Foodie update

We've been having a lot of good meals lately aside from all the wonderful holiday food.  A few weeks back Nick and I made this roasted chicken.  This is a good alternative to the rosemary-sage roasted chicken we made back in October.  The rosemary-sage butter chicken was probably one of my family's favorite meals, but there is just so much butter that we can't do it all the time.  At this point I can't remember if this recipe was off the top of our heads or a recipe I saw.  I've put a recipe below of pretty much what we did.  I do remember that we shoved garlic and red onions under the skin, which made it very tasty.  We tossed it in EVOO before shoving it into the oven.  We also made garlic noodles and my own concoction of anchovy broccoli.  Now, I know a lot of people are squeamish about anchovies, but they give such a nutty, full flavor to whatever you put it in.  I highly suggest trying them.  I've used the paste in spaghetti sauce before and it made such a difference.  This time I minced up whole fillets until it was practically a paste and threw it in with the broccoli.  It was soo good.  Since I'm not a fish lover I haven't tried whole fillets, but minced up for flavoring is amazing.

Roasted Chicken with Red Onions

5-7 chicken thighs and drumsticks, separated

2 red onions, eighthed

1 bulb garlic, whole cloves

Thyme sprigs

Salt and Pepper

EVOO

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Liberally salt and pepper chicken parts.  (I try to use more pepper than salt for my Dad's blood pressure.) Pull apart two pieces of onion so that you have a bunch of separate thin layers.  Gently lift the skin away from the chicken and slide one to two onion pieces and a piece of garlic in between the skin and flesh.  Place chicken, onions, remaining garlic cloves and thyme in a foil covered roaster pan.  Coat with EVOO and toss with hands so that they are all evenly coated.  Place chicken so that skin is facing up.  Roast in oven for 45 min to 1 hour or until juices run clear.  

Anchovy Broccoli

1 can anchovies in EVOO, pasted

4 cloves garlic, minced

3-4 bunches of broccoli, bite sized pieces

5-6 Tbsp water

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Mince anchovy filets into a course paste, reserving EVOO in can.  Sautee anchovies in regular EVOO until fragrant and then add garlic and reserved EVOO stirring constantly.  Add raw broccoli, toss in anchovy mixture.  Add water and cover for 3-4 minutes to steam.  Salt and pepper to taste.    

A couple of weekends ago we also had a crab night.  Yum yum!  My favorite thing ever!  Briana and I had gone to have Pho and then popped over to Ranch 99 to get crabs for my dad to cook up that night.  It was a pretty fun day.   Christopher had helped me get out all of our Christmas stuff, so I started decorating the tree while Briana did her homework.  I can't remember where the rest of the family was, but it was just the two of us listening to Glee Christmas in front of the fire while I got sentimental about all of our ornaments.  I'm turning into my mother.







I didn't think that crab would be enough to fill us so I made a soup too.  It was good, but we had way to much, as always.  If you want to cut back on the salt use less bouillon.

Soup Noodles

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 jalapenos, sliced

1 32oz box chicken stock

4 cups water

5 tbsp chicken bouillon 

1 pack fresh Korean noodles (found in the refrigerator section of Ranch 99)

Baby bok choy, cut in half

Directions

Par boil noodles and set aside, strained.  In same pot sauté onions, garlic, and jalapenos.  (I didn't deseed the jalapenos.)  Once vegetables are soft, add chicken stock, water, and bouillon.  Bring to a boil and add bok choy.  Cook bok choy until they are bright green.  Portion strained noodles into bowls and ladle soup over noodles.  

Note:  If you have left over noodles, don't add them to your soup to store.  Keep them separate until you go to eat it otherwise the noodles will absorb all the soup and be gummy.  

Some Emmy pictures:






She wasn't very happy about this picture, but she knows to listen to her mommy when she's stuck like this.





A couple of weekends ago Nick and I went to a disco themed birthday dinner and roller skating for one of his coworker's birthday.  We got her a nice scarf and this is the card that I made.  Nick borrowed my Dad's shirt that he bought for canoeing.  We were all surprised that he could fit it since he is so much bigger than my dad.  In my Dad's defense, he needed something bright that wasn't cotton so that if he he got lost he would be easier to find.



