Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for July 03, 2023

Chef Pucky. Here to save your holiday feast, or feast on your holiday. It gets a little muddled in the end.

This is a lot of mixed messaging for only three panels! Georgia really can pack a lot into a small space. ;)

(Seriously, though, this looks like a delicious and not too complicated recipe. I hope Pucky gets some cat-appropriate treats this week!)

What’s wrong with cats having a morsel of potato salad as a treat?♥

I make southern style potato salad. I boil the potatoes in the jacket which makes them easy to peel and diceonce they cool. I add chopped sweet pickles, green olives, hard boiled egg whites, celery seeds, and just a touch of grated onion. I mash up the egg yolks and add mayo, mustard, and some pickle and olive juice until it tastes just right and pour it over and toss with the chopped ingredients.

No mayonnaise? No mustard? No dill pickle relish? No boiled egg? This is not potato salad!

You can call it baked potato salad. My wife and I are gonna try it. My wife suggested adding onions.

YES!! I LOVE this version of potato salad! It’s even better with real chopped bacon and sliced scallions.

Monsieur Lupinette might not agree with that idea….

I don’t know how to bake a potato. My only job growing up was to peel them and maybe cut them.

Ah, yes. The day Brits celebrate as the jettisoning is nigh… (Kidding)

No, pickles or diced eggs? Definitely, not a Southern potato salad.

It’s the Bacon Bits!! … Gotta be! That’s what brings in the Kitties!! … :)

There are so many ways to make potato salad and like most of them.

You had me up to leaving the skins on. Nobody in my family would eat that recipe because it doesn’t have mayo, celery, hard boiled eggs and pickle relish in it. It’s all what you grew up eating.

Is this our first recipe??? Yay! I have to make this!

I’m from the dairy state, so this looks delightful for me. I am so saving this!

I think we need to see some BCN blank Recipe Cards in the Zazzle store. They could have a little logo on one of the top corners—maybe Pucky with a chef’s hat and apron. The border could be of the Big Pink House kitchen linoleum.

Long story short—don’t ask, LOL—a few months back Zelda got some potato soup on her hind paw and proceeded to lick it off. She was fine afterward, but I was worried because I read something about potatoes being bad for cats. It wasn’t a lot, but still! And maybe that’s why she doesn’t get up on the kitchen table much anymore…

I see. The potatoes are there just to hold up the cheese and bacon!

That is not the way my mom made it! And, consequently, not the way I make it either.

My mother’s recipe, such as it is -

Some quantity of boiled potatoes of a waxy variety, with or without skins, cut into whatever size chunks you like

A bunch or two of scallions

Zesty italian dressing

Mayo

Salt, pepper

Optional: hard boiled egg, canned shrimp

All ingredients are to taste. Refrigerate and serve cold.

For a bonus, here’s the egg salad recipe:

Hard boiled eggs

Very finely chopped onion and/or scallions

Curry powder or (my innovation years later) berbere

Optional: cooked chickpeas, raw celery

Again, all ingredients are to taste.

This is recipe is different than the potato salad that I grew up with! Southern style, with plenty of mayo, relish and a table spoon of mustard! But I have gotten out of my comfort zone, and tried different versions of potato salad, and this recipe sound delish!

In panel 3, I’m surprised the Woman doesn’t have Ora Zella sitting on her head.

I like the look of this. Some deli potato salads taste a bit sweet, which I can’t stand.

Meanwhile, Back on the Nile..

Thomios: Time to make the potato salad. Do we have any round potatoes left?

Sue Chef: A few. Talpi took some for the moles to play Lawn Potato.

Thomios: Then we’ll use the I Don’t Know, Russet? Potatoes.

Sometime Later

Ora Z: Are we having mashed potatoes as well?

Thomios: Yes we are. Feel free to assist.

Iggy: How about I slice up these potatoes real thin?

Thomios: That’s great. Then take them to the frying crew.

Thomios: Time for cleanup. Puckmosis?

Puckmosis: Ready for spoon licking and washing duty..

Hi! Hamilton A. Cat here,

My human is off, working on his next book. And guess what? He promised I would get to do a recipe for this book, also.

I just want to say that this is a purrrfect recipe, and my humans really like it. Of course, I don’t eat it because I don’t like onion & garlic. I wait for the grilled chicken…my favorite.

This is a delicious sounding recipe, Georgia, and I’m going to have to try a batch for myself. I’ll add a touch of onion, though, because the cats don’t care for people food.

