Snow Days

Ralph and Kenya took advantage of all the snow this weekend to have some fun! Our "little" girl refused to come inside for 3 days in a row because she was so excited!

And The Baking Continues

I have not cured my craving for cupcakes. Last night I made Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. The cake recipe came from here and the frosting from here. They were really good. I think I will make all four types of cupcakes. I am in a huge baking mood right now! Too bad I have to work all weekend.
Dinner last night was wonderful! It a "Weight Wathchers" meal. I wish I had taken a picture before we started eating. It was so colorful! It looked just like a healthy meal should. We had "Broild Tuna with Corn Relish." Here's the recipe if anyone is interested.

Makes 4 servings

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp salte
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons water
1 1/4 lb tuna steaks, cut into 4 pieces
2 cups cooked corn kernels
1 cup chopped roasted red pepper
2 cups torn curly endive or chicory

1. To prepare the marinade, in a large aip-close plastic bag, combine the vinegar, mustard, red pepper, salt and pepper with the water; reserve 2 T of the mixture in a medium bowl.
2. Add the tuna to the bag and seal, squeezing out the air; turn to coat the tuna. Refrigerate, turning the bag occaisionally, 1 hour.
3. Spray a nonstick baking sheet and the broiler rack with nonstick spray; preheat the broiler. Arrange the corn in a thin layer on the baking sheet. Broil 6 inches from the heat, stirring often, until the corn begins to brown, 2-4 minutes. Add the corn and roasted red pepper to the reserved marinade in the bowl; set aside.
4. Drain and discard the marinade in the zip-close bag; place the tuna on the broiler rack. Broil 6 inches from the heat, turning once, until browned on the outside but still juicy inside, 6-7 minutes on each side.
5. Divide the endive among 4 plates; top with the corn relish and tuna.

from "Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook"

We used romaine lettuce instead of endive and I omitted the water from the marinade. We both really liked it! We are trying to add more fish to our diet. We both love seafood but it rarely occurs to us to cook it at home. Do you have any favorite seafood recipes?

Dishes, Dog Training and Cupcakes

Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer is having a Spur-Of-The-Moment-Dish-Carnival. Since I love dishes, I had to join. The first set is the set we received for our wedding. It's a four place setting of Pottery Barn's Sausalito Collection. We love these dishes and would like to add place settings in another color.The next set was my husband's when we got married. Someone a long time ago had given him a four place setting of Pfaltzgraff's Heritage Collection. We added a lot of plates from various second hand stores to have enough to serve dinner at house church each week. Then we found out that the grandmother I'm named after (middle name), had a complete 8 place setting complete with serving pieces. She recently gifted the whole set to me!The third set are my "winter dishes" that parents gave us for Christmas one year. They are from Kohl's, the "Lodge". I have 8 place settings but very few of the serving pieces so I am always on the look-out for some to add to my collection.

Does anyone have any great ideas for teaching a dog to roll over? I don't think I'm going about this the right way. I taught her to sit and lay within half-an-hour. I think stay and come are ongoing. ;-p Anyway, we started to work on rolling over yesterday and she.RAN.AWAY.from.TREATS! This does not bode well for me and teaching her to roll over. I had her sit. I had her lay. I said "Roll over" and used the hand signal I had decided to use. Then I "helped" her to roll over. Then I gave her a treat. I don't think she was having much fun because she started to run away when we got to the roll over part--despite my handful of treats. Normally, she won't be more than a nose away from a handful of treats. This is not going well.

Last night I finally gave in to the craving I had been having--I made cupcakes. I made these cupcakes and frosted them using this frosting. I got the idea from this new favorite blog. I'm not sure what is wrong with me! I love to cook and bake and am always looking for new recipes. However, until recently, it has never occurred to me to check out food blogs! Seriously! Anyway, they are delicious!!! I'm thinking about eating one now with some espresso. Yum mm.

Husband is Home

Ralph spent Tuesday to Thursday in beautiful Toronto this week. I worked all three days he was gone. I tried to get Kenya to stay inside with me—preferably in our room. Now that I've been married a few years, I find that I no longer enjoy being home alone. I used to love it. I think it came from working nights for those years. I used to live to be home alone. Now I hate it. I hear every creak the house makes. I have to sleep with a light on (which is tough because I can sleep through anything but light). So, I came up with a solution. Kenya should sleep in our room with me. I don't really like dogs on the bed, but I was willing to be flexible. It is a king sized bed after all. Well, she wasn't having it. She would pace the room and pant like she had just run a marathon. She really is a winter dog. I eventually had to put her out and sleep with Jedi (who eventually left me too; I tossed and turned too much).

I made a mistake on Wednesday morning. I complained to a bunch of single girls. On a normal morning, we get up at 0430. Ralph heads downstairs and makes my breve and breakfast smoothie and if it's cold he starts the car and scrapes it if needed. I take a shower and get ready. Usually by 0505 we get to cuddle for 10 minutes or so. It's a somewhat relaxing routine. With him gone, I had to get up 15 minutes earlier and did not have any time to sit down before I left. It of course snowed that first morning, so I had to clean off the car before leaving. That's what I want to do at 5 am! Anyway, I was whining about this to the night shift when I got to work that morning. I was told, "Welcome to single life!" They also asked where they could find a husband like mine. ;-p After that I made sure I only told my tale of woe to married people—they were much more sympathetic.

I am thrilled to have my husband home again! He brought great news with him. A job offer. Kind of two job offers. He only gets to pick one though. He can't have both. That would just be greedy. Pray for us in this. It may mean a move to San Jose for us. Not sure if we're California people. If we stay, it would mean a lot of travel for Ralph which has a lot of ramifications for many areas of our lives. It may affect how/where I work as well (even if we stay). We are hurry-up-and-waiting for next week and the official offer/process to start. We'

Jane Austen

I must admit, I am a bit of a geek. A book geek, but still a geek. Right now, on PBS's Masterpiece they are showcasing "The Complete Jane Austen". I love it! I just finished watching Mansfield Park. It was a good version of the book—not complete, but it made sense to streamline it the way they did (that's my husband's influence coming out.) Anyway, I love being introduced to different versions of my favorite books. These are books that I could read and re-read without ever tiring of them. I have an adorable pocket version of Persuasion. Someday I would love to get them all in nice hardback versions. I don't have any bright brilliant statements—just check out this series.

 

 

P.S. It's very hard to post with my 80 lb lapdog fighting for lap space with my laptop!

A Picure is Worth a Thousand Words . . .

. . .or so they say! Tonight I am too tired to be verbose, so here are some pics of what I've been up to.

Cuddling with Kenya.











Coffee with Penny . . .


. . .at Night Sky Coffee House.













You have to try the hats on when antique shopping!









Aren't we cute?
















Like it? Love it? Hate it? Penny and I loved it. Ralph hates it. I want it for my dining room.
What do you think?

The Visitor

We have had a visitor at our house this week. His name is Dooce. He is an adorable Australian Shepherd/Lab mix. I am now convinced I want a second dog! Kenya has been so good the last three days. I have not even had to walk her. I thought I was going to have to figure out how to walk two dogs at once when Kenya is often more than I can handle alone! They played so hard together that they wore each other out every day. I loved it! Now I just have to convince Ralph!