The Meyer Sale. Ah, the Meyer Sale.  Meyer is an umbrella company for some well known kitchen retailers like Anolon, FarberWare, Circulon, Kitchen Aid, SilverStone, and Bonjour.  They also had a lot of Rachel Ray and Paula Deen stuff there too.  On Saturday Nick drove my mom and me up to Fairfield to have brunch and go to the Meyer Sale.  He had gone last weekend with his cousin and sister.  Mrs. Ryan usually tells us about it every year, but since she changed jobs and is now working for Lowe's and not Meyer, she forgot. When we reminded her she jumped at the opportunity and met us up there.  I made away like a bandit.  Not only was this their year end sale so everything was already marked down, but we also had a 30% off coupon.  I got myself new two cookie sheets, two cake pans, a pasta fork, slotted spatula, ladle, and new cutting board.  My mom got herself the rest of what you see below including some of the same tools as me.  We also picked up quite a few gifts too.




Size comparison for board.  It's 15x15 raised cutting board.  I love it.



Since I had gotten new cake pans I wanted to test them out.  I just used a box mix, but it was still fun to do.  I've never seen a bake pull away from the pan like this before.  I also made my own frosting out of powdered sugar.  I gave the cake to Nick since I don't really like sweets.  He said that the cake was kind of oily.  I guess I will have to do it from scratch next time.  I was just trying to take the easy way out and practice my decorating skills.







On Sunday I had an urge to try out my new cookie sheets.  I made butter cookies from allrecipes.  I can't find the link right now.  The cookies themselves are okay and didn't take that long to make the dough, but the press I used was the biggest hassel ever.  I won't be using it anymore.  I've been developing a little bit of carpel tunnel in my right hand from using my mouse and chopping so much garlic so this didn't help it at all.  I had to press so hard on the handle that both of my forearms were sore the next day.  It took me a total of 3.5 hours to make about three dozen cookies.  It's back to round cookies for me.  I think even rolling out the dough and using a cookie cutter is easier than this and I think cookie cutters are a lot of work!  But all in all, I loved the pans!  I was in a rush to finish the last few batches so unfortunately they weren't cooked all the way through my mom said.  I had to get to Nick's house so that we could go to Oakland for his grandma's birthday dinner.  Oh, that was yummy.  So much seafood.  Family!  Listen to this, Nick's family all fits at one big table!  Including his little cousins!  When was the last time our family was able to do that?










After all that baking I had to rejuvenate myself by doing a lot of cooking.  On Monday I made a shrimp scampi with garlic noodles, which was good as always.  Last night I tried something different.  I've been craving fish for some reason even though I don't like fish so I planned to make fish tacos.  The problem was that I ended up going to sushi with Nick's family the night before so I was all fished out.  I didn't think the fish that I made was that great and it was cold by the time I got everything on the table so no one else liked it that much either.  I did make my own Spanish rice and a stewed zucchini dish.  Those turned out really well.  The rice was so much better than the boxed Spanish rice.  I will definitely be making both again.


I did have a picture with my dad smiling but it was really blurry.



In other news, it's going to get really hectic around here.  Well, it already is, but it will become more so.  This year Christopher and I will be hosting Christmas dinner with my mom's side of the family.  I have everything planned out down to the half hour starting Christmas Eve.  I was originally planning to work a half day on Christmas Eve, but after looking at all of the stuff I have to prepare for I decided that I need to take it off.  The day after Christmas Jen Jen is having a baby shower for Josie, which I'm very involved in.  We've been planning for the last two weeks to figure out what we're doing.  Now that the time is getting closer we're both starting to feel the stress, but I think we have a handle on it now.  So for Christmas weekend I'm going to be very busy.  It's a good thing Christopher is helping me and Nick said that he would come and help with the cooking for Josie's shower and then take off before all the ladies come.  I probably would be broken out in pimples and have no hair if I didn't have their help.

Happy Holidays

Happy holidays everyone!  Not much to report this week since I saw most of you just a few days ago.  Well I guess there are a few things.  The Big Game was terrible.  The tailgate was as good as ever, but Cal lost sooo terribly that we were debating leaving early.  We did stay until the end though because I wanted to follow the band through the tunnel since this was the only game I went to this year. Nick was unable to go because he had a wedding to shoot in Santa Clara so Linda came with me instead.  Besides the fact that we were freezing and the Bears got creamed, we had a pretty good time.  We were really worried about rain, but it didn't start pouring until we were about to go home so my dad drove us down to the Bart station.  I was also a little worried that Emmy would have a freakout attack when Pierce was doggy sitting her, but he said that after she got over us all leaving she fell asleep and he watched Disney movies all day.  Not bad at all.

Table flowers

Chocolate stuffed cookies that I saw on Giada at Home.  I can't find the link to the recipe, but I won't be making these anymore because they were way too sweet and more work than I usually spend on cookies.

Linda keeping warm with a cookie and some wine.

Josie is having a baby!  She announced it at Thanksgiving dinner via Google chat and Jen Jen's phone.   I already talked to Jen Jen and I will be helping with her  baby shower.  How exciting!  Our family is growing in leaps and bounds.

