It's Bailey's Birthday!!

Hi everyone, guess what? I am three years old today. Can you believe that? I am as old as Anna now!! I live with my Mommy and her human daughter and Anna. We are so happy. My mommy is the best mommy. She takes really good care of all of us. Anna is really really spoiled but I'm not at all spoiled. I'm a very good kitty and.....pause...shhhh!! Oh there for a minute I thought I heard snickering. As I was saying I'm a very good kitty, just a .....pause....shhhh....I did hear snickering. You think I'm spoiled too don't you? Well OK I am!! But most of the time I'm good. I am very mischievous though. I get into everything and sometimes I make my Mom yell at me. I broke one of her favorite cups last weekend but she had it where I wanted to go so you really can't blame me can you?
I'm napping getting ready for my party.

OK I'm all ready are you? Look at my presents!!! Aren't' they the best.

This is my favorite treat. Would you like some? I will share with you. It is soooo good but my mommy says it really stinks and smells fishy!! I don't like any other treat except these. Anna eats lots of other treats but not me...I'm very very particular.

I got some new balls too!! I love playing catch. My Mom throws the ball and I run and catch it and bring it back to her so she can throw it again. My doctor says I act like a puppy!! Isn't he silly? My Mommy read that Cats have the intelligence of toddlers but she says I'm as smart as a first grader!! See all my pretty new balls, do you want to come play catch with me?

This is me when I was a tiny baby. Wasn't I the cutest most cuddly thing you ever saw?

Anna was a LOT bigger than I was but guess who is the biggest now? Me of course.

Here we are now taking a nap together. Can you believe I got so big when I was such a tiny baby?

I love playing in bags and boxes and whatever else I can find to crawl into. My Mom always brings home paper bags because she knows how much I love them.

I sleep in some really funny positions.

This is my real Mommy. She carried me in her tummy. Isn't she beautiful? My Mommy's Grandson is her Daddy. He was moving and Gemini lived with us for a month. I had so much fun having my Mommy here. We played and slept together all the time. Anna was so mean to her. She hissed and hunched her back at her all the time. I don't know why she was so mean. I think she was jealous because she was my mommy and Anna doesn't know her Mommy. Anna was adopted when she was a baby. Someone put her in a pet orphanage. We asked the vet if he thought I remembered my Mommy and he said he doubted it but he didn't know for sure. Well I can say I do remember her. She smelled just like me and we love each other.

I'm so glad you came to my party and looked at all my pictures. I had a lot of fun and I hope you had fun too.

Turkey Scaloppine

I bought another cookbook....my daughter put me on "cookbook and magazine restriction" as she calls it!! Hee hee like that is going to stop me. I have sooo many but they are all good and I actually use most of them. Every time she sees one she asks me if I bought another cookbook and I say The mailman brought it to me!! I actually buy a lot online because it's easy and convenient. I love Jacques and have several of his books. I found this turkey scaloppine recipe and decided to try it. I am so glad I did, it was fantastic. And so easy. I didn't use the dried morels because morels don't really make me happy. I used fresh cremini's because I'm in love with them. I use cremini's instead of white buttons when cooking with mushrooms.

Doesn't this look scrumptious!! It tasted even better than it looks. I served couscous with it to sop up the sauce.

Turkey Scaloppine (adapted from Jacques More Fast Food My Way)

2T butter

2 T canola oil

4 large or 8 small turkey cutlets (about 1 pound)

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 pepper

1 1/2 all purpose flour

1/2 cup finely chopped shallots

1 pkg fresh cremini mushrooms sliced

1 cup chicken broth

2 T white dry vermouth

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 T chopped fresh tarragon or chives for garnish

Heat butter and oil in heavy skillet, sprinkle turkey with salt/pepper and dip them very lightly into flour. Saute scaloppine until brown on both sides. Do this is 2 batches. Remove turkey onto plate and saute shallots for 30 seconds. Add mushrooms and saute until beginning to soften. Add broth and deglaze skillet. Cook uncovered for 4-5 minutes or until the liquid is almost gone. Add the vermouth and cook for a minute or so. Add the cream and boil a couple of minutes to reduce and thicken. Add the scaloppine with all the juices from the plate. Sprinkle tarragon or chives and serve.

A Special Award, Orchids and Presents

A friend of mine sent me this in a email and I thought you might enjoy it too.
CALMNESS IN OUR LIVES
I am passing this on to you because it definitely works, and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives. By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too can find inner peace. Dr Phil proclaimed, 'The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished.' So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how freaking good I feel right now. Pass this on to those whom you think might be in need of inner peace. Can you believe I have another orchid? This one is full of buds so should bloom and look beautiful for quite a while. Remember the first orchid? I cut the last of the blooms off today so it lasted. I really enjoyed it. I have one more and I think it is yellow but it shows no sign of doing anything.

I received my January snowflake from Crystal today. I just love it and I'm already looking forward to February's.

This very nice award is from Bebe from Peaches and Dreams. She is such a wonderful friend and I appreciate this award so much.

More about the award ~ "This blog invests and believes in the Proximity ~ nearness in space, time, and relationships. These blogs are extremely charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I'm not good at selecting bloggers to award because I hate leaving anyone out so please all my special friends grab this award and post it on your blog.

I'm still cleaning and sorting. I finished my kitchen last weekend and now it's my bedrooms turn. I hope to start it tomorrow. I trying a new recipe for a roast tomorrow so if it turns out yummy, I'll post it so you can all try it.