What’s On Your Workdesk this Wednesday?
Working on the embellishments for the cat throw.
I am finding the chart I made last week extremely useful, and it’s fun adjusting it each time I complete another crocheted kitty, and seeing the bottom half of the chart gradually diminishing in number.
As you can see, I have only the “peeking cat” embellishments to complete now, in several colours.
They are strung together according to type, in order of colour.
Kitty bums
When you crochet the “peeking cat” embellishment, you begin with the pink bum! Here are the bums for the final seven peeking cats required. As you can see, I have used Ruby as a background for this photo.
This is what a finished peeking cat embellishment looks like (without the embroidered face as yet).
This is a really fun embellishment. You can embroider the face with quite a surprised expression.
Well, you get everything on WOYWW, don’t you. Hand-made cats’ bottoms? I bet you’ve never had those before.
Our garden in the spring
I love this time of year. Since I last photographed our garden, more daffodils have come out, and there is a thicker sprinkling of primroses on the bank, with more since this photo was taken – and lots of buds visible too. I hope we will get a lot more – we had a great display last year.
The first of a new batch of tulips has opened, and with the first emergence of the new growth of mint, I am delighted to be able to potter out into the patio again to clip my bits of herbs for the cooking.
Talking of which…
Food
Almond milk update
After the rather lumpy hummus I made last week, which my hubby didn’t really like (and to be honest, I preferred the original version as well), I attempted to grind up the coarse almond pulp that came out of the juicer. I tried every machine in my possession, with complete lack of success! It was far too sticky and was just forced to the sides of whatever machine I tried to blend it in: Vitamix main jug, and the cup attachment, food processor, small grinder on my Kenwood Chef stand mixer, and even my old-fashioned hand mincer which I had to dig out of the recesses of a little-used cupboard! All that happened was that I got extremely frustrated, and ended up with a mountain of unnecessary washing up to do!
I thought about it for a while and decided it might grind better if it was dried out a bit. I didn’t want to have to put the oven on each time (waste of electricity and also when I’ve tried drying it this way before, I’ve ended up by cooking it too much), so I put it in the nut bag and hung it on the airer in the utility room to dry out. It took two or three days to dry sufficiently, which was much too long. The trouble was, it was in too much of a lump in the bag for the air to get at it properly.
It did eventually dry out enough for me to blend it in the cup attachment on the Vitamix, and I made some very satisfactory hummus with it which we both enjoyed. I had to add water which I didn’t have to do before, but that didn’t matter. It came out slightly darker in colour than previously, but again that wasn’t a problem.
With the next batch, I spread it out on a baking sheet and put it in the airing cupboard, so that it would dry out a lot more quickly. This appears to be the best way to deal with it.
I think I’ve finally got it sussed. You know me – I’m not prepared to give up until I’ve found a solution to a problem! My attitude is that if I have already spent some time trying to solve a problem without success, if I give up at that point, all the time I have already spent would have been wasted. Much better to persevere and end up with success. The more difficult it is, the more of a challenge it presents and the more eager I am to defeat it!
I am very pleased with how the new juicer is performing. It is making excellent almond milk.
I have been putting the pulp from mixed vegetable and fruit juices in the bag in the freezer with other offcuts and peelings, and last week I made another batch of veg stock with it. It came out fine, so I am not wasting that pulp, either.
Home-made tahini
This is something I have been planning to make for quite some time. I use a lot of tahini in various recipes apart from hummus, and it is the basis of several salad dressings that I make. I had bought a large bag of sesame seeds and when I got the Vitamix I found a recipe on their website for tahini, and people in the comments said that it was better to use hulled sesame seeds rather than whole ones, so I had to wait until I could put in another order to get some. Then other things intervened and I didn’t get round to it.
This week I decided it was time to have a go. Tahini is a one-ingredient product – sesame seeds! You just grind them up in a high-speed blender and they magically turn into this delicious, nutritious, creamy condiment so popular in Middle Eastern cooking. It is an important ingredient in hummus, and also in halva (must try making that sometime – it’s fabulous – I’ve already found some easy vegan halva recipes online).
To make tahini, you really do need a high-speed blender. A regular liquidiser or food processor simply isn’t powerful enough and you won’t get the smooth creamy texture.
It is best to toast the sesame seeds lightly before you blend them. This releases the oil and they are also warm when you put them in the blender. You also have to do quite a bit at once because too small an amount of seeds won’t blend properly in the Vitamix. The recipe specified 5 cups (that’s about 700 grams of seeds) and I had to toast these in my heavy iron skillet in batches of a cup at a time, keeping them moving so they wouldn’t burn, or they would turn the tahini bitter. The smell was fabulous.