In other news, I will no longer be going to Paris and Dubai with Nick's family.  We weren't sure when the exact dates that we were going were, but just found out that it's the exact same time as my parents' Panama cruise.  Originally Nick thought that it was going to be at the end of March to the beginning of April, which would have been perfect since my parents' trip is at the end of April to May.  We were having dinner with his sister when she set us straight.  That was the end of that.  All these months of looking forward to going abroad were squashed with one phone call to Kuwait.  Since Emmy is living with me now I can't just leave her here or dump her on Christopher when he has school.  We don't know what Christopher's school schedule is or if Emmy will be trained well enough to be left home while he's gone by the time I need to get my plane tickets, which is very soon.  She's making progress, but I'm not sure if she will be 100% okay to be left at home for hours while Christopher is at school.  I guess sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the ones you love.  I'm much more willing to miss a trip than Emmy not having a loving home.  There will always be other exciting trips to go on.

At first I was really disappointed because I really, really wanted to go to Dubai, but it was a pretty big financial burden that was lifted off of my shoulders.  I was already having difficulty saving for a plane ticket, but once Emmy came fully back into the picture I was really beginning to worry about what I was going to do.  I was planning on taking money out of savings so that I could go on the trip, but wasn't really to keen on the idea.  Now I don't have to worry about that.  Nick was very disappointed also, but he's still going and has been to both places multiple times so I told him he couldn't be more disappointed than me.  I've been to Paris before, but only for two nights and a day so it would have been nice to be able to see more of the city and do some shopping.  We just keep reminding ourselves that we'll have the rest of our lives to travel together and I'm sure there will be other opportunities.  Nick has been wanting to go to New Orleans so maybe when he has some time off we can go there.  I've also been wanting to visit Shanna in North Carolina so this might be a good thing for us.  With the big trip I didn't think I'd have any money or time off to do anything.  I'm feeling much better about it now, especially since Christmas is coming and I worried that I'd send myself into debt with shopping, training, and the plane ticket.

Just a few additional pictures that I took with my phone.  I really need to get a phone with a better camera.  Whenever I try to take pictures of Emmy I have to be stealthy and pulling out a camera usually makes her turn the other way.  She doesn't seem to mind the phone as much, probably because I'm always texting on it and she doesn't associate it with a giant eye being pointed at her.  Maybe it's time to invest in a smart phone with a good camera.  I also use it a lot just because it's close by and I'm too lazy to go get my camera in my room.  Hehe.


It's a "Where's Waldo" Emmy





I've realized that Emmy prefers going to play frisbee more than our 3 milers (as if I should have been surprised) so I've been lazy and driving her to the park to throw the frisbee with her.  We did do a walk today since it wasn't that cold, but I've been really lazy about walking this week.  The park that we walk around has huge fields so she has plenty of room to run.  This one is in an area that isn't very open and fewer people and bikers go by.  When we walked by it this morning she really wanted to go play but realized that I didn't bring her frisbee along.  Having this field makes it easy for when I don't feel like walking but she needs some good running in.


Belly rubbing by Uncle Christophee


I got up one night to go to the bathroom and Emmy was sleeping belly up on her bed.



Spending some quality time with Nick


My mom's new fridge.  She's been wanting one for a long time and finally broke down and got a bigger one.  



Emmy and I also have started Clicker Training (I actually bought this lady's book and clickers) this week.  We've only been doing it for a couple of days, but she's responding really well.  I have a book on how to train different things, but so far we're just working on her being okay with me taking my keys out of the drawer.  She's getting the hang of it. When I take my keys out her tail starts wagging.  Good enough for me!

