How the morning starts around here

I admit, there is a perk or two to having a dog (but not more than that!) ;)

We taught her to get the morning paper.



The paper fetching was a combined effort. I started her fetching it from across the room. Erik started her on the porch. Go team!

Speaking of "go team!" .... Erik was poking through online videos, and thinks teaching Bailey to get a beer is a pretty good trick.


I'm not sure it'll be anytime soon, but we'll see. Evidently this is a popular trick, because searching for "dog getting a beer" videos yields more results than I would have imagined.

Standoff

They both want out.

It wasn't happening. :)

A little more closet organizing

Common picture, eh?

Things can be a bit pell-mel in the closet.


Recently we banished all of the wire hangers from the place and things have been a bit easier. :) I'm just trying to figure out what to do with all of those wretched metal hangers.


Erik refuses to do this, but I read somewhere that if you hang your clothes in the closet backwards all at one time, then turn the hanger around when you wear the item, it'll give you a good idea of what you don't wear. The theory is that in 3-6-9-12 months (whatever you choose), the stuff that's still hung backwards gets taken to the Goodwill.

I like the idea, and am giving it a whirl. We'll see how it goes.

The making of a "man cave"

BEFORE:

(please excuse the cobwebs ... no excuse, but please excuse them).

AFTER:

Erik didn't ask for this, but for his birthday, I got a few shadow boxes and scrounged up some sports goodies from ebay. The '77 AL champs poster? Found it while cleaning out a closet. Score! :)

The trouble is now Erik thinks he needs a full-fledged "man cave" which includes a beer fridge and bathroom downstairs. Sweetie, you've got 2 hands, the same as me. Get your build on. ;)

Oops. Doggone it.

BEFORE:


AFTER:

Any questions?

(In Bailey's defense, it was a one-time offense. And there was a chicken carcass in the bottom of it. For a few days. So it smelled ripe.)

A little kitchen organizing

Even though there are only 2 bipeds in our house, we do a lot of recycling. See that green bucket below? We have 2 of those we fill on a weekly basis.


They won't both fit in the kitchen, though, so we have other containers. And the dog food on the left. It was a bit crowded. And see where the semi-hole in the floor is (lower right side of the frame)? We used to have a wall there.

It was getting crowded/outta control, so we had to make some changes.


Ta-Da!!!! Oh happy day it was when it arrived. The dog food goes on the bottom (notice the lid) and the recycling is on top. A MUCH better arrangement.

I admit, they ARE a little bulky, but about the size of the green monsters, so it seems to be working.

Bye bye blonde

In case you don't remember, I'm awfully loyal to my hairdresser.

In the fall, Nikki said to me "How do you feel about going brunette?" I'd never considered it, but we were a few weeks away from family pix, and making big changes before portraits is a no-no.

But the next time I was in for a cut, we went for it. :)


The change hasn't been too drastic. The biggest difference is I can't make blonde references to myself b/c I'd look awfully silly/dumb doing so. ;)

Honestly, the bulk of my friends, after spending a day with me are like "did you do something to your hair?" .... suggesting the change is natural enough for people to think it's always been this color. I take that as a job well done.

This change happened at the end of December, and I have yet to download my camera from mid-January to present. But once I do, there will be lots to share!

Sweet Potato + Chicken Croquette

A few months ago in the newspaper, I saw THIS RECIPE. I remember thinking it sounded good, so I tore it out and last night finally got around to cooking it up.


YUMMIE!!!!!

It takes awhile to make/put together, but it's uber tasty. Seriously FULL of amazing flavors!

One thing, though. It might be the way I made it, but they didn't hold together very well. I'm considering using an entire egg, not just the whites next time I make these, which will be soon. They were tasty + we love eating sweet potatoes around our house! I'm only sad it took me so long to make it (I was trying to figure out what to substitute for bread crumbs, but now that I make soda bread, situation solved!).

(Side note: I did not make the sauce/relish, so I can't speak to that at all).

Irish Soda Bread

Several months ago, I was throwing myself a pity party, commenting on how much I missed eating bread (it has yeast in it, which is a no-no). My friend, Mary, made the comment "Can you have soda bread?"


I thought it was like beer bread, and said as much.

No, she said. It uses baking soda as leavening. Or a little leavening. ;) Oh how I love thee, Mary!

About a week ago, I made soda bread using THIS RECIPE. Since I'm supposed to have no sugar, I researched a bit and decided to just leave the sugar out.

I made 2 loaves, and they're not 100% perfect (yet), but it's a darn good start on this adventure.


I even went a little liberal and made one loaf with raisins in it. But I soaked the raisins in water first to get them nice and plump. It's a great morning treat. And because I used a mix of white flour and whole wheat flour, I feel pretty guiltless about eating it.

Feta stuffed chicken goodness!

Oh goodness. I took inspiration from THIS RECIPE and made it my own.

Ok, I'll confess, I was lazy and didn't do anything fancy with it. I just mixed some feta cheese with a few tablespoons of plain yogurt and stuffed them into the chicken and cooked it on the stove. Oh my .... this is my new favorite fancy recipe! ;)

I think this is a great starting-off point and think I'll try adding some crumbled bacon next time!

One thing, though. I did have to hold the chicken together with toothpicks while I cooked it.

Seriously, and EASY recipe, and it TASTES really fancy. Give it a whirl! (for those of you with kids, I'm not sure if it's a "kid" meal, but if you have a "date night" at home, it'd be perfection on a plate).