Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all. To all of our readers, we hope you have a prosperous 2013.

We’re taking it easy this afternoon. We started out the day by making cheese and mushroom omelets, doing dishes and doing a few loads of laundry. Then to top off the morning we spent 45 minutes outside in the backyard. It was a sunny 14 degree morning and we thought picking up doggy poop might be fun. Actually tomorrow is garbage day, so might as well get it done today. It’s always fun chipping out frozen poopsickles from the grass.

After a nice lunch of smoked ribs sandwiches we sat down. I started to write, hubby decided to lay back in his recliner and take nap. I guess Bubba’s bed wasn’t good enough for him so he decided to join Jim in the recliner:

There’s a symphony going on over there. Both Jim and Bubba are snoring.

Not to be outdone, Callie decided she too needed a lap. I’m holding the Ipad up high trying not to disturb her.

So, this is how we start out 2013. Not a bad start.

Getting a bath must be exhausting

Bubba got a bath at lunch today. Then he chased Callie around for 30 or so minutes. Tonight he turned into a couch potato.

My baby, isn’t he cute.

How to find a ball in the snow

It seems like forever ago since I’ve blogged. My intentions are good, it’s the fingers and the brain that aren’t cooperating. Seems like everything else is getting in the way too. Between work, writing, cooking and cleaning, oh and yes, sleeping that I’m not just not finding time for other things.

Part of this is self induced. I’ve been on a “only eat what is made from scratch” kick. I’ve been making my own granola, bread, pasta, tortilla’s, chicken broth to name just a few things. Now that I’ve found the right combinations, I’ll have to start posting some recipes.

Oh, and speaking of recipes. I tried this granola bar recipe Saturday. Delicious and so easy.
http://thehungryartist.wordpress.com/2012/11/02/peanut-butter-chewy-granola-bars/

Everything of hers I’ve tried has turned out really good.

Now, on to the dogs. Last week we had a snow. Only about 3 inches, but I was lucky enough to have the day off.

Where the heck is that ball anyway?

Of course we have the running doggies. There were two balls, but they both wanted the same one. Why is that anyway?

Now we have cute pictures. Callie loved diving in the snow and Bubba loved taking the ball from her. He didn’t really want the ball for long, he just wanted to be chased.

Then for dinner we humans had stuffed peppers. Ummy.

I’ll start posting some of my homemade food. Jim is really enjoying the cooking and the experiments. The cooking and baking is a great stress relief to me plus it tastes so darn good.

Lazy Saturday

This is what weekends are for.

Shhh, almost asleep

ahhh, bliss

Wish I could sleep like that.

Sleeping dogs and husbands

What they do after lunch

What Callie and Jim do after dinner

Rough

Tanning Carpet

While I work, they tan. So not fair. I want to be my dog.

The king

All he needs is a crown

Back in time part 2

Going back in time again and looking at past doggies. It’s so bittersweet looking through the doggie photo’s. I miss every single one of them.

All of our puppy pictures for Humphrey, our Boxer, were taken with our film camera. I have the pictures, but we just haven’t scanned them yet. Humphrey was my dog. I swear we could read each others minds. I miss him each and every day. Jim used to get so frustrated when Humphrey would walk into the room, look at me and I’d get up to get him more water, let him out, find a lost toy, whatever it was at the time he was thinking. Jim never could figure out how I knew what Humphrey wanted. I’m not sure either. I just knew.

I’m sure you’ve heard stories like this, but there was a period of time before we moved to Colorado when Jim was between jobs. Jim was at home with the dogs and I was commuting about 40 minutes each way. I had an 8-5 job, but if we were busy at work, I might work late on any given evening. I never had to call home. Jim knew when I was on my way home just by watching Humphrey. About 15 minutes before I arrived Humphrey would go sit by the door. Whether it was 5:45 or 7pm, Humphrey would not go to the door until I was almost home. I miss him so much.

Atlas, our English Mastiff was practically raised by Humphrey. Humphrey pottie trained him, played with him and taught him both good and bad habits. As usual with English Mastiffs, Atlas was truly a gentle giant. He loved everyone. He loved children, adults, other animals, everyone.

