Junglefrog Cooking » cats

In memorian ; Witje

Simone (junglefrog) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:44:33 +0000

Witje

Just this morning we had the usual routine of me getting out of bed and Witje trying to attract my attention by getting in front of my feet and making sure I will not forget to feed her. I was supposed to be gone for the day today, but the appointment got moved to another date, so I was working at home, when all of a sudden I heard the strangest sounds coming from upstairs. I went up to see what was going on, only to find Witje having a serious attaque of some sort where she was heavily convulsing and well… I just knew what it meant. I held her until she stopped shaking, laid her on her pillow and called the vet.

Thankfully Tom was not that far away so I could wait for him to arrive before we went to the vet together to say farewell to Witje… I knew it was gonna happen, but after last week when I wrote to you that she wasn’t doing so great, she sort of became a little bit better but in the end it was no surprise that she was about to be at the end of her life. Still another respectable age; 20 years is quite a high age for a cat.

Nevertheless; that doesn’t make it any easier to lose her… She was born in 1990 and I remember Peter (my boyfriend at the time) and I picked her up together with her little brother Casper. She used to be completely white, so that is why we picked the fabulous name of Witje (which means white…I know, I know…lack of fantasy at the time I think) and we took them both home.

From the very beginning she was always very close to me. Which is why -when Peter and I split up a couple of months later, she came with me and her brother stayed with Peter. I have always felt that Witje was somewhat mentally handicapped. Her mother died before they were two weeks old, meaning that she had some trouble with the regular stuff that mum-cats teach their kids, such as going to the ‘loo’. That has always been somewhat of an issue in that she kept missing the cat-toilet on regular occassions… Hmm… well, what can I say? But that was not the reason I thought she was mentally handicapped; it were other little things, like the way I think she sometimes thought she was a dog, or maybe even a rabbit… She could react very strange to certain things and in actual fact it was a blessing for her probably that she became deaf at about 15 years of age. Being deaf meant that she also became much more relaxed. Not hearing all the sounds anymore was a good thing for her!

She was never a real outdoors cat, but she could sit for hours in her little patch of garden and enjoy the sunshine. Literally she loved sunbathing and could sit like the way she is sitting in the photo on the left for hours. Lately she didn’t come downstairs anymore, except to eat. She slept in the attick, came to the first floor for food and went back up again to sleep some more. Over the last couple of weeks she started screaming at night (so not very good for our night rest) which is something that Joepie used to do as well. I am not sure why, as – according to the vet – it wasn’t because she was in pain; it is just something that older cats can do. To me it was a form of dementia as other things in her character changed as well. Her daily routine changed and she became less social. Sleeping more and more, which I guess is natural when you’re that old.

Her and Gizmo always used to be really close (as you can see below) which started from when we got Gizmo. Witje was two years at the time and has acted as a mother to Gizmo from the beginning, with it going as far as she nursing the little kitten Gizmo was at the time. Obviously no milk, but apparently they both felt good by the action itself and they remained close until Witje started changing about one or two years ago. No more curling up together but they have always been very friendly towards eachother which cannot be said of all our cats!

I don’t actually think that Gizmo will even notice that Witje is no longer there. It was the same when Joepie was no longer there; they didn’t even notice. Cats can be cruel like that or maybe it is just mother nature.

Whatever the case; we will dearly miss her!!

Gizmo and Witje

In memorian: Joepie

Simone (junglefrog) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:00:24 +0000

Joepie 4 years ago (at 17) in the garden

I think she was 6 weeks old when I first ‘got’ her and we actually assumed that she was a little boy. It’s notoriously hard to see with little kittens if they are male or female, so we mistakenly named her Joepie, thinking she was a boy. But the first visit at the vet it turned out to be a little girl and not a little boy. As little as she was, she kept chasing after Lapje my older cat (2 years at the time) to Lapjes’ irritation. She was covered in fleas that little kitten, as she came from a – well, let’s say – less then clean family. I always like to think that I rescued her from a life of misery…. I mean; if you let your animals shit in the living room, there must be something seriously wrong with you, don’t you think?

