Foster Puppies [and adorable pictures]

Byron

Hey guys!
If you have been following my facebook [where you probably got this link] then you know that two new puppies have recently entered my life. Well, I have been getting a few questions so I thought I would clear it up here.

These two little angels are my foster puppies. I was sitting there at work on facebook and my dog sitter had posted about the Nevada SPCA having 28 Australian Shepherd puppies that needed a foster home. The picture kinda broke my heart but for some reason I just really felt pulled to go to the SPCA to just check it out and see how much they really needed fosters for the animals. I went straight from work and sure enough, they had only fostered about 8 of the 28 pups. I signed the paperwork and within 15 minutes I had two little puppies in a kennel coming home with me. ..... it happened just about as fast as when I adopted Lola. 

Speaking of Lola....they are growing on her. She growls at them a bit but the other day she gave them her toy and sat protectively as they laid in her bed. maybe there is hope...

cute, huh?

But no, not adopting. As cute as these little buggers are, they will only be mine for 1-2 months. I take them in for shots at three weeks. They even traveled all the way to Florida with me for some extra Christmas sunshine. You wouldn't believe how many people light up when they see a puppy!!

They were so well behaved on the plane, only a little whining and when I put them in my lap, they went straight to sleep!

If you are considering a pet, I highly recommend going to animal control, SPCA, or one of the many groups who help save animals from being put down. The SPCA had no room for 28 puppies and I am too scared to think about what would have happened to any of the dogs if they had not found room for them--or if they had to make room.

And while I am on that soap-box, be sure to spay and neuter your pets!! tell your friends too! There are enough homeless puppies that need a little love.

And if you are in Nevada and are interested in adopting Sydney or Byron, please send me a message!

Who can resist that?

Neighborly Cake

Growing up, we always knew the neighbors. Maybe it was because we lived on a cul de sac, or maybe because I needed them to buy my kids fundraiser items or maybe just because my parents were party animals...but...we knew them. All of them, every single family on the street.
I never realized how much effort that took until I found myself in my own house in my own neighborhood.

I don't know about you, but I am guilty of practically having the garage door down before I even get out of my car. There really isn't much reason for me to be out on the street, I don't have any kids playing in toy cars  and Lola has the backyard and the dog park so we rarely go out front.

For some reason I had the sudden notion that today I had to meet the neighbors. And what better way than with a cake?!

Actually...a fruitcake. Kinda. I used to have my Grandma's old recipe for her fruit cake ,  you know, the one everyone in the family can't wait to eat during the holiday season. seriously, We used to smuggle them back when we visited.

So I used my memory and a bit of magic for my own

Holiday Fruitcake

1.5 cups flour

1 TB corn starch

1 TB baking powder

 - sift above ingredients

3 eggs - beaten

3/4 cup butter - softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon 

  - blend above ingredients in

1/3 cup applesauce

1/4 cup rum

  - mix above ingredients in

1/3 cup mixed citrus fruits

1/4 - 1/3 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup chopped colored cherries

any additional dried fruit you may want

  - mix in

Preheat oven to 350'F and prepare a bundt pan - with extra cherries for the top

Bake for about 30 minutes (33 did the trick for me).

Voila!

A perfectly presentable moist fruitcake for your new neighbors.

I have to say, they were pretty darn surprised when I came -a -knockin in my AF sweats bearing a cake. The one neighbor was staring at me through the peep hole and almost didnt want to open the door. I had to say I'm your neighbor and I have a cake before she opened it...and set her alarm off. oops. But she has a 5 week old baby so I guess that makes her extra cautious....

Found out the other neighbor has two boys who just love to play with Lola through the gate when she is outside. cute.

However, I don't see many neighborhood house parties in the foreseeable future... It is nice to know that they seem like nice safe families on either side though. Maybe I will bring them something else in the future. This whole getting to know your neighbor is harder than Desperate Housewives makes it seem...I'm just saying. 