I blended them at high speed for two minutes, using the tamper through the lid of the blender to keep pushing the seeds down into the blades until a paste began to form. After removing the tamper and replacing the cap in the lid, I blended the seeds for another two minutes and the magic happened.
I scraped most of the tahini out of the Vitamix jug, and then added the ingredients for making a batch of chickpea hummus, which incorporated what remained of the tahini in the jug. Alternatively, you could add some lemon juice and/or vinegar and a little water and make some tahini dressing for salads – it’s a shame just to rinse the residue down the sink.
Chickpea hummus
Ingredients
1 tin (1 1/2 cups cooked) chickpeas
1/4 cup tahini, or what’s left in the Vitamix after making it
1/2 cup lemon juice (or the juice of 2 lemons)
1 tab apple cider vinegar
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder (or 1 clove garlic)
Approx. 3/4 – 1 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
1. Add all ingredients to the Vitamix, liquid first.
2. Blend for 2 minutes on high, using the tamper.
3. Remove tamper, check for consistency and add more water if necessary.
4. Continue to blend for a further 2 minutes on high.
5. Scrape out into a box and refrigerate.
This hummus is very good, and it will be a nice change from the almond one now and again.
You could probably make this in a food processor, but it might not come out so smooth.
When I make hummus (usually with almond pulp) I never add any oil. It isn’t necessary, and oil has the highest calorie density of any food, with no nutritional benefit that can’t be obtained from eating various whole-foods such as nuts, seeds, olives and avocado. The only oil I now have in my pantry is coconut oil and I use some of this in my bread in the bread maker – without it, the loaf gets stuck in the tin and won’t come out!
Having had such success with the tahini, I am keen to try making my own nut butters now. I adore almond butter but it is pretty expensive. I buy loads of raw almonds in bulk from my whole-food supplier for making almond milk, and this is going to work out a lot cheaper. People report that home-made nut butters are absolutely delicious, and you know exactly what’s gone into them – nuts, and just nuts – and no added oils or other ingredients that some bought ones contain.
Nutrition
Open Sesame!
Sesame seeds come from the Sesamum indicum plant. There are hundreds of the tiny seeds in each pod. Sesame seeds are one of the oldest cultivated crops in recorded history. The plant grows wild in sub-Saharan Africa and the cultivated varieties originate in India. It is grown as a crop in many tropical regions of the world. It can be grown where many other crops would not survive, and has long been a subsistence crop on the edge of deserts, requiring very little maintenance and surviving on very little water. Amazing that such a nutrient-dense food can be grown in such impoverished conditions.
You can get white and black sesame seeds, and hulled or whole. Hulled ones are best for making tahini (ground sesame seeds).
Tahini is a major ingredient of hummus and halva, both of which are common foods in the Middle East. The seeds are also commonly used to decorate bread. They have a pleasant, nutty taste and a crunchy texture. I always add a couple of tablespoons of sesame seeds to my home-made bread, along with sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Really nutritious and tasty!
Like many whole-foods, they are a rich source of fibre and plant protein. They are beneficial for reducing LDL cholesterol and the risk of cardiovascular disease, and being high in magnesium, they help lower blood pressure. Their anti-oxidant properties can also help prevent the build-up of dangerous plaque in the blood vessels.
They aid bone health, but the calcium is mostly in the hulls, so to gain this benefit, it is best to eat them whole.
Other useful nutrients are several B-Vitamins.
Also made this week
Another batch of one of my favourite salad recipes, Quinoa Green Goddess Bowls. This is a recipe from the “Forks Over Knives” site from their subscription meal planning section that I was on for a while, so I’m not free to share the recipe in detail. The basis of the salad is sweet potatoes, quinoa and kale, with other stuff added, and the dressing is cashew nuts, tahini, lemon juice, a little Dijon mustard and maple syrup, a clove of garlic and a good quantity of fresh parsley and basil which is what gives it its green colour. The dressing is blended in the Vitamix until smooth, and it’s quite thick – the nuts give it a really creamy consistency. Rather than just rinsing out the jug after blending, I add a little water and blend it again, and end up with a delicious drink! This dressing is absolutely full of fresh flavour and so, so yummy.
