Trooper Update

Who knew that so many posts would be devoted to my dogs health? Maybe someone will read this and find some helpful things for their doggie. We put Trooper on a three day dewormer. You can buy granules over the counter that you sprinkle on his food. I bought it at a farm supply store in town and the vet sells it as Panacur. Trooper had been off of Heartguard Plus since January as a part of his strict diet test. Heartguard Plus protects against all worms. After his second round of dewormer (vet recommended in two weeks) I want to put him back on HP to avoid this issue in the future. Otherwise we had a great weekend. We had a lovely little dinner party on Friday night, where Jim made Ina's chicken picatta (my favorite thing he makes! You should make it with panko bread crumbs like my wonderful husband does). I took my Little Sister out and about on Saturday and had drinks with people from work. Sunday was Domestics Day: mopping, vacuuming (I seriously feel we could vacuum every day between the dog hair and mud getting tracked in), and cooking. I made a yummy meatloaf and cheesy potatoes for dinner (although my meatloafs don't quite take on the loaf form and are served as more of a meat pile) and prepped Ina's Turkey Lasagna for dinner tonight. (You should make that lasagna. And don't skimp on the goat cheese!) Jim went back to school today. Back to business!

Manhattan Smoothie

It was warm and sunny out today, I biked to work! It was so nice to ride home in the sunshine. I was straight up cruising. I saw a red tulip on the side of the road. I was waiting for other bike riders to pass me (it's happened before.)

This picture is just for you, blog readers. When you live in Eugene, you can really dress however you want and no one looks twice. Here's what I need to ride my bike to work:

Velcro reflector around one pant legs so my pants don't get caught in the chain.
Sneakers, but don't worry, I change my shoes at work.
Fleece to work? You bet (in Eugene.)
LL Bean backpack that I've had since high school.
And helmet (safety first.)

Spring Break Jim made a great dinner tonight: kung pao chicken. Yum! So good and fresh. Right now he's putting the rest in tupperware for my lunch tomorrow. Jim's going out for a beer now and Trooper and I are getting ready to cuddle, drink wine, and eat cookies. (It's a favorite past time of ours.)

Who's Reading This?

Today I decided to add a new gadget to my blog and found I've had over 4,000 page views!! Thank you for reading my blog (whoever you are.) I started this blog mainly for family and friends to follow our adventures in the Pacific Northwest. And to give myself something to do when I wasn't working. I'd say it's also been therapeutic to write down my thoughts and what not, sort of like a journal. And readers, I LOVE comments!

Jim's been working so hard on his brief. He has been at the library late (except for tonight, yay!). Trooper stared out the window for hours last night. Another car parked in our spot and Trooper jumped up and started wagging his tale. Sadly, his dad didn't get out of the car, so it was back to staring. I've taken him for a jog on Monday night and tonight, trying to get his puppy energy out. And get him ready for bikini season. (When I told Jim that, he said he's going to need to get waxed. That made me LOL.)

I tried a great recipe tonight. I bought frozen mahi mahi at TJ's and didn't know what I should do with it. I googled Martha Stewart Mahi Mahi and was directed to a Rick Bayless recipe. I was reminded of fond memories of Friday nights with Jim in our old apartment watching Chicago PBS (Check, Please! followed by Mexico One Plate at a Time). Rather than make my own salsa, I bought Frontera (Rick Bayless's restaurant) salsa of some sort. I also had to bake it for longer than suggested. I loved it. I think the salsa and potatoes tricked Jim into eating the fish. I also have cookie dough in the fridge. I don't know that other law students have it this great :)

I may be going out on the town for St. Patty's day and then to a wedding convention (with an engaged friend) on Friday. Mainly I'm excited to spend the weekend with my loving husband and cute lil pup.

Week Nights

Last night I made Emeril's Shake Em Up Pork Chops. They were fine. Not bad, but didn't blow my mind. Tonight I'm going to try Ina's Indonesian Chicken. I'm trying to explore new recipes during the week but have a feeling I'll be buying us burritos before the week's up. Jim aims to make one meal a week or so during the semester but will surely make up for it when the semester's over (I know he's reading this!) By the time I exercise and make dinner, I'm pooped. If I'm lucky I get some crafting in, otherwise I watch tv and drink wine until I fall asleep. Last night I fell asleep sharing a couch pillow with my darling doggie. (Who has not had a head seizure since Friday night! Perhaps it was the steroids he was on.)

Our Book Club is starting! We are starting with my suggestion, Water for Elephants, and meeting at our apartment on April 7th. Jim said he didn't mind as long as he gets snacks out of it. After the first month I think we will rotate every month. Right now we have between four and six members.

We are so pleased to have two visitors coming. This weekend Joe and his doggie Debbie will be in Eugene to visit us. Joe is so special to both us and we are happy to share a coast with him (he lives in Seattle.) We are hoping to get in a hike and some beer drinking. And next weekend is a visit from my closest, most wonderful girlfriend, Vanessa. She's journeying all the way from Florida to see us. I can't wait to see her cute little face! I was even able to take off two days from work, so we'll have a four day weekend together. It feels like Christmas is coming!!

Home Made Soup and Bread

Yesterday I made the perfect Sunday meal. I found both of the recipes on the blog of the wonderful Alicia Paulson, called Posie Gets Cozy.