Walking

I should rename this blog "Updates on Allison and Emmy".  Today on our three miler Emmy was the model doggy citizen.  There were dogs that were far worse than her (thank goodness).  I've actually been noticing that there are plenty of misbehaved dogs more lately because of the books I've been reading.  We have encountered a number of doggies who did not do as their owners asked/demanded.   There was one dog this morning who was lunging and barking at Emmy while she stayed as calm as she could and walked around him with a little whining and a small bark.   That's pretty good for her and I barely had to use muscle to hold her back.  In the past I would have had to use both hands to get her under control.  There was another dog who clearly wanted to play with her when his owner didn't want him to.  It was a gangly black lab of a puppy who saw her and wanted to go sniffing.  She just looked at him and then looked back at me like she was saying, look how good I'm being.  I don't know if it's because we have been going out everyday to walk or play frisbee, the training I've been working on with the Separation Anxiety (SA) in the house, her muscles are sore from running so hard for the frisbee yesterday, or that I feel more relaxed after reading one 30-paged booklet on SA and 50 pages of the Control Unleashed: Creating a Focused and Confident Dog (CU) by Leslie McDevitt book that the rescue lady recommended for me.  Whatever the case, I was pleasantly surprised and was writing this blog post in my head all the way home.  I'm so pleased!  CU has already taught me that her behaviors that I thought were bad, like crouching in a stalking position when she sees other dogs is really just instinct.  I knew that she had what is called the "Border Collie Eye" where she follows her "work" (frisbee, ball, bike, children) in a crouched stance and is very intent on herding, but whenever I would see her do the stalking when we were on walks I would correct her because I didn't like the look of it.  The book, which isn't even Border Collie (BC) specific said that BC's are the acception to the attentive rule because that's their instinct and what they've been bred to do.  Silly me!  In my desperation to get her to do what I wanted, I was really just making her out to be worse than she really is.  Today I didn't correct her at all on it and she was much, much calmer walking by all the dogs.  I think what I was worried about is that the crouch makes her look like she's going to pounce and I didn't want the other dogs or owners thinking that she was.  But she was fine!  After a while we would get closer and she would stop crouching and walk past.  What a good girl!  I was just being an unaware owner!

Like I've mentioned, I've only read 50 pages of CU so far but I feel so much better about Emmy.  Right now I'm in the introductory chapters where McDevitt is just explaining concepts, theories, and training techniques, but she also puts in case studies.  There was one that was just like Emmy.  The dog was basically stressed and very unsure of himself and the dogs, bikes, people, birds, worms, etc. around him, which made him lunge at everything and potentially/actually hurt them.  Sounds like Emmy in a nutshell, especially when it comes to cousin Ruby.  It was all because the dog didn't know what to expect and this was his defensive mode.  McDevitt was able to train the dog and he is a-okay now.  This helped me in a bunch of ways.

1. Now I know that Emmy really is fixable. 
2. We're not alone.  There are other dogs out there with pretty much the same problem!
3. She lacks confidence and is a "reactive"(over stimulated) dog because of it.   
4. I am more attentive to her and not just the things around her.  When we go on walks I don't listen to music because I need to be able to hear if there are bikers or even runners that might make her want to chase them. I've been keeping my eyes and ears open as usual, but also watching her reaction to our environment much more closely. 
5. I'm less tense because I know that we can do it.  I think this is why she had such a good walk today.

As I was at the beginning of last week, I still remain hopeful that she will be a cured dog who I can trust to go to dog parks and play with other dogs while children run around too and who I can leave alone while I go out to watch a movie or have dinner with friends.  Our SA training has been going pretty well.  I can pick up my keys without her barking and sometimes even get my purse and walk out into the garage for five seconds before I come back in to get her.  The strategy that the book gave was to fill her Kong with peanut butter and then pick up keys, then take away the Kong.  She has learned very quickly to eat as much pb as she can before I take it away from her.  I think this means she's learning.  The book said that the dog will pretty much be like, "Hey, I wasn't done with that.  Ohh you're picking up your purse again, gimme, gimme, gimmie."  It seems to be going that way, which I'm very pleased with.  I also do random desensitization by going downstairs to pick up my keys and then put them down and then go back to work.  It really must be body language, because she sure does know when I'm picking up my keys to leave for real and not just to condition.  

Emmy is really starting to settle in here and take us more seriously since the training started.  This is good because she responds to us better when we're out on walks and she's distracted.  Last week Christopher and I went for a run.  We were jogging along and a big dog off leash came chasing after us to get her.  The furs on the back of the other dog's neck were raised as he was sniffing Emmy.  Christopher was holding her leash so I made sure to grab the very top of her leash by her neck just in case.  I could see the owner running from who knows how far away, she was very out of breath.  Right as she got there the other dog started growling and went for Emmy's face.  I shoved her head between my legs because she was already sitting to get him away from her butt.  That made it easy for me to control her head.  Thank goodness her owner had gotten there in time.  He kind of looked like a American Mastiff/Boxer mix and was towering over Emmy.  Normally Emmy would have gone right back after the other dog, but I kept telling her to "leave it".  Phew, it seemed to work even if it was just minimally.  I'm not sure if shoving her head between my legs was the right thing to do, but at least it didn't get in a fight.  The apologetic owner sounded just like me when Emmy tries to steal other dogs balls when their owners play with them.   

Until next time, happy training!

Budget Blown

Now that Emmy is with me, my budget seems to have gone out the window.  I've always had a soft spot for getting Emmy things that she really could live without.  In her opinion all she needs is her frisbee.  She is now all stocked up on Kongs, IQ toys, glucosamine supplements for her joints, a new poop bag dispenser, training treats, training treat pouch (for me), seatbelt attachment, a new portable water cup, and plenty of frozen marrow bones to keep her teeth clean.  The UPS man has been stopping by to drop off boxes since Tuesday.  Needless to say, there has been quite a bit of money spent.