Another salad: Kale Caesar Salad. This is unfortunately another subscription video so no details – just that the salad’s main ingredients are chickpeas and quinoa with some tomatoes, and kale. I steam the chopped kale for 2-3 minutes to soften it; alternatively you could knead it with a little salt and lemon juice.
The dressing is made from cashew nuts, white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and garlic. It’s quite piquant.
As always when I make this salad, I don’t mix in the croutons (made from my home-made bulgur bread, nice and crunchy) until we are ready to eat the salad or they will go soggy. I am sure there are many more unpleasant things in this life than soggy croutons but soggy croutons are pretty high up the list.
Kitties
Thank you everyone for sharing your delightful insights into the joys of clearing up cat sick last week! The top comment has to come from Felicia, who told me that it was always her job to clear it up, and if she was out, the family would cover the offering with a bowl to await her return!! I’m still giggling over that one. As I said before, WOYWW has everything, doesn’t it… Not that this particular product has yet reached my desk, thank goodness – so no “enabling” from Shoshi! You will be relieved to hear that despite last week’s threats, nobody has been sold on Ebay.
When she was young, one of our previous kitties, Phoebe, didn’t travel well. On the car journey to the vet, stuff would come out of every orifice and her poor sister would be cowering at the back of the cat carrier trying to maintain a safe distance. The vet’s nurse was always so kind and would clean Phoebe up on arrival! We still put an incontinence pad in the cat carrier just in case, but our present two are very good. We now have a much shorter drive to the vet’s (max 5 minutes) and they never make a fuss. Such a change from the 20-30 minutes of yowling duets of the past!
The first time we took Lily and Ruby to the vet’s for their initial kitten MOT, everyone was entranced by them – the two tiny stripy little tigers! They quite stole the show in the waiting room, and then when we went in, the vet called out to one of her colleagues to come in to see them because they were so pretty and adorable.
That photo was taken the first time we saw them, when they were only 5 weeks old. Our little babbies. It was awful having to wait another whole 5 weeks before we were allowed to bring them home. Ruby on the left, Lily on the right. They grow up so quickly, and we wanted to enjoy every minute of their kittenhood. I’ve got loads of videos of them, all on my YouTube channel for posterity, and I can watch them again and again when I need a fix!
Here’s Ruby, enjoying a bit of loving from my hubby.
They are both such great lumps these days and it’s hard to imagine that they were once so small.
Have a great week, everybody.
We used sesame seeds last night on dinner – steamed tofu egg and prawn – and they added such a nice crunch, along with fresh chopped spring onions. I have jars of tahini but dang they are hard to stir to combine – is the home version more likely to stay combined or does it separate as well? I do like the sound of that cashew dressing – I find identifying good dressings for my salads hard. I do use olive oil a lot, as it is pretty heart healthy, full of antioxidants and has some protective qualities against heart attacks (had one, thanks that was enough) and stroke, plus it tastes good 🙂 The cat blanket is going to be a total triumph when done – cannot wait to see your Hubby’s face when he opens it. But oh those little pink dots! Surprised face indeed LOL!
slept in so
Mary Anne (6)
Your post has it all Shoshi from delicious recipes, cute kitties and funny stories. While still finding time to craft and create…..Have a lovely week
Sandra de
Just catching some desks from my ‘proper desk lol. Have a good week Helen #1
Hi Shoshi. No, you are right – never seen cat’s bottoms referred to on WOYWW before…
take care. God bless.
Margaret #2
Or you could embroider a self satisfied expression like our cat does when he’s just ‘added’ to the freshly put done cat litter! Little so and so, I swear he waits on purpose. Suffice to say, as a cat owner for many years, the bum is spot on. Now there’s a sentence I didn’t think I’d be typing this morning! I do like your chart as well, such a good way of keeping tabs on what’s done/needs doing.
Hugs LLJ 10 xxx
Lucky Ruby doesn’t realise she’s being covered in cat bums LOL! I think she would take offence, especially that you’re plastering it all over the internet! Oh yeah, I’m familiar with those cat bums – why do they always feel the need to shove their bums in you face, I’ll never know! It’s probably a compliment in cat world, just like the beheaded mice they leave outside the door! That is an adorable photo of the babies – I can imagine how hard it was to wait 5 weeks! We only had to wait a few days to get Oreo. I always think of Oreo as a rescue cat – he did not live in very good conditions. I think he may have even be abused or at least mistreated by the family who had them – I think they couldn’t cope that’s why they decided to get rid of him. He also had a sibling that had already been adopted when we went to pick him up. I hope he or she went to a good home too! It’s good that you were able to adopt Ruby and Lily together. They’re very lucky cats! Your home-made humous sounds delicious! We just get Tesco’s version each week for our salads but I know there’s no comparison! Enjoy your week, Shoshi! xx
Hi Shoshi, your cat blanket is going to make your hubby smile!
