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Blog, Fun, Music POST A COMMENT by Ilona
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Thank you for sharing that! It really brightens up the day! ????
+1
+1
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Sometimes the internet is a very cool place.
2nd!
Was that a Russian Blue kitty?
This is *amazing*!
Such creativity and fun! Love this!
Both WOW and hahahahahahaha. That was great!
That was great! Loved the blend.
This is random, but do you have any favorite cookie recipes?
The reason I ask is because my mother is a physician at a children’s hospital, and I’ve always loved baking lots of cookies for her to take and give to other doctors and nurses she works with. It makes them happy, so it makes me happy too. Cookies are easy to pack individually, which makes it more hygienic to take into a hospital environment. I especially love making European recipe cookies since they’re not typically found in US bakeries, and they feel a bit more special.
Any suggestions would be very appreciated 😀
This is my go to.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/10813/best-chocolate-chip-cookies/
It’s a little too sweet, so I usually cut the sugar by 1/3 to 1/2. But it is chewy and great and hard to mess up.
Thank you so much!! Will definitely try 😀
I have one recipe that I love because it’s very easy to fiddle with for your own preferences.
2 sticks of butter, softened
3/4 cup of sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla
2 cups of flour, and a little extra if your batter needs it
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate chips
1) Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a 9×13” baking dish with parchment paper.
2) Cream together your butter and sugar. I use a hand mixer, but if you need to get arm day in or you have a helper, a regular whisk is fine ????. Make sure you don’t skimp either way; the more time you spend with your mixer/whisk getting everything really creamy looking, the more your cookies puff up at the end.
3) Add in your eggs and vanilla. Mix very well. In a separate bowl, combine your flour, baking soda, and salt. Use a fork or whisk to stir together.
4) Gradually add your dry ingredients to your wet, stirring well after each addition and occasionally scraping the bowl and moving your dough so you can get any flour pockets on the bottom. You will probably need to switch to a spatula to stir at some point.
5) Once your batter is uniform, add your chocolate chips and stir well. Then spread your dough in the baking dish, evening it out with a flat spatula or knife (or whatever implement suits you). Bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown on top, and a toothpick comes out clean.
I love this recipe so much because it’s so easily amended. I’ve used wheat flour or gluten free flour in place of AP, and it comes out lovely. You can cut back a little on the flour and add cocoa powder to make double chocolate cookies. As long as you have two cups total of add-ins, you can make whatever you want. My fave so far has been chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and Heath bar bits ????
I haven’t tried flax eggs or chia eggs yet, but the baking soda-vinegar egg substitute works fine. With a little experimenting, you could make these vegan/dairy-free and gluten-free. Not setting off food allergies in a hospital = muy bueno. And the plus side of making sheet cookies in the casserole dish? You can cut the cookies into uniform pieces that fit in the palm of your hand and stack easily during packaging ????????
…can you tell I’ve gotten a little baking obsessed during the plague? ????
All these sound amazing thank you!
Here are some of my favorites:
Red Velvet Cookies
https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/red_velvet_cookies/
White Choc. Macadamia Nut
https://www.lifeloveandsugar.com/white-chocolate-macadamia-nut-cookies/
Ginger Snaps (I like this recipe because it uses oil which makes the cookies less chewy and gives them more of a “snap”)
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/10757/moms-ginger-snaps/
Tea Biscuits (family recipe)
1 Cup Butter (softened)
1 ½ Cups Powdered Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 ½ Cups All Purpose Flour
Press/cut/shape cookies however you like; generally the thinner the better. These are NOT drop cookies and will keep their shape in the oven. Bake 8 minutes at 375 deg. Fahrenheit.
Awesome thank you very much!
Easy Betty crocker sugar cookie mix biscotti. A little on time consuming with the double bake, but amazing. If you are making a single batch, use a jumbo egg. I usually made a double batch, using 3 regular eggs, split the batter into 2 batches, one with and one without chocolate chips. I also reduced the chocolate chips for a single batchntom1 cup. I’m a lousy baker, and I can’t screw this one up. I also like using a food processor to keep the flour in the air down. It will be a stiff dough.
I haven’t figured out how to cut and paste a link. Just Google Betty crocker sugar cookie mix biscotti.
BBC Food always has good recipes
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/search?q=cookies
Thanks so so much!
That is so cool!
Thank you for a new thought for today.
It was beautiful (and the cats didn’t hate it.)
That was brilliant! Thanks for sharing 🙂
After working with so many different animals in my zookeeper career and hearing all their different vocalizations I came to the conclusion that it inspired humans to create music just to replicate the animals. This is such a great representation of that.
That was awesome!
That was wonderful! I’ll have to investigate that some more.
That was lovely! Thank you for sharing.
That was wonderful! Thanks for sharing.
