I to cooked this holiday weekend. A tuna cassarole, which I thought would be safe cooling on the counter.Very wrong. My two darlings Sharon & Ozzy must have thought mama left it there for them, so they ate half of it.Got to love cats way of thinking.

Hi Laurie! Also - Second!

Hey! I made hummus, too!! Yum-o!

I am cracking UP at poor New Jersey. Bless his heart.

One of my cats likes flour tortillas and whole wheat bread. Seriously, I can't have a sandwich or wrap without her being all up in my lap. Oh, and she likes cream cheese. Once, she stole (yes, STOLE) the cream cheese container off the counter when I wasn't paying attention, carried it to the living room, and ate most of its contents. It only had 1/4 left, so she was able to get a good grip on it and carry it off.

Enjoy the hummus!

I have ingredients for making hummus. Does that count for anything? Also, my cat Lila loves saltine crackers. She doesn't like any other people food, but she will fight you for a nibble of that cracker.

One of my cats likes (loves!!!) V-8 juice. He doesn't want much, maybe 1/2 tsp, but he loves it. And I cooked! Made clean-out-the-fridge risotto, ie: risotto with all the not-quite-gone-but-on-the-slide veggies in it, along with the tag end of the asiago wedge, and the arborio rice that I can't remember when I bought it. Didn't cook it the traditional way, either, just flung it all in the pan and in 20 minutes it was done. Only scorched a little on the bottom. Pretty good, too. Even we culinarily challenged get it right once in a while!

Hooray for hummus! And cruddy-tays. So easy and so satisfying. And yes, you're cookin'.

My culinary experiment for the weekend was bacon on a grilled cheese sandwich.

Just in case you don't realize it, you have to cook the bacon before you grill the sandwich.

Vodka might have had something to do with that.

Once I got it right, the sandwich was great. So was the vodka.

[Bacon makes EVERYTHING better.]
.

I too have made hummus so garlicky that vampires will never darken my door. Did you know that the garlic intensifies when you put it in the fridge so that when you taste test it while "cooking" it, it will seem okay but a few hours later chilled it will be a bit shall we say intense.
I am not looking foward to my commute home since I think today is the first day of the deadly combo of home Red Sox game and BU students back to school.
Must think zen thoughts.....

Good job on the extra garlicky hummus- yum. My cat avoids all fruits and vegetables, so I am impressed by carrot peel eating by Bob.

It isn't CRUD-ights? oh. ahem, well then. Pass the hummus!

I lurrrvv garlic, so your recipe sounds spot on. Keeps away the horseflies, too, I hear (though you probably don't have that issue in LA, do ya).

One of my cats, Blue, eats peas. He has even licked my bowl after I've consumed a dish of rather spicy Indian curry. Strange cat. The rest all want my cheese, and Zander has been known to stick his tongue in my glass of milk if I'm not watching. Cats. Gotta love 'em!

We also call them CRUD-ites (and we speak French!).

My brother's dogs (RIP) used to eat carrots. I think they like the *crunch* or they thought they were cheddar cheese because of the similar colour. Are dogs colour blind?

LMAO at your comment re New Jersey and driving. :)

We also call them CRUD-ites (and we speak French!).

My brother's dogs (RIP) used to eat carrots. I think they like the *crunch*. Or they thought they were cheddar cheese because of the similar colour. Are dogs colour blind?

LMAO at your comment re New Jersey and driving to work today. :)

I would think you must be a very fast carrot-peeler. When I'm peeling in a hurry, I get peelings all over the place. Unfortunately, I don't always remember that, and then I find dried carrot peelings in weird places when I get around to cleaning "thoroughly".

I had a cat who liked raisins, once. My current two don't show much interest in any people food but tuna, milk, and fried chicken.

now I have to go eat a second lunch. damn.

Ahh, the smell of garlic!

This is why I always peel carrots over the trash can. If not actually *in* the trash can. When I peel carrots, that is.

Well, of *course* you put extra garlic in the hummus. Doesn't everyone? It's Lucia's First Rule of Cooking: add garlic to all entrees (of *course* hummus can be an entree) and Cointreau to all desserts and you can't go wrong.

Does Bob eat fresh catnip? I have some. Quite a bit, actually. Although if I sent it to you it would no longer be fresh by the time you got it.

Laurie the Vampire Slayer. That's a show I'd watch!!

What an amazing coincidence! This weekend, I not only ATE Hummus (Gasp!) BUT, also? I had a lesson in the proper pronunciation of the word "hummus" from my whacky Israeli neighbor.

