This! that! & Happy Halloween!

We were supposed to go back to Midway yesterday afternoon, but Daddy is still not feel well. I was really MIFFED! But when Mommy came back after lunch! She got me a new box!!!

 This is such a great box! It even has paper in it! 

WAIT! What's that you took out of the box Mommy?

 A BOOK! A book for your Pop-up collection! 

Show me more!

And today is Halloween, we are not doing anything special this year. Last year Nellie made a Pumpkin Patch!

This year she's not been feeling too good, so we have taken it easy but I WILL show you my best SCARY BLACK CAT pose!

Hmmm, Mommy says I look more scared than scary....

Wishing you all a Happy Halloween (and LOTS of Treats!!!)

Veggan Quiches

I have been making quiche for years.
I first learned how from a Swiss Camp Cook in Thompson Manitoba when I was 19. She called it an Egg and Cheese and Onion Pie. And I have been making them ever since. They are my "go to" when I need to take something to a pot luck when I am not sure there is enough room in a fridge for something to be kept cold.
Quiches are wonderfully versatile, you can serve them hot, room temperature or cold. If I put bacon or shrimp or ham in them, I prefer to have them kept cold and then heated. If I don't know, I make Vegetable Quiche and bring homemade salsa (tomorrow I am bringing Peach Salsa I made during the summer),

 Here is my recipe:

Vegetarian Quiche

ingredients:

• 1 - 9 inch unbaked pie shell
• 1 tablespoon olive oil, butter, canola
• 1/2 cup sliced onion
• 1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup chopped diced tomato
  (or if you want it fancy, slice a whole tomato + 2 tbsp flour)
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 3 eggs (beaten)
• 1/2 cup milk (or cream)
• salt, pepper
• 1 cup shredded cheese (I used pre-shredded Italian)

directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. 
2. Stab the pie crust with fork our put in pie weights, otherwise it will not lie flat. Put in the oven and bake for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. 
3. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees.
4. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, add the onions and yellow peoppe and cook until they start to soften (about 5 minutes) add the sliced mushrooms and cook for another 2-4 minutes. 
5. Set the veggies aside to cool.
6. If you want to fry the tomato slices, sprinkle with the flour and basil and cook in the skillet 1 minute per side.
7. Whisk the eggs, milk and salt and pepper (to taste, personally I never cook with salt) in a small bowl.
8. Put 3/4s of the cheese in the bottom of the pie crust. Layer the fried veggies over the cheese and top with tomatoes (stir the basil into the tomatoes if you did not fry them). 
9. Then pour the egg mix into the shell. Be careful, you may need a fork to move the veggies and cheese around to get it all in.
10. Bake in a preheated oven until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean (about 40-45 minutes).
11. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving. 

I usually serve a mild quiche with salsa instead of regular ketchup. Quiches make a great breakfast, lunch or dinner and go well with a side of potatoes, salad or soup.

Adding the fun stuff!

A quiche takes 2 cups of ingredients. You can adjust these to your own preferences.
I make them full size and I make them as tarts. Quiche recipes are forgiving so long as you get the proportions of the egg to milk/cream correct (3 eggs to 1/2 cup cream or milk).
If  you like traditional spinach quiche, I recommend you wilt the spinach (throw it in a hot fry pan for a couple of minutes). Hard crunchy veggies need a bit of cooking, cut them small, add a little water throw them in the microwave for a couple of minutes usually works. Don't add too much bacon, more than 1/3 of a cup of cooked bacon or ham can make your quiche too salty, as can adding too much cheese! Some cheeses are quite salty.
I like a Greek quiche with kalamata and black olives, a hard salami, red, and yellow pepper, spinach, sliced grape tomatoes and feta cheese (yummy with an Onion and Cucumber salad). Another favorite is smoked salmon, green onions, asparagus, red peppers and diced cream cheese.
The possibilities are endless.

