PZdan

Happy Birthday Tattoo

Happy Birthday Tattoo!

Our kitty Tattoo turned 19 this month.

This is a picture of her birthday kitty pate. Of course, we blew out the candle for her and sang a little ditty.

Tattoo had a lot of upheaval this month.

Mid-way through the month we put her in a cage and made her endure two, five-hour long car rides with an overnight stay in a strange hotel. She did great.

Then we holed up at a VRBO in a bungalow until our apartment was ready for occupancy. She lived there for two weeks. I think she thought that was her new home but it’s not very sunny inside and she’s an Abyssinian. She loves to sleep in the sun more than any other cat I’ve lived with.

Next, we put her back in her cage and dragged her up four flights of stairs to our new apartment. The building is so new the elevator was not working yet. She got jostled a lot. We did our best.

Good news is she is living in a brightly lit apartment up at tree height. She can see the birds flying by and get all the sun Chattanooga has to offer -- and that’s been a lot.

Bad news is this month came with another birthday “gift” that is not so fun.

She’s been diagnosed with kidney disease. It’s a fairly common occurrence among older kitties but it’s still not fun. Her new vet is a really smart woman. I am really impressed. There’s not much you can do for a kitty with kidney disease from a conventional veterinary medicine approach. Her doctor has now recommended a couple of supplements that she’s taking twice a day to calm down the kidney numbers and stabilize her. She had been asking to drink water like a mad woman and I thought she might be getting diabetes but turns out it was her kidneys.

The natural supplement does not taste good, so we’ve been experimenting with hiding it in various liquid-based drinks and food. We’ve been successful with goat milk. Just a little. A couple of tablespoons. Stir it in and serve. Goat milk has more protein and easier for her to digest. She dug right in the first day but has been on and off on the idea since. We’ve also tried a new broth-based cat morsel packet that she has been devouring. I’ll do anything to get the medicine in her so she can get better.

Tattoo has been with us a long time. She was originally a birthday gift to my husband. He turns 69 today. I’m taking him out to dinner. Thankfully I don’t have to try to hide meds in his food. He’s super healthy.

For your recipe today I am diverting from pate. The idea was to give you a pate recipe but I save that work for the pros. It’s not that it’s difficult to make but I hear it stinks up your kitchen while you cook the livers...and I’m the only person in the family who eats it!

Instead, strawberry season is starting so I’m offering up a yummy cool, dessert idea.

Cheers!

Strawberry Milkshake

A beautiful, refreshing dessert...Yum!

by PZdan

Moving South

Whenever I have been asked, my answer goes something like this: “We think Florida smells funny and Arizona is too dry, so we think we will likely retire mid-south.”

We are by no means ready to retire. Let’s get that straight right away.

But we are moving south.

I have done tons of research on where to go. I originally concentrated on the Carolinas. I thought one of those two states would afford us pleasant weather most of the year; with the exception of when the Northeasters blast through.

Move a little further west and Bingo!

We fell in love with Chattanooga, TN.

And Chattanooga gets less than 2” of snow per year. Sure beats Chicago and the Polar Vortex!

Chattanooga, these days, is referred to as Scenic City. And it’s gorgeous. 15 years ago, it was dubbed the dirtiest city in the US. What a transformation!

So why else would we move to Chattanooga besides the fact that it’s gorgeous?

It’s a great size. Big enough to keep us interested, but small enough that it doesn’t take more than 10 minutes to drive across town. Compare that to the last time I drove back into Chicago and it took me an hour to cross five miles on a clogged expressway.

The culture level means there is a symphony. Broadway comes through town. It just lasts two days instead of two months. Better motivation for me to get my tickets.

It’s a foodie town. No doubt about it. That’s important to me and my husband. We have visited several times and have not covered all of the restaurants we want to visit. We’ve had so many great meals for a smaller-sized city it's silly. And Tasty!

The people of Chattanooga are some of the friendliest people I have ever met. As soon as they hear you don’t have their accent, they ask why you are there and how they can help. I have taken several informal surveys with people who have moved to Chattanooga. I ask them if they made the right decision to move there, and I kid you not, 100% of them say it’s the best decision they have ever made.

