It’s Just Not Dinner Without Cat Hair

Sylvester took a turn for the worse last night.  I was up all night again, making sure he was going to make it until I could get him to the vet this morning.  The vet is going to run more blood work, do an x-ray, and give him iv fluids for the day, but he believes that whatever Vester has going on is neurological and wants to refer us to a neurologist.

And we’re currently a one-income home, barely scraping by.

I have a decision to make, and I know it.  And it’s killing me.  I am holding on to the hope that it’s not neurological and that magic pills are going to make it all better.  But I am walking around the house is a daze, crying my eyes out, because he’s sick and I may not be able to make it all better.

He trusts me more than he trusts anyone and has slept by my side (or in my hair) for 9 years.  That’s only 52 in human years, I guess.  He’s still got a lot of life left to live, if only.

If only.

• Vester is up and moving, even running a bit today (to get away from The Gidge). To think that 48 hrs ago, he couldn’t move… #

• Vester’s home now and he was peaceful for about an hour, but now he’s having seizures due to the anesthesia. Very worried momma here. #
• Pacing the house with Vester in my arms…getting very tired but there’s no way I can sleep tonight #
• Seizures appear to be over. He’s not puffing like a steam engine anymore. #
• Had about an ounce of food & some water…trying to walk….Momma slept about 3 hours all night! #

• Vet called - blood tests normal, nothing in Vester’s mouth. Going to give him antibiotics & painkillers, then send him home once anesth … #

My little sweet pea, Sylvester, is currently ensconced in a cage at the local vet. He’s been a little off the last couple of days, but that’s not unusual with the recent heat. He tends to lay around when it’s really hot.

Every other day of his existence in our home, he has run up and squeaked like crazy as soon as he figured out that the feeding is about to commence. This morning, there was no sign of him. The Man found him under our bed, so he got him out and put him up by the food dishes.

He laid down.

I picked him up, realized that he was drooling. I put him back down on all 4 paws, realized he was shaking.

So he’s at the vet. They wanted to sedate him to figure out what’s going on in his mouth since he’s got his jaw clenched so tight we couldn’t get his mouth open. We did X-rays first, but they didn’t show anything wrong. The vet palpated every inch of his body and didn’t feel anything unusual, so we’re hoping that whatever it is is simple and easily fixed.

Really hoping, since we’re already up to a $400 tab. When you’re down to one income, every extra expense hurts like hell.

So pray for my little man, that he’s done something stupid like try to eat a toothpick, so his momma can breathe again. My animals are my children, and knowing that my baby is sick is killing me.

I like angelfood cake.

I love angelfood cake.

I adore angelfood cake.

Angelfood cake is my friend.

Back at the end of May, I took my favorite angelfood cake recipe from The Vault and de-glutened it. And it worked.

Well, mostly.

My tube pan is one without feet. When I made gluten-y angelfood cakes in the old days, I would turn the pan upside-down onto a bottle so the cake could cool before removing it from the pan. So, naturally, I did so when I made my first gluten-free version.

Picture this…

Saturday late afternoon - the cake pan has been flipped onto a Redbridge bottle after being removed from the oven, The Man and The Stepson are hanging out in the kitchen with me while we wait for Pat, my long-lost friend from childhood, who was coming to spend the remainder of the weekend. The kid and I are sitting at the dining room table, chatting and doing god-knows-what, and The Man is standing at the kitchen counter, about a foot from the cake.

In the midst of the goings-on, I hear two words from The Man.

“Cake fell.”

CAKE FELL? My beautiful, springy, first-angelfood-in-over-two-years cake FELL? Well, WTF. I streaked over to the scene of the disaster and eyeballed my cake, which had slid out of the pan (the pan remained in place, natch), down the body of the bottle, and rested quietly on the cat-hairy countertop.

Well, hell.

I pulled the pan off the bottle and then moved the bottle out of the way. Pulled out the glass plate I planned to serve the cake on, grabbed the cake with both hands, and moved the thing as quick as possible (I had no idea at that point what the texture was and didn’t want it to break/fall apart/be more uncooperative than it already had been).

I then proceeded to make whipped cream frosting as The Man had requested that I frost this cake.

The frosting refused to set.

Well, hell.

We had strawberry shortcake, since I had two clamshells of strawberries and a can of Redi-Whip in the fridge.

But the cake…oh, the cake. Glory be! While it’s a tad heavier than wheat-based angelfood cake, it is still divine. The reason I loved this recipe in my pre-GF days is the amount of powdered sugar. Since there’s so much of it, I figured it would be easy to make gluten-free. And I was right. If you try it, let me know what you think. Pat and I ate pretty much the whole thing ourselves that night, so it can’t be all bad LOL I made a second one when the parental figures were down the beginning of July and while heavier than what they were used to, it was still damn good.

Angelfood Cake

Adapted from a recipe in The Vault

1-1/2 cups egg whites

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted before measuring

1/2 cup tapioca flour, sifted before measuring

1/4 cup cornstarch, sifted before measuring

2 tbsp potato starch, sifted before measuring

1 tsp xanthan gum

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1-1/2 tsps cream of tartar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Allow the egg whites to stand at room temperature for an hour before making the cake. While you’re waiting for them to warm up a bit, make sure your oven rack is set in the lower third of the oven, then preheat it to 350 degrees.

I know, I know. You’ve already sifted most of the dry ingredients. However, you need to suck it up and do it again - sift together the powdered sugar, tapioca flour, cornstarch, potato starch, xanthan gum, and kosher salt. I do this through a wire mesh sieve into a small bowl.

Beat the egg whites with/in a mixer until good and frothy. Add the cream of tartar; continue to beat at medium speed until the whites form soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and keep beating until the whites form soft, droopy peaks. Quickly beat in the vanilla.

Sprinkle the dry ingredient mixture into the whites in fourths, gently folding it in using a rubber scraper (also known as a spatula - in my Junior Chefs class in middle school, they told us it was a rubber scraper and it has stuck in my head ever since) until incorporated.

Pour the batter into an ungreased 10″ tube pan. Bake until the top is lightly golden, the cake springs back when touched lightly, and a toothpick comes out clean (40 to 45 minutes).

I learned my lesson here: if your tube pan has feet, simply turn it over (preferably right on top of the plate you’re going to serve the cake on, just in case). If your tube pan doesn’t have feet, turn it over onto a cooling rack. When completely cool, run a thin knife around the insides of the pan (both the outside wall and the tube). Give the pan a shimmy to make sure the cake is free, then invert onto your serving plate.