Note: Start to finish, a quiche takes an hour and a half. Quite often I will buy frozen pie shells, and cook them the day before. I will use a hand chopper for the ingredients and it takes me only 15 minutes to pull the ingredients together to put in the crust. I usually try to make 2 - 9 inch at the same time.
Cooked quiche freezes extremely well. Let cool overnight then put in a large ziploc bag.
Let thaw before reheating in a 350 degree oven for 1/2 hour. Oh yes, don't forget to take the quiche out of the bag before reheating!

Selfie Sunday

OK, we admit we did NOT take our own selfies. But we are posting them anyway!

First is NOT a selfie, it is a picture of what Jo Jo did while she was at home - alone - this week.

Yep! She ATE Daddy's flip flop!

Next is an action shot of Kozmo working on his claws!!

He says he wants to catch a seagull for Malou!

and Cinnamon - she has just dropped one of her balls at Mommy's feet!

Yep! That blur at her behind is her tail!

Finally...glorious ME!!!

Mes thinking about YOU my dear Furrend!!!

Finally, our family is close to the Critters In The Cottage and we are very sad about Isadora, we send you all out love and strength.

Kisses from the Cats From Hell & Cinnamon

Oh Yes, we are pawticipating in Kitties Blues Selfie Sunday, You can click their picture to go there!

Artsy Caturday - with Nellie on Mommy's Blog

Me is a little bit miffed!

First, Mommy closed MY blog. And since mes been visiting her in Vancouver, she has NOT catered to my every whim! Neither has she blogged for mes as much as mes wants. 

Then, she comed home from work today and after she tooked the hairy slobbery sister for a walk and made our suppers, changed her clothes, cleaned up where mes puked on the rug today, sweeped up all the crunchies mes throwed on the floor, vacuumed up all the litter mes flinged about the apartment and PLAYED with Kozmo and mes she wanted to sit down, but mes wanted her to posts for Artsy Caterday. And mes insisted!

So here me is! Queen Penelope!

Kisses

Nellie

Wes joining Athena the Cat Goddess! She has a Saturday Art Blog Hop!

 

Mommy can't get th Linkys to work so click here to go to Athena’s Blog to see the other entries!

Kozmo Talks

Hi Folks!

Last night Nellie had Mommy busy going to visit her furrends and tell them how happy she was to be here. I love Mommy and I missed her lots, but now that I'm here, I miss my yard too!

It's actually pretty boring being inside all the time. 

Cinnamon gets to go outside for walks. Mommy takes her for one early in the morning, its still dark when they go on that one. Then Mommy comes home at lunch time and takes her out again and throws the ball for her up at the end of the apartments (there is a really nice green space there). This shot is looking east. 

This shot is looking south towards the Fraser River.

And this one is looking west towards the apartment buildings. Can you tell it was raining? 

And then they go again to the green space when Mommy gets home from work. Then Cinny usually gets Mommy to take her for a couple of short walks in the evening before we go to bed. (Would you believe we were in bed at 8:30 last night?)

Here is Nellie in her warm, heated cubby bed on our big bed. Her eye looks a whole lot better and she purrs ALL THE TIME!!!! She has not even hissed at me (or Cinnamon!!!)

Here is what I like to do.

 

We have a great view, and there are LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of birds to watch! And Mommy does let me out on the deck...but she really watches me. We are on the 7th floor and she worries that I will try to jump over the glass (our deck has glass instead of rails) --- as if I would do something like that!!!!

And Finally, I want to send some Kisses to Daddy in the Hospital!!! 

I am hoping they do let you out by the weekend!!!

Happy but Exausted!

What a trip!
On this last Saturday, I spent over 15 hours driving. I only managed to corral 2 of the 3 cats. Jo Jo is an incredible escape artist! She leaped - from the back of the car, over my head, onto my back and headed for the hills, when I opened the door--6 inches--to put Kozmo in. This means I head back to Midway again this coming weekend, as the Daddy goes into the hospital Tuesday. Our neighbor will feed her until Saturday.

