BAKED cats and dogs....

(thanks to the wife for taking all of today's photos, they are really BRILLIANT aren't they?)

20 + years ago I lived in a Chicago apartment and Mosshead lived on the first floor.  He was an odd duck, but also from Nebraska like me.  His apartment was the size of a bedroom plus a closet, and stacked with books and art supplies and art EVERYWHERE.  He was also starting to, um, explore alternative lifestyles and wanted me to........and I have never explored alternative lifestyles so we had a falling out and that was the end of that....

ANYWAY he introduced me to St Lucia's cats. I don't know where he learned how to bake them, but they are a Swedish baked roll made with saffron, rolled into an S shape with a raisin for an eye...they look like a CAT! (they look like a cat if somebody tells you they are s'posed to look like a cat and you use your imagination).  They are a sweet and buttery roll served in December.  It is fun to read about them.

The funny part of this story is this:  I baked some cats early in my dating life with the woman who would later become my wife.  She took home a bag when her mother visited.  I guess she set them to warm in the oven at 400 for a half hour or something and warmed them to a CRISP (most suff like this is very easy to warm, 200 degrees for 15 minutes is probably good in most ovens).  ANYWAY, the wife's mother saw those formerly beautiful rolls blackened to a crisp and marched the wife out to Marshall Fields and bought her a kitchen timer....

I remain the number one baker and cook in this household ;)

The version I bake is like this.  I substitute vegan ingredients:  8 oz soy yogurt for eggs, soy milk for milk and brushing, and vegan butter for butter. ALSO, this time I topped them with nutmeg for fun and used an almond for an eye.  Baked raisins always taste burnt to me. They are easy, tasty and PRETTY!  We have a bunch of people coming over tea this morning, and I made chocolate chip cookies and St Lucia's cats...these are gonna be lucky guests :)

In other news, the neighbor called needing last second help caring for Yogi the huge golden doodle puppy.  It was warm, and he had never played in our yard with Penny.  They are very good friends, but coming over to another dog's territory might seem like a threat, right?  She handled it very politely and they had a BLAST!