Dolly

We didn't get a drop of rain from Dolly. It looks like that's the extent of our rain chances for awhile, too.

The clouds looked dramatic last night, though, and there was thunder & lightning in the distance, and my dial-up came to a screeching halt. Tonight the sunset is pink and there's a weird yellow cast to the sky.

Update: I was finally able to turn my aluminum cans in, my 5 bags came to 8 pounds, which brought in $5.92. It hardly seems worth it but on the other hand, something is better than nothing. We're going to smash the cans and collect them for longer.

My dog-sitting came to an end and I was given Peet's as a thank-you! I was just overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of the gift.

Dogs Raised in The south Y'all

I've been dog-sitting and this morning when I heard the coyotes out, my heart sank because I knew there was a high probability that Girl would come back covered in coyote poop. She had to get another bath today, her third in two weeks. It's funny how she struts her stuff when she's so stinky, like she thinks it makes her irresistible. It made me start putting together a profile like you might find on a dating site for her.

Pooch Profile:

My name is Girl-dog and I’m a D.R.T.Y. Girl (Dogs Raised in the South Y’all).

I like long walks in the woods, chasing rabbits and rolling in poop. I call it my Chanel No. 2.

My favorite time of the day is breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I love fried chicken, anything covered in gravy, and moldy bones.

I hate bugs and baths, and working out.

Some people think I’m stubborn but I’m just an independent Southern girl.

Bread Day

Watching the bread rise

Today was Bread Day. I had some zucchini to use up, the way I like it best is in zucchini bread. I tried a new recipe from the Better Homes & Gardens Baking Book. It seems like a pretty standard recipe. I also had to feed my sourdough starter, that went into Sourdough Oatmeal Bread. I miss the sourdough bread from San Francisco! This doesn’t taste the same, but it’s better than store-bought.

It’s darn close to 100 degrees outside but Girl-dog insists on sitting on the porch. This time she’s watching the bread bake. Then she got curious and decided she was going to see if she could sit right next to the oven. Ta-da! She did it, and has the proud smile to prove it. She only stayed there for a minute, and was careful not to touch anything.

I don’t think the manufacturer’s instructions recommend using the toaster oven outside, usually I keep it in the garage. As small as it is, it still manages to warm up the room, so when it’s really hot, I take it outside. (Same with the crockpot - mostly to keep the house from smelling like whatever is cooking all day.) The little oven tends to burn things on the bottom, which is why there’s a couple pieces of tile on the bottom rack. It seems to help distribute the heat better.

Maybe you can tell, I can be moody, I was quite grouchy yesterday. Anyway, not much planned for the weekend. I’ve been trying to sell our aluminum cans for over a month. The place my brother-in-law goes to, is not very reliable, I’ve been there about 5 times…3 times there was nobody manning the operation, and the other 2 times, they ran out of money. I’m going to try another scrap metal place listed in the phone book. They say they pay something like 74 cents a pound. Because I’ve had so many unproductive trips to the recycler, I have about 5 bags of cans now. It’ll be interesting to see how much I get. I have a feeling it won’t be much, each can weighs about half an ounce, so 32 cans would be less than $1.

Orzo Salad

It’s hot here and it’s not even the peak of summer yet. The other day I made a goulash of veggies and beans in the slow cooker. Here’s a picture of Girl-dog wishing it would cook faster.



I enjoyed the segment on the Rachael Ray show yesterday about a woman who made a resolution for 2008 to cook with her crockpot every single day. She has a blog about it. One of the things I like most is that the preparation is done in the morning, so come meal time, it seems like less work being done when it’s time to eat.
Anyway, I’ve had more flops than successes lately. It gets discouraging, especially when I get stuck eating the leftovers. I feel like I’m in a rut. And I’m burned out from being the cook in the house and having to plan menus, go grocery shopping, spend time trying to make something different and then have it turn out to be a disappointment. Sigh. One of my dream vacations would be to have dinner prepared for me the whole time, and not have to help with dishes or any other aspect, aside from deciding what I want.