But if you know me, you know making one thing at a time is never enough. So I decided to make cranberry-pineapple sauce. Really, I just wanted to use the cranberries before they went bad and the original recipe I had, well, I didnt have all the ingredients and was not feeling like a 10 min drive to the store.

So here ya go

Cranberry Pineapple Sauce

8 oz fresh cranberries
20 oz can pineapple in pineapple juice
1/3 cup sugar

Drain liquid from pineapples into a measuring cup. Add water so that you have a total of 1 cup liquid. Add to sauce pan with sugar and bring to a boil.

Place cranberries in a food processor or chopper and chop fine. Add to pan and stir well. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until thick (about 10 minutes).

Place pineapple in a food processor and chop. Add crushed pineapples to cranberry sauce and cook one more minute.

Allow to cool then place in a covered container and refrigerate overnight.

Hope the week goes faster for you than it is for me!

In a pickle.

I have found that pickling is kind of addictive. I made 6 more jars of the stuff yesterday. No, they are not all for me - I will be giving them out to a few lucky folks this holiday season. I am already itching to make more.
I had a request for some bread and butter pickles but that wasn't covering the dill that I still had and so I made some sweet dill pickles too!

Bread and Butter Pickles

5 1/2 cups (1 1/2 pounds) thinly sliced pickling cucumbers
1 1/2 Tablespoons kosher salt
1 cup thinly sliced sweet onion
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1 1/2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds

Directions:

1. Combine cucumbers and salt in a large, shallow bowl; cover and chill 1 hour. Move cucumbers into a colander and rinse thoroughly under cold water. Drain well, and return cucumbers to bowl. Add onion to the bowl.

2. Combine sugar and remaining ingredients in a medium saucepan; bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add the cucumbers and stir. Place into jars. Seal and boil in hot water to seal.

I couldn't wait to try these delicious babies

Sweet Dill Pickles

1 small sweet onion , thinly sliced
2 pounds medium pickling cucumbers, scrubbed, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds [or zucchini like me!]
1 large bunch dill, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
2 teaspoons whole white peppercorns
1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons coarse kosher salt
2 teaspoons celery seeds

Follow the same steps as above!!

And I think I mentioned earlier I had my first attempt at peanut butter. Well, it wasn't quite... spreadable, it was more like peanut crumble and so I decided to try again.

I wish I knew what all was in it...about 2 cups of peanuts, 1/4 cup of sunflower oil [maybe less, not sure], 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/8 cup maple syrup, 1 TB brown sugar, 1/4-1/3 cup honey and agave syrup blend...That sounds about right. It was a process, taste, continue, kind of project

It was so fun that I made two jars of this deliciousness.

The roomie couldn't even wait before he had some more

I skipped the bread and went straight for the spoon. =)

Sorry this is such a lame post and the first one in a while...my brain was pretty dead from the weekend writing a paper and I kept forgetting to bring my camera out!! Shame on me, I know...

I'll be sure to do another one soon!

Christmas is coming!

Happy Tuesday!

Unfortunately for me, I thought it was Wednesday until about 1pm today...hope you didn't have the same issue!

Guess what I got today? My first Christmas cards!! Sent to me. at my very own house. Yup, I was pretty darn excited. They even got prime real estate on the fridge (don't you want your card up there?)

Only two more weeks until I get to go home to Florida!! Are you going anywhere fun? I would say I am excited for the heat and sunshine but Nevada really hasn't been slacking on me. Except for water...haven't seen much of that lately.

After work was just a lazy afternoon, a little working out

Lola likes to help when I work out...by trying to stop me from working out. When I do push-ups she liked to stand right about my head and when I do lunges and squats, she likes to stand right between my legs. Oh, and any time I'm kicking, she liked to be right where my foot should be. And then barks at me, the audacity. 

And then made some dinner.