As I said in my last post, I also purchased a few books on dog training too.  I finished the booklet on Separation Anxiety last night.  After I get some peanut butter for the recommended training, we will begin.  It is going to be a long and tedious process, but I think we can do it.  The book says that most cases can be cured in six to eight weeks.  Reading the cases about other dogs who would run through class windows or chew at their crates so much that their faces were all cut up, I'm glad that Emmy isn't that bad.  She's pretty bad, but not that bad.  If they can be cured and feel secure, then she can too.  At first when I started reading the book I thought that maybe she was just a bad mannered doggy who tears at stuff and slobbers all over herself just because there is no one around to tell her not to do it.  As I got further in, it was very clear that she definitely is a dog with a serious case of Separation Anxiety.  (It would have been much easier to train her if she just had bad manners.)  So, after I get some peanut butter to stuff in her Kong, I'm we're going to start the whole processes with me putting on socks and then taking them off.  Yup, she starts to get upset and knows you're leaving as soon as you put on socks.  By the time you go for you keys she's beside herself that she will be left alone.  The book did a great job of spelling out how slowly you have to take the steps.  The vet told me to casually walk out the door, wait, and then come back in without acknowledging Emmy to build up her tolerance for when we leave.  This book, however, tells you how to do it step-by-step for things that I hadn't even thought of.  Instead of just walking out and then coming back in, the book says that I need to start making her feel "happy" before I'm even out the door.  For her, happy will be a pb stuffed Kong.  We better continue on our three mile walks otherwise she'll be a very pudgy doggy by the end of the training.

On top of all the Emmy purchases that I have been making, my windshield wiper blades broke so I had to buy new ones.  They were expensive!  All I have to say is that they better last me at least five years in this mild weather otherwise I'm going back to the cheapy ones from Walmart and replace them once a year like usual.   I also decided this week that I'm going to take out my plugs, the earrings that look like fat screws, and go back to regular earrings.  I haven't worn regular earrings since college!  I got these today from endless.com.  They are perfect: silver so my ears don't flare up and itch, and stars.

Emmy!

Emmy is mine!  As most of you know Emmy was staying with Julie, but now she can't stay there anymore because she kept getting in fights with her cousin Ruby.  With a 1-year-old toddling around it just wasn't safe for anyone to have Emmy and Ruby together.  Emmy was trying to make herself the queen of the roost and Ruby was defending her territory.  The two motivations just didn't mix well.  With Edward traveling back and forth between Davis and NY he couldn't really take her with him where ever he was going.  So this last week when Edward came to get Emmy from my house he asked if we could keep her otherwise they would have to take her back to the rescue.  They had already sent out an email to all the vet students at UC Davis to see if anyone was able to adopt her, but no one could.  My family agreed immediately because one, we really wanted her and two, we didn't want her going back to the rescue in NY and maybe even be put down because she doesn't get along with some dogs.  I say "some" because she got along with her cousin Potatoes beautifully, but that is because he's a very submissive boy.  It makes me very hopeful that she will eventually get along with dogs in the future.  I actually don't think that she even minded little Eddie pulling at her tail that much, which is good if I ever want kids, though she might try to herd them.  When I explained to the vet today what she does with all of my cousins he said that she is probably trying to herd them when they all run around.  I was hoping that I could get her acclimated to children and their editable natures, but I don't know if that will happen.  I can however, train her to not rush people at the door to say hello.  We've already started training her to wait and be calm before whoever is at the door is allowed in.  Since it's usually Nick or Briana she sits and gets really excited to see them.  We make her sit about four feet from the door and stay there.  Last night when she saw Nick her tail started to wag immediately and she wanted to greet him, but as soon as she stood up I closed the door and made her start all over.  She's starting to get the hang of it.  If she wants to say hello, then she needs to stay put until invited.  We've been doing the same thing for when she wants to chase squirrels in the backyard.  I've switched treats with her regular kibble dog food so that she doesn't get too fat.

