Intruder

Since I don’t feel like working any longer on this lovely Friday afternoon, I thought I’d take a moment and relive a very traumatizing night I had. It is the reason for my lack of sleep, and caffeine overdose today.

Back Story – Our next door neighbors have two dogs. Sweet dogs that are huge and look really mean because they are thick, dark and have spiky collars. One is a Rottweiler and one a Doberman, I believe. When they play together, they sometimes knock down boards of our adjoining fence and pop on through to our yard, occasionally causing ruckus back there. I was very startled one day when I got home from work and went to let Kaiser out of his backyard kennel. As soon as I started opening the sliding doors, up ran the two dogs. I almost crapped myself. And poor Kaiser was stuck in his kennel thinking “what the heck are these guys doing in MY yard, playing and having fun, while I’m trapped in this silly cage!?!”. He was freaking out. Nothing us good neighbors can’t forgive though.

Back to this week. Following the last few nights of pleasant sleep, we have awoken in the morning to find poops by the back door, and Kaiser’s food bin knocked over. Two or three nights in a row. It was starting to tick us off and naturally, we thought it must have been the neighbors dogs. But if you know me, you know I am something of a poo-coinsurer and I knew that the poos were much too small for the big doggies next door. So yes, I pretty much took all that time to give you a back story that is no longer relevant to this traumatic experience.

Which brings us to last night.

Ian and I went to bed early, around 9:30. At 11 or so, I heard Erin (his sister) drop in and get something. She left the front door light on outside, which would be fine if it were installed correctly, but it’s not, so it started flickering like a strobe light outside our bedroom window. I get up to turn off the light and Kaiser dashes out into the living room. He started growling and barking hysterically at the sliding glass door. And then I see it… A freaky furry animal that is NOT a dog! But is curled up like a giant fluffy cat, darting away from Kaiser’s food. It was THIS, and it was scary:




Ian is awake now and of course he wants to shoot the animal. I think luckily for all of our sake, the thing was gone. But my heart was still racing. And Kaiser was not happy to be stuck with me inside. He wanted to hunt with his dad.

Alright, so we now have a culprit. It’s agreed that the only way for this ferocious animal to get into our yard, is up through the thick ivy that grows over the wall. Since it is technically the City’s ivy, we will be pushing it all over the top this weekend, and out of our yard…

I’m traumatized because I saw the crazy animal and it almost gave me a heart attack. Kaiser is traumatized because he saw it also and didn’t get to chase it. And he will NOT give it up. All night…pacing in our room…making obnoxious noises…not laying down and going to sleep. Finally, I take him out thinking he may just need to potty, but no, he just hangs out. I bring him back in. Still freaking out. I put him outside in his kennel (in case our evil ‘coon friend decided to show up). And the dog just barks, and barks. Ugh. So in he came again. Traumatized until early morning.

It was the LONGEST NIGHT EVER!! The end.

Camera Conundrum & Other Food Stuff

The other day, I was having a grand old time in the kitchen and was pretty stoked that I might actually be able to take some decent photos of my creations since it was still light out. Then I turned my camera on, took a picture, and nothing happened. It got stuck, powered on, like this:



Part of me was extremely annoyed. And then I thought “hey, maybe this is a blessing in disguise”. Now I will HAVE to get a new one, and I’d just need to convince Ian to let me spend some serious dough a fancy SLR. It seems to be the cool thing to do amongst my friends these days. I feel left out.

So then I was stuck taking fug-o pictures with my camera phone. And it was starting to get dark.

First of all, it was a tough job, but someone had to do it. There were about two glasses left in the growler I’d picked up the day before at Home Brew Mart. It wasn’t going to last any longer, so I was forced to drink it. I’m disappointed that you can’t really tell how pink it is..






SOUR WENCH (blackberry beer…mmmmm)






Then I had to use a bunch of strawberries I had so I made ice cream. Plus I was antsy to utilize those cool cartons I got a few weeks ago. The ice cream was ok, nothing I’d urge anyone to make. But it looked pretty:




Lastly, I tried out a Red Lobster copy cat recipe of their Cheddar Bay Biscuits. OMG. YUM! This is probably the 4th or 5th one I’ve tried and it is by far the closest thing I’ve come to the real deal. Really easy to do also (recipe below). I meant to have them with a big salad but was pretty lazy by the end of all this. A biscuit-only dinner with ice cream for dessert is well rounded, no?




It took me till bedtime to come up with the genius idea of taking the battery out of my camera to see what would happen. Low and behold, it turned off. When I put the battery back in, all was well again. Therefore, I will not be getting a new camera any time soon. Or ever. Who knows.


CHEDDAR BAY BISCUITS



Yield: 12 servings


Biscuits:
2 ½ cup Bisquick
4 Tbsp cold butter
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
¾ cup milk
¼ tsp garlic powder


Butter Glaze:
3 Tbsp butter
½ tsp garlic powder
¾ tsp dried parsley flakes


Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease or line one cookie sheet with parchment; set aside.


Combine Bisquick with cold butter in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter (I just used 2 forks). Don't worry about mixing too thoroughly; there will be small chunks of butter in the mix about the size of peas. Add cheddar cheese, milk, and garlic powder. Mix by hand until combined, but don't over mix.


Drop ¼ cup portions of the dough onto the lightly greased or parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 13–15 minutes in preheated oven until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn light brown.


