I got them in that order too

Oooh yum, I’m a sucker for capers but haven’t ever had them in a risotto. Love how the black of the risotto jives with the sunflower plate 🌻

She’s gotten a little bit of supervised porch time, my husband and I plan on training her the same way we’ve trained our first cat, Mirepoix.

Mira loves her supervised outside time and understands when we ask “you wanna go outside?” She’ll generally stay in the garden with us (occasionally she’ll push her luck and wander a little) and knows when we say “inside!” that it’s time to go in.

Oh of course! I kept an eye on the local lost pet listings and had her checked for a microchip, no luck with either.

I don’t know how long a young kitten can go without food, but she was extremely skinny, had fleas and worms, and with how matted her fur was with leaves and filth, she really didn’t look like she’d been taken care of. 😢

Hah! Well you’ve hit the nail on the head, I’m in California and clam chowder with good fresh clams is a rare treat.

I use canned clams in my chowder, and I usually reach for some fatty pork product to render fat for sauteing the veggies and as a finishing garnish (I once splurged on some guanciale, but wasn’t a discernable enough upgrade to be worth repeating). Interesting to know that the chowder isn’t traditionally thick. I can’t think of a single time I’ve had it at a restaurant where it wasn’t, which is why I was adding extra thickeners to try to match that expectation.

Yep, didn’t have any bacon in the house, but I like having a little meaty salty bite in my chowder, and turns out spam fried until crunchy fits the bill!

Oh certainly try it, clam chowder is one of my favorite soups. Both New England and Manhattan style are delicious, but my inner fatass prefers the New England.

I differ from the usual recipes in that I’m a sucker for really getting some good browning on the vegetables before adding the liquid. The flavor is worth the trade off of having a tan colored chowder rather than the pale cream of the traditional New England style.

I agree, soup weather is the best!

Oh dear, I just thought that they’d get leggy like basil, maybe I should pinch the flowers off…

Probably because it was a big event and everyone wanted to be out to watch the roads switch sides.

Aww what a sweet baby. I’m sure he appreciates the comforting after the vet <3

Yes! We call those her leg warmers too :D

Sure does! Another little standard issue cutie

Maybe a beef belly cut that’s been smoked and thinly sliced, similarly to regular bacon?

As someone with ADHD, the results of this study are encouraging, but limited. They summed it up well in the article, but the study only covered people who were self-microdosing and then self-reporting, which leaves lots of uncontrolled variables.

“This study is a naturalistic prospective study, meaning that we measured participants over time without manipulating any variables such as substances and doses they used for microdosing during the study,” Haijen said. “In contrast to a controlled lab-based study, where drug- and dose uniformity is guaranteed. Also no control group was included, so we cannot say if this effect was purely because of microdosing, or if other factors, such as placebo- or expectancy effects, were the main force behind the changes we observed. So this study should be seen as a first step in this research direction, as more and controlled studies will hopefully follow.”

Goodness, that is terrible, I see why they’re looking to replace it.

I know right? My first thought was put a heating pad on the windowsill, and the cat will be much more likely to choose that spot.

When it’s finally his turn with the brain cell.

Why thank you! There’s a few “genres” of cooking and baking that I know well enough to freestyle, and a lot of it is just tasting and knowing how to balance if you’ve gone too far in one aspect or another.

Like for example, I wouldn’t normally make this with corn in it, but I’d tossed a bunch of jalapenos in with the pork that had turned extra spicy with heat stress from a recent heatwave in my area. So in tasting the stew, I decided it was overly spicy, and dumping in a half cup of corn took the spice down a notch.

What a cutie!