Sports are huge in Chattanooga. Because it’s situated on the Tennessee river, they get paddle boarding conventions, kayaking, rowing and more. Marathons and other running races are frequent. Surrounded by mountains they have hang gliding, rock climbing, repelling and hiking. I think I’ll just start with some easy hiking.

Now, let’s get to some of the business reasons. Yes, we are moving the company down there, too.

It’s a lot cheaper. We are going to save so much on overhead we will be able to offer innovative programs to help our clients save money. We just launched ZClub. If you are not yet aware of it, call us or check it out HERE.

The internet speed is amazing. MUCH faster than anywhere else in the US! Seems odd, but they took it over as a public utility and put in all optic cabling that runs internet at lightening speeds.

That means the youth are moving. Young people who are entrepreneurs and starting off fresh new businesses are flocking to Chattanooga. We want to retire among the young. The median age of Chattanooga is currently 39.

I know I sound like the “Chatt” or “Nooga” (both nicknames for the city) Chamber right now but I know so many of you were going to be curious about why we chose Chattanooga.

In many listings it’s coming up as one of the top 10 places to retire in the US. But like I said, we are not ready to retire, but we were ready to get in on the fun early.

Here we come to Chattanooga!

Please pardon any awkwardness during our transition. We will be making the move over the last half of April. We will always be available by phone. Our phone system will transfer calls to our cell phones automatically. We will still be able to take orders; we just might have a slight delay in shipping depending on which day you call. The moving truck shows up April 24 and we hope to be open in our new offices before May 1.

Thank you so much for your support. We hope you’ll be excited for us! And if you’re ever near by we’d love to invite you to visit us at our new offices.

Cheers,

P.S. I’ll keep the recipes coming too!

Chicken Verde

If you have Mexican food fans in your family this is a hit!

by PZdan

The Promise of Pecan Pie

I’ll admit it.

I never thought I’d be able to come up with a healthy version of a pecan pie.

The thought of trying to substitute out Karo Syrup danced in my head and made me dizzy.

Did you know that there are 262 grams of carbohydrates in one cup of Karo (corn) syrup. Let’s not pick on Karo. They are just one brand but happen to be the most popular.

That’s more grams of carbs than I’d eat in total over 3 days!

Do you know how much Karo Syrup is in pecan pie? You guessed it. One full cup.

The pecans aren’t the main ingredient. It’s the corn syrup.

You divide that pie into 8 slices and it’s 33 grams of carbs per piece. That makes my teeth hurt.

Let’s admit it though. Pecan pie is tasty.

I hadn’t had pecan pie for about 10 years. It wasn’t my favorite pie on the buffet in the first place, but it did rank up there.

I was in the grocery store about a month ago and they were passing out little samples of their pecan pie. I decided to jump in. What harm could one little bite do?

I popped that morsel into my mouth and my tongue sang a song I had not heard in a long time. I was transported back to North Street, Appleton, Wisconsin where I was raised in the 60’s. That morsel tasted darn good.

So I decided to do research. I was not the first low carb eater to try to come up with a pecan pie recipe. I had plenty of recipes for inspiration.

My first attempt failed dismally. I nicknamed it pavement pie. I thought the more pecans the better. Turns out that just makes it tough.

The secret to a successful pecan pie is the goo. Not the pecans. It actually has relatively few pecans in it.

Back to the drawing board.

It didn’t take me too many tries to get it close enough to the original that I think you could fool friends and family into thinking they are eating the Karo Syrup-laced original.

The Karo Syrup is replaced by butter and Swerve Brown. We all know butter is delightful. Swerve Brown is a new sugar substitute you can order online. I have not yet seen it in a store. If you see it, let me know the chain and I’ll get the word out.

I put more vanilla in my pecan pie than most. Heck I put more vanilla in my cookies and bars than most folks do. I must love vanilla. The bit of grated sea salt in the recipe takes down the cloying element that can pop up in the sweetness. And 3 eggs help make it creamy and hold together.

For the lowest carb version, bake it in an almond flour crust. If, you’re in a pinch, you can use a refrigerated pie crust, but just know if you do that, you’re eating wheat.  More carbs.

So, enjoy this rendition of pecan pie. Tweak it for your tastes and feel free to let me know how you do.

Happy Holidays,

Pecan Pie

This pie comes together easily, and your family will never know they aren’t eating the usual pecan pie pile of sugar.

by PZdan