Woah, SNOW!

And that is no joke mine furrends.  We hear'd from the weather guys that we was going to have a big blast of the whitey, but I has to say, we realleh did not takes those weather guys seriously.  Seems like they is always in a panic about some horrible weathers coming our way, but whatever they is freaking out about never comes, so we thoughted okay maybe just a little snows will come, if any, and we wented along our merry way.  Well.  Let me tells you.  We ended up wif almost two feets of the whitey here on Long Island!  Some of you guys may be a little bit used to that, but it is verreh rare to gets that much of it here.  And it was a little bit scary because there was lightning wif this snow storm, which we has never see'd before.  Means it was a real blizzard!  Everyfing is closed, roads is not plowed, beans is running around wif shovels like maniacs trying to make a dent but not getting too far as I can sees.  AND!!!  Me and BA is alone in the apartment!  (Yes, we figured out how to turn on the computer, we is sneakish, MOL.)  My mommeh wented to Mama's house when the whitey started coming down realleh bad, on account of she is 92 and needs the halp.  She setted us up wif foods, water, toys, blankies, and lefted the heats up nice and warm, and off she wented.  We thought she was coming back yesterday, but she gotted realleh stucks and we has not see'd her again yet, but she did call and yell through the answering machine so we would know what was up.  We misses her but we is okay here, watching the proceedings through the window.  Mommeh is luckeh, she has a nice furrend who lives nearby who came to shovel out the apartment while she was stuck at Mama's, and cousins who came'd wif a snowblowy to halp her do Mama's house.  You know, it is BA's first winter, and that was the verreh first time she had see'd the whitey fall down!  She was fascinated, following all the swirling flakes wif her eyes.  I could not gets her away from the window for hours.  Kittens.  Anyways, I wanted to show you some pikshers of her watching the snows and of the insanity here, but our memory card gotted stole'd right before Catmas.  We is all upset cause there was hundreds of pikshers of us on there, and stuff we had not gotted to put on the bloggie yet, but if a stole'd memory card is our biggest prollem we should be fankful.  We will gets a new one soon when the roads are cleared and the stores is open again.  Until then, let me just say it looks a little somefing like this around here:

Wif high windy-blown snowdrifts, making a lot of parts look like this:

Yipe.

Culinary Thursday: Red Velvet Truffles. (AND catmas cards, AND a love letter, AND a guest!!!)

So much to talks about today, but I fink we should begin wif these wunnerfully yummeh treats seeing as how it's Culinary Thursday.  For hollyday gifties, me and my mommeh make'd red velvet truffles, and we wants to show you how you can does it too!  If you is a fan of red velvet cake, hang on to your patootie.

First you has to makes a red velvet cake.  You can does yours from scratch or from a box.  For this recipe, it does not matter.  I will tells you, however, that from a box is going to make this wayyyyy easier.  Red velvet cake is kinda a pain in the tuck-us to makes yourself.

No matter which way you decides to makes your cake, do remember to gets a good lick of the batter.

Bakes it in a 13x9 pan, according to the directions on the box or your recipe.  You wants to undercook it juuuuust a little bit.  So that when you inserts a test object...

It comes out like this, wif some smush on it, instead of clean as you would usually wants for a cake.

When the cake is COMPLETELY cooled (we even letted ours sit overnight), crumble it up into a big bowl, and add one can of cream cheese frosting.  Do not bother trying to makes that yourself, it would just be tortures at that point, MOL.  So we forgotted to take a piksher of the crumbly cake and the frosting, but that's what you does, and then mix it up wif a big wooden spoon til you has a stiff paste, like you sees above.

Scoop some of the paste wif a spoon into the palm of your hand, and rolls into little balls, about 1 inch big.  Now let me warns you, this makes a looooooot of truffles.  We is showing you just some of ours, but we gotted about 125 truffles out of it.

Once you has your little ballies all rolled, you should melt your coatings.  We wanted to do white, like a real red velvet cake would look wif its cream cheese icing, so we used almond bark for the white.  If you does not know what almond bark is, that's it in the piksher above.  It resembles white chocolate but is much easier to work wif.  You can melts it in a bowl in the microwave in under one minute, bam, easy.

Drop a ballie into the almond bark.  Use a spoon to get it all coated.

Shake off as much excess coating as you can, and drop it onto a cookie sheet lined wif wax paper.  That's it!  You has a truffle!  Woohoo!  Didn't know it was so easy, didja?

We wanted to do half our truffles in dark chocolate, so we melted some in a bowl over boiling waters on the stove.  Tip: Add a touch of vegetable oil to your chocolate to make it easy to work wif.  Coat the ballie in the same way and then drop onto another wax paper lined tray.

See?  Chocolate truffles too!  And they looks cute already.  Now to decorate.  You can decorates any way you wants to, but we likes to keep it simple and pretteh.