Speaking of potato salad, I made a 10-pound batch of potato salad yesterday for my youngest great-grandaughter’s (Kairi) first birthday party. It was a hit, I checked the pan when my grandson cleaned up and there was hardly any left. Same with my daughter’s pasta salad.

And now you know kiddies, where the term D@MN YANKEES originated. Calling that Potato Salad is like calling Elvis a calm, peaceful, and overly friendly kitten.

Grandmothers and Church Ladies world wide are sharing a mutual moment of grief and horror over the thought of this recipe showing up on the table with the fired chicken at Sunday dinner or being taken to a church pot luck dinner. Oh, the humanity of it all.

Fake news from that CNN. (Someone wants it all for himself.)

I was wondering if there’s anything in potato salad cats should not have, and the last panel (and Georgia’s comment) answered that quite nicely. Maybe just let Puck sneak a bacon bit or two.

My baby, Scamper, who lived to be 23, loved potatoes, but only raw, not cooked. What I’ve never understood is why pickle relish is added to potato, egg, and tuna salads?? It gives them a weird kind of sweet taste. Also, my James’ family from TX made potato salad with mayo, mustard, onion, and relish but mashed the potatoes until creamy(ish). Don’t understand that either. ;)

I may try this, not big on sour cream. Not sure how large a bowl it would make with only 3 potatoes…

America: Ventura Highway

Stirring up some sour cream

And cheese on the potatoes

Puck wonders when the spoon

Will be ready to go

Elvis says potato salad

Isn’t good for cats, they say.

Just a bit, should be OK

…….

Potato salad with no mayo

Rich with sour cream,

Tastes like a dream

The best you know

A spoon awaits, I know

The good boys deserve cream and cheese

And bacon bits just like a breeze

No onions or garlic should be there

Cat friendly salad is right there

It’s right there!

…….

Puck asks for a tiny bit

Just a taste to take

Elvis says, it’s not safe

I’ll take it all away.

Lupin: Aw, come on, Elvis, don’t hoard it all day

Elvis: I’m just making sure we’re all okay!

…….

Potato salad with no mayo

Rich with sour cream,

Tastes like a dream

The best you know

A spoon awaits, I know

The good boys deserve cream and cheese

And bacon bits just like a breeze

No onions or garlic should be there

Cat friendly salad is right there

It’s right there!

My mother also made potato salad with sour cream! She used little red potatoes and poured vinaigrette dressing (Newman’s Own original — we lived in the same town as the man himself and were very brand loyal) over them while they were still hot. After they cooled down she would add the sour cream dressing and I would run out to the herb garden and pick a bunch of chives to snip in.

Puck’s into it for the cheese and bacon.

“Holy crap, that’s due tomorrow!?!?!?!?” T. Jefferson 1776

2" cubes?!

Yes! All hail potato salad with bacon bits!

If you like this strip you would probably like Linda Reilly’s Deep Fried Mystery series. They take place in a Fish & Chips diner in the Berkshires with cats and recipes in each one!

As to the question from yesterday about if the cake was for the girl’s birthday, it appears that at least in 2019 they celebrated at the end of June into the beginning of July, https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2019/06/27 so maybe the cake was for the girl. I found it when looking for the beginning of the Hamilton 4th of July special. If you want to read the special it starts here, https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2019/07/03

Just 3 potatoes? And the sizes of Russets are really variable’

No sugar or sugar containing ingredients. A clear win. Sweet pickle relish has ruined many a potato salad.

The recipe sounds good, but I’d add more bacon and more cheese. Then, maybe, a little more bacon and a little more cheese. Then I’d have too much cheese and would need to add more bacon to balance it.

Just give them each as spoon of sour cream

OT: Health Update

Sounds good! Sadly, I have dietary restrictions (diabetic, so limit the potatoes, kidney-stone-prone, so limit the dairy, pork-intolerant, so avoid the bacon!). What’s that leave? Looks like pepper… and salt. O.o

Foxy has some terrible mats over her hips because she won’t let me brush her there. This can’t be comfortable for her. There is a good salon nearby but I’m trying to save $. I have found some things online about using organic coconut oil to remove mats. Have any of you tried this? She is not the most chill cat in the world but has clearly been trying to fight her instincts and let me try to work out the mats with just my fingers.

No pickles. No relish.

It. Sounds. Fabulous.