I do a version of your cat with the head as the front circle and the body and tail behind, as well. Blanket stitching makes it look like a stripy tail.
Your cats were so cute as kittens and Ruby has a “Papa, my hero” expression.
Love your hummus and tahini recipes. You make good use of your machines!
Take care, stay safe and happy WOYWW
Hugs
Lynnecrafts 17
Shoshi….yayyyy, great to see that I am the winner in the cat sick story!!!! LOLOL Such an honor!! I still laugh (after the fact now, of course….hee hee) about the absurdity of it all!!! But hey, it doesn’t stop there because the kitties are as snarky as the kiddos! They watch me clean it up with some sort of satisfaction in their eyes, I just know it!! Almost with a grin on their face! Boy I tell you, if I didn’t love them so much, they would have been more than a “threat” for the Ebay surfers! LOLOLOL
The peeking cat embellishment is super cute! I know I have said it before, but hubby is really going to love that throw!! Also glad to see that Ruby could be of some use in the process! LOL It didn’t appear that she was exerting herself in any way, but you know, any contribution goes I guess! LOLLOL
So back to the pulp……look, you are a wayyyyyyyy better woman than me!! It’s to the bin for me!! I just could not go through that! I get the principal of it all, which is usually my stance, but hey sometimes the towl has to be thrown in!! I am glad however, that you were able to master it!! Woop!
I LOVE, LOVE Tahini! I use it a lot as well. I love just spreading it on toast also!! I know it is probably a bit of an acquired taste for most as it tends to be just a shy bit of bitter, but I love it! I have yet to make my own, which is really odd since I have the use of my amazing Vitamix, but I should give it a go. It’s so hard to find any sort of nut or seed around my small town. I have to order EVERYTHING, which is probably why I haven’t tried it before. The woes of living in a small rural area! LOL I do make hummus on a regular basis though! I could eat it with everything, I think! hee hee
I think I have made a comment on the green goddess salad bowl before and I must check to see if it’s in my book. I also think I told you that I have the book and recipe book, so it should probably be in there. That being said, no excuse now not to make right??? I only mentioned it because maybe I could share the recipe if anyone asks since I actually own the book? Or is that still an infringement even with links to them? Let me know, I’m happy to share!
Well, my friend……happy everything looks like it’s coming up spring!! I know you will be excited to putter around in your garden snipping away again!! I miss having a yard, but I do have a few potted plants. I have never tried herb pots, but maybe I will give it a go this year!! Here’s to a lovely rest of your week and weekend! Many blessings to you Shoshi! Felicia #25
Shoshi I can not stop goggling at the cat bum’s, never thought i’d say one was so cute but just look at them haa haaa!! You really are a star with your crochet cat fashioning.
Good to hear your juicer is doing the job, I spoke to my Daughter on Monday and forgot completely to ask what make she uses. We are both big fans of humous.
Our garden is beginning to show shines of spring, the bluebells are all coming up that I replanted last year and it looks like my hydrangea is coming back to life.
Glad you shared the pic of Ruby and Lily when small, they are extremely pretty girls.
Happy WoywW take good care now Hugs Tracey #12 x
I watched some of your videos last week, they are very funny! We have some seeds growing on the window seal and the garden’s beginning to wake up. I should think you are the only person in the world who knits cats bums and shickpea hummus and talks about them on the same page!! have a great week, Stay safe and keep well. Happy woyww ((Lyn))#21
Lovely signs of spring in the garden, and for me, preferable to making cats bums!! Snort!! Getting excited for the finished blanket now, you really are motoring with it!