Seems I was not putting enough spit into it.

The pronunciation, not the hummus...

I once had an eggplant explode in my oven - be glad for carrot peels JUST on your fridge door! My own Lebanese dish may have actually landed in Lebanon.

Okay I see your 'Bob eating carrot peel' and raise you 'one pissed off border collie eating 17 mini (un-iced/frosted) cupcakes STill in the paper cases'!!!!

So what will you bet now?!?!? Hmmm....

This year on our way to vacation we traveled through New Jersey and the traffic and construction was horrible! It was so bad that on our way back from vacation we avoided the entire state of NJ! Is LA traffic really worse than that? Yipes, I would never make it there, the other drivers would probably run me off the road!

My favourite hummus recipe has three cloves of garlic, but I cut back on it so my son could take to school in his lunch. I don't want him to become a kindergarten outcast.

don't feel bad - I use a whole head of garlic in my hummus. mmmmm, hummus.

You really did cook! Atta girl! What's next? Salsa?

I hate school traffic, too. It seemed to start last week here in Pasadena, but maybe it was people trying to leave early for an even longer weekend. I just know I spent too much time getting across town.

On the other hand -- love hummus with extra garlic!

I was jumping in here, but of course people beat me to it. Cats do like vegetables. When I was growing up we had a cat who lurrrrrrved tomatoes. We couldn't leave any garden fresh tomatoes sitting on the kitchen counter because she'd jump up there and nibble from all of them. So finally Dad just started giving her her *own* tomato and she would growl and snarl and glare at the other cats if they came near her as she ate her tomato!! The other cats were all, "don't worry! we don't want that!" Mom swears they had a cat that ate corn off the cob when she was growing up.

My cats have led sheltered lives and mostly wouldn't dream of eating people food, however, if one of them runs across a stray marshmallow, he can't seem to resist nibbling on it.

It's a good think Mr. New Jersey didn't move here in February. He'd be on the next plane home in March!

Where in New Jersey is this guy from? He should know about traffic for out-of-staters are always complaining about Jersey traffic though compared to NYC traffic, Jersey traffic is a walk in the park. I've spent most of my life in NJ and, contrary to popular perception, there are parts that are rural and beautiful. However, one has to endure considerable traffic to get there.

Congrats on the "cooking" :) Our cat (Bigboy) used like eating asparagus out the tin *shudder* personally I cant stand the stuff (its right up there with V-8 :P). But I have rats now instead of cats, and they love eating anything :)

1) I guess, if we were to get all technical and french-y-fied, they would be pronounced "crew-deet", with the requisite swallowing of the R.

2) I once had a cat who would tear open a trash bag for either cantaloup rind or cucumber peels.

3) "He was a little flustered so we still didn't tell him about what happens when it rains..." that is just TOO dang funny.

I had to go check that I was saying crew de tay the br people have trouble saying bruschetta so there ya go. It is always something.

I had a cat that loved the corn cob and would get one and take it off under the coffee table and growl over it and everything. She never showed any interest in carrot peels. Maybe a gender thing.

I can't wait to read the post when it rains out there. We are experiencing the remains of hurricane Gustav here today. The people across the street are having a new roof put on and the shingle wrappers have been blowing over into our backyard. The sun is shining and the birds are singing and no rain for us...well, a 30% chance.

Is it bad that I can hardly wait for it to rain in LA on a work day?

I haven't made hummus in forever. We have so many great sources for it in Metro Detroit.
My pup is a cuke scarfer. Imagine his delight when I made pickles today!

I am with you on the rain in So. Cal..PLEASE rain on us..I don't care what day of the week!!

Also, my cat Gonzo loves green olives..Not to eat, just to puncture with a million teeth holes then abandon on the kitchen floor...

Great post and that hummus sounds good with all it's garlic! I'm actually half-lebanese and I am lost on that type of cooking. Good job!

On the kitties-eating-veggies front, I submit one cat named Delilah who ate corn on the cob, holding it down with one paw and rotating it as she went. We always bought her her own ear. Number two - Raaka-kitty never cared about the corn, but she goes insane for romaine lettuce. And only ROMAINE lettuce--iceburg need not apply.

I don't mind the rain that much....I do mind the insanity of my fellow commuters.

it's funny that you've mentioned new jersey guy a couple of times now. hmm....