She never was a cat to sit on your lap, but she would always sit very close instead. Either on the edge of the seat or – if you were cooking – right behind you on the floor. You learn to make sure that you do not step on the cat! When she was 6 months old, she got pregnant. Far too young for a little kitten to have a nest of little babies and also too young to be sterilized but out of the two the sterilisation was the better of the two, so that had to happen and is part of the reason why she always stayed fairly small for a cat.

See the black and white behind me? That's Joepie! 9 years ago

I am guessing that you must know by the title, that she is no longer here…

Last night we went upstairs and out of habit Tom always checks the spot where Joepie sleeps which is in the attick. She was there allright and at first we laughed because of the silly way she was lying, but then Tom noticed her making little noises and she had her eyes open. We knew then that it was trouble. It was late so we had to call the emergency service and had to go to a vet that was on call duty. I mean, we knew straight away, that it was the end of the line. It was clear from the way she was lying that she had a stroke or something along those lines, as she couldn’t get up and was basically almost paralyzed. And even though you know that after 21 years it is bound to happen sooner rather then later, the actual event still catches you by surprise.

We loved her dearly and will miss her enormously as well, but she had a good life, a great life and will always be remembered. For some reason she never really photographed very well, so not a lot of good photos of her, but here are a few of our little black and white monster.

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Cat tales

Simone (junglefrog) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:44:19 +0000

Young and old

Now before I start let me explain one thing; I mainly talk about Gizmo here because she is the most “visible” cat in our household. She follows me around everywhere I go and ‘sits’ on me every chance she gets. So it’s not that I love her most… but that she loves me most…:)

I was looking for old photos of her today and found this adorable shot of when she was 13 weeks old and driving us completely insane. If you’ve been following the blog of Erin, with her amazing tales of the incredible Watson… well Gizmo was a bit like that when growing up. Completely impossible most of the times, anything that moved, she had her little claws in. If you would have seen me back then… I was completely covered in scratches most of the time. I can still remember taking the photo of her as it took endless patience to get her to sit still on the floor and looking at me with her big ears. That is why she is named Gizmo in the first place; because of her large ears. Looks a bit like a gremlin right?

At the time that Gizmo came into our household, we already had three cats; Lapje (who passed away), Joepie and Witje. My friend Jacqueline, had a Siamese who had run of with the neighbour cat and got herself pregnant of little bastards… That was the second time she did that, the little slut… She was supposed to get full bred Siamese offspring and not a random nest of little adorable kittens of no-breed whatsoever.

Now I told Jacqueline I would not come around unless I knew that all the kittens had a home. I know myself; can’t resist a kitten when I see one! So finally on day X in 1992 I was told it was save to come by. So I go over to her place and what do I find? Two little kittens staring up at me… One little black one which I knew Jacq was gonna keep herself and then there was this little grey furball. And as if she knew, she immediately jumped on my lap and curled up in my arms. Who can resist that? So there was cat number four…. Apparently the guy who had picked her up brought her back because she was running around on his white leather sofa… Come on, it’s an 8 week old kitten!!

True love/ 1992

But having said that; I am glad that he did. I didn’t need very long to convince Tom that we really needed to give a good home to Gizmo. He has a big mouth but when it comes to kittens, he is almost worse then me…

We picked her up, which was a bit cruel as we had to get her away from her home and she was screaming so loud in the car that people passing by where trying to look into the car if we were abducting someone! Well and that was the beginning of her life with us. And it’s been a good one. She always manages to charm everyone. She is funny and can pull amazing faces. She has a morning temper… Really, it’s true. She always likes to play around, except early in the morning. I’ve never managed to take a photo of her with her morning temper unfortunately (I don’t exactly sleep with my camera next my bed…lol) but maybe I will one day.

