What will your cat wear for Halloween?

Photo by Aaron and Kate.

This is not my cat, but I know him, and Percy is definitely the kind of cat who would allow his people to dress him this way. Perhaps he's a Packers fan, and requested the outfit!

Photo by Aaron and Kate.

In any case, he's decked out and ready for trick-or-treating cats to show up at his apartment. He's giving out catnip — and I think it's organic catnip. Meowhaha.

But what will we give to the little human trick-or-treaters who come to our house, assuming anyone shows up in the rain?

Well, we have cute little bags of pretzels.

And lollipops. As I pointed out to my husband, who bought all this stuff because he still remembers the hoards of kids who came to the door in Madison, "I think we still have some of those lollipops left from last year." Which I should go find and toss. Anyone who shows up on Halloween will get a big handful of pretzels or this year's lollipops — or both!

Happy Halloween!

To everyone who has suffered loss during the storm, I send condolences. I can't imagine what you have been through, and I hope the stress will ease up soon. So sorry for your losses. I grew up on the East Coast, and it's especially painful to see all the suffering in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York.

My kitchen is open ...

There were times, especially two summers ago, when I may have been addicted to HGTV. I watched remodeling, re-gardening, re-decorating and house-hunting shows with alarming regularity. I was obsessed. After a while, though, there were certain words and phrases that I noticed popping up all the time, that were starting to grate on my nerves. If you watch HGTV, you know exactly what I mean. "Open-concept," "ensuite with double sinks," "granite counter tops with stainless steel appliances." "This kitchen needs updating," the house-hunters would whine. "The ensuite only has one sink." "Eewww," they would moan, "white appliances — so 80s." Our house in Wisconsin was built in 1916. It didn't have an ensuite with two sinks. The kitchen, which we remodeled when we bought the house, had white appliances by choice. Open-concept? Ha! No open-concept, but I love that house.

In May 2011, after renting in Seattle for two years, we purchased a small house here from a contractor who had owned the house for 15 years, and had remodeled it prior to selling. The house was built in 1912, and though mostly it was simply restored, the kitchen was remodeled. It's now open-concept with granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances. I could be on HGTV! I actually like the openness — I can see everyone and everything as I cook, and though the kitchen isn't large (approximately 11-1/2 by 11-1/5 ft.) it feels spacious, and the 3-1/2 ft. wide breakfast bar/counter is a great workspace. The 4-1/2 ft. mud room added to the rear makes it feel roomier, especially since it opens to a deck. The house's nine foot ceilings also make it feel bigger than it is.

My old kitchen is much funkier — not as modern as the new one — and at least one of my attempts to liven up the current one was foiled by a strange design feature. The cabinet tops have a trim on the front that is much higher than the actual tops. When I put a decorative object on top, it goes down so low you can't see it. My kitchen may be a little boring, but I like it. Here's my kitchen — I didn't straighten or specially clean it for you. This is it.

You are looking into the kitchen from the dining room in the first two photos and into the kitchen from the rear door in the third. See how open it is? The breakfast bar/counter is large enough that my husband often uses it as a desk, though I'm not in favor of this.You can see part of my cookbook shelf in the top photo.

This is the interior, moving clockwise from the breakfast bar/counter area to the stove, fridge and around to the sink across from the stove. The fridge looks much wider than it actually is, and in fact, because it's located right next to the wall, access is inconvenient. To clean it I have to remove all the door shelves and angle the fridge shelves to get them out. It's a chore. Sometimes it's even hard getting food in and out because the space is so narrow.

Here's the stove. It's got five burners but I've never actually used the long, narrow middle one. The oven controls are all electronic which took some getting used to — even now we sometimes set the timer wrong. The big drawer under the stove holds all my baking sheets, cooling racks and other stuff.

In the first photo you see the pantry cupboard on the right, next to the sink. The lower part has four shelves and the upper part has three. It holds a lot. We need a step stool to reach the top.

The Baking cupboard is left of the stove and kitty-corner to the big counter. It's really handy to be able to reach whatever I need for baking from the work area. The counter (which you can see in a previous photo) holds the toaster, food processor and utensil can. I call the drawer under the counter the baking drawer but it's not really limited to baking equipment. Under the baking drawer is the pot cupboard.

Under the big food prep area are the spice drawers — the main one and the overflow. The third spice area is across the room to the left of the sink, under the dishes. It's at the top of the post. The cabinet under the drawers holds various cookware and mixing bowls. The tan clay lasagna pan is a piece I hand built.

You can't really see them in the photo but behind the bowls and cast iron are all sorts of cake, pie and muffin pans. There's a cabinet next to the cookware that holds stuff like pasta, onions and nori.

At the top left is the dish cupboard and on the right glassware, mugs  and a bowl collection. Most of this stuff (except the clay bowls) is from Goodwill and other resale shops.

The middle photo shows the knife drawer (which is also the potato drawer!). We don't have a lot of knives but exactly what we need.

In the bottom photo is a cabinet in the dining room that holds dishes, tablecloths and cloth napkins. The left drawer has assorted fabrics for photography and the right is filled with napkins. You can't see them in the photo but I'm a sucker for interesting cloth napkins that I find at garage/estate sales and resale shops. They barely fit anymore.

