Doggie Mayhem

Lola is super spoiled now that I am home with her. She mostly stares out the window and barks at the neighbor cat who insists on sleeping outside our window. To my surprise though, she really does sleep most of the day. I had always thought that she must be bored out of her mind while I was at work because she was so wired when I got home, but apparently she is just a night owl.

She can be surprisingly needy though. I have determined that she is jealous of the computer. She's constantly trying to drag my hands off the keyboard, shove a toy in my face, or as a last resort walk on the keyboard and bark in my face.

We have been taking her to the Petsmart training classes and they have been helping somewhat. She's still ADD but she's getting it. Through the class we have found out that she really likes big dogs and hates small dogs as well as s he is a very jealous creature and will clammer for attention from others. She might be a touch on the over friendly side.

We have had 2 adventures while I have been home. The first one being the toy incident. She's been in destructo mode lately and every toy we get her is ruined in 5 minutes. So I got her this fun looking ball that seemed to be made of harder rubber...

Well she had pieces coming off of it in no time and made some very colorful poop. Michael tried to throw it away, but seriously it was $6. I thought we could try to make it last. Not kidding the next day - this happened.

The toy was lodged between her teeth and I couldn't get it out. She freaked out and threw up at least 3 times. She just kept walking around growling and making squishy rubbery sounds. I called Michael who had to come home from lunch to help me get it out. Of course by the time he got there she had broken through some of it and it came out no problem. I got the "I told you so" speech and the toy went in the trash.

This weekend she developed what I believe to be a UTI. I have been taking her out every 20 minutes since Saturday. I keep hoping she will flush it out with water, but no luck yet. I called the vet who instructed me that I needed to get a pee sample before I brought her in.....what? Can someone please tell me how you are suppose to go about getting that from a dog. I'm pretty sure I can't get her to pee in a cup and I don't even want to think about how you get it from the floor to the cup?!?!

Oh well, she's scratching at the door again. I should be happy because that's an accomplishment in itself. Yay for housebreaking! My carpets might make it after all.

A Guilty Pleasure

One of the long, lost, forgotten things I have happened upon while organizing have been my old computer games. I own several of the Sims games as well as the whole Myst Trilogy. I'm pretty sure they have more than just the 3 now though so I probably shouldn't call it a trilogy, oh well. My games were so old I had to download Quicktime 2 instead of 7 to get them to work lol. Like everything else, it's not Vista friendly. I hate Vista, but that's another rant for another day.

I resisted temptation until this weekend to play them again. Why did I have to resist you ask? Well one of my guilty pleasures is strategy games. I can get COMPLETELY absorbed in them. My world basically stops. Just ask my husband. I once played Diner Dash for 8 hours straight. Yeah. It's that bad.

It's really a trait I get from my dad. He refuses to even own any strategy games because he gets so absorbed. I remember when we were kids we would stay up all night with dad trying to beat the Nintendo Mario series. Dad just had to get the princess before we went to bed. It was so much fun. I still have my old Nintendo but I'm pretty sure that thing hasn't worked in a long, long time. Do you remember having to blow all the dust out of the games and hitting the thing to make the screen stop being shaky? Good times.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to put them away soon in fear that I might become completely unproductive.

What are your guilty pleasures?

I'm Ready for a Challenge!

During my home reorganization project I have encountered many challenges, mostly involving the questions of "Why do we have this?" "Where am I going to put this?" "Why do we have a bajillion cable cords?" "Do you really need this Michael" (ie: every receipt since 2006, river rocks and shells that he has collected, a coffee can from New Orleans which we can buy at our local Kroger or every school notebook he ever had!), but I now have a bigger challenge. A new mission of a sort you might say. The challenge of "How to use up all the food in my pantry?"


Ridiculous for two people right?

Here is the laundry list of items I have to work with....

• 7 partial boxes of pasta
• 8 packages of rice
• 2 jars of molasses
• 3 boxes of breadcrumbs
• 4 boxes of soup mix (corn chowder, french onion, mushroom onion, and vegetable)
• 2 cans of peaches
• 1 can of blueberry pie filling
• 1 can of Eaglebrand milk
• 1 can of enchilada sauce
• 2 boxes of pancake mix
• 3 cans of tomatoes
• 1 can of tomato paste
• 1 can of tomato sauce
• 1 jar of artichokes
• 1 can of mixed berries
• 1 box of dates
• 1 box of oats
• 1 box of lemon wafers
• 1 box of crackers
• 1 can of peas (which I really think has followed us through at least 2 moves...not big pea fans)
• 2 jars of salsa
• 1 can of beef gravy
• 1 can of chicken stock

Maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine but I really have no need for "backup supplies" in the pantry. It's just forgotten about honestly. It simply sits there and takes up space that I desperately need. So for the next week or so I am challenging myself to use every last thing in that pantry without having to purchase too much else at the grocery store (fresh ingredients and meat of course will be needed).


