Brunch

Goodtime party girl blogger, Alison has come to the realization that her partying ‘til dawn isn’t as much fun as it used to be.

I think I hit that wall long ago. In recent years I’ve noticed that most of my socializing revolves around brunch. Brunch is a good time to get together with people because:

No one’s not drifting off — which old people tend to do after 10:00 pm.

Food options are awesome – it’s the only time you can have baked goods with whipped cream, chocolate and syrup and legitimately call it a meal.

It’s late enough in the day to start drinking, but early enough in the day for the drinks to wear off, giving you some productive afternoon time before the evening drinking begins.

Brunch drinking is totally different from night-time drinking. There are a whole range of drinks specifically designed just for brunch: Bloody Marys/Cesars, Mimosas, Bellinis, Sangria, Mojitos, Morning Martinis, anything you can make in a blender, anything you can add to juice or coffee, any kind of beer and wine – especially Rosé.

Brunch starts mid to late morning and can finish in an hour or you can make a whole day of it. (in which case there will be no productive afternoon break).

Hosting brunch is a lot easier than hosting a dinner party.

Or, if you want to go out, there are so many amusing brunch places to explore – surprising places sometimes, where completely different things happen at night.

Brunch takes care of two meals at once, saving both time and money.

And, finally, you can have lots of good-time party fun and still get to bed by 11:00.

Here’s a recipe for Goat Cheese, Roasted Pepper & Baby Spinach Frittata that I think I got from the LCBO Food & Drink magazine.

6 eggs
¼ cup milk (or milk-like product)
Salt & pepper
1 roasted red pepper cut into thin slices
Handful of baby spinach1/2 cup creamy goat cheese
1 Tbsp. butter (or butter-like product)
2 Tbsp. thinly sliced green onion

Whisk eggs, milk, salt & pepper. Stir in roasted pepper, spinach and half the goat cheese. Melt butter in frying pan, (cast iron is best) add onion and stir around for a bit. Stir egg mixture and dump into medium hot pan, making sure all the stuff is evenly distributed. Cook until barely set and then stick the whole thing under the broiler for half minute or so until the top gets a bit brown. Sprinkle the rest of the goat cheese on top. Let it cool for a minute before cutting into wedges

This is Not a Cat Blog

This post is going to seem like I’ve jumped on the kitty-blogging bandwagon, but I haven’t. This post is really about laundry and only incidentally about cats.

After I finished doing laundry yesterday (see?), there was enough cat fur in the lint trap to make a small kitten (photo not available). I’d washed a lot of rugs and blankets and stuff the cat hangs around, but still.

It’s spring, so critters are shedding their winter fur (or long underwear in the case of Zoom’s giant feline). Bazel (my cat) has also been doing a lot of wretching the last week or so, but since I very cleverly give him regular doses of furball dissolver, he hasn’t hacked up anything too disgusting.

Nevertheless, I figured I’d better start brushing him. Cats love it, they tell me. They don’t know Bazel. Bazel doesn’t love anything that involves touching him – no petting, no stroking, no cuddling. As far as he’s concerned, I only exist to feed him and to give him nice fleshy bits to attack.

He’s like the Kato to my Clouseau. I never know when Bazel will pounce and gnaw. A dangling hand, a bare foot…maybe my elbow looks particularly fetching one day. It can be annoying. He does it when I’m sleeping, too, when he reckons it’s time to get up.

Anyway, the brushing wasn’t a big success. I had to wait until he was snoozing and sneak up on him. As soon as the brush appeared he was on me. But with some diligence and many hours, I did manage to thin him out a bit.

Bazel may not be cute and cuddly, but he’s kind of interesting and always on the alert for something to attack, so our place is completely bug and rodent free at all times.