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Sad post warning.. So if you are not in the mood for that, skip straight to the recipe.
Cooking has been really strange for me lately. I open the fridge, and Fidge doesn’t come to check what she can get out of it, and I leave the kichen to grab something from one of the rooms for a minute, running back in to make sure I didn’t forget anything on the counter she can steal, only to remember she’s not there anymore.
I grew up in a house with dogs, so it was clear to me I’d want a dog in my house when I’ll be a grown up, and obviously I would want to raise my kids with a dog, making sure they learn to love someone else, someone different than them, to help ones in need etc. I didn’t plan for such a dose of learning, but hey, we all know life is what happens while you are busy making plans, right?
Rafi, he didn’t understand at the beginning why would we want a dog. But he’s a listener, and likes to make me happy, so after many discussions about it, he did the only thing I could expect him to do, which is tell me there’s no way we are getting a dog, let me be pissed off about it, and in that very same day go get us a cute puppy and surprise me with her when I come back home 🙂 . So that’s how we got Fidg, much before we had kids, and what experiences we had with her.. She was extremely energized doggy, and in her good old days, I used to go to the beach with her, we would run 5 K, go back home, then Rafi would take her for another 10 K. Or they would go up the mountain, he with his bicycle and she along side, and usually she would still need to run around the yard some more as this wasn’t enough. And we would go hiking, and go into the water, and just do stuff that are fun doing with dogs. She had her issues, right? She consumed several of our mattresses, beds, sofas, a variety of electronics equipment and what not. And she had separation anxiety issues as well, but who cares? She was so loving and so cute, and so, ours. And perhaps the most surprising fact here, is that even though I wanted to get her more, Rafi fell in love completely, and so did she, and ever since then she was daddy’s doggy. They could not be broken apart. Even in the only place at home I tried to keep clean, our bed, I know he would let her go in sometimes, after I left to work already (but hey, it’s the only other female I allow there 🙂 ).
And she always seems to arrange big surprises at critical times. When my first born was born, Fidg was 2 days after surgery, and was bleeding all over as they couldn’t close her right, and towards my second child’s birth, Fidg got sick, really sick. Just like that, one day, she couldn’t walk anymore. After a lot of tests it seemed she had an auto immune meningitis, that was mainly affecting her lower spine area, and that it may or may not go away. We went to many different veterinarians and neurology experts, but this was the situation.
And she has better times and worse times, when in the better ones she could walk, slow and strange, but still walk, and in the worse ones.. Well, she could hardly walk, she needed to take a variety of medicine and steroids every day that made her hungry all the time, and while they were keeping her alive, they slowly ruined every other organ in her body, and she could hardly control her bladder. There wasn’t a day go by without someone asking me “why are you not ending this?”, as if she was an object you throw away when it’s hard (BTW I don’t think she was in pain, just a bit sad, but overall she was protected and loved in a good family). Until one day, nearly 2 years later, she was gone, or like Rafi calls it “she stood us up”. The sickness time was hard, because a sick dog is not something you naturally know how to deal with, we had to develop all kinds of tricks, like taking her out about 20 times a day, and still she would do at home, and my girls learned the hard way that if they walk around her with unprotected food in their hands she would take it (due to the steroids she was so hungry all the time), and we couldn’t go anywhere for more than a few hours, as no one wanted to watch over a dog in such a state, not even getting paid for it, and we couldn’t leave her in a doggy’s place as her immune system was down. And Rafi? He took it like everything else he does, and managed the situation perfectly: he red everything there is to read about it, he gave her all the crazy amounts of medicine she needed, he made her special food, he took her to every possible test, and talked with her telling her to get better.
Some call carbs based food “comfort food”. I don’t know if it is really comforting to you, but either way it is tasty, soft, creamy and perfect, warm, and simple to make.
- about 6 medium potatoes
- about 6 medium sweet potatoes
- 200 grams cashew nuts (about a cup and a half)
- Optional: ¼ cup pine nuts
- 1 cup water
- ½ tea spoon salt
- 5 table spoons olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, mined
- ½ tea spoon nutmeg
- You can play with the number of potatoes and sweet potatoes, if you have a bit more or less of one of them just change accordingly, or even if you don't like one of them you can switch to the other one. More than that, if you have kohlrabi, you can sub some of the potatoes with it, you'll be surprised how tasty it turns out. In any case, peel the vegetables and cut slices using a mandolin slicer (can also cut with a knife), place the vegetable slices in layers in a pan, while smearing some olive oil between the layers (this is crucial to help the vegetables soften).
- Soak the cashews in hot water for 10 minutes, if you are using pine nuts sub ¼ cup of the cashews with pine nuts. Drain from water, and place in a blender with the salt and water (start by adding half a cup and add more until it reaches the consistency of cooking cream).
- Heat one tea spoon of olive oil on a skillet, add the minced garlic cloves and warm for one minute, then add the cashew cream and stir to combine just for a few seconds, then turn the heat off.
- Pour the cream on the gratin and spread it evenly. Place the pan in an oven pre-heated to 200 C, covered for about 30 minutes. Check using a fork that the vegetables are soft, then remove cover and bake for another 10 to 20 minutes, until it browns, careful not to burn it.
P.S.
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Moran