So far I'm training her myself and have ordered a bunch of books about behavioral issues, separation anxiety and one on Border Collies.  I already know quite a bit about BC's but the reviews of the book said that it's not just general information about being a good pet owner and normal BC tendencies so I thought it would be a good read.  Also, the lady from the rescue that Ed and I got Emmy from recommend a book that addresses dog-dog aggression so I'm feeling hopeful that I can gain some insight and maybe help her a bit before I spend the big bucks on training.  I've already called an in-home trainer who says he can help with the aggression and separation anxiety.  They are ranging around $600-700 for a five month program, but I'm ready for it.  There is another trainer who the vet recommended so I'm going to give them a call too.  I don't want to get a second dog in our house, but I would like her to at least be able to go to the dog park and play with other dogs...not that she does.  She would rather go to the far end of the park and throw her frisbee.  It's only when other dogs get in between her and the frisbee or try to steal her frisbee that she nips at them.  If we just go off on our own away from other dogs she's happy as a clam.  She's also really good on a leash.  She can greet dogs and then keeps going once she's had a sniff or two.  Sometimes I think she thinks she's a human.  I'm not sure if she wasn't socialized properly as a puppy or what, but she doesn't seem to have that much interest in playing with other dogs.  I wonder if I can teach her how to play with other dogs.  I think "play" just isn't in her.  Everything for her is about work.  Her frisbee is her job.

I'm going to try to help her myself first with the separation anxiety and also the bike/skate board/skooter/roller blading chasing and then go to the trainers if I don't see a difference.  I know that a lot of dogs have problems with chasing so I should be able to find videos and more books on how to stop the behavior.  Once that's in place I will feel much better about when she goes to the front of our yard since there are kids down the block who zoom by on their razors.  I will have to do more research on it.  I think the biggest challenge we will have is training everyone in our family.  I'm a firm believer that there are no bad dogs, just bad owners.  We all need to whip into shape before Emmy can become a better dog.  It definitely didn't help her that for the last year or so she's been bounced around between Julie, Edward, and myself.  Now we need to be really consistent and let her know who is boss.  So far so good though.  She's been really receptive with the coming and going of people with the positive reinforcement that we've been giving her and she knows that she's no longer on allowed on the new sofa.  My mom was tired of having sheets always on the sofa so we put a bed for her by the coffee table to lay in.  At first she looked upset that she was dethroned, but she's used to it now and it's only been two days!  I have hope that she'll be a nearly perfect dog.  She already has a really good temperament around adults, we just need her to be okay with other dogs and by herself.

In preparation for her coming to stay permanently, I bought her a new bed from Costco.  I had a little round bed for her, but it was too small so her legs would pop out of it.  I think she likes this one much better, though I always call her up onto my bed where she stays for the whole night.  Neither of us move much since it's such a small bed, but I think we both enjoy it.  I'm seriously thinking about getting a bigger bed, but then my whole room would be bed.  You'd walk into the door and hit the bed.  We'll have to see.  Usually if Emmy spreads out I end up in weird positions and my back hurts.  For now we're doing okay and I guess I can always tell her to get off and sleep on her bed.  It's so fluffy and soft I could probably even curl up on it.





I also reacquainted her with her her new squeaky chicken.  She didn't really like it that much at first, but after a while she seemed to remember that she used to really like the toy.  I also have a bunch of toys that are coming from Amazon.  It's a good thing that Nick has Prime so that I don't have to pay for tax or shipping. Hehehe.  It sure makes it easy for me to order her stuff.  For now I think we're all set.  I just got one of those dog treat bags that clip onto your pants to train with.  Usually when we go running she's just into her running and not really other people around her so I don't think I'll have to use it that much when we're out, just when we're training.


Emmy is officially part of the Chin family now.  We had a vet appointment this morning to have her microchip on file and to verify that she had be spayed. To register her in the county you have to have proof that she's been spayed in order to get the discount in registry.  I had to have the vet verify because I didn't have the original paperwork from when the shelter spayed her.  I sent in the registration today and she's all settled in with her new vet.  She was less than happy to be there, but I like this vet.  The poor girl was quaking so hard that it looked like she was cold.  She did a great job though and was very happy to get out of there.  I got the recommendation from Shanna's family since they have been going to this vet for a very long time.  He is quite the older man so I hope he doesn't retire anytime soon.



In other news, this weekend I went to the gem show that comes around every year.  I got myself a couple of pendants.  The purple is amethyst and the other is blue topaz.  I wanted them both set in white gold because it doesn't tarnish and my other settings from last year's show were in white gold, but I had Emmy's trainings and other expenses in mind so I stuck with the less expensive silver.  I'm quite happy with my decision.

Boo!

I hope all of your Halloweens went well.  Nick and I had a good time watching the Giants game at a local micro brewery called EJ Phair in downtown Concord with a bunch of friends.  After that we did normal Halloween-y stuff around the area.  Only a couple of us were actually dressed up for going out.   I only had my mask.  Since it was so simple, I put on bright, glittery blue makeup to match the glittery blue of the mask and majorly curled my hair using bobby pins and a hair dryer.  Man, being a girl is hard work.  Of course while I was looking very unlike myself and more like I belonged next to Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, I saw a mom of a high school friend at the brewery.  She recognized me when I was sitting across the room from her.  I waved and made sure to put on my mask so that she knew that it was part of my costume.