Use a fork to dip into your coating, and swizzle opposite colors all over the truffles.

Just keep dipping the fork and moving it back and forth over the truffles til you has the look you likes.

You can leaves them out to set, or put the trays in the fridge which will be faster.  When they is done, place in candy cups (found at crafting stores like Michael's) and ta-daaaa!  Ultra cute, ultra sweet little treats.

You can package them up in little boxes, which has a verreh nice effect.

And wrap them up pretteh for furrends and fambly!

*NOM*

Now on to Catmas cards!  We gotten even MORE cards from our furrends after these pikshers was taken, so we will try to get shots of those too for anuvver post, but look at what came!  A card from Sweet Praline, one from the House of Cats, and anuvver from the Island Cats!!!  We hadded such a good time sniffing and reading our cards, fanks guys!!!

Here comes the romantical part.  I could not believes my surprise yesterday, when my mommeh broughted home the mails!  I gotted TWO things from mine Lolo!!!  On his birfday, MOL, how fitting.  First was a post card his mommeh had gotted in London.  It was of this verreh famous big kitteh statue:

 Does anybuddy know him?  Mine Lolo is so funneh, he said he think'd I would like to see a mancat who was older than him!!!  MOL!!!  Poor Lolo, you is not old, you is mature.  Like fine cheese, better wif age.  .....Mmm, cheese.

 And then looks what else I gotted from him!  A wunnerful card, specially make'd just for ME!!!  Oh just look at all the pikshers of mine mancat.  *Sigh.*  Isn't he just so verreh dreamy?  And can you sees what it says on there?  "Attie, all I do is think of YOU.  Love, Lautrec."  He even putted it in a PINK envelope, because he knows my verreh favorite color is pink.  He is too romantical, I can not stands it!

 *kissing pikshers of mine Lolo*

 Look, he even has such a cute signature.  Can you see how the two o's and the lower-case L makes a kitteh face???  So creative, he sends me into a swoon.

 Mommeh, can you halps me read what he writed on the back?  Teehee, oh my, it is nothing I will be sharing wif the rest of you all, sorreh!  Private thoughts of a mancat to his ladycat you know.  Boy did that ever makes my day.  My week.  My month.  My year even!  MWAH, I LOVES YOU LOLO!!!

And now for my guest:

This is Topper.  Floofy boy!  He does not has a bloggie, but his mommeh has a website.  She makes all kinds of yummeh edible treats.  She is a professional cake decorator and can work wif fondant and all that good stuff.  She is located on Long Island, but can ship some of her goodies to wherever you lives.  Here is Topper wif some green chocolate covered Catmas trees!  Mmm.  Festive sweater and festive food, he has the Catmas spirit for sure.

Well I will post again if I has the time, but just in case I does not gets to, me and BA wants to wish all our furrends the happiest Catmas ever!!!  Loves you all.

It Is My Mancat's Birfday!!!

Everybuddy please do not forgets to head over to Lautrec and Tiny's today!  It is mine Lolo's 12th birfday, and Tiny and I has teamed up to frow him the pawty of the year.  AND!  That sneaky pup Ellwood frow'd a double surprise for Tiny's b-day too!  I am telling you, this may even be the pawty of the CENTURY!!!  It is the place to be today, so get a move-on!  You will not believe your orbs when you sees what is going on over there...

Toysday

A while ago I win'd a auction for this wunnerful Oh Boy Cat Toy glass of wine!  My mommeh enjoys her glass in the evenings, so now I can enjoy one wif her.  And woah, does I ever enjoy it.  We just opened it up a couple of days ago, and it is totally nip-tastic.  Even Audrey wants to share it wif me, and she is usually not so much into the nip.

 

 Here is what it looks like in the package.

 

Yes, we wants it, yes we do.

 

Attie attack!

...The nip, it makes me do strange fings.  I definitely wrecked Catmas Corner a little bit.

 

Audrey attack!

 

 Audrey has ran'd away wif my wine!  The chase is on.

The post-nip chill.

(Pee-Ess - Everybuddy remember it is mine Lolo's birfday tomorrow!  The big one-two!  So please make sure you stops in over at his place where Tiny will be frowing him the pawty of the year!  And, if I has hear'd right, unbeknownst to Tiny, Ellwood is planning a surprise for her too since she did not has a pawty for her birfday this year.  It will be pawtastic pawty mania!!!)

Mommeh is Mad on Monday...

My mommeh was NOT mad the first three times this week.  But I is finking that now we has to start hiding the potty papers.  Nobuddy knows where this new habit came'd from, but she is out of control!

 Sigh.  Little sis-ters can be such a trial.

Toy Review: Play-N-Squeak At Night Twinkle Mouse!!!

