the superior it knows itself to be." ~ Elizabeth Peters

This Afternoon Chance Snow Hi 35 °F

Tonight Chance Snow Lo 17 °F

Wednesday Increasing Clouds Hi 35 °F

Wednesday Night Mostly Cloudy Lo 30 °F

Thursday Mostly Sunny Hi 46 °F

Thursday Night Mostly Clear Lo 32 °F

Friday Sunny Hi 52 °F

Friday Night Mostly Clear Lo 42 °F

Saturday Mostly Sunny Hi 54 °F

It has been unseasonable warm this winter but Old Man Winter is sending us a reminding that he has not forgotten us. Temps will be dipping into the teens tonight, climbing into the  thirties on Wednesday, a far cry from those recent almost sixty-degree days we have enjoyed. The good news it will be warming up on Friday. Everyone to the pool! At least Polar Cats.


A friend of ours sent these photos of their cat lounging around their pool on a warm sunny day.  I have had my share of cat photos on this blog lately, but come on - how could I not use this cutie to remind you of warmer days to come?

Ah, the good life.

Winter Cherub

Winter cherub

"Every winter,
When the great sun has turned his face away,
The earth goes down into a vale of grief,
And fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables,
Leaving her wedding-garlands to decay -
Then leaps in spring to his returning kisses." ~Charles Kingsley

New Year's dinner - Black-eyed peas, Mint Juleps, and...lobster?

Black-eyed peas and collard greens

I am a Southerner. I have Southern manners which means I like people, I'm friendly, and I'm always willing to help out with a good cause.  I also love a perfectly made Mint Julep, something I made before this crazy meal which was part Southern, part New England (my favorite part of the country), and part Maryland. Sorry I did not take a photo of the drink;  cooking and taking photos becomes a little messy, especially for the camera, in this case my iPhone. 

Mint Juleps don't taste as good in Maryland because 1: I don't think they know how to make them and 2: In order to enjoy them you need an old fashioned veranda with a couple of swings, rocking chairs, a few hand-fans to move the sweetness of the night air across your face, and of course other Southerners to sip your Julep with. Set that scene on a bug-less summer night and you have conjured heaven to you doorstep.

Another thing that Southerners love is collard greens and black-eyed peas, and of course corn bread. Not that sweet stuff they make in Maryland. It tastes like cake and if you are going to put sugar in your cornbread put in on a dessert plate and lop some ice cream on top of it. The cornbread in this photo is real cornbread! 

Over the holidays we have consumed a mass quantity of food so I wanted to make our New Year's dinner simple, especially after that fattening but oh-so-yummy Russian pancake brunch we had this afternoon (I emphasize "afternoon" because it was a long night), so we made crab cakes from local crab, picked up some Maine lobsters, and cooked what we used to call in Georgia, "A mess of greens and black-eyed peas." I grabbed this quick pic with my iPhone, so enjoy. Though it may look a might simple it was delicious. And there was left-over crab for freezing.

 More on the Mint Julep: It originated in England but was made famous in the States in the eighteenth century. The Deep South was sipping on Juleps years before 1938, when it became associated with the Kentucky Derby. Maryland, Virginia, and Louisiana all lay claim to  creating the Southern Mint Julep, but records show that John Rutledge, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of South Carolina from 1779 to 1782, introduced the Mint Julep to South Carolina over 20 years before it reached Virginia.


I am of the mind that only a true Southerner knows how to properly make a Mint Julep. Ingredients are important: Brown sugar, properly shaved ice, crushed fresh mint, Basil Hayden's Bourbon is my favorite, and I like my Mint Julep served in a pewter cup.  If not made correctly your Julep will taste a little like cough syrup, which is why I say I have not have a good Mint Julep away from my house since leaving Georgia. Ask any bartender in Kentucky and they will tell you that locals seldom order the drink, and that the majority of Juleps are served to tourists during the Kentucky Derby. 


Happy New Year, and I hope everyone enjoyed their special meals. Now it's time to get back to those treadmills.

Traditional Syrniki (Russian pancakes) Brunch

Traditional Syrniki (Russian pancakes) Brunch

Being of Russian heritage I enjoy a variety of Russian foods. One of my favorites is Syrniki pancakes. I have tried many recipes and non compares to the most recent, found in the Wall Street Journal. I whipped up a batch for New Year's bunch. 

Sausage is veggie sausage. And yes, I did have my Russian tea earlier. Funny contrast in the writing on the orange juice glass. I brought a set from the waiter at a village cafe while on assignment in Buriram, Thailand.

Amazingly there is little flour in these pancakes. A few tablespoons of flour and cream of wheat, along with eggs (I get mine from free-roaming happy chickens that are never killed), are the binding agents. Salted Farmers cheese is the main ingredient. Raisins soaked in black tea give the pancakes an old world flavor. Check out the recipe at the WSJ.


Note that if you live in this area you may have to think ahead when making this. I could not find the salted cheese anywhere in Crisfield or Salisbury. Still waiting on a Wegmans in the Bury.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year
“New Year's Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.” ~ James Agate 

That sounds like something a cat would say if they could humanease. Do cats make New Year's resolutions?

Model is Marie, a rescued Maine Coon cat, who tolerates us gladly except during nap time.