.neglecting blog.

Life has been so busy that I completely forgot about this. I thought I was gonna be one of those "bloggers" who always posted things, but I suppose that's not the case! Who knows.. still the beginning.

Anyway. Since my last post... Arnold and I have become kitty parents to that grey kitten I mentioned earlier. We just couldn't give him away. I was in love, and he was fluffy & cute and fit into our perfect kitten group. Arnold likes to say we officially have a Clowder. ((Group of cats... 2+ = Clowder))

This is a visual example of a "Clowder"

Props to my amazing iPhone/Instagram for that lovely picture. Getting three cats to "sit still" long enough for a picture isn't an easy task, either. I give credit to tuna in this case. :)

More updated photos of my cats. You'll see those a lot because, frankly, that's all I have to take pictures of lately. I've been doing a lot of photo editing and such with my pictures. My new goal for next year is to take at least one picture everyday and edit it. I could start doing that now, but my motivation is set off by a new year.



.pancakes.

In my spare time, I like to look at recipes through websites. I am pretty shallow in the fact that I pick the recipe with the best looking pictures, not how difficult the recipe will be. I'm one of those people who wish they could cook but really can't. However, I can kinda bake. I'm guessing it's because I can make the food cute? Does that make sense? When it comes to making meals, I'd probably starve before cooking for myself or even going to get takeout. I guess its because when I am hungry, I want food right then.

The other day, or a long time ago actually, I ran into the perfect recipe. The picture was really awesome looking and it was super easy to make. AND it's something that I could pretty much eat every day/every meal. Pancakes. I figured it'd be pretty easy to make, so I got the recipe (I'll actually post it here for you at the end), and then I made it.

Before.

After
It looks really disgusting, but I promise, it tastes AWESOME.

Did I mention they are CINNAMON ROLL PANCAKES?! I know, right? I pretty much love anything with cinnamon in it, so I knew this would be a success.

Ingredients:

PANCAKES:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten

CINNAMON FILLING:
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

CREAM CHEESE GLAZE:
4 Tablespoons butter
2 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Prepare pancake batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in milk, oil and egg, just until batter is moistened (a few small lumps are fine).

2. In a medium bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a small zip baggie and set aside. You don't want this to remain super-liquidy. It's best if it becomes a consistency similar to toothpaste.

3. In a medium, microwave-safe bowl- heat butter and cream cheese until melted. Whisk together until smooth; whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla extract; set aside.

4. Heat large skillet over medium-low heat. Spray with nonstick spray. Scoop about 3/4 cup batter onto the skillet. Snip the corner of your baggie of filling and squeeze a spiral of the filling onto the top of the pancake. When bubbles begin to appear on the surface, flip carefully with a thin spatula, and cook until browned on the underside, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer to a baking sheet or platter and keep in a warm oven until ready to serve.

5. When ready to serve, spoon warmed glaze onto the top of each pancake.

Tips:

*Keep the heat low or your pancakes might cook up too quickly. Don't flip them until you see those bubbles starting to pop on top. Flip them with a wide spatula so you can grasp the whole thing without batter and filling dripping all over the place!
*It's best if you pour the batter onto your skillet, wait a minute or so and then swirl the cinnamon onto the batter. That'll give it a chance to set a little before you add the swirl.
*If your baggie of filling begins to get too thick, just pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it up again. On that same note, it shouldn't be too runny. The consistency of soft toothpaste is perfect. If it's melty and runny, it will tend to run all over your pancakes. Once you micro it, let it sit on the counter at room temp for a while until it thickens slightly.

(I will probably not post many recipes BTW)

.cat cat cat.

For those of you who don't know, I am a volunteer with a cat rescue. So far, all I've done is go and help at Petco with the kitten set up. I just clean their cages and give them love - not very hard to do! But with them, I've been given the wonderful opportunity to foster! 3 little kittens were introduced into my life last week. It makes me SO HAPPY to give them a warm, comfortable place to stay until they're old enough to be adopted. In fact, one of the little guys already has a home (I get to say goodbye to him tonight so he can be with his new family!) But you should give this place a lookie. It's so wonderful when people go out of their way to help animals in need.

S.A.I.N.T. Cat Rescue

This rescue does have cats up for adoption, so pay attention for that! They also post information about upcoming events, and there are links to click for donating!

These are the three little kittens I've been taking care of for the past week. I call the grey one "Chunk" because he's a little bit heftier than the other two. The black ones are called "Marco" and "Paula" because when one would mew, the other would follow :) They've been so much fun lately and I'll be sad/happy to see them go!

.introduction.

So, this is my blog. I really have no purpose to have one other than to just share whatever is going on in my head on a particular day. I don't like "about me boxes" because they're too short, so I'll just post what I do here.

First of all, I love cats. I have two of my own!! Izzy and KitKat. They're both fluffy and have lots of attitude.

That's Izzy. She's a himalayan. She likes to spend her time licking herself clean and watching. I'd say her favorite thing is food because I don't see her get excited unless it's time to fill her bowl. She doesn't like me a whole lot. Her favorite person is probably Arnold.

This cat here is KitKat. We like to call her a Maine Coon; it makes us feel like we have two fancy cats. She came into our lives through my veterinary clinic. Someone brought her in -she was hanging from a truck in a trailer park, and as we all like to say "you can take the girl out of the trailer park, but you can't take the trailer park out of the girl." She begs and talks and cuddles and is pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Every year, I see somewhere between 5-10 cats go through my home. That's what happens when you're obsessed with animals and you work at a vet clinic. So of course, I'll be posting pictures of them as they come along.



Lastly, this is myself and Arnold (my boyfriend). We really don't take a WHOLE lot of pictures together, but when we do, it's awesome. (see above picture) We live in an apartment with the aforementioned cats. Life for us revolves around music and animals, so we're really busy and entertained 100% of the time.

Okay, so this is me! I would say the best word to describe me is - C.Sea. That's just a nickname Arnold gave to me and it kinda stuck. I like a whole array of things such as: Cats, coffee, food, nature, photography, fashion, love, exciting things, etc. So that's basically what I'm gonna talk about here. I'm a Veterinary Technician (for those of you who don't know what that is, it's kind of like a nurse for animals.) When I'm not working, I tend to spend most of my time with my cats and Arnold. :)