Checking back on her old photos you can really see how thin she has become due to her thyroid gland problem, but thankfully it’s pretty stable right now.

She does look a bit thin and scruffy, doesn’t she? Anyway, that is part of the reason she is very spoiled as I like to give her little bits of tasty treats to make sure she keeps whatever weight she has left.

If I can find kitten photos of both Joepie and Witje, I might bore you with their stories as well…

O and especially for Christie… Here is the rose in bloom!

Rosa Bobbie James

Can you tell it’s too big for the garden?

Poached summerfruit

Simone (junglefrog) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:00:37 +0000

Poached summerfruit

There are a couple things I cannot resist when I am grocery shopping and one of those things is fruit. Lovely, ripe and fragrant fruit. Let’s face it; all during the wintermonths we have to do with no fruit or fruit that is hardly edible at all. But right now is the season of abundance when it comes to fresh fruit and vegetables. So, being me, I went a little bit overboard when shopping. I bought apricots, cherries (you’ve seen the cherry clafoutis), raspberries, blue berries and strawberries….

If you’ve been reading the last couple of posts you also now that Tom is in Norway right now, which means… I have to eat all that fruit before it goes bad. And the unfortunately thing about ripe fruit is that you can’t really keep it for very long. So that means I had to come up with a dessert that was incorporating lots of fruit. I had received one of Donna Hay’s cookbooks a couple of weeks ago, which is all about fruit (Donna Hay Simple Essentials; Fruit) and while I was enjoying my morning coffee I went through the book. I wanted to do something with the apricots, as I don’t really like them in their natural state.

I think it is definitely one of those fruits that needs something done to it, in order to bring out the best in flavour. There are not a lot that need something, but apricots for me, do… So when I saw the recipe for poached summerfruit it just sounded perfect and… it did not disappoint. Absolutely delicious and soooo easy to make! I didn’t have any cream or icecream but that would be perfect with this too.

I was a bit worried about the stones of the apricots. I had to first remove the skins by peeling them (instructions follow) but afterwards they become so soft that removing the stones would make them entirely squashed. Also tasty but not so good looking. But once poached they were so soft that you could just scoop out the stones while eating.

To remove the skin, place the peaches, apricots or nectarines in a large saucepan of simmering water and simmer for 1 minute. Remove the peaches with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl of iced water for 5 minutes or until the skin start to wrinkle. Remove the skin by gently peeling it away with your fingers. Squeeze lemonjuice over the fruit to prevent browning.

Works great! And doesn’t it looks beautiful and summery?

Here is the recipe! From Donna Hay’s Fruit

Poached Summer Fruit

2 cups (500 ml) water

1 cup (220 gr) sugar

1 vanillabean, split and seeds scraped

What'r yu're doing boss??

4 peaches, peeled

4 nectarines, peeled

4 apricots, peeled

2 2/3 cup raspberries

2 2/3 cup blueberries

Place the water, sugar and vanilla bean and seeds in a medium saucepan over medium heat and stir untill the sugar is dissolved. Simmer until the liquid is reduced by half. Pour the hot syrup over the peeled fruit and allow to cool. To serve, toss the raspberries and blueberries through the stone fruit and place in bowls, Remove the vanilla bean and spoon over the syrup. Serves 4.

I only used apricots as they were beginning to ripen fastest. Now that photo of Gizmo is her sitting on my lap and looking up at me while I am pointing the camera at here. Can you tell she is wondering why I am moving around so much? And ok, don’t pay any attention to those striped pants… It’s one of those summery trousers I bought ages ok and only wear in the house. Very comfy but not very flattering…

Different angle. Can you see me stretching my arms to take the photo?

Grilled chicken

Simone (junglefrog) — Fri, 01 May 2009 22:45:50 +0000

Grilled chicken

I was wondering on how to start this post; I mentioned Queensday only briefly in my post about the fish and what was supposed to be a national celebration has ended in a national tragedy with a lunatic trying to attach the royal family while they were touring the city of Apeldoorn. In the process he wounded 23 people and killed 7 (as of today, there are still people in critical condition in the hospital) The guy who did it, has also died this morning.