While the biscuits are baking, melt butter is a small bowl in the microwave. Stir in garlic powder and dried parsley flakes. Use a brush to spread the garlic butter over the tops of all the biscuits. Sprinkle a little kosher salt on the freshly coated biscuits. Makes one dozen.

Tooty Fruity Homemade Fruit Leather

I just wanted to say TOOTY. Can’t help it if that’s how I feel.

But I have been experimenting with homemade fruit leather. I can’t believe how easy and good it is. A perfect snack.

There are tons or recipes out there so I won’t really go into it. Plus, I don’t think I actually followed one – just threw a bunch of fruit (strawberries + kiwi + banana) into a saucepan, with a little water, juice of something citrus, and a tiny dash of sugar. Let it all simmer for a while, mash it up, simmer, puree in a blender, simmer some more until it’s thick-ish. Then spread it out onto a saran-lined pan, or two, or three, and let it dry out in an oven set to as low as possible (mine only goes to 170), for around 8 hours.

My first attempt was overnight. Which would have been fine if stupid me didn’t put it in early, around 8 pm, forcing me to get up around 3 am to check on it. Why do I have such idiotic moments sometimes? Anyway, on Saturday I was home, and awake the whole time to check on it, which was much better. The trick is to spread it out thicker than you’d think on the cookie sheet. My first try came out a little crispy on the edges cause it was too dried out. Leather = Thick! This last batch was a super success.

Ready to dry out:

So when it’s done, I just cut it into squares and put it on wax paper to store in a baggie. It really does come out like a store-bought fruit roll-up, only sans preserves. Score!

Master Bath: Part 2, D-Day

A few weeks ago, I posted about how we were gearing up for our master bath makeover. Well, it’s finally time!

First of all, as embarrassing as it may be, I must post the before shots of the “classic” room. Let’s take a look. Can you spot the pink shower tiles with forever mildew-y grout? And how about those soap scum covered shower doors that rust? Oh! And that beautiful vanity with crusty faucet, and gaping cabinet doors? Don’t forget to peek at the shiny pink tile covering the floors.





This past weekend was D-Day. As in destruction….demolition….drastic decimation…dismantling (you get the point) of the antique pieces.

Literally, in about 20 minutes, the place looked like this:



And shortly thereafter, like this:



A little jewel was discovered:



Yeah, that’s pegboard there under the backerboard in the shower. Backerboard, on top of peg board, on top of plywood. Why? Why, oh why? Not to mention every layer was nailed 1” apart. ONE INCH! There is a nail every inch! This made it a royal PITA for my dad. I know, cause I was watching. Don’t judge.

That pretty much sums up D-day/weekend. The photos represent the end of Saturday and then my dad got some more done on Sunday. It will probably take another couple days to get the demo complete. There is still hallway tile, the ceiling, and that shower pan.

In the mean time, I’ve been busy shopping! Want to see what I’ve got so far? (no? too bad)

This vanity (including top & sink, but not faucet):



This shower fixture:

This fan/light combo:

And this shower tile:

Stay tuned for more…

Hair Dryer Holsters

I was thinking of getting a wall-mounted hair dryer for our bathroom since we are always too lazy to put ours away. All I could find were a couple of cheap, kinda ugly ones like they have in hotel rooms and I still want a decent quality dryer.

And then I discovered this whole new world of hair dryer holder-things! This is the first one I found:



It sent me on a search for more, preferably less expensive versions. The one above is $90. I like the look of this one but I'm not sure how well it'd actually work:




And then there's this one that they call a "holster". Makes sense:


Lastly, I found this one that's meant to look like a tulip, so it's pretty all by its self. Again, I question functionality somewhat. Love the look though!




I don't know which would be the best. I think all of them would probably serve it's purpose and then when I want to put the dryer away, I could put a cute towel inside or something. If I got one of the simpler ones, I could possibly mount it on the side of the vanity where it's less obvious than if it were on a main wall. Thoughts?

Ian’s Dirty Sock

I know, we are horrible people. Mostly Ian. He was taking his socks off and thought it’d be fun to put it over Buddy’s head.



The sad thing was that Buddy only tried to get it off for about 3 seconds, and then he just sat there with it on. He didn’t know what to do with it and since he couldn’t see, I guess he figured the safest thing was to stay put. I felt so bad for him. But did I immediately remove the sock? No, because I had to run and get the camera.



Then Ian tried to cuddle him, hoping for forgiveness.

Can’t Be Beets Cookies

Oh yes they can! They CAN be beet cookies. I know because I can taste the damn beets in them! *Barf*

I’m only mentioning this recipe because someone who likes beets, would likely enjoy these cookies. I actually think they end up more like whoopie pies. In fact I took them to work with me and people were fairly positive. I don’t know – they were ok – but I really, really think beets are icky. They taste like dirt no matter what you do to them. This is proof that even sugar and chocolate and frosting can’t disguise a beet. Oh well. It was worth a try. Next time I’ll probably be giving away my beets so let me know if you like ‘em!

I would post a picture of the final product but it isn’t pretty, nor appetizing in the least. That was my fault though, not the cookie.

Although this was neat – the insides were not what I was expecting. These must be a different sort of beet. Zebra beet?



I got the recipe from Be Wise Ranch, under their page of suggestions by ingredient. Helpful for someone like me who receives produce in their box and doesn’t know what to do with it. So much for thinking anything in a cookie would be good. Shame.