Posts

Bonus Episode - Cooking with the Cat Who...Cookbook!

Image
 Greetings friends - Due to some unforeseen circumstances, we're going to bring you a bonus episode this week! Listen here and see below for the recipes we tried!  Cooking with the Cat Who First - We test out the famous Kabibbles - created by Celia Robinson, this crunchy snack is beloved by both cats and humans! The recipe as written from the third edition The Cat Who...Cookbook  KABIBBLES Day-old slices of bread 1/2 cup olive oil 1 teaspoon garlic salt 1/4 teaspoon red pepper 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce Parmesan cheese, grated. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cut enough bread into 1/2 inch cubes to make one layer in a shallow roasting pan. Freeze before cutting if bread is too soft. Mix the oil, garlic salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce thoroughly. Drizzle over the bread and toss to coat thoroughly. Spread cubes in the roasting pan, and sprinkle with cheese. Bake about 45 minutes or until brown and crisp. If not brown at the end of 1 hour, increase the temperature. Serves

Episode 19 - The Cat Who Said Cheese

 Episode 19 - The Cat Who Said Cheese After years of complaining about their substandard restaurants, Pickaxe is finally welcoming new tastes and celebrating them with the first Food Explo!  There is also a mystery woman checked into the New Pickaxe Hotel (Last remodeled in 1935) who is causing lots of gossip - and in Pickaxe, that’s saying something!  Also, it was really hard to summarize because it is ALL. ABOUT. FOOD. and I kept getting hungry! Listen to the Podcast here:  The Cat Who Said Cheese Because I love it, I am sharing Qwill's poem about cheese:  I think that I shall never see A better Cheese than one called Brie. My brother goes for Danish Blue; My boss is made for Port du Salut. Some Folks in Pickaxe all declare The tops in cheese is Camembert. To each his own, but as for me, I cast my vote for Creamy Brie. New(ish) faces - Lenny Inchpot, Lois’s son, J. Willard Carmichael, the new president of the bank and his young flashy wife Danielle, who was a nightclub entertaine

Episode 20 - The Cat Who Tailed a Thief

 Episode 20 - The Cat Who Tailed a Thief     Petty theft is suddenly becoming a problem in Moose County and worse, a mild winter is predicted! Brodie laments the death of his great-grandmother who could “tail a thief with a piece of string and a witches chant” and Qwill admits that he’s bought a condo in Indian Village for his winter living (the barn is still too hard to heat). A newcomer from Down Below is trying to get all of Pleasant Street on the National Historic Register, and marries a wealthy local woman. But is this a case of marrying in haste, repenting at leisure? Or is something more sinister involved? It's up to Qwill and the Cats, (and the local weatherman!) to find out! Listen to the Blog here:   The Cat Who Tailed a Thief      Qwill and Amanda Goodwinter complain about the cheery family Christmas letters that everyone receives, and they resolve that next year, they’ll make a phony letter full of bad news, and send it to every name in the phone book.  They intend

Episode 18 - The Cat Who Blew the Whistle

Image
Episode 18 - The Cat Who Blew the Whistle  Taking place only a few weeks after the Breakfast Island Debacle, The rich and powerful of Moose County have donated $500 a ticket (just shy of $900 today) to ride behind “Old Number 9” on her maiden voyage, with all proceeds benefiting the scholarship fund at the new community college.  The engine is an original from the glory days of Moose County’s mining past, lovingly restored and supposedly the start of a new industry for Moose county - train tourism! But alas, we are warned that the Party Train’s maiden voyage is also its last. CONTENT WARNING:  The solution to this mystery involves a possibly trans person who is not treated with sensitivity or frankly reality, as is to be expected unfortunately , from the early 90s.  In place of the dead author, I can only say I’m sorry. Listen to the podcast here: https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-ckhd7-fa94bf There is so much to unpack in this book - Qwill has really settled into Pickaxe, he has history

Episode 17 - The Cat Who Came to Breakfast

 Episode 17 - The Cat Who Came to Breakfast     It’s summer in Pickaxe and Polly is off to Oregon to visit her college roommate in Oregon.  As the trip involves birding, Qwill is not invited.  In the meantime, XYZ enterprises is back with a new development - Pear Island!  But the resort is not as idyllic as Don Exbridge wants the public to believe. Food poisoning, a drowning, a boat explosion and collapsed steps all point to a saboteur on the island, and it's up to Qwill and the cats to uncover the plot! On this podcast, we have a special guest - Denver theatre actor, director and all around impresario, Bernie Cardell! Listen to the Podcast here: https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-gxwyc-f9dc08 Thoughts: Qwill has another about-face - in a previous book, he was against flying to Minneapolis with the Lanspeaks for baseball and shopping, but in this book, he actually suggests it to Polly!  Maybe it’s the company - he’s suggesting going with Arch and Mildred, rather than Larry and Carol L

Episode 16 - The Cat Who Went Into the Closet

 Episode 16 - The Cat Who Went Into the Closet      Qwill decides that his barn is too hard to heat and plow out, so he moves into the Gage mansion on Goodwinter Boulevard.  Euphonia Gage has recently deeded the property to Junior Goodwinter (Her grandson) and moved to Florida full time, rather than her previous snowbird status. To help Junior cover the property taxes, Qwill offers to rent the mansion for the winter. It doesn’t hurt that Polly now lives in the carriage house behind the Gage mansion (she moved there while Qwill was in the Potatoes). While there isn’t a lot of furniture left, there are 50 closets, all filled with family secrets for Qwill and Koko to uncover. Listen to the Podcast here:  We're also joined by another guest, my mother Terri Rahmsdorff!  She's responsible for introducing me to the Cat Who books, long ago and it was delightful to talk with her about her memories of the series. https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-f2mfq-f91c97 New Faces - We meet Pender Wilmo

Episode 15 - The Cat Who Wasn't There

Image
 Episode 15 - The Cat Who Wasn't There After rushing back from the Potato Mountains because Polly was threatened by a mystery man, Qwill decides to join her on a trip to Scotland.  He hasn’t been there since the honeymoon of his ill-fated marriage and he wants to make some better memories.  He’s also trying to avoid the newly returned Melinda Goodwinter, who makes it very clear that she is still aiming to wrangle Qwill to the altar, although her reasons are a little different this time around. The Theatre Club stages Macbeth, and the Scotland trip is pretty much cursed from the start. Even with Koko thousands of miles away, he's still alerting Qwill to when "fair is foul and foul is fair" Listen to the podcast here! https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-8vfzi-f85d85 This is the first mention of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (and as we know, Qwill’s mother was a Mackintosh) who was a 19th century architect, designer and artist, notable in the modernist and Arts Nouveau periods.