Gluten Free Fried Pickles

I have been wanting fried pickles for a while but no one makes them gluten free so I decided I was just going to make them myself. I have made fried green tomatoes and fried okra before so I didn't think it would be that hard and it wasn't. I just sliced some pickles and dipped them in egg and then my cornmeal/almond flour mixture and popped them into some hot coconut oil. I think this may be something I revisit.

Have a fabulous week!

She loves this....I swear....

Pickles and Balls

Happy Monday!

Sorry I've been gone. Guess nothing too exciting has been happening...at least nothing I took pictures of.
Yesterday I was craving chocolate. Well, at least baking something chocolate. And so I set out to make pickles....oh, and chocolate cake balls.

Remember all that fresh dill I bought at the farmers market? It was time to put it to use! Pickles!!

Zucchini Pickles

2 pounds small zucchini (preferably about 4 or 8 inches long), trimmed
4 tablespoons coarse sea salt, divided
12 fresh dill sprigs
2 teaspoons yellow or brown mustard seeds
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon black pepper
4 garlic cloves, halved
2 1/2 cups white wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar

Preparation

Take zucchini, halve crosswise, then quarter lengthwise. Place in a large bowl. Add 2 Tbsp. salt and 4 cups ice. Add cold water to cover. Top with a plate to keep submerged. Let sit for 2 hours. Drain; rinse.

Divide dill sprigs and next 6 ingredients between 2 clean, hot 1-quart jars; set aside.

Bring vinegar, sugar, remaining 2 tablespoons salt, and 1 1/4 cups water to a boil in a large saucepan. Working in batches, add zucchini and cook, stirring occasionally, until khaki in color and slightly pliable, about 2 minutes. Using tongs, transfer zucchini to jars.

Divide hot syrup between jars to cover zucchini, leaving 1/2 inch space on top. Wipe rims, seal, and process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Allow at least a week to pickle before eating.

I cannot WAIT to try these babies

But I know you aren't reading this for my pickles...you want to hear about the balls. cake balls that is.

Honestly, they were not as complicated as the pickles, and a lot more"semi" homemade.

First, I baked a vanilla cake. You can make your own cake, or simply use a cake mix I'm going to be honest, I used a box for this. 

Then take the cake and crumble it to pieces. Let it cool. When it is cool, add a jar of chocolate frosting and mix well. Get dirty. 

Once I did all the mixing, I popped the mixture back in the fridge for another 30 minutes (really, while I was canning the pickles) Then I rolled them into balls and dipped them in the chocolate bark I had. You know, the candy coating type.  Before the chocolate hardened, I rolled them in crushed chips a'hoy cookies.

I don't normally mind not eating the things that I bake but these little babies were calling out to me all day. They were only too easy to make. I can't wait to try a new variation

Learning to Love to Run

When I was on the swim team in Florida growing up, no two words were more horrifying than......dry land. Because that meant, well, running. And I hated running. Seriously. I think I was one of the slowest ones every time just on premise of the fact that I absolutely did not want to run and therefor detested it and did not try on purpose.

Running really is pretty darn mental....

Then later in high school I was on the track team for a year. Thanks Dad.... And much to my happiness chagrin, they put me in the 800 and the mile.I don't know if coach hated me or pitied me.

It wasn't until college when I started to learn to love running. And by college, I mean after freshman year when people kept trying to make me run.

You have to want to run for yourself. You may not want to like it at first but getting that foot in front of the other at a pace more rapid than a walk has to be you. for you. For me it was about challenging myself. I had always been active and swimming and I just needed something new, something for me, something that I had to work for.
At first I hated it. Especially since that right turn out of the lower Sijan gate was directly up a hill. and turning left just led to an even worse hill. But in that time to myself, I asked myself why I hated running. More importantly, why was I wasting energy being miserable and hating running instead of using that energy to run.  I hated running because it was hard, and it was hard because I hated it. Once I learned to acknowledge the pain and effort it took and let it pass, that one mile turned to 3 which turned to 6 which turned to my first 13.1.