This week we have Emmy since Julie and Edward are at a conference.  We've been walk-running almost every morning this week.  I always come back red faced and sweaty, but she doesn't even look phased.  At least it calms her down during the day when I'm working and can't play with her.  By the time Christopher comes home she's ready to play all over again like she didn't even go for a three mile walk with me!  I wish I had that much energy.  Since she is home though, I haven't been going out much.  My family likes it because I cook for them.  On Tuesday we had my chili and cornbread that we bring to the Big Game every year.  I made it on Monday so that it would be nice and tasty for when we dug in for our Tuesday night dinners.  I also made pumpkin pies for the occasion.  Last night (Wednesday) I made Coq au Vin and tonight I plan to learn to make Ox Tail Stew.  Yum yum!

Hello happy Giants' fans

Well as I'm sure you all know, the Giants have made it to the World Series!  Nick and I were enjoying a nice dinner at the Monterey Fish House while the last game against the Phillies was going.  I'm not a big baseball fan myself, but there were plenty of people who were very into the game when we were waiting for our table.  While we were waiting outside for the taxi to pick us up, Nick was watching through the windows at the score while I was on the lookout for the cab.  As soon as we got back to the hotel we could see a huge crowd of people in the restaurant/bar area.  Nick practically dragged me over so that we could see the last inning of the game.  The  rumble of happy fans was pretty gosh darn loud after that last pitch.

My dinner at the fish house

Our trip to Monterey was quite a bit of fun.  It's a good thing that 1 year anniversaries only happen once because we couldn't afford to stay in such a nice place all the time otherwise.  The hotel was beautiful and well worth the small fortune that we forked out.  There was even a little zen sandbox and bonsai tree on the desk and when I went into the bathroom there was a live orchid on the counter.  I thought that was cool since we (my mom) has a difficult time keeping orchids alive in our house.  It was a pretty fancy-smancy place and I'd love to go there again.  Maybe when we're rich and famous.  We were able to check into the room early so we chilled our champagne that we picked up the weekend before in Napa in the sink with some ice.  The ice bucket that they provided was tiny!






We forgot to take pictures of the room before we messed it all up, but I found some pictures on google.






When we first arrived in Monterey we went to the London Bridge Pub on Linda's recommendation.  It was really good; a little heavy, but good.  We parked a little far away because our GPS didn't exactly know where 2 Wharf II was, but it worked out well because we were able to get street parking and mosey around the street markets.  By the time we finished our awesome lunch, walked back to the car, and checked into the hotel, I was ready for a nap.  Nick wouldn't let me though.  While he was filling the sink with ice, he heard me flop on the bed and yelled, "Are you laying down?!"  and then made me get up.  We had plans to go to the aquarium and do a behind the scenes tour so he didn't want me passing out on him for three hours.  After we finished with icing the champagne, we walked down to the aquarium, which was about 500 feet away.  Unfortunately, the big tank that I love was being renovated, but everything else was good.  Soooo many children running around and strollers being parked everywhere.  It was like an amusement park!  We did the behind the scenes tour like we planned.  It was pretty neat.  Unlike the tour in Chattanooga, we didn't see the pipes and go to the noisy filtration parts of the aquarium, but we did get to go on top of the roof-ish area where you can look into the tanks and see where they were building new tanks.  For $12 a person I thought it was a great way to learn more about the aquarium and the local wildlife.  I think that next time we go down, I'm going to get an annual membership.  Nick and I have decided that we will be going down again because somehow I managed to lose half of our pictures from Carmel.  So, we'll have to go remake the memories!  Plus, my dad has been talking about going down as a family for months. By then an annual pass would have paid for itself.  I'm kind of regretting not getting one this time, but oh well.


Cold plankton that we threw into the tank to feed the fish in the kelp tank. 



Fish eating our plankton





On Sunday we went to Carmel and the beach before heading home.  In total we had ordered three dozen oysters between us.  Yum yum yum.  I think our trips are always going to be food trips.  We didn't really have that many set plans, but we did have a lot of places that we wanted to go to eat.  We found this tiny little restaurant on the wharf to have breakfast at.  It was so small that the stove was right in front of us and we could watch them work.  There wasn't even a bathroom in there!  We will definitely be going back to Lou Lou's.


