Kakistocracy

The other day there was a pretty funny word on the page a day calendar and I have to share it. 

Kakistocracy : government by the worst people.

Kakistocracy. Such a fun sounding word and pretty adequately describes our government sometimes.

Now, if there was only a word like that to describe the media... 

#FridayFunny

Pumpkin Puree and Fresh Pumpkin Pie

After we used this pumpkin to take pictures with all of our pets, I made puree with it.

It was much more simple than I had expected. The tidiest part was peeling the pumpkin. I later learned that you could leave the skin on and remove it after you boil it.

To get pumpkin puree, you boil the pumpkin (after it's been diced) in a pot of water until the pumpkin is fork tender. After that you can leave it in the "chunky" state it is, or you can puree it in a food processor. Next time I'm going to do that.

I made a pie with some of the puree, but it wasn't anything note worthy. In fact, my mom and brother didn't fancy it very much. The recipe I ended up using didn't use enough sugar, so it tasted very squash-like. Not exactly what you want in a pumpkin pie....

Cranberry Fluff

Jello and whipped cream are one delicious,  sensational combination... right up there with peanut butter and jelly, popcorn and a movie, and Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake.

Cranberry Fluff is better than when you add whipped cream to jello. Seriously...I'm pretty certain you'll love it.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cranberry juice
• 1 (16 oz) whole berry cranberry sauce
• 1 (3oz) package of raspberry Jello
• 1 cup cool whip or heavy whipping cream, whipped

The first step is to boil the cranberry juice.

Then you add the cranberries and the jello. Make sure you don't have powder clumps. And then you pour it into a bowl, cover it and let it chill in the fridge until it becomes jello (which is 4-5 hours in the fridge, or 2-3 in the freezer).

After it becomes jello, the fun part begins. Add the whipping cream or cool whip and just mix it until all of it is mixed in. Your jello should take on a more pinkish hue because it's fluff now.

And then you enjoy!

So far, we've tried 3 other variations: Pineapple, cranberry/cherry, and pineapple/orange. All of them are good. If you do the pineapple, be sure to add coconut on the top... It takes it up a notch!

This gets 5 out of 5 cat whiskers!
I found the recipe here.

Chocolate Zuchini Bread

Anyone who is familiar with growing Zucchini, knows that the zucchini plant is a wild, attention grabbing cross between a vine and a bush. And when you turn your back on it for a minute you'll have five new, rather large zucchinis on your hands (this year, one accidentally got to 5 Ibs!)

And one can only handle sautéd zucchini for so long before one gets bored. (Although these Zucchini Fritters are delicious).

For now, I'm just gonna tease you with pictures of the Chocolate Zucchini Bread that I made. This is because I didn't find the recipe on the interwebs. The recipe was given to me by my great grandma... it's a family recipe. I just got so excited about the final product that I had to add the pictures to my blog!

Happy Baking, Y'all!

Mr. Waffles

Usually, when we start fostering a dog or puppy, we are the ones that found it in a bad part of town or someone sees said dog's picture on SOAR's Facebook page, falls in love, promptly shows the picture to the rest of the family, who also fall in love with said dog. And usually it's when we've said that we were going to take a break...

This was the case with Mr. Waffles. But never before have we seriously, seriously considered Foster Failing. Sure, we might have with Loki, but I consider that to be different. We weren't "Officially" fostering him. Plus he's a cat. We've said it a couple times, that we won't foster a cat (or cats) because it's trouble. Loki is the proof of that :-P

So, in a matter of a week, this fluffy, goofy, cute little guy with such expressive ears, is a Foster Fail. Of course, mom has been wanting a little dog for quite some time, but we never really thought we would find "the one" because usually little dogs are so yappy and puppies aren't available for fostering for very long... But this puppy was unspoken for and the only thing we said was that we would like to foster a boy. The vet tech said he was the best of the litter and I couldn't agree more. We warned the head of the rescue group that we might end up wanting to adopt him and she didn't mind.

Mom made sure that we were all on board with adopting this fellow. Of course, he is liked by our other dogs and the cats don't seem to care (although he sure likes them.) We're still fostering Z-Bo and pray every day that a suitable forever home is found for him... the sooner the better because every day he gets more attached to us and he is a creature of habit, doesn't like change. 

Anyway, Mr. Waffles is a Chihuahua/Pomeranian/Papillion/Mix... another mutt for our motley crew. He is the salt in our pepper! He will most likely stay under 10 pounds and he's the smartest puppy we've had the pleasure of raising in a long time (since Charlie, actually.)

Maggie

Would you believe it if I told you that Miss Maggie Moo went and got adopted?!?!?!

I hope so. Because Mags got adopted by this lovely family and they are the most perfect match! I don't think we could have dreamed up a better family for her. :-)

And you know what's even better? Getting pictures like this a couple weeks after she was adopted... 

And this is why we are able to foster and then say goodbye. Always brings a smile... and it certainly warms my heart. Awesome!