When I got back to the apartment at 8 pm Saturday evening, I was a vibrating noodle. It took 6 trips to unload the car. Then I had to take Cinnamon for a walk. She thought the drive was a really nice rest...Nellie was in a totally foul mood and stomped around the apartment Merrowwing. Everytime she looked at me, she hissed and scratched!
Kozmo managed to crawl under the sofa. I don't know how he did it, I had to LIFT the sofa to get him out. I collapsed into bed around 9:30 only to be woken up with a dog tongue up my nose (she had to go) at 12 midnight and then again at 3:30am. (I think it was all the strange noises).

Will you throw that ball, or are you just going to take pictures?

Between the trips to the elevator and outside with Cinnamon, Kozmo talked up a storm, walked all over me and knocked everything off of every surface in the apartment! I am sure he has been taking Hellery Lessons from Nellie...she used to do that.

I did NOT learn anything from Nellie!!! I am a HELLION in my own right!!!

 Cinnie finally dragged me out of bed for a morning walk at 7. After we got back, I drove to Walmart for the essentials...Dog treats and Kitty Litter. (Damn, I forgot the lint roller...the trip has made them all shed!)
I spent the rest of Sunday putting together a couple of chairs and trying to get some rest. Every time I would start to drift, one or the other would demand attention. I finally gave up, took Cinny out and played ball with her until she laid on the ground panting, we then came in and crashed...until midnight--when once again I had a dog tongue up my nose (where did she pick up THAT trick) and slept until the alarm went of at 6 am.
After a great half hour walk, I headed to work and Cinnie went back to bed. At lunch I came back and played ball with her for 20 minutes and then took her for a walk when I got home from work.
We had company tonight. My Sister and Brother-in-Law came over to meet the kids. Nellie fawned over my sister and Cinnie captivated my Brother-in-Law. Kozmo came out when we sat down to supper and tried to join us at the table.

Is mesnot the most beautiful and fragile cat you've ever seen?
And for all yous handsome man cats (yous knows whos yous is...)...mes MISSED YOUS and will bes by with Nellie Kisses 

I am tired, but happy and even though I might complain about going to Midway to pick up the "wild child", I will be much happier when they are all under my roof.

I wish Daddy all the best and hope he gets well quickly!

10 Things You Probably Did Not Know About Cats!

I saw this on I Love Coffee and I just had to share!

Click this link to see more of her work!

Baptism by Fire and Moved!

Wow! What a week.
First thing Monday morning - a week ago - I arrived at my new job! I was expecting a little bit of an introductory period...but I have been thrown in and have hit the ground running.
They don't have a any existing training for their clients. Each time (as the product is heavily customized for each customer) ad hoc training takes place. As they are introducing a new product on a new platform they want a more generic - on line training that can be customized for each customer. It can be done. The first training deliverable is required by mid-November and they have hired a training firm to create the first piece. Alas, the document they sent them to develop the training from is generated from the programmers' coding notes...
To keep the mid-November deadline, I am rewriting the document that was sent and the training developing company will have it tomorrow. This is a good thing. I am learning a lot about the product as I fix the document and that will make the next steps better.
Also this past week, I have been busy picking up things for my new apartment, getting all the lease  documents in place and Friday I started moving in. What a hectic couple of days! Friday evening I picked up a mattress and a bunch of Ikea stuff. I then drove out to  my sister's, got the things I had purchased through the week and my clothes.
Saturday, the cable guy came and set up my internet (and cable) then I made another trip to Ikea and my sister, brother-in-law, nephew and his girlfriend came over and put all the Ikea stuff together while I went to get my sofa. I came back empty handed, but that was because all they had left was the floor model and they kindly offered to deliver it to me on Sunday. I spent the evening finding places to put stuff. I can't get over how wonderful my family was in helping me with all that furniture! (And taking all the boxes out to the trash). Everything has to go in the elevator up and down 7 floors. And they jumped in and did it.
Early Sunday, the sofa arrived and I went back out to pick up some essentials (like plants, food, a toaster, etc.) Here are some shots of what has come together in the last 2 days:

 

First - the view! 

