PMAT Live! Episode 2a: The Way to Weigh, or Why and How You Should Use a Kitchen Scale

Video is an amazing thing.  It catches a snapshot in time.  A moving snapshot, but a snapshot nonetheless.  In the case of this Particular Snapshot, it captures me in a more innocent state than I am At Present.  Trying to edit it over the past couple of days, I kept shaking my head at that Naive Me looking back at me from a time of innocence.  Long ago and far away.  Last Wednesday, to be exact.

You see, between the blissfully innocent filming and Right This Very Second, The Beloved and I have entered the wonderful world of Kitten Fostering.  You know, where you take care of one or two wee kittens or cats until they can find a new home.  It sounded like such a High Calling.  It was a way to indulge our kitty love without becoming the Crazy Cat People who own a billion cats.  We could still have our own cats and then serve as a Compassionate Way Station for one or two other needy kittens.  In essence, we wanted to Have Our Cake and Eat it Too.

I will forgo the spirit breaking Play by Play and fast forward to the present.  I’ve been spending my time cleaning up diarrhea and vomit of Linda Blair proportions.  It’s really rather impressive, if you don’t have a sense of smell.  We’re shoving white and yellow liquid medicines down their little throats and keeping them far away from our guys.  To keep them from catching Communicable Diseases.  Between the sneezing and the snobbling and the round worms, I sit at this keyboard a newly humbled Online Pastry Chef.  A chastened and solemn ghost of my former self.

Friends, I am here to tell you, and I think The Beloved would concur, that it is Not Possible to Have One’s Cake and Eat It Too.  Heed my warning.

Oh, and did I mention that these wee kittens–who are very sweet, if prolific eliminators, by the way–were supposedly spayed/neutered by their former owners.  But guess what?  Sweet Alice is Preggers. As I refuse to believe that owners who would surrender their pets to a Kill Shelter would ever tell an Untruth, I can only conclude that Alice’s case is the first documented case of Immaculate Feline Conception in the history of the world.   Maybe our Cake will come in the form of 15 minutes of fame courtesy of The Star or The National Enquirer, alongside a picture of a pancake bearing the likeness of the Blessed Virgin herself and a potato chip that looks just like Richard M. Nixon.

At any rate, let’s leave that rather unpleasant subject behind us.  It’s time for Episode 2A of PMAT Live!  As promised, it’s all about using a kitchen scale.  There’s a piece about the fabled tare function and some Illuminating Demonstrations.  I hope you find it helpful.  I’ll be posting part 2B in another few days.  That’s it for now.

You technical people, or helpful people in general, I’d love to hear your thoughts.  And as always, you can submit your topic suggestions in the comments section or through email to onlinepastrychef at yahoo dot com.