Five on Friday: Adorable animals and divine desserts

1. Finally! CL Does Cat VideosCan’t tell you how pleased I am to finally have a reason to share a cute kitten video. This is Tiny Cat. She’s the new mascot for CL’s favorite local-foods emporium, Freshfully. (The Freshfully concept is really cool—it’s an entire grocery store of food sourced from within 250 miles of CL’s Birmingham, AL, home. I hope you have a similar type of market near your house.) Anyway, back to Tiny Cat… She was found in the rafters of the building Freshfully occupies on a day of heavy, heavy rains and flash floods. After a vet visit and a few days of careful nursing, she’s now found a forever home with Freshfully owner, and former CL.com editor, Jen Barnett. And as you can see, Tiny Cat won’t be tiny for long.

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2. Animal Crackers, UpdatedWhile we’re on the subject of adorable animals, check out these sweet breads (as in sweet baked goods filled with chocolate, cream, or red bean paste, not thymus glands) from the Kyoto Aquarium. Couldn’t you just eat them up? (Props to Serious Eats Leftovers, which is where I saw these earlier this week.)

3. Birds of a FeatherOh, I just can’t help it… Let’s stick with the cute baby animal theme. Here’s a whole box of them. The girls at the Cooking Light Garden were joined by some new peeps just a few weeks ago. I snapped this picture when I was visiting the garden last week.

Can’t wait for y’all to see what we’ve got coming up with the garden project next year (which is, of course, all busily sprouting, blooming, and fruiting this year so we can photograph, taste, and cook). Hmmm… It’s not fair to tease you, is it? You’re right. Here’s a snap of Garden Goddess, Mary Beth, harvesting our crop of leeks with help from her Golden Retriever, Lucy. Look for them, along with chives and garlic scapes and recipes that showcase them all, in our May 2014 issue.

4. Get Your Goat CheeseOkay, enough cuteness. In still-somewhat-animal-related news, Alabama-made Belle Chevre cheese, another local favorite here at CL’s Birmingham HQ, garnered a major award for their new cheesecakes earlier this week. In Switzerland, no less, where folks know their way around a good cheese (and a good dessert.) Curious? You can buy one of Belle Chevre’s finest for yourself.

5. Portions Matter for Pets, Too.Use a smaller plate, and you’ll automatically eat less because less food fits. It’s a fundamental lesson of healthy eating and weight maintenance. And it applies to pets just as much as humans, as Veterinarian Karen Becker explains in an article from HuffPo earlier this week. Also includes kibble calculations to help keep your pet at a healthy weight.