 The Living Room, this is with the grey cushions my sister gave me.

The sofa with its cushions - I'm trying to decide which I like better, and they are both comfortable.

The bathroom, though the bathtub is smaller than I am used to (I had a soak on Saturday night) the shower is terrific and the square sink is cool!

 

The bedroom with my "girlie" bed! Thanks Justin, I know it was hard to put together and I LOVE that you did it. I would still be cursing at the allen keys Ikea gives you.

 

The "dining" room. I bought 2 office chairs and 2 folding chairs for the table. I like using my computer at a table and not on my lap on the sofa so the comfortable office chairs also make great dining chairs.

 I love the kitchen - hi-gloss cupboards, corian counters, square sink, stainless appliances...but the cupboards hare really high! I need a step stool to put most everything in them. 

Kitchen and Dining from the living room. (Don't mind the pile of boxes to go down to the trash in the corner by the door.)

The living room from the kitchen.

Yes, there are still things to get, but there is enough here for me to be comfortable without them.

I am hoping I will blog a little more next week with a little less about work and moving. There is so much to do and see here in the lower mainland that I would love to share with you!

Háws dáng hl kíngsaang

(I will see you soon)

Barb

Nellie Loves Yous! Magnet Give Away

I have a give away of 20 Nellie Loves Yous! fridge magnets to the first 20 respondents on the post on my Facebook page! Enter Now!

Click the bade to go to my facebook page

 

Excitement Abounds!

Yesterday, after 5 interviews and email salary negotiations (a first for me, it was really strange), I was offered the Instructional Designer position at Syscon Justice Systems. I was ecstatic! Not only is this job right up my alley, the people there are so enthusiastic. Working in a place where people enjoy going to work will be wonderful. I start next Monday (October 5th).

 

The Syscon building is right on River Road

 

And overlooks the Fraser River (looking towards Sea Island where the airport is).

Now that I had a letter that stated what my income was, I could get an apartment. I have been looking for the last week. There not a lot of vacancies in Richmond (where I am working) and it has been almost impossible to find a place that takes pets even visiting pets, I wanted a place that would let Koz,  Jo Jo, Nellie and Cinnamon come for a visit.

Almost all the places that allow pets have restrictions on the SIZE! Everywhere wanted dogs under 20 pounds. 

I have been making inquiry after inquiry and finally found one that would. It is quite a bit pricer than those that don't but it is a really nice place. It is on the other side of the Island the city of Richmond is on (Lulu Island) and is right beside the Fraser River too!

Here is the view from the deck of my new apartment.

 

And what a great layout!

 

I can't move in until the middle of October though. The lady in my suite can't move into the new place she purchased, as the tenants in her new place have not yet moved out. My new place was stacked to the ceiling with her moving boxes! (and I got to meet her 2 cats, they were total sweeties).

Here are some shots of a similar unit across the hall.

The Bedroom

 

The living room from the kitchen

 

Looking toward the kitchen from the living room

 

The kitchen (in my apartment)

 

And the view of the building from the front 

(my apartment is on the back side of the building)

 

Finally, a view from the left side looking up towards my apartment

 

I guess you could call it a penthouse suite!

I am really excited!  This is the first time I have ever chosen a place to live by myself. 

I wish I could move in sooner. 

Now some shots of my walk on Boundary Beach this morning.

 

First is a shot of the Crow who "talked" to me the whole time I was there. He greeted me at my car and then flew just to the left of me the whole walk.

This is a shot of the thousands of geese and ducks on the water in Boundary Bay. They are a little hard to see through the fog, but boy were they ever noisy.

Háws dáng hl kíngsaang

(I will see you soon)

Barb