And here's the recipe from last week's story! Plus, your weekly critter pictures - come and smell the virtual roses!

Hope everyone’s week is going well. Ours is improving, with much sleep, and hiding, like birds from a ferret. I am a little goofy today, because I managed to catch Tod’s virus. On the good side, I had medication, much sleep, and a very cuddly puppy that is willing to keep me company. On the bad side, breathing is difficult at times. But such is life.

Also, I started trying out my charcoal pencils and charcoal sticks. (For those that didn’t know, Anna is teaching herself to draw. With both hands. -Tod) I have decided I like pencils best, because I am like a cat, and don’t like to get my fur dirty… Well, at least I am like Aki now… but long ago she climbed up a chimney. I don’t think she would do so now, but Beleth would. I am no longer sure why people say cats are finicky… might need to come up with another saying for that.

Question for my artist friends: is there a trick to keeping once’s fingers from turning black when drawing with charcoal sticks or is this just part of the fun?

Anyway, enjoy the fun little recipe below. Cook, Tod, cook.

I am going to go back to napping. See you all next week.

Irish stew (Irish: stobhach)

If you missed the story, it was posted last week. https://blog.casasent.blog/p/nano-sapiens-carter-and-the-saint

This recipe, while appearing simple, creates a tasty stew with a flavor profile more complex and powerful than such simple ingredients would suggest. For the Nano-Sapiens version, our critters substituted fennel bulbs for onions. (Also an alternative if you need to avoid onions for dietary reasons.)

Ingredients

2.5 lb deboned mutton, cut in chunks

4 large potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced

2 large onions, thickly sliced

3–4 medium carrots, peeled and thickly sliced

1 sprig of parsley, chopped

5 cups water

Salt

Pepper

Note: We used red potatoes and added potato starch to thicken the stew. Russet potatoes should naturally thicken the broth.

Steps

Prepare Ingredients: cut the meat into chunks, peel and thickly slice potatoes, cut the onions and carrots into thick slices. Salt and pepper as desired, especially the meat.

Layer Ingredients: Use a big pot with a lid - we used our enameled cast-iron pot. Layer the ingredients starting with and ending with potatoes. We added water to cover the ingredients.

Cook: Cover and put on a very low heat for about 1.5 hours for lamb (2.5 hours for beef) until the meat is tender. Potatoes should thicken the liquid.

Chaos Critter Pictures

Chaos Tip of the Week

When you purchase special ingredients for a recipe, be sure to actually use them in the recipe!

Also, red potatoes - or really any kind of potato that holds its texture/shape better - will not act to thicken a stew!

Chaos Question of the Week

What’s your favorite kind of potato? We like red potatoes for soups and sweet potatoes for baked potatoes.

~Anna and Tod

More Nano-Sapiens!

In a stew about what to read next?

Do you want to know more about Carter and his pals?

How did a Maine Coon cat become Carter’s mom?

How did Kathy’s parents, Edmund and Raihana, meet?

These questions and more are answered in “Peer Review Parenting” part of Raconteur Press’ anthology Or All Will Burn! Buy it for the chaos and share it with a graduate student in your life!

Available on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Will-Burn-Raconteur-Press-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B0CKX6KXVR

Our story is preceded in the book by our friend J. Kenton Pierce. Like us, his story features chosen family!

For other Nano-Sapiens adventures check out our author’s page at https://amazon.com/author/casasent