This is to all you commentors: I'm happy to find out that my cats are not the only quirky animals in the country, or the world for that matter. The more I read CAP's blog and the comments, the more normal my cats become. Thanks.

I actually do cook - this weekend I roasted a whole chicken, made lasagna with tomato sauce that I had made from scratch, and also made brownies. So with these qualifications, you'd think I could make hummus, right? Somehow, it always turns into a hummus-flavored green liquid. So what am I doing wrong?

PS. The tomato sauce for the lasagna contained two giant elephant garlic cloves. No vampires on Cape Ann!

Fred likes lettuce, and he will take a piece in his mouth and carry it from the kitchen to eat on the carpet in the hall....I will never undestand that! My culinary ventures this past weekend included oatmeal cookies for my sweetie, vegetable lasagna and fried green tomatoes. Sometimes you just need to eat something fried, you know? It's not an urge I have very often, so I just go with it when it hits me.

In junior high, I "helped" a friend cook dinner for her home-ec class. The recipe called for one clove of garlic. We didn't know what a clove was, so we put in the whole bulb. We were able to watch scary movies that night with no fear of the vampires coming through the screen to get us. No one in the family had so much as a sniffle for weeks, either.

I once had a cat with a thing for broccoli stalks. Any time I made broccoli, the trash had to go out immediately. If I left it in the house overnight, I'd wake up the next morning to slimy, chewed up broccoli stalks next to my bed. That's a lovely thing to step on at 6am.

traffic here gets BETTER when kids go back to school. don't ask me why, I don't understand traffic patterns.

Don't sell yourself short, you did cook. In my book anything that requires the use of a kitchen appliance is cooking. Did you use a blender or food processor to make the hummus? Then you offically cooked! Well at least you prepared food insead of ripping a package open and nuking it or something.

Now that you have me craving, I'm off to buy some hummus. I think you did enough cooking this weekend for the two of us! No sense in overdoing it!

Sitting here as a fancy French-language graduate, Cruddy-tays is near enough. Croody-tays, possibly better... Garlicky hummus, better than everything...

Yay hummus! And yay garlic! The more, the better.

That said, I usually wait till I am home to devour hummus, unless I want to keep customers at a distance of, say, several miles? Hmmm. Something to keep in mind during the holidays........;)

My former roommates had a cat that loved bananas, and another that was a bread fiend!

I cooked tilapia Sunday night. That's major for me... a) I don't like cooking, if I can get out of it I will and b) I HATE fish.

But my 8 year old daughter (almost nine, poor sweet Virgo like her mother, *snort*) has high blood pressure and high triglycerides and we are having to make MAJOR dietary changes around Cassa chez Risha. So.... I will share with you in your cooking glory!

Tomorrow: Chicken Catch-a-tory (yeah I have no clue how to actually spell it!)

Just wanted to say, there are no bad photos of cats,even the photo of Bobs nether regions. Cats can do no wrong, they are perfect!

Oh, I can totally see getting peelings on the fridge door... in my small kitchen I could probably manage getting them behind the fridge entirely. Congratulations on the cookage, it sounds amazing and I want some NOW. We made coq au vin this weekend, which is apparently (or probably) French for Chicken Stew. Nevertheless, yummy!

Buttered peas - choice of a now gone family cat. I suspect it was the butter, not the peas.

No crazy cat tastes here - just one who will drink the milk out of my glass when I'm not looking (or I am - she's fearless).

But, since our kitchen is too small to support any kitchen appliances except a toaster, I have to buy my hummas at the store and I've found a *great* one that is plain hummas with a big ole dollop of basil pesto on top. Probably not in US stores, (the brand we have at least) but dead easy to recreate. And it is soooo good - plus double the garlic source!

Good for you with making modifications - except for baking, I rarely leave a recipe exactly as it comes to me, LOL. I didn't cook until Monday, but then I cooked all day - made fresh tomato sauce from our home grown plum tomatoes, and also some eggplant parm with fresh picked eggplant. Wonder if your kitties would like veggies diped into the hummus?

I missed you Laurie! Glad your back!

Hummus! YUM! Try making it with toasted sesame seed oil instead of olive oil- delicious!

One of my kitties turns up her nose at all human food except for carrots and crackers. Weird.

I just cooked a frozen pizza. I had to take the wrapper off!

My favorite hummus in the whole world has chopped scallions in it. It still makes you unkissable, but it's delicious. I love it with pita bread triangles, bagel chips or carrots.

My dog likes cooked peas, green beans and cucumber slices. As soon as I nommed on them like they were delicious, she had to have some.