Curried Cream of Chicken Soup

4 tablespoons butter
2 yellow onions, finely chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons yellow curry powder
5 cups chicken stock
1 handful of parsley, chopped
1/2 cup long-grain brown rice
1 cup (or so) of shredded chicken
1 cup of frozen peas
1 cup half-and-half

Melt the butter in a large soup pot or Dutch oven. Add the onions, carrots, and curry powder and cook over low heat, covered, until vegetables are tender. Add the stock, parsley, and rice. Bring soup to a boil, reduce heat, and cover; simmer until rice is thoroughly cooked, about 30 minutes. Pour the soup through a strainer and be sure to save the stock. Put the solids back into the soup pot, add 1 cup of the stock, and puree everything together with a hand-blender. (If you don't have one you can run it all through the food processor in batches.) Add the remaining stock to the puree along with the shredded chicken and peas and heat everything through. Add half-and-half, heat through again, and season with salt and pepper.

I did not puree the soup. We ate it chunky. It was so good. We also have a great store, Market of Choice, where you can buy spices in the bulk section, so I was able to just get the small amount of curry powder I needed without buying a whole container. The soup was great for lunch and it was really yummy with the bread below dipped in it.

Ann's No-Knead Bread

Combine and set aside:
2 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 T. salt
2 pkgs. dry yeast (1/4 oz. each)

Heat until warm:
1 c. water
1 c. milk
1/4 c. vegetable oil

Have on hand:
1 egg
2 to 2 1/2 c. flour
butter

Mix egg with liquids, then stir all into flour mixture. Blend at lowest speed on mixer, then blend on medium for 3 minutes. By hand stir in another 2 to 2 1/2 c. flour. Cover, let rise 50 minutes until light and doubled in size. Stir down. Spoon into greased 6" x 9" loaf pan. (If your pan has short sides you might want to split it up and put it in two smaller pans; it rises quite a bit.) Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes. Brush top with butter.

I used half unbleached all purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. Either way, it was great.

Happy eating!

Game Night

Another fun weekend.

On Friday night, it was so cold. I think we woke up on Saturday morning to 19 degrees, which is pretty cold for Eugene. Our apartment complex had signs up saying "turn on your heat" and what not. I made us spaghetti carbonara and I fell asleep watching Curb Your Enthusiasm reruns.

On Saturday, I took my Little Sister to Brush Fire, a paint your own pottery place. It was really fun! We both painted a mug and will pick them up next week. I tried to take her to a deli for lunch, but all she wants are chicken nugget Happy Meals. Even though I'm very anti-McDonald's, I couldn't bring myself to send her home hungry, so got her one.

Last night for dinner, Jim made some Pioneer Woman steak sandwiches. OMG. They were so yummy! I highly suggest that you make them.

After dinner, we hosted a little game night. There were five of us and two doggies. It was really fun! The dogs devoured their toys (a lot of stuffing was picked up!) and we had drinks and played Split Decision, a pretty fun game. I made Ina's macaroons (always a hit, especially since I add chocolate chips) and had some snacks out (including Trader Joe's fried macaroni and cheese bites!)

I am going to work on some sewing and cooking today which will be so nice on a cloudy (with a chance of rain/ snow) day. Trooper and I have puppy class later this afternoon and Jim will be studying away. Otherwise, I hope we all get some relaxing in.

Also, we haven't seen Trooper have any shakes since Friday night. We've stopped giving him the steroids. He's been itching a bit, but we're wondering if it's all thyroid related. He seems healthy and happy otherwise (except when he gets jealous that his dad is playing with other dogs!) Thanks again for all of the concerns for my sweet little doggie.

Also, less than two weeks until my wonderful, darling Vanessa arrives for the weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunshine

These are two of my favorite guys!


We took Trooper to Wayne Morris Ranch. This is when we were about to leave and Jim had to hose his muddy legs off.


Wow, we had sunshine all weekend and it looks like no rain next week either! On Saturday, I took Trooper and my Little Sister to the dog park. A crazy lady actually asked us to leave when Trooper barked at her dog. She said, "Aggressive dogs aren't allowed in here!" and wouldn't give it up, so we left. He wasn't growling or snarling and was just trying to play. We then just walked around the park to the other entrance. Eugene has an interesting dog park crowd. Then we walked around on the paths in the park for about two hours. It was okay, but I think the "unstructured" play time was a little boring for my Little Sister. Jim made us falafel for dinner and we had drinks with some friends. We actually went to a party on Friday night as well! This morning we woke up and took the dog for an outing. We stopped at Sweet Life Patisserie and each got a savory pastry breakfast and coffee. Then we went to a park with a huge dog run area. Trooper ran off leash and got so muddy. Then we walked him on the paths. He was able to get a lot of outside time two days in a row, which was great for everyone. We made it home for Jim to watch the Bears game (sorry Bears) and me to get some cooking and cleaning done and work out. On the menu tonight is a new Giada recipe: an eggplant timbale. I love, love, love eggplant in any shape or form. This is def something to make when you have time. It was a lot of multitasking. And I followed the directions but did not prep enough eggplant to cover the whole dish. Next time I would double the eggplant slices. It's baking now and smells lovely. I also made Ina's Macaroons. They require still egg whites, and you can't make those as easily on a rainy day, so today was perfect. This recipe is one of our faves. I also add a bag of semi sweet chocolate chips to this one. How can you go wrong with that :) ? I also intended to make a cream of mushroom soup for later in the week, but will just do that after work one night. Trooper and I had puppy classes tonight and he was so well behaved! Hardly any barking and he even got complimented by the teacher! We worked on "sit" (which he already kind of knows) and "leave it." He's had such a big weekend that he's just passed out right now. This week should be fairly quiet. I've started running with one of my girlfriends a few nights a week after work, so that's nice. I also have a Big Brothers Big Sisters appreciation cocktail hour after work on Thursday. Tomorrow night I plan to blog about some crafting/ sewing I've been doing!