Nick's breakfast


My breakfast



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On Tuesday night Bonnie and I went to the Sound of Music Sing Along.  It was a special thing going around at movie theaters all over the place to celebrate the movie's 45th anniversary.  We first went and scarfed down some Chipotle because we were both starving and had been texting each other about how excited we were to eat.  After we finished inhaling our food we had half and hour to spare so we headed to Michael's to see if we could find a mask for me to make a Halloween costume out of.  Nick and I originally were going to be chefs, but since we wanted to have our names embroidered on the chef coats they won't arrive until the first week of November.  I ordered them on October 8th too!  I figured there would be plenty of time to get them.  Apparently not.  So Bonnie and headed over to Michael's and I found a mask, googly, eyes and glitter glue.  Even though she wasn't shopping for anything, she found a can coozie, pink glitter glue, and pink rhine stones.  We already had planned to have a dinner, movie, and wine night at my house on Thursday so we saved it to decorate together.  By the time we were done with our Michaels shopping we practically had to run to the theater.  It was pretty fun.  The group behind us was a hoot.  We later discovered that it was because they had imbibed quite a bit of wine.

Yesterday Bonnie and I had a nice girl night of decorating coozies and masks.  I made chicken parm, string beans, and potatoes.  It turned out pretty well except that you're supposed to use chicken cutlets and I used chicken breast.  I just covered the cheesy chicken with foil so that the cheese wouldn't get too brown and left it in the oven at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes.  I took this picture with my phone halfway through eating the chicken.



It wasn't that hard to make, but I don't think I'd make it again.  My dad said that he like the chewy, stringiness of the cheese, but that he liked the chicken that my mom made the other day better.  The best part of the chicken was the homemade tomato sauce that I made for it.  I didn't follow Giada's recipe in the second half of the link.  This was my improvised tomato sauce:

Fresh Tomato Sauce

1 onion, diced

2 shallots, diced

1 head garlic minced (if you don't like garlic as much as I do just use 2-3 cloves)

2-3 mushrooms, sliced

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes, drained (the sauce will be too thin with the juices added)

2 8oz cans tomato sauce

2 tbsp fresh thyme, minced

2 tbsp fresh rosemary, minced

2 tbsp fresh sage, minced

2 tbsp fresh Italian parsley, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp sugar (this reduces the acidity of the tomatoes)

Directions 

Saute onion, shallots, and garlic until translucent.  Add mushrooms and cook until tender. Add diced tomatoes and stir until they are soft.  Add tomato sauce.  Drop in thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley, salt, pepper, and sugar.  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.  Lower to a simmer and cover for two + hours.  Stir every 15 minutes or so.  Once you are close to serving, take off the cover, and let simmer for another 15 minutes.  This will thicken up the sauce.  

Note:  This makes about three to four large servings worth of sauce.  If I were making this for my family to put over pasta I would double the recipe since we always like to go back for seconds.  I usually don't like parsley of any kind, but since I minced it really finely and then let it simmer for a long time I didn't bite into any large, over powering chunks of leaf.  The parsley added a lot of flavor to the sauce so don't skimp on the parsley.

After dinner Bonnie and I went to go watch movies and do crafts in the study.  I had ripped a copy of The Ugly Truth, but it stopped working about 15 minutes into the movie.  I will have to try it on the downstairs dvd player to see if it works.  If not, then I'll just have to break down and buy it because it's a really cute movie.  We decided on Hello Dolly instead since neither of us had seen it.  I spent the first half of the movie working on my Halloween mask so I didn't catch it all, but I'm definitely going to go back and watch the whole thing again.  It was really good!  I loved all of their choreographed dances.


Ever since I've known Bonnie she has always like pink and princesses.  She made this coozie for her desk since her office is already decked out in Disney Princess stuff.




My Halloween mask made of googly eyes blue glitter glue.  For $6ish it was a pretty good deal!  I just need the eyeballs to stay on until the end of the night.  Hehehe.

In other news I have been working out 3-4 times a week for the last three weeks and I'm gaining weight!  All I have to say is that it better be muscle.  Nick told me that I looked a little thinner, so hopefully he is right.  My legs and rump do feel firmer.  Shanna is now part of our motivation team to get fit.  She's been doing a really good job at getting herself up in the morning before work to go on walks on top of her roller derby practice in the evenings.  Nick said that the giant hill to his house is getting easier for him to walk up too.  I've even noticed that his belly is much flatter.  So it's working!  I probably should have taken my measurements before we started the whole thing, but my belly fat and double chin are disappearing.  I've started to run up all of the hills that are on my path and walking on the flat parts so instead of taking an hour to do my three mile route it only takes me 50 minutes and it's more challenging.  If anyone wants to join our gang let me know!  We email, IM, and text each other with how were doing and also pressure/compete with one another to work out.  I'm telling you, it works!