I can be a worry-wart, so lately it just has not been fun, planning what to shop for, going to the store, seeing how much things go up each week. Add to that, hoping what I make will be edible.

One dish that I did like was an orzo salad from "Everyday Italian." The recipe calls for garbanzo beans too, I put mine in separately since hubby doesn’t like them. It’s quick to put together and is light yet substantial.

Creatures Great and Small

All the critters seem to be out and about lately. Whenever we look out the window or go outside, there's something to see. Not to mention, we still find new bugs that we haven't seen before. It rained last night and the rabbits went wild this morning eating in the yard.

Mr. Toad was hiding under the garbage can. There's frog poop all over the place. Apparently a great deal of a frog's mass is poop.

He was looking in the window. He can do something similar to a frog, he can blow up the skin under his neck. It's red and really flashy. You can kind of see the different color skin there.

Luna Lovegood is looking a little tattered but is still pretty.

Meep Meep! He was out in the yard, I think he lives in that area. We haven't seen him in the last day or two, it might be too hot, plus hubby mowed so he doesn't have as much cover.

Victory Garden

This beautiful basket of produce is from my sister-in-law's garden. She's kind of maxed out on veggies right now so her hubby brought over this basket and told me to take what I want. She's got cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, beans, radishes, yellow squash, peppers, and herbs going on, plus chard and corn and a few other things. She's been calling it her Victory Garden because of the outrageous food prices at the store. This is her way of fighting back and eating well. I'm anxious to try a veggie pizza but I'm out of cheese so will have to wait until I go to the store again. Here are a few things I've made recently.

Pulled chicken sandwich from the February 2007 issue of Everyday With Rachael Ray, and some stuffed baby potatoes from a recent issue of Everyday Food. I kind of got burned out with Rachael recipes but now that I've taken a break, they are a lot simpler and down-to-earth than some of the other magazines I've been reading. My sister gave me a subscription to the magazine so I'm hoping to go back to making some of her dishes.

This doesn't look too appetizing in the photo, it's a curried tofu eggless salad, but it's actually pretty tasty. It has tofu, carrots, onion, curry, raisins and mayonnaise. I've been eating it wrapped up in tortillas for lunch.

Today I made an almond buttercrunch from a Giada DeLaurentiis recipe I found a few months ago. It's a straightforward toffee recipe, just sugars, water, butter, boiled to hard crack stage, then add baking soda, vanilla and nuts, and top with chocolate and more nuts. It has been so darn hot here, it was something easy and sweet to make, without turning on the oven.

From the May 2008 issue of Gourmet, is a wasabi cucumber pickle recipe. It reminds me of tsukemono, the cabbage dish you get at Japanese restaurants.

I hate to say it, but I'm disappointed with this season of Next Food Network Star. I still don't know who I'm rooting for, and there are so many contestants that either make me cringe or are annoying. I realize that some of it is the ratings factor, they probably shoot hours of footage and end up airing the bits that get people's emotions going. Lisa's comment about her $300 shirt really turned me off. I'm trying to be open-minded about her, from what I've read out there in the blogosphere, she seems like a hard-working person. Mostly I don't see anything in the contestants' "culinary point of view" that would draw me in to watch another person's series.

Bucket List

We watched "The Bucket List" yesterday and it made me start on my own list.

In no particular order of priority, and still under construction:

1. See Barry Manilow's Music and Passion show in Vegas, front row center, with my old Baygel friends.

2. Things to eat/Places to eat
a. Chez Panisse
b. A Michelin star restaurant
c. One of those restaurants owned by a celebrity chef, like Bobby Flay or Paula Deen's Lady & Sons.*
d. Beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde
e. French madeleines
f. Bread from Poilane

3. Places to go:
a. Bora Bora
b. Paris (again)
c. Great Britain (England, Scotland, Ireland)
d. Hearst Castle

4. Run and complete a marathon

5. Clear off my desk and have it look neat & tidy.

* I did go to a restaurant in CA, owned by a chef who has a restaurant in Vegas, among other places. I went there twice, and both times, thought it was one of the worst restaurants I've ever been to. I don't understand what all the hype is about. I hope this particular chef is the exception to the rule.