 I searched my computer and my extra hard drive for pictures from the Denver 1/2 marathon either year or the San Antonio 1/2 marathon but I couldn't find any of them so above is my picture during the 1/2 marathon part of my 1/2 Iron Man I did May 2011. 

If you want to start running -- start slow--. Run, then walk and run, and when you think you want to stop just maybe walk a little and see if you can push yourself just a little more. You may find that you will beat that wall.

Get off the treadmill. In the winter in Colorado, I had to run on the treadmill but luckily it was after I had already developed my love. Do Not start running on a treadmill. GET OUTSIDE!! Run a trail, go somewhere new, but get moving forward. I was lucky because I learned to love running with this

Seriously, I don't know how I couldn't love running with the scenery in Colorado. I could do an entire post on how beautiful Colorado is.

You may not be lucky enough to have this scenery but I promise, the great outdoors anywhere is worth it.

Oh, and get good shoes! If you are getting blisters everywhere and your joints are sore, you are going to be too miserable to continue.
I wear Brooks for regular running shoes and have recently gotten into the Vibrams

you really have to start slow if you are trying to break these babies in. So maybe if you are just starting out it would work just fine for you!

Another wonderful thing about running was how my body changed. Sure, I had always been in shape and worked out but running just makes me feel lighter, I like how things move and shape when I am running regularly...and when you run for fun first, the rest is extra delicious icing on the cake.

I know you are still sitting there shaking your head and saying I just don't believe you, there is no way that I will ever love running. Just try it. and try it for at least a month or so, it isn't something that will happen instantaneously.
Try and take my tips as you start, challenge yourself, start slow, run outside, get good shoes, stay positive!!

My other tips
Get a great playlist - make it at least an hour long full of high energy songs
Tell someone you are going for a run - so you have support or accountability
Let yourself rest when you really don't want to go, but know when to make yourself take that first step
Stay positive - do not pressure yourself.
Don't make it about speed....yet
Eat well - this can make a HUGE difference. Check out the book Eat and Run if you want to learn more. This was an incredible book.


Next thing you know, you will be hooked just like me!

Weekend Helper, Holiday Decorator

It's December!! Time to get festive!!!

I certainly made an attempt to this weekend when my little helper, aka boyfriend came to town. We don't get to see each other as often as we would like and so when we are together we try and create lots of fun memories.

"What's goin' on guys?"

Since it is my first ever Christmas in my very own house, I decided that we should put up a tree together. I have to say, it turned out pretty darn good. Now, I don't know about you but my tree growing up was covered in memories - those ornaments that mark a certain event or year or experience. I loved unpacking each ornament box by box and deciding where they would go on the tree. But I don't have ornaments like that and I'm not sure if I really want them yet and so we went a bit fancy.

I accidentally bought one string of normal lights and one string of twinkling lights so the boyfriend got a little creative with stringing them so that they looked good and blended well. #beginner.

I am pretty darn happy with our first Christmas Tree

We also headed to the Farmer's Market because the boyfriend wanted to help in the kitchen too!

Farm 52 Farmers Market at Tivoli Village

There are a lot of cool vendors and delicious samples (my favorite part) and these really awesome food sculptors.

Seriously, this is the kind of thing they make. 

Watermelon anyone?

We picked up some fresh squash, avocados, honey, microgreens, bee pollen and fresh dill. Yum. The dill was especially important because we were planning on making potato salad!

I really let him take the reigns on this potato salad because he had a very specific idea of what kind of potato salad he wanted to make. I'm not sure we nailed his vision but it was still delicious and fun to do.

I think we are going to keep working on the recipe [this one was just a blend of recipes/ideas/adding as we went] and when he gets it just how he wants it to taste I will be sure to post it for you !

I am so excited to use the rest of the fresh dill - any suggestions?

How did you tree turn out this year? Did you do a theme?