Well, my, my. That brought a smile into my ears. Thank you very much.
Amazing. Everyone coming together to compose a song based on a scared/mad cat.
Sounds like an earworm for sure 🙂
Oh my gosh, thank you! That brought a smile to my face this scorcher of a morning. ????❤️
Really nice thank you ???? ❤️
You come up with the most amazing stuff! Very enjoyable and fun!
Wow. Just wow. That was awesome!
My officemate showed me that when it was just the cat and the guy who added the original music. This is the updated version where apparently people posted their harmonies and he incorporated into this new video.
That put a smile on my face. Always good to have reminders that good things are happening. Thank you for sharing.
That is too cool!!! LOVE it!! Thanks for sharing!
That was lovely, thank you
I can’t get that tune out of my head!
Jebus, that was hypnotizing.
Well, my dog really, REALLY hated that!
That was really fun, thank you. It reminds me of a Ted talk I saw by Ben Mirin who dj’s using bird sounds to make some really cool music.
OK, I spent the afternoon just listening to the remixes!
Well thats fun but as a Bach lover I can only take a little bit….the basic melody is a but redundant , but enjoyable
Music is the language that connects us all! ????????
Wow. I just shared this video with friends last week. Cool coincidence!
It was a very interesting video.
Thanks for sharing, that was amazing!
Wow! I love the around the world mash ups. First one I’ve seen with a feline element. Just wowza.
I had seen the cat before, but not the added musicians. Very cool!
Thanks!
My cat appreciated it.
Have you seen the Meredith Bull one? (instagram) She has this one and a bunch of others where she mixes it and adds actual lyrics (like what the animal *may* actually be thinking). They’re hilarious and even better than this version
Link please ;-)????
Thanks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0X1OwQ-NfE
This is the long version of the song, she is releasing a full MV tomorrow as well.
What an utterly charming song!
Okay humans (and cats) are incredible. This has single-handedly restored my faith in the world
OMG. I loved it! Forward the video from His YouTube Channel to my Family and friends.
Thanks for sharing ????
Who can say that cats can’t sing? ????:-)
Katzen brauchen furchtbar viel Musik
(= german lyrics for the aristocats song)
Everybody wants to be a cat
Because a cat’s the only cat
Who knows where it’s at
Tell me, everybody’s pickin’ up on that feline beat
‘Cause everything else is obsolete
………
I’ve heard some corny birds who who tried to sing
Still a cat’s the only cat who knows how to swing….
Made my day!!
This is so much fun! Thank you for sharing!
Yeah the foster kittens sitting on my lap were having none of it. Oops
Wowed—amazing.
Love this….here is another eargasm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgsurPg9Ckw
Currently on nights in the ICU. This was totally unexpected and it delighted me. Very much appreciated.
Just Amazing.
Not bad at all… not bad at all!
That is so cool! So many creative people (and cat) in the world!
Today, I love the internet.
How fabulous! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, I enjoyed that 🙂
Oh yeah
That is uplifting
Thank you
My cat came into the room and added her voice!
They are very talented musicians and the cat sounds are amazing with the music.
Absolutely haunting and mystical. Listen to it every day.Kiddos to all involved!!!!
Magnificent!
So funny seeing an SA artist’s post that I follow on my favourite authors website. Kiff is SA slang for nice and he has kept us laughing and sane through this appalling disease. We are in our 3rd wave. No vaccines in sight but we are still smiling.
Hope for the world …. with Cats!
Bwah ha ha ha. Thank you, Ilona Andrews for the post. Sounds like my evil Siamese Felix did when he would spot maintenance people from his window post and he was locked in my apartment. I ROFLOL with memories. Thank you.
AWESOME!! My cats all looked up, eyes wide to listen, until I told them it was ok.
You always find such amazing things to share and brighten our day. Thank you
Awww that was adorable!
Awesome-thanks so much for sharing
Just wow.
I’m seeing Kiffness a day late but oh so timely for me…been having not so fun but woke up early and saw this after a couple hours fighting to reset my cc to sites when I just had to replace a stolen one…
Saw one of my favorite addressees “Ilona Andrews” in my mailbox and somehow missed Kiffness yesterday…it soothed my soul!!!!
Thank you!
ah, yes the Siamese, a grey cat, but still at heart, a Siamese. 🙂 Great creativity!
I”m going to leave this one here, for you guys as a counter part (very creative stuff too). I may be a bit in love with this guy too…
https://www.geoffcastellucci.com/news/far-over-the-misty-mountains-cold
thanks for this, love it.
Happy now. Thank you!
This is amazingly clever, but I had to stop it because my gray and white cat, Frodo, started looking for the encroaching tom. The yowl and throaty chuckling are exactly what he does when facing down another cat.