For those of you who do not know queensday I would suggest you visit Dutch Girl Cooking. She has a beautiful blog and also has a fantastic post with beautiful pictures of before the news was out…

Some of you might have heard it as it has been on a lot of international news channels.I will not spend too much time on the tragedy as I just don’t think that people like that deserve that amount of attention!

So on to the more eartly things; our chicken….

After the disaster with the fish I was a little anxious as to how the chicken would turn out, but as Christie already said “You can’t do much wrong with a chicken” (or something along those lines…) I wasn’t to sure about that though. I have a tendency to get insecure about certain things and doing something I had never done before… can pretty much trigger that! Ok, we eat chicken a lot, but I had never ever grilled an entire chicken other then at the kookstudio, so the thought of doing that was still a little daunting. To be sure I wouldn’t mess things up I checked a couple of recipes on the internet, but we felt safe stuffing the chicken with lemonparts and putting herbed (we added lemonthyme and parsley to the butter as well as salt and pepper) butter under the skin before putting it in the oven. As you can see Tom was the lucky one who got to do the dirty work again… I did help though with loosening the skin! (just so no one can tell me that I ‘chickened’ out. hehe…

After 20 and after 60 minutes in the oven

As you can tell from the above photos it was browning nicely in the oven. I checked it after about an hour and the juices did run clear after piercing the thighs but paranoid person that I am, I decided to leave it in for another 15 minutes. I didn’t want to have another uncooked creature on my hands and certainly not a chicken. Needless to say that it should have been left slightly shorter… But it was still delicious.

We had baked potatoes and asparagus with the chicken and we made a mushroom sauce to go with that from the chicken juices, cream and mushrooms and some herbs we threw in. It all tasted lovely, although taking photos of the end result was a bit hasty so forgive the not so fabulous quality…:)

I do have a confession to make; I have a chicken trauma…. When I was little I used to always go to my friends house. Her parents had a farm and I have always loved animals, so being there and helping with the pigs, the chickens and the cows was heaven for me. There was one thing however that I did not like and that was the eating of the chicken. Remember I was about 8 years old at the time, so this made a huge impact on me! Once the chickens were old the had to be slaughtered as they didn’t give so much eggs anymore, so my friends father did that himself on their yard and I have seen many a chicken being killed. Now… that was not the problem as a headless chicken running around was always kind of funny. We cleaned the chickens as well from their insides, put them in hot water so the feathers would come out easier and burned of the remaining feather bits above the stove. That was all fine, but after doing all that; I could not get myself to eat the chicken anymore. And my friends brother…hmm, how shall I put this delicately; he is the reason I have this chicken phobia. Simply because of the way he ate; and he ate everything of the chicken; hearts, neck and god knows what else. It all looked absolutely disgusting to me, so I never really wanted any of that. Because the chickens were old (compaired to the ones you buy in the stores anyway) they were also a bit chewy and difficult to eat. Lots of muscles and sinew running around their bones… I can’t really describe it I guess, other then that is where my phobia comes from! So having this whole chicken was a break-through let’s put it like that.

Gizmo falling asleep next to the asparagus

Anyway, the meal was really lovely and I liked the chicken (yeah!!) so all was well!

I couldn’t resist posting this photo of Gizmo as well. I wanted to take a photo of the asparagus before peeling them and ofcourse Gizmo – curious little devil that she is – needed to come and sit next to the asparagus so she could make sure I did everything alright. As you can see she has a bit of a funny mouth. She is missing most of her teeth, but her front fangs are still there and sometimes her lip kind of ‘hangs’ on the fangs, without her knowing it. But it looks very silly, but cute nonetheless… At least I think so…

She thought the chicken was fabulous too!

Junglefrog Cooking » cats

In memorian ; Witje

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In memorian: Joepie

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Poached summerfruit

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Grilled chicken

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