Hi, everyone!
My groundhog friend came out from under the deck for the first time this year on April 4. He told me to expect spring when I first see him, not before. He doesn’t mind if I look for my shadow on Groundhog Day, as long as I don’t wake him up to look for his. But he said I shouldn’t predict anything from it. Even an early spring in Rochester is likely to be more than six weeks later than that!
Inside, my Christmas cactus friend was blooming, and outside, a few more of my spring flower friends had opened their blossoms. When the first daffodil bloomed, some animal who didn’t know better took a bite out of it! It looked like that animal learned fast that daffodils don’t taste good!
Grandma got a text message from Uncle Steven saying that Thomas was out of goat cheese biscuits and didn’t have school on Friday, April 8. Of course, Grandma and I invited Thomas over to make more goat cheese biscuits! I helped get ready by cutting up the rosemary leaves in advance. Then Thomas and I measured all the dry ingredients into the bowl. When we added the butter and goat cheese pieces, Thomas arranged them like a volcano crater! We did the usual blending, mixing, rolling, and cutting, then Thomas painted the tops with milk and sprinkled the salt on them. After the biscuits were baked, Uncle Steven and James came over for lunch and everybody ate some!
Holy Week started with Palm Sunday on April 10. Grandma and I invited Uncle Steven’s family over for a homemade pizza dinner! I sliced the black olives for Thomas’ favorite topping, then I helped Grandma make the dough for the crust. When that was ready, I helped spread the dough in the pans and put the toppings on for everybody. James and Thomas like a gummi bear on their pizza slice, but that goes on after baking!
Grandma wanted to make an AWACS cheesecake for Easter dinner dessert, so we started that last Monday. I was very careful to keep my paws clean while I stirred a new batch of chocolate ganache! I used a custard cup to press the crumb crust into the cheesecake pan, so that kept my paws clean, too! Grandma and I mixed the coffee flavored filling, then the chocolate filling. I marbled the two together, as usual, before the cheesecake went into the oven. Even though we were careful to cool the cheesecake slowly, it still got a crack in the top! When it was chilled the next day, I fixed that by putting ganache in the crack before I covered the rest of the top. Somebody will get extra chocolate in their piece!
Grandma had a ham bone taking up room in the freezer, so she decided to make bean soup with it. I helped put in all the ingredients, then I made sure the soup stayed simmering during all the cooking time. The recipe makes a lot of soup! Grandma said storing the soup containers in the freezer is easier than storing the ham bone!
During Holy Week, a lot more of the daffodil plantings came into bloom. When we went to the bay on Good Friday, even the daffodil clump there was in full bloom!
When I got up on Easter Sunday, there was a very light coating of snow on the ground and the deck!
By the time church was over, the snow had all melted. None of my flower friends seem to have been bothered by the cold night! I did check the coffee grounds around my tulip friends to make sure the Easter bunny didn’t snack there! The buds on the apple trees have turned green. The big planting of daffodils is just starting to bloom. Easter marks the beginning of new life, so its fits that a bird built a new nest on top of the light fixture on the deck. I’ll be excited to watch for eggs and baby birds there!
We always go to Joe-san’s and Nancy-san’s house for Easter dinner. This year, we made a lot of the food at our house and took it with us to share. I hadn’t seen Moose-san and Tilly for a while, so I was really happy to get together with them. Easter dinner dessert was the AWACS cheesecake. Moose-san and Tilly were happy to join me in serving it!
Happy spring!
Love,
Lion-san
Hello Lion-san, You have a lot of traditions to keep and flowers to visit. Spring is a wonderful time of year. I’d love to have some of your goat cheese biscuits but alas we live a little too far away to drop in and have some. Grandma sure does like to cook and she is a good cook with lots of favorite recipes. When I was cooking I liked to cook different things and was more impulsive about it than is Grandma. Most recently I made a tuna casserole. That is the most involved, most complicated thing I’ve cooked for quite some time. It is awkward sitting on the rollator and trying to chop onions and celery and mix and stir. We may be getting a little snow late tonight in the wee hours sandwiched between rain and rain. I am supposing by the time we wake up in the morning, the snow will have been rained away.
This past weekend we celebrated your Great Uncle Bill’s 81st birthday. We were invited to a friend’s cottage for dinner for ten people. Two people brought balloons for the two birthday people so now we have two balloons in our kitchen anchored to a drawer handle. I bet you like balloons but be careful not to let them go outdoors lest they harm wild life. Enjoy spring, Lion-san! It is my favorite season.
Great Aunt Betsy