Funny story. Atlas loved peppermint. Not to eat, just to smell. If you had a peppermint in your mouth, or peppermint gum, he would stick his nose up to your mouth and smell. It was kind of freaky at first, then it just got to be funny.

Atlas loved to play tug of war. And, playing tug of war with a 150 pound dog is not easy. When we wanted to be lazy, we would sit on the ottoman, give Atlas the tug toy and let him pull us around the house.

Atlas had a sense of humor, too. He would play tug and just as you were pulling really hard, he would let go. Many a time I would plop on my butt and I swear he was laughing.

Humphrey is two and Atlas is about 4 months old.

Why Atlas like tug of war, maybe?

Oh, and one of the bad habits that Humphrey taught Atlas. Cleaning dishes.

This is a love seat, their favorite spot. Dogs get the couch I got the floor.

My human baby being cleaned.

Atlas had a short life as most large doggies do.

Atlas we miss you.

More vacation pictures

Poor Bubba. Callie just plain wears him out.

Before Callie, Bubba was pretty active with me. We’d walk and play games. Then Bubba brought Callie home. Or, did she follow him home? I forget. Now Callie plays so hard that to get him to walk is like dragging a sack of concrete around.

Now for scenic pictures.

This bowl in the mountain was just so cool.

A sunset of course.

I never know which pictures to post as I”m my own worst critic. Hope you enjoy.

“The Hungry Artist”, Callie and Weeds

Are you looking at the title and wondering “What the heck?”

Well, first. I follow The Hungry Artist’s blog. This recipe looked so good, I had to make it. Jim begged. Then, I told the ladies at work and Whitney wanted to know what the cake looked like cut. She wanted to see the actual layers.

First, go to this link:
http://thehungryartist.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/chocolate-cake-with-raspberry-mascarpone-filling-and-chocolate-ganache-frosting/

Look at her photo first. What a beautiful cake. She does such a nice job. The cake is straight, it’s frosted so prettily.

MIne…not so much.

Two things. I made a rookie mistake of stacking incorrectly. I was rushing, which added to the second mistake. The frosting. In “The Hungry Artist’s” blog, she says to take your time frosting the cake. Frost a little, let it cool 30 minutes, frost a little more, etc. Well, obviously I didn’t follow instructions. Lack of patience.

Now, for you Whitney.

Notice, you don’t really see a lot of the raspberry-mascarpone filling. That’s because the cake doesn’t need a lot. The flavor was perfect.

For those of you who want to try the cake and live in a little town like me and can’t find any mascarpone cheese, don’t despair. I found a substitute recipe on foodnetwork.com:
http://www.food.com/recipe/substitute-for-mascarpone-cheese-28620

A note to “The Hungry Artist”. My husband thanks you for posting the recipe. My thighs thank you too. And, it was well worth it.

Oh, and Jim was doubly happy Saturday evening. During the week I baked a pork loin. I sliced up the leftovers, seared the sides in a hot pan. To go with that we had Spaetzle topped with a homemade mushroom gravy. Ummm.

Now on to Callie and Weeds.
Tonight after work I went out back to throw the ball for Callie. It was a beautiful 68 degrees and the flower beds were calling to me. They were saying “weed me”. So I did. Pull a weed, throw the ball. Pull another weed, throw the ball. An hour of pull and throw. I got all the flower beds weeded, tired Callie and burned calories.

I also wondered. Why is it that we have bare spots on the lawn, but the flower beds are full of grass? I was almost done pulling weeds when I reached behind a shrub to pull a weed and came out loaded with burrs. We have this awful weed here that is full of stickers. It took me about 15 minutes to pull them all off. They stuck to my sweats, my shirt, my gloves (thank goodness I wore them), my shoes.

And, man oh man, you should hear what words I can say when the dogs track in the burrs and I’m barefoot.

But, at least the back flower beds are weeded. Now, I’ve got the front bed to weed, but that is going to wait until the weekend.

Spaetzle with mushroom gravy