Fun in Flatland

More fun in the kitchen

I'm going to make lime bars today.
Meanwhile a thunderstorm is looming at the edge of my neighborhood. It has gotten very dark all of a sudden.

We're both damp :)

My friend and I had a spray bottle shower.

She has a brief post about the event on her blog.

I haven't done much the past few days except roast garlic, bake beet & carrot crisps, then eat lots of garlic and beet & carrot crisps. Being avid readers of the Flatland blog you know this already- so let me tell you about one day in May when I was in the Bay Area at the family compound, lounging poolside behind high stucco walls.

I soaked up the bright sunshine, and filled my lungs with warm, dry air as I prowled around the estate with my camera. However I had this odd feeling that I was being followed..

He assured me however that his fair coloration would not draw attention as we wandered about the property together. He was right. He was a pasty-blond kitty and blended in nicely with the surroundings.

Since the fauna had found me, I moved on to the flora..

Then kitty and I sought shelter from the hot sunshine and played guitar hero together. He really had an advantage over me with those dexterous, pink paw pads. My score was abysmal.

Beets and tree leaves

I enjoy finding new blogs to read because I often learn new things when I do. Thanks to reading the Parrot Musings blog I have learned about a new cook book titled How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.
The first thing I tried were the beet crisps I had read about on Parrot Musings blog. The beets turned out very good... just not crispy enough. I think next time I will make thinner slices in spite of Mr. Bittman's advice to keep them at 1/8 inch thickness.

Here they are very lightly coated in corn oil and spread out on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper.
12 minutes later they are out and ready to be turned over. I let them go 12 more minutes and then turned them again... still not enough crunchiness going on. I think a wire mesh cooking sheet might also be a good idea, but I'll start with a thinner slice on the beets next time.
While the beets were baking the sun was lighting up the tops of the trees and I ran out to take a few pictures. We had some passing showers this afternoon and I thought the bright green of the leaves were so pretty against the dark sky. Unfortunately the contrast between sky and trees isn't very clear in these shots. You'll have to take my word for it :)

Going outside

I took my little friend outside today to enjoy some bright sunshine that was peeking between the dark gray clouds. She really enjoyed it and wasn't worried at all, in fact she ruffled up so much she reminded me of a little puffer fish all inflated. She basked for a little while even raising her wings but not fully extending them. Then the first airplane flew over and that made her wary, then another one flew over a few minutes later and it was much closer to the house, so that pretty much broke the calm we had. Still, she wasn't very worried so that's a good sign. I took her back in while it was still a nice experience for her.

I'm working on touching her all over her body, under her wings, to prepare her for wearing the harness. I want to introduce it to her over time so it won't worry her and then we can look forward to regular outings.

Craving some Allium sativum L.

I have this Middle Eastern herb mix called Za'atar that I like to mix with olive oil and some fresh garlic puree that we buy from the Lebanese Taverna market. I eat the herb/garlic mixture on a pita bread. Today I didn't have the garlic spread so I cut a clove in half and pressed it into my mixture of herbs and oil. I spread this on the pita and put it under the broiler till the bread got a little crispy on the edges.

So good and garlicky.. but apparently that wasn't enough to satisfy my craving for garlic. So I put these guys in the oven with a nice drizzle of olive oil and a dash of salt. They are SO good...I've eaten 5 cloves already! Something tells me I'm going to ~~smell~~ be very aromatic this week.

Wet bird

How does that saying go.. angrier than a wet hen? She wasn't angry, but I'm not sure she liked her spray shower initially so I didn't push it. She was okay sitting by the window and preening later on though.
She is finally getting used to the cameras I keep sticking in her face too, poor bird. I won't use the flash because I'm sure it's very uncomfortable for her eyes. She definitely has moments when she does not want to be petted- an odd characteristic for me to get used to when I think about how snugly my cockatoo was. When V is uncovered in the mornings she is very social and chirpy, even pacing the floor of her cage to be let out. This is the time she really likes her head rubbed, although tonight she was quite affectionate and let me rub her head and chin for awhile before settling down for the night.

And what lies at the end

Hey kids today I learned the answer to one of life's mysteries. The answer to that question asked time and time again after a brilliant burst of sunshine peeks out between clouds heavy and dark with rain. "What lies at the end of the rainbow?" A construction crane.