Bacon & Egg Pastries

I made bacon & egg pastries and Tarte aux Poires yesterday. Well, both tasted good: A.A. already had three out of four pastries I made. BUT photos I took were bad.. so, I can’t up them either blog or my kitchen notes. I wish I had a better camera. Mine is not bad (Power Shot SD750 by Canon), but it’s so hard to take closed up photos. I took photos of these dishes on the kitchen table, but I think it was not bright enough to expose the actual colors. I may need to explore how to make fake sun light on photoshop. Or, I will try to take pictures in my room where has more sunlight than kitchen during the day.

I asked A.A. new camera for my Christmas present, but he said he would rather buy kitchen knives that were worn out. Oh, well, big decision..

I tried to take pictures of a pastry one more time this afternoon .. I think it looked much better than the last night.

Memorial Day Weekend

Today is Memorial Day and A.A. is hangover again. That means that he wants to have some big breakfast. He wanted to eat Biscuits and Gravy and of course, I didn’t have anything to make this dish. Automatically we had to go to café to get something to go. Then, I decided to have something instead of cereal: waffles and eggs for breakfast. It sounds O.K., but I don’t know. I only had a half of waffle though I could have finished whole waffle. It was delicious. I would love to buy waffle maker..

Here are some roses that bloomed for the first time of this year.

Off-leash Parks

Sophie and Misha (especially Sophie) got so excited when we were almost at off-leash park. Sophie was out of control. Today we decided to go to Military Reserve Off-Leash Park at first. It was right next to car-racing track and it looked kind of dirty. There was neither fence nor grass. After Misha tried to escape from the area (she ignored “come” command), we left the park so that there were none of dogs besides them. Then, we headed to Morris Hill Park which is their favorite park. The weather was mild and nice to be outside. They played with Scottish Terrier, Dalmatian, and some other breeds. Of course, they had a good time! While we were watching dogs played, we found the Dane meeting in June 8th ad. I would love to meet other danes. Hopefully A.A. won’t forget about it..

Green Bean Casserole

Here is one of my favorite side dishes, Green Bean Casserole. The recipe is originally from Cook’s Illustrated as I mentioned in my Kitchen Notes. I wanted to make it a little bit more creamy and less oily, so I added sour cream and used 1/3 of fried onions for topping. I have made this dish quite a lot and nothing happened before, but not this time. I went to Albertson’s to buy fresh green beans, but they were out. Instead, I found fresh cut & trimmed package for $4.99. Well, I had never tried, so I thought about this alternative a moment, because I really wanted to make this casserole tonight. O.K. I bought 2 bags. Result: I will never buy this package. When I opened the bag, some beans were already discolored like brown. I boiled and tasted them. It didn’t taste good, so I had to throw away $10! Obviously, I had to make this dish next day if I could find fresh ones at WinCo. Yes, I finally found a pound and a half there. I knew WinCo usually has fresh green beans, but I always shop groceries at Albertson’s and I didn’t want to go two stores on the same day.. that’s my excuse. Each supermarket has pro’s and con’s. Albertson’s has more choices of most products overall; WinCo has relatively fresher vegetables and most products are much cheaper than any other grocery stores. The thing is that I do not want to go to two grocery store on the same day..

It was fun, but…

A.A. and I took Sophie and Misha to Eagle Island State Park today. He wanted to try off-leash and he did. He let them be free.. I didn’t think it was good idea, especially Sophie, because she never came back to us even though we called her name before.

Well, Sophie did very well: she didn’t take off and was around us the whole time we were walking. Misha also behaved. She seemed much more active than she was on leash. She got wet and muddy, but I was glad that she enjoyed a lot.

Meanwhile, we were on the way home, and A.A. suddenly said, “What is this, Sophie? Oh, she got a tick!!” On the Sophie’s outer left ear, there was a brown tick (probably Ixodes scapularis). A.A. used matches to remove the tick: put burned matches on the tick; the tick starts moving its nose from Sophie’s skin because of the heat; removed successfully. (I was so terrified about the incident and couldn’t think about taking pictures of tick.)

