Manitobans

Howdy everyone!!

Just the other day something happened that reminded me just how Manitoban our family is!

We were having farmer sausage, schmofat, ( pronounced shmofat, with a tiny accent) perogies, and veggies for supper. That's a DELICIOUS Mennonite meal that consists of...

• Sausage (I hope you know what that is!!)
• Perogies - Those are kind of like dumplings, with a doughy outside and filling of normally potatoes. These yummy boiled carb blobs can be topped off with Schmofat.
• Schmofat - also known as cream gravy. (Not to be confused with American cream gravy.) A yummy you-could-almost-drink-it-in-a-milkshake hot sauce (not to be confused with hotsauce) made of mostly heavy cream and butter. It goes well with sausage, perogies, and caramelized onions.
• Caramelized Onions - are pretty much what they sound like. Onions fried up in still more butter until they are caramelized.
• Peas. Those are peas. Yup, that's what they are.

That's a delicious carb filled, super filling, easy to love, possibly protein packed, Manitoban loved, and overall amazing Mennonite-ish supper!!

All that to say, that's what we were having and Dad was grilling the sausage. While doing that he was eating sunflower seeds. Or as we and our friends call them in low german, knacksot. ( Pronounced k-nock-zote.) Now these are also sooo Manitoban!! Here is the process of getting the seed out to eat.

1. Place whole seed in mouth.
2. Crack between back molars.
3. Pry the seed open with front teeth and tongue.
4. Spit shell out and eat the inner seed.

As complicated as this sounds, it is easily learned at a pretty young age, and can be done on average for me in around 3 ish seconds. You normally put in a few in your mouth at a time. Or a handful. After there has been an outdoor gathering like a bonfire at our house the ground around the fire is covered with quite a few of the shells!!

Well, we were spitting these when our cats started eating the shells... we would be on the deck spitting shells down, and they would be nibbling away!! What's that you say, you haven't met our cats? Okay, time for Appendix C! ( And before you ask, although these cats are from Manitoba it is not a 'Manitoban thing' to own a cat.)

We currently have 3 cats, one female, and two males.

This is Toffee. ( I won't be telling you nicknames, because each cat must have at least 3, which would lead to Appendix D, E, and maybe F!!) He is my personal favorite, and (in my opinion) the cutest.

This is Mocha, she is the only female. She is Larren's favorite. And is currently pregnant... we are excited for baby kitties on the way!!

This is Caramel, he is Caidrie, Mom, and Dad's favorite. ( It is a ongoing debate between me and Dad about who is the best. Toffee or Caramel. ) Although all of the cats are very cute!!

Here they are together, from left to right: Toffee, Caramel, and Mocha. ( And I apologize, I noticed that Caramel was yawning. ) 

When these cats were only a week old, their mama (who looked very similar to Mocha) left and never came back. We don't know what happened to her... so we ended up bottle feeding these cuties. It was a good experience, but we wouldn't do it again. There were originally five kittens, but two of them died. They just needed their mama! We have noticed that these kitties snuggle more than any other cats we've had, which makes for great picture ops!! We often see Caramel licking Toffee's fur. (Dad thinks that it is because Toffee needs all of the help he can get when it comes to his hair, but I say otherwise!!)

Well it seems that I have gotten miles off of topic, but I think I have said all that I want to say!!!

So bye for now!!

Off to pet the kitties,

Alia