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fifth grade

Making Johnnycakes for the Cat

This morning Alexander and his class presented their fifth grade signature projects. Each of the kids had a figure from the Revolutionary War that they did a report on and earlier in the year they did a Walkthrough Revolution. This morning there was a chapel and each of the kids told us about their figure in history. It was really interesting. There was one woman who dressed as a man so that she could fight in the war. When she was injured a doctor discovered that she was, in fact, a she. This woman was given a full pension and retired from the service. I like ten year old girls learning that stuff.

Alexander’s state was Rhode Island and he wanted me to make Johnnycake. You can make them like pancakes (too labor intensive for an early morning) or like a cake. Here’s the recipe:

Boil 2 cups of water and slowly add in one cup of white cornmeal.
Reduce to a high simmer and stir for 5 minutes
Turn off the flame but leave on the burner and stir in:
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
Transfer the batter to a greased cooking pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes

I tried this recipe last night and since it requires about 65 cents worth of ingredients I figured I’d do a trial run and then make a batch in the morning. After 10.30 I about passed out and left a pan of Johnny Cake in the kitchen. I woke up to this.

I swear I forget that I have a cat. I’m so used to Junior not being able to reach anything, not even a sofa, that it doesn’t occur to me to put things away.

At 6am I wandered downstairs to make a fresh batch of Johnnycakes and saw cat hair on my kitchen counter and that the buttery glaze of last night’s trial had been licked clean off. Chunks of the cake were missing, some had been swatted around the kitchen floor. It’s fun to mop in the morning. That’s why I had a family. I’m waiting for her to puke somewhere in the house. I’m convinced she just ruins my stuff and vomits to let me know how very much she hates me.

Random: have you ever heard those squeaky mouse toys? You know why they work so well for cats? Because when Sparky has brought half dead mice into the house to torture them before killing them and presenting them to us they sound just like those squeaky toys.

Isn’t that lovely?