Such a cute photo of the fur babies when they were tiny Shoshi. Glad all your experimenting worked out in the end too. Love the idea of the peeking cats with their pink bottoms. Meow to the little ladies. Stay safe and happy WOYWW. Sarah #4
I did wonder what that pink dot was for ?. Your first picture of the kittens is adorable and I can well imagine the vets coming out to admire. I didn’t know you had a YouTube channel. I do love seeing some of the animal videos on there, although not all. Some of the cruelty ones are very hard to watch and I often skip to the end so I can see the animal in a healthy state. I used to like sesame seed thins, but the last few I bought have been very hard to bite. I am not keen on poppy seeds, the gluten free rolls I buy are covered in them and I often scrape some off. I am in a quandary about my weight, my husband likes to bakes cakes and puddings and if I say I don’t want any he feels it’s not worth baking for himself. His Yorkshire puddings are absolutely delicious. He has been buying me Cadbury’s Creme Eggs which I love and I have been eating them, so I can’t blame him if I haven’t got the willpower! Have a great week and happy WOYWW Angela #3
It’s hard to decide which is cutest, the crochet cats with their “bums” or the real ones – think the real ones win though. That photo of them when you first saw them is adorable. I would want to have that in a frame somewhere as they are so beautiful. No wonder you fell in love. Love the picture with hubby too, showing just how a cat loves to be loved by her human.
My word, you are making progress with the blanket, didn’t know about these ‘bum’ cats but even with no faces they are adorable. I am so excited about this throw, I can’t wait to see it in all its glory when finished.
I love Hummus. I hope you get to make lots and lots and you thoroughly enjoy it. You have lots of patience in trying to make these things.
Thanks for the note about the spam I am getting (another 56 today, Thursday) I have now seen that I can delete it as Spam which is a quicker application than the delete was. Apparently I will have to do this several times, over several days `I think they mean, and it will eventually learn it is not to be accepted. Either way it is quicker than deleting each one. Thanks Shoshi.
Hugs, Neet xx 5
What a tenacious lady you are!! I think I would have given up with that pulp – nope, correction I wouldn’t have gone there in the first place. Loving the look of your salads and dressings, really must get more adventurous. My hummus this week – I had tahini this time, shop bought I’m afraid – was nowhere as nice as the first lot. Far too stiff, and not garlicky enough. Back to the drawing board for that one. But my 5 bean salad was delish and my couscous and quinoa all got eaten in one day. Still persevering with the chia pudding a couple of times a week although I’m still not really sure I like it!! DD is back at work pretty much full time (ie not working from home) and it’s hard to get food at the mo, so I find if I have things ready in the fridge she grabs whatever salad for work. Bit disappointing for me some days but I’d rather she did that than fill up with crisps and crap food, or worse, nothing at all. Those ‘kitties’ sure have grown. Have a lovely week, Happy WOYWW, stay well, stay safe, love n hugs Cindy #27xx
Such an adorable pic of the cats when they were little! I can totally see why they stole the show at the vets. When I first saw the cat’s bum I thought “Is that… that looks like…” and then read on to find, yes it was indeed! Such an attractive quality that cats have for displaying their wares! Spring blessings, Lisa-Jane #7
Oh I love the cat bums – how hilarious – it looks like it’s been a fun project. I love the photo of the two tiny tiger cubs – what a difference to how they are now!
Lovely to see the garden coming to life, this is such a wonderful time of year and it’s nice you can start using fresh herbs again.
Have a great week,
Diana xx #24
Just lost my first comment aarrrgggh
Love the ‘ cat’s bum’ embellishments
Your kitties were so adorable, guess they still are! 🙂
Our youngest granddaughter is named Phoebe. When she was younger she always threw up in the car. Hadcto take a bowl every journey! Have a good week.
That kitty blanket is going to be fabulous! And look at those little kittens!
As usual I was interested by your recipes.
Happy WOYWW!
Susan #15
Oh my goodness kitty bums – whatever next.
Sorry I’m a bit late this week but I was digging a pond Wednesday then food shopping and trying to source some plants yesterday whilst the boys replaced some fence panels then I had to go clear up the garden AGAIN. Thanks for the visit BJ#9
Hi Shoshi, the cat’s bum is too cute! It’s Mittsy’s favourite thing to put in Inky’s face. She practically sits on her! Inky does not like this however…It is fun to look back on our sweet little kittens, how small and cute they were! Mittsy is now bigger than Inky! I love Tahini, and I love hummus, but I don’t love the calories. Unfortunately I buy a jar of tahini, use it once in hummus, then regret all the calories and it sits in the fridge forever. I may just try your oil free version. I grew up with halva as a special treat! And we also used to get the honey-sesame seed candy as well. Thanks for sharing! It brought up some nice memories! Lindart #30
Found a button that you can click onto that deletes each one of the Spam messages. Still had to wade through 267 to date! But thank you so much for stopping me keep pressing ‘delete’ which meant a further two actions for each one. Apparently it will learn the addie eventually – maybe they use a different addie in which case it will go on until they tire or I just give up.
Still thank you so much Shoshi – you helped me regain my sanity.
Hugs, Neet 5 xx