I gave both Sophie and Misha bath as soon as we removed the tick and checked both bodies. I was exhausted after everything got done. I hope Sophie won’t have lime disease..

It’s hot, hot, hot…

It was Saturday today: very hot.. 93℉ this afternoon. We went to vet this morning and I was planning to walk on greenbelt near my work after that, but it was already hot at 11:30 am. So, I waited till this evening while hoping that we could be able to go somewhere late evening, but I decided not to, though Sophie seemed to be ready to go for a walk with me at about the time we usually take off. Sorry, Sophie, it’s too hot for you. On the other hand, Misha could enjoy playing with Sophie until dinner time. She was happy! 

By the way, Sophie weighted 98 lb. at the vet. Vet said this probably is her mature level, but we still hope that she would grow more.

All-American Hamburgers & Fresh Lemon Bars

On Tuesday, A.A. and I took Sophie and Misha to off-leash park. It was the second time for them: first time was the day before Misha got spayed. There were 6 dogs included male brindle Dane! He was not big as a male Dane, but of course, bigger than Sophie, so she was running away from him. Sophie was a runner as always; Misha was like a observer. Misha didn’t run so much, but occasionally she did. Two ladies came to us saying they used to have Mastiff and one lady who had a male Dane joked that she would trade her Dane to Misha.. We stayed there about one hour and a half, and Sophie and Misha both enjoyed a lot! Only thing I regretted was that I forgot to take my camera with me again.

On Wednesday, I was preparing hamburgers for lunch in the morning, but I changed my mind so that it was windy and I didn’t feel like doing barbecue. So, we did barbecue on Thursday evening. Well, I wish I could have a hamburger and asparagus for lunch, because I was not hungry much at the time, but I ate them anyway. Hamburgers were very good, it might be a little too soft, but otherwise, I was satisfied. I also baked fresh lemon bars, and it was almost perfect: the crust was too thick. It’s understandable so that the recipe called for 13” by 9″ baking pan, but I used 9″ by 9″ Emile Henry square baking pan. I just didn’t want to make it big. The funny thing was that the crust was too thick while lemon filling was perfect portion. I need to arrange the original recipe for the next time.

Today, which is Thursday, was very hot: I couldn’t take Sophie for a walk before our bedtime. Both Sophie and Misha were laying inside of the house almost all afternoon. Especially, Misha has double coat, so she ate lots of ice cubes. A.A. finally turned on an air conditioning after the dinner, and then it became very cold inside. Our body temperature is very different, so the inside of our house during summer is colder than winter time to me.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Today is Mother’s Day. I emailed my mom, but it was probably middle of the night there, or I already missed the day. I wanted to send something to her, but we are always broke, so I didn’t buy anything. I hope she will understand our situation. I have to remind A.A. to call his mom today as soon as he wakes up (he is still sleeping, well, he stayed all night last night until nine in the morning).

A.A. finally tasted my salsa. “It’s good!,” he said. I actually tasted next day, and it surprisingly tasted much better. And then, I regretted that I didn’t take any pictures of salsa. It’s o.k., next time. Well, I still don’t know if I want to make salsa again. We’ll see..

Mexican Feast!

On Friday, I made Mexican dishes: Chile Chicken Enchiladas; Guacamole; Salsa; Pico de Gallo; Mexican Rice.

It was quite work, but fun. Everything looked good, but salsa. I made salsa by Cuisinart recipe a little while ago. It looked bad, so as the taste. So, this time, I got a recipe from A.A.’s mom and tried. It didn’t taste good right after I made, so I was very, very disappointed and decided not to make salsa any more. I wanted to throw away, but at the same time, I wanted A.A. to taste it at least, so I left it in the fridge. I thought it’s funny that I took photos of all meals except for salsa. It shows my irritation.

Brown Dane & Mastiff

I took Misha to the vet this morning (Wednesday morning), and her staples were removed! As soon as she came home, she started playing with Sophie: their coat was in brown when Sophie knocked the kitchen door.. they must have played with dart or been digging holes at backyard.. Anyway, at least it tells me that they are healthy puppies, so I guess I should be happy for them.