After this little mission, I do see an immediate future need for a carb detox to take place since we do have 15 partial boxes of grains to get through!!! Ugh. Wish me good luck! Any suggestions of combinations/recipes will be gratefully accepted!


DISCLAIMER: ***This little challenge may or may not have somewhat to do with the fact that tax free weekend is this weekend in TN and I am wanting to go shopping even though I am technically without a job. The husband must be persuaded immediately!***

What's to Eat? Wednesday: Spring Green Risotto

***Edited to Add: Sorry for some reason Mr. Linky was on from last week not this week....it's hopefully fixed now!**

Welcome to What's to Eat? Wednesday! Around here, Wednesday is all about food so if you want to join in just put your site in Mr. Linky below so we can read all about it. Do you need topic ideas? Try these…favorite/worst recipes, kitchen disasters, restaurant experiences, kitchen gadgets, food memories, or dinner parties….really anything about or related to food goes here!

Spring Green Risotto

One of the best things about being unemployed is the time you have to do the things you enjoy. One of the things I most enjoy is obviously cooking. I have been wanting to try a risotto recipe, but just never had the time to do it. They always make them sound so delicious on T.V.! I of course turned to one of my trusty sources, Ina Garten. I think I have about 30 of her episodes on the DVR right now so, be prepared to see more of her recipes around here.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tablespoons good olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts (2 leeks)
• 1 cup chopped fennel
• 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
• 2/3 cup dry white wine
• 4 to 5 cups simmering chicken stock, preferably homemade
• 1 pound thin asparagus
• 10 ounces frozen peas, defrosted, or 1 1/2 cups shelled fresh peas
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/3 cup mascarpone cheese, preferably Italian
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh chives, plus extra for serving

Directions

Heat the olive oil and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks and fennel and saute for 5 to 7 minutes, until tender. Add the rice and stir for a minute to coat with the vegetables, oil, and butter. Add the white wine and simmer over low heat, stirring constantly, until most of the wine has been absorbed. Add the chicken stock, 2 ladles at a time, stirring almost constantly and waiting for the stock to be absorbed before adding more. This process should take 25 to 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the asparagus diagonally in 1 1/2-inch lengths and discard the tough ends. Blanch in boiling salted water for 4 to 5 minutes, until al dente. Drain and cool immediately in ice water. (If using fresh peas, blanch them in boiling water for a few minutes until the starchiness is gone.)

When the risotto has been cooking for 15 minutes, drain the asparagus and add it to the risotto with the peas, lemon zest, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Continue cooking and adding stock, stirring almost constantly, until the rice is tender but still firm.

Whisk the lemon juice and mascarpone together in a small bowl. When the risotto is done, turn off the heat and stir in the mascarpone mixture plus the Parmesan cheese and chives. Set aside, off the heat, for a few minutes, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve hot with a sprinkling of chives and more Parmesan cheese. Makes 6 servings.

Yum! It was absolutely delicious! I did make a couple minor changes though. First, I substituted 1jar of marinated artichokes for the fennel because I dislike it's licorice taste. Then I substituted 16oz. of frozen asparagus for the fresh which is what Ina did on her show as well. I just threw it all in frozen, no defrosting.

Mine ended up taking a lot longer than she said it would, but I think it was my fault. I wasn't familiar with what exactly it was supposed to look like and assumed it would be a little less liquidy than it actually was due to the rice releasing it's starchiness. This recipe was also my first experience with leeks and let me tell you - they are a keeper! Basically just a mild onion flavor for those of you who also haven't tried them. I did have to google how to prepare them lol. Anyways - try this recipe. It's awesome!

Going with the Flow

It's amazing how quickly things can change. Some things change due to the decisions you make and some things change without you even having a choice. Either way, I feel like it's always hard to deal with.

It's always strange to me to look back on my life and think about the way things could have been and how they actually turned out. Not saying things are for the worst by any means, just different than what I originally thought it might be like. I use to try to plan my life out in my mind when I was younger and no matter what, life always surprised me. There was always some twist I couldn't see coming or when I had thought I had prepared for the "worst case scenario" something different came out to slap me in the face.

I have come to realize that when it comes to life you have to just go with the flow. There will always be something unexpected to trip you up and you have to be able to change and adjust. Life goes on.

I think I have just come to a point in life where I have no idea what is going to happen next. I have no plan. I have no grand scheme. I only have a vague idea of what I want to happen in the future. This would have scared the shit out of me not too long ago, but for now I am embracing it in hopes that I will see things more clearly and be able to adjust a little better in the future.