Last but not least, the top photo shows the metal shelves in the mud room that hold big stuff that doesn't fit happily in the cupboards — slow cooker, extra wok, pickle press, bamboo steamers, giant wood salad bowls, etc. There's also a tool crate, cleaning stuff, recycling and trash.

On the back wall is a Haitian oil painting that I love.

And just for good measure, here's a sampling of my favorite refrigerator "art".

That's my kitchen. You are welcome anytime!

Homemade nachos — what is "healthy?"

According to Wikipedia:  "Nachos may have originated in the city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, just over the border from Eagle Pass, Texas,or in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico, at a restaurant called the Victory Club, owned by Rodolfo De Los Santos. In 1943, the wives of ten to twelve U.S. soldiers stationed at Fort Duncan in nearby Eagle Pass were in Piedras Negras on a shopping trip, and arrived at the restaurant after it had closed for the day. The maître d'hôtel, Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya, invented a new snack for them with what little he had available in the kitchen: tortillas and cheese sauce. Anaya cut the tortillas into triangles, added shredded cheddar cheese, quickly heated them, added sliced jalapeño peppers and served them.

When asked what the dish was called, he answered, "Nacho's especiales". As word of the dish traveled, the apostrophe was lost, and Nacho's "specials" became "special nachos"."

True story or not, nachos are extremely popular. And why wouldn't they be? A plateful of corn chips covered with cheese and salsa has all the right addictive qualities of delicious fatty and salty flavors. Up until last week, though, nachos were not part of my diet — I've tried taco salad and more recently, taco pizza — but never nachos. I know, right? Ms. Healthy just never thought of corn chips and melted "cheese" as real food. Duh. But then I ordered nachos at The Veggie Grill last week, and I wanted them again — just like everyone else.  Of course, being possessed of the gene that causes me to try to make everything I eat "more healthy," I had to make my nacho dinner "more healthy," too.

Now I want to be clear that "more healthy" may not be the same as "healthy," so before you rush off to make a big plate of nachos for dinner, keep that in mind. So, how do you make nachos "more healthy"? Well ... you could add a side of kale. (and, yes, I did that!) And you could start with "healthier" chips. I think the healthiest chips would be if you took whole grain, additive-free non-GMO corn tortillas, cut them into triangles, sprayed them very lightly with oil and baked them until crispy. Or you could compromise like I did and use Food Should Taste Good sweet potato tortilla chips. They are non-GMO, vegan and gluten-free. They are not especially low fat (6g per 1-oz.), but are lower in fat than many brands, and much lower in salt than most brands, yet still have a pleasantly salty/slightly sweet taste. One serving has 3g of fiber, 20% of your daily dose of  vitamin A and 2g of protein. They taste great — a little like sweet potato fries — and as an occasional food, they aren't so bad. For a healthier base, you could use oven-baked sweet potato fries.


On top of the chips I added canned pinto beans that I heated with chipotle in adobo, garlic and various herbs. The healthiest version would be dried beans you soak and cook yourself. The worst might be commercial beans filled with salt and preservatives and packed in a can leaking BPA. Or, you could choose a brand of low-or no-salt beans, organic or not, that is sold in cans that don't contain BPA/BPS.  (Lots of controversy as you'll see if you follow and read the link, then read the comments.) For the cheese topping, I made a cashew cheese in the Vitamix. I didn't use a recipe, just blended cashews and water, then added stuff I thought would give me the flavor I was after. This included nutritional yeast, chopped kalamata olives, red pepper flakes, truffle salt, liquid smoke, basil, garlic, turmeric, a small amount of tapioca starch to thicken it when it was cooked, and who knows what else. It tasted great and didn't contain any added oil — just the fat from the cashews. If you didn't want to make your own sauce, you could use a prepared product like Nacheez or Food for Lovers Queso. On top of the cheese sauce I put Frontera chipotle salsa, and chopped fresh tomatoes from the garden. If I'd had cilantro, ripe avocado and jalapenos, I would have added those, too.

This was a very fast and delicious dinner — satisfying my craving for nachos. It tasted great, but, was it healthy? Maybe not by some people's standards, but it was more healthy than the nachos I could get at the bar around the corner, or probably even The Veggie Grill. It's all relative. As I've said in the past, everyone has a different opinion and standard for what they consider healthy. Or more healthy. Or healthy enough. If you're used to eating a plate of greasy, dairy-cheese nachos every weekend, moving towards a version like I've described might be a step towards a better diet. If you eat only whole, organic foods and would never dream of eating nachos, it might be a step backwards!

The whole food health and safety issue is so convoluted and confusing that sometimes I think nothing we do matters, and we can just eat anything we wish (not animal products, of course). Then I recover my sense of trying to choose the healthiest products I can find and do the best I can with the information I have. I will probably continue to buy and prepare  whole, organic food most of the time, and canned and jarred foods that are what I believe to be high quality in content and packaging, when I need speed and convenience. We all make choices and compromises based on our preferences and situations, but I think it's possible to keep learning and making better choices for ourselves, the animals and the planet.