My cat likes the garbanzo beans but not the hummus.

I like Tahini, lemon, garlic and just a little cumin in my hummus. (FYI-the cumin cuts the gassiness of the beans- ahem.)

I can't give the beans to the cat because.... I will just leave that one alone.

Croo-de-tays, hummus and wine; Mmm-mm, sounds like horsed-ovaries to me.

I totally laughed out loud and my cats stared at me (as I am alone with them)! The mysteries of California commuting ...... My commute in San Jose got worse today because school just started for most places. Oddly, my ride home was worse than the ride to work. My theory is that people go to work anytime between 6 and 9am but they all leave work to go home at 5pm! Crazy!

I had a cat once who liked TOFU...I promised I wouldn't tell anyone and ruin his reputation, but there you have it. My kitty Kuujjuaq loves to curl up on the couch with me and wait patiently for me to finish my beer so he can lick the top of the empty bottle. He's not very happy with me when I have a glass of wine instead! His brother vanBuskirk will have none of the stuff; he prefers t.p. (unused) and Q-tips (out of the trash--gross).

1. "how does one peel a carrot so badly that there are orange peels stuck on the fridge door?"

Maybe not badly, but somewhat enthusiastically? That happens to me sometimes.

2. My cats like to share the leftover spaghetti. That is, Lilu licks all the tomato sauce off, and then Fufu eats the noodles.

3. Has anyone invented bacon-flavored vodka yet?

MMMmmm, hummus! It's fantastic with some roasted red pepper mixed in. (Out of a jar - let's not get crazy with the cookage.)

I actually cooked a little this weekend too: smoked sausage, boiled potatoes, and peas. It was all German bier-garten-ish. Sort of. Minus the beer. And the atmosphere.

It was kind of sad, as grand culinary efforts go, but Redneck was thrilled to death and kept saying "This is way better than eating out."

Obviously, I need to cook more.

I love hummus which when you live in the deep south can get you some weird looks. But my daughter and I are on a mission to expose ( no not THAT kind of expose ) as many people to this wonderful snack as we can . It's also good with raw broccoli or my favorite strips of bell pepper .

My daughter gave me a kitten for my birthday back in May . Never mind that I all raedy HAD five cats . Madea ( new kitty ) will try to eat anything . She was adopted from the local pound and her mother was a feral so it could be a learned behavior with her

Back to school traffic- I live in Boston, where the ratio of college students to me is about 1 million to 1. And, I think they all moved to my block. I can't wait til summer!

i'm so looking forward to New Jersey's first rain storm experience!

mck.

p.s. i'm addicted to Trader Joe's hummus and flat bread.

Poor New Jersey. *sigh*.
I can't wait until he survives his first rain storm! Of course - that's assuming he actually survives it. :)

Also -my cat loves popcorn. Only 2-3 pieces of it, but I love to hear the "crunch, crunch" of him eating it.

Hey, I made fruit salsa this weekend! Also, kind of cooking. My boyfriend must peel carrots the way you do. We spent a weekend at a cabin in the woods and I had to clean up peelings from carrots and jicama that were 3 feet away. I think it's enthusiasm!

Laurie? Meet Count Guido ....

My baby is a bread fiend, and he will try to take it out of my mouth. (Potato bread, especially.) Worse, he's teaching his little brother bad habits. Dommie will eat bread, raisins, mushrooms - LOVES mushrooms - and his little brother loves nice, crunchy bugs. I guess anything little and dark is yummy. I've had cats who drank orange juice (suspiciously, the cat was orange - I think there was a link), and one who was most particular about Diet Coke - I watched him take a sip of my ex's Regular Coke, make a face, and stroll back to have a nice leisurely drink of proper Diet Coke. Green beans, lettuce, oatmeal cookies ... varied and strange have been the diets of my cats.

Marguerite, how sweet of you to make a tuny catserole for the kitties! (I'm thinking your brain had a little tee-tiny nap there, because cats? Tuny catserole? Why would they not love it?)

Tell Jersey he should know about back to school traffic already. It just started up again here in NJ and it makes everyone's commute longer!

Everytime I read a post where you mention Jersey all I can think of is the movie Coyote Ugly.

At least your cat eats something normal. All ours have this unnatural lust for plastic grocery bags, artificial greenery, and ribbon. And if you've never seen a cat throw up a long piece of gold ribbon, count yourself lucky. I think I may be scarred for life.