Oh.  My.  Cod.  Okay so this verreh nice lady named Abby sented us a Twinkle Mouse to try out, and I can not even tells you how much we loves him!!!  Play-N-Squeak has came'd up wif a new line of kitteh toys for night-time, because you all know how much we enjoys keeping our mommehs awake at night.  Well we fink it is just genius.  This mousie is the bestest mousie we has ever had.  Audrey loves almost all toys to begin wif, but I can says that I am not realleh much of a toy kitteh.  Yes I has my favorite grey fuzzy mousie for fetch, but other than that I is pretty picky about what I plays wif.  More often than not it is just Audrey's ear.  And a lot of the time if a toy squeaks it is a turnoff for me.  But I did not want to put this little dude down!  Somefing about that mesmerizing blue twinkle, just like mine Lolo's eyes...

As you can sees, we was excited about our Twinkle Mousie even before he gotted out of the package.

Oooooh, mommeh, what IS that?!

 

Takes it out, mommeh, I has to carry him around right away!

 Oh yes, pwease takes him out of here mommeh!  I wants to pway wif him too!

As you can sees, I gotted verreh protective of him right away.  I carried him all around and cried about it.  I adore his intriguing blue twinkles and his essiting squeaky noises!  (I also cried when he stopped twinkling and squeaking, MOL, I could not halps myself, sometimes I just gets a little bit overcome.)

 

I realleh did not want Audrey to takes him away from me, and I cried about that too.

To sums it up, we L-O-V-E our Twinkle Mousie!  We will be asking mommeh to get some more Play-N-Squeak At Night toys and puts them in our stockings for Catmas for sure.  Cause you can see here that one is just not enuff.

Culinary Thursday with AttieCattie: Holiday Cheat Fudge!

Yup.  I is about to shows you one of mine only cheat recipes.  We does not cheat wif cooking often around here, but when we does, we makes sure it is a worth-it cheat - it has to taste good!  So this is purrrrrfect for those smaller holiday gifts (teachers, neighbors, etc) or to bring to a pawty.  The easiest fudge you will ever makes, and totally customizable.  If you follows this SUPER easy recipe, yours will come out way better than ours did here, because we was in a rush this time and did not make the chocolate all the way melty before putting it in the pan to set, or let it cool all the way before cutting it up.

So you begins wif your two ingredients.  That's right, count 'em.  TWO.  One bag of semi-sweet chocolatey chippies, and one can of sweetened condensed milks.  See my pathetic face?  I am always hoping for more ingredients and a bigger mess.

 

 Put the chocolatey chippies in a pot, and pour the whole can of sweetened condensed milks over it.

 Try to get a lick of the sweetened condensed milks if you can, you will not be disappointed!

Line a square baking pan wif tin foil and set it aside at the ready!  Um, ignore my mommeh's bottle of Chivas please.  She sips while we cook.  Holiday lush, MOL.

Put your pot over low heat, stirring verreh frequently, careful not to let any burn to the bottom of the pan or your fudge is ruined.

Now here's the customizable part.  If you likes plain chocolate fudge, just pour it right into your foil lined pan and that's that.  But if you likes flavors or textures, this is what you do.  When your mixture is all smooth and shiny, you can add a couple tablespoons of a favorite liquor and give it a good stir, then pour into your foil lined pan.  Or, what we likes even better, is adding stuffs to our fudge.  So last night we poured half the mixture into the pan, then sprinkled some white chocolatey chippies all over it...

 

...then covered it up wif the other half of the mixture.  If you uses things like white chocolatey chippies or butterscotchy chippies or peanutbuttery chippies, they melts wif the heat of the mixture and you gets lovely little swirls and chunks in the fudge.  Or maybe you wants to add spoonfuls of peanutbutters and swirl through wif a knife, or cashews for a little crunch!  They even has peppermint baking chips in stores now for the Catmas season, so if you is looking to get festive you could use those.

 Come on mommeh, now that it is all in the pan it is time to put it in the fridge!

Let it set in there for about an hour, covered or uncovered, up to you depending on how you likes the top of your fudge.  Covered will keep it a little smoother on top.  Uncovered will give you that sort of crackly texture you sees in our piksher.

When it is readeh, lift out the tinfoil and peel down the sides of it, so you sees the fudge is in one big block.  (See, the tin foil hadded a point - easy to get the fudge out of the pan, and no cleanup!)  Cut into bite-sized squares wif a pizza cutter.  Now you can puts them on a platter for a pawty, or in treat bags for gifts.  For a festive touch, use red and silver curling ribbon to close treat bags, and ties a candy cane on!

Well that is it for my Culinary Thursday today.  Hope you enjoyed my cheat fudge!  AUDREY GET AWAY FROM MINE FUDGE!!!