Golden Beet Tatin and Meow's Amazing Vet Visit

This is really two posts in one, but I am behind in posting and need to catch up! The first part of my post is about a dish called Golden Beet Tatin - it's delicious, and easy, and a fun way to work beets into your dinner. I once believed I didn't like beets, but now I can easily say they are one of my favorite vegetables. The above recipe is from a blog called Closet Cooking that I read regularly. We started by roasting golden beets we bought at the Farmer's Market in Venice, then sliced them and placed them in ramekins. Over that we poured the red wine and honey gastrique:

At this point, I topped them with phyllo dough I had on hand in the fridge, and normally they get popped in the oven for about 15 minutes. But our oven was, unknown to us before we began, broken! So Jay microwaved the beet and gastrique mixes, and fried the phyllo dough topping. Below I am adding the phyllo sheets one by one. (You can also get a preview of my new haircut!)

We also sauteed some fiddleheads to go on the side:
It turned into a lovely dinner that we enjoyed immensely, and altogether (since we had pre-roasted the beets the night before) it only took us about 30 minutes. The beets still have a nice firm texture, and the smooth tartness of the goat cheese against the sweetness of the beets and gastrique is delicious!


But enough of our cooking, onto the real story. Meow's vet visit this week. I was once a dutiful kitty owner, taking Meow into her annual vet exams for shots and other assorted affronteries. But she is an absolute terror, and after moving away from our last excellent vet, Margo Golden, I neglected to take her. I could go on with the horror stories, but I'll just remind you of our previous post called Meow's first illness. We thought she was dying, but she fought off a vet and two techs. When she was brought in a second time they just put her entire carrier in a box, gassed her, then took her out for her exam. The screaming and fighting just tears my nerves apart, and I am a basket case when I take her to the vet.

I took the afternoon off work and met Jay at home. We got Meow into the car after dragging her from beneath the bed, crying piteously, and shoved head first into her carrier. She cried forlornly all the way. When we got to the clinic, the first thing I spy is two cats in the waiting room. Trouble with tails. But... she ignored them. She stayed quietly in her carrier while we waiting, no hissing, no growling... I am terrified. Clearly the cat is plotting something. It's at this point that Jay decides to take off to run an errand and left me alone with my nerves and the hell cat. Thanks, honey. So into the exam room we go.

The vet enters with Meow's chart, and I notice that written on the top in big red letters is: WATCH OUT. Her reputation precedes her, and the first question the vet asks me is, "So, when does she freak out?" Well, usually she already has. He has to give her a distemper vaccine, and decides to try it alone. So he dumps her out of her carrier onto a towel, and instead of exploding in a fluff ball of teeth and claws, my little cat curls up and mews. Mews! The vet petted her, and she didn't even hiss. Then he decides to get bold and weigh her, so he picks her up and puts her on a scale. She doesn't fight him, she doesn't do anything. She just sits on the scale and watches him. We discuss her diet, her habits, any unusual behavior, etc. and he then gathers her scruff and injects her quickly. This elicits a little hiss, but no swipes or howls. He then makes up a little bed for her in her carrier, and she walks back in. That's it. No howls or cries on the way home, no fights, nothing. All that nervousness wasted. Maybe Meow has turned over a new leaf with vets? Or, more likely, she plans to have them let down their guard so she can really do some damage next visit...