It was not one of those nights where everything goes smoothly. M hasn't yet gotten the hang of finding my house - the street signs around here are confusing - so it took a couple of phone calls and me standing in the driveway to guide her in.My adventure had come about a half hour earlier.
When I was coming through the back door with the groceries, the cats were lurking behind the door. Their two-pronged charge took me by surprise and they both escaped. No biggie, I thought, set the cat door on "in only", and started cooking.
There really are times when I should pay a little more attention to what I'm doing.
I didn't check that I was getting all my dry ingredients for the cornbread right until it was time to add the liquids and I asked myself, "Is it two or three cups of cornmeal?"
Turned out it should have been one cup, but since I'd already put in two and mixed in the salt, baking powder, etc., it seemed to only way to save it would be to simply make a double batch. Except that I didn't have enough fresh milk.
No matter, I had a partially used can of evaporated milk on the top shelf of the refrigerator.
As I was taking the can from the fridge, an orange streak of lighting came flashing through the kitchen, screaming bird in mouth. She bolted between my legs and the fridge. I dropped the can of milk - upside down, of course - splattering viscous, sticky, evaporated milk everywhere.
I turned to chase Kitsu, and Sachi came running up the stairs with another bird in her mouth.
By the time I took Kitsu's bird away from her, Sachi (who is a little demon) had shredded hers all over the antique guest room floor. Kitsu's was still alive, though looking pretty shell shocked. I let Kitsu's bird go, locked the cat door, cleaned up the major bits o' birdie, washed up and returned to cooking, ignoring the feathers still drifting about. I was running late enough, I wasn't going to let a few feathers hold me back.
Turned out I needn't have worried about being behind schedule. Kate and KC, the Friday Afternoon Hiking Club, had decided to try a short cut and had a big adventure of their own. They arrived two hours late, wet, bedraggled and looking exhausted. You can read Kate's thoroughly expurgated version of it here. She left out all the really good (embarrassing) parts.
We all laughed until our sides ached and had a fine time. Good dinner too. KC brought the coleslaw and I provided the BBQ pork, pinto beans, cornbread, red wine and banana pudding.
GoodDog (who participated in some of the embarrassing parts of the Snowshoe Hike Short Cut Adventure) hid in Kate's car under two blankets and pretended that nothing had happened.
I'll bet he licked his aching paws a lot.
3 comments:
You have me laughing all over again. Your girls antics keep life exciting and the birds should know better than come near their territory by now.
The dinner was wonderful. The extreme effort it required was much appreciated and I have to admit your skills in the kitchen have me envious. I suppose it all takes practice just like learning to stay on the trail while snowshoeing.
Nice sunglasses too.
Two birds at once! Kitties must have had a grand outside time.
Efforts weren't extreme, just spread out over time since it was Southern style cooking.
And as for the birdies, the cats have been locked in since the KittehContagion, so the birds were off guard. Made the girls extra very happy, the birds were not cheering, however.
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