Pound Puppies...

I'm trying to get the pups used to being in the cage together for our journey home. Needless to say they were not happy about it. But they are tricky little pups.

Um... Mom? Are you seriously going to leave us in here?

Just stay calm. Let's just give her a second to change her mind about this.

Orrrr not...

Let me just stick my nose out here and try to sniff out the situation.

Hey pup, wake up!

I think I may be able to eat our way out of here!

.

OK. OK. I'm up. Let's not resort to eating metal.

Aww. Hey Rae, it's OK. I know you tried.

Here look. I'll kiss your ears and make it all better.

OK Mom. Like seriously. We are NOT amused.

Um Excuse me... Dinner was like 5 whole minutes ago.

You're going to have to let us out for a snack soon

OK. Quick, look sad. Maybe she'll feel bad for us.

Or hey! I have another idea. Let's pretend to nap together.

Mom will think we're super presh and let us out for snuggles!!

Shhhh. Keep your eyes closed. I think it's working!

Clearly mom has too much time on her hands...

Pizza

One of my favorite pizzas is topped with prosciutto, arugula and shredded parmesan. Sadly, after going to the grocery store 3 times this week I couldn't come up with the arugula. So instead I scoured the internet to find other toppings that would go well with the prosciutto I already purchased. I came up with caramelized onions. The internet promised it would be tasty.

So to make this pizza I bought Pillsbury pizza dough. (If I was in NY I would just run to the bakery and pick up fresh pizza dough. Sadly they don't do that here.) I spread the dough out on a greased pizza pan and popped it in the oven for 5 minutes. While that baked a chopped an onion and threw it into a pan with butter and a teaspoon of sugar. I also blended the tomatoes for the sauce. I took the crust out of the oven spread tomato puree over it and added chopped garlic, salt and pepper. Then I added shredded Fontina cheese and popped it back in the oven for 10 minutes. During that time I kept stirring the onions. Once the pizza was done I topped it with the caramelized onions and laid the strips of proscuitto over that.

It was delicious. Like I ate the entire pizza in one sitting delicious. I still am craving the arugula and prosciutto pizza- it's much lighter. The caramelized onions make this repice very rich. But if you're in the mood for rich, it will not disappoint!

Recipes... and Leaving (Not necessarily in that order)

So I will be moving back to NY in a few weeks. I now vacillate between multiple extreme emotions on a daily basis. I go from pure joy: Chris on a daily basis... forever... all mine, waking up together, going to bed together, cooking together, fighting together (in person! So we can actually make up with hugs!!), apartment all to ourselves... privacy, creating our life together... puppies, decorating, finding shared hobbies... It's blissful to think about. Really.

To hopeful: wanting to spend more time with my family... hoping that we'll all get along after not having spent very much time together since I left for college over 8 years ago... wanting to find fun stuff to share with each of them on a regular basis... hoping to finally have a chance to soak in and make sense and make peace with the new family situation that has occurred since I was actually living in NY over 8 years ago...

To anxious: about moving in with a boy... about living with someone I've spent most of our relationship talking over the phone with... about starting internship and hoping I fit in and do a good job and find that this is truly the perfect fit I anticipate... about leaving school (where I have comfortably lived my life for the past 20 years) and entering the real world... about living in a new place (I know it's not exactly new, but I've gotten very used to living in my nice little bubble here)...

To sad: leaving good friends that I've made here... leaving my program, which has become a nice, safe little place for me... leaving the sunny weather... leaving the dog parks... leaving several restaurants I've become quite attached to.

It's weird. I thought moving would the happiest time of my life. And in some ways it is, but it's also filled with a variety of other emotions I wasn't quite expecting...

But on to slightly less dramatic things... One of the things I am very excited about in having a whole month of from school is the opportunity to try out new recipes. I'm already thinking about the delicious dishes I'm going to make. I'll be updating this post throughout the next few weeks with a list of mouthwatering recipes:

Doughnuts

Chocolate Sheet Cake

Steak Sandwiches

Curry Chicken

Cupcakes

Chicken Piccata

Mushroom Soup

Butter Chicken

Peanut Butter Pie

Coffee Cake

Eggs Benedict

Stuffed Mushrooms

4th of July Cake

Hostess Cupcakes

Rainbow Cake

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Muffins

Pound Cake

Vanilla & Jasmine Rice Pudding

New Baby

I am not really a spontaneous person. I think I used to be... in high school. College too perhaps. However, once I got to grad school apparently all my fun, youthful, crazy, spontaneity went away. Sometimes I look back on those days fondly and remember how fun it used to be to just get up and do something without excessive planning. I would often wake up and just feel compelled to do things. Picnics. Day trips. Redoing my bedroom. Parties. Fun times. These days I tend to plan things in advance... way in advance and in painstaking detail. It's kind of boring. Chris often tells me that I need to stop planning so much and start being more spontaneous. I know I need to find a better balance.

This week I made a step in that direction. (Sort of). As you know Chris and I have been talking for awhile about getting another dog. We wanted a companion for Reaghan. We had planned to get one most likely in the month of June, so that I'd have time to socialize them before I started working full time. We had just recently decided to move away from a blood hound (which in the end we decided would be too big for our apartment) to a basset hound a la The Pioneer Woman. I had been looking into some puppies in the area, even going so far to contact woman from a local ad in the paper for some more information. She had let me know that her litter was already sold out and that they just had a "show" puppy left which was double the price. I kindly let her know that we could not afford such a puppy, but 'thanks anyway.'

This Tuesday said woman e-mailed me to let me know that she was willing to sell the "show" girl for the regular price. She also said that this puppy would be available "right now" and then sent me a picture. In the matter of 5 minutes I called Chris, had a brief decision making conversation, called a friend to see if she'd come with me to pick up the puppy (I was scared to go alone) and then e-mailed them back- YES! She e-mailed back to meet her in about 45 minutes in a town that's 30 minutes away. Within an hour of getting that initial e-mail I had a new puppy in my apartment. To me that felt pretty spontaneous. (I may or may not have had an anxiety attack in the car about my "lack of responsibility" in being so spontaneous. Luckily, I had my friend who talked me down.)

So without further ado. Please meet our new baby girl.

Chris has not yet determined a name. I said he could pick it, since he isn't here for our first 3 weeks together. He is taking this responsibility VERY seriously. Hence, having to run around yelling "Puppy!" when she's eating my shoes. Although she's quite the handful, Rae and I (and Chris through Skype) are quite smitten. She's a sweetie pie.

Seafood

So living in Texas does not do much for my seafood habit. Growing up in NY and vacationing every summer in Rhode Island, I developed a deep love for seafood. Clams: whole belly, on the half shell. Oysters. Calamari. Lobster: steamed, stuffed, rolls. Scallops. Cod. Flounder. Mahi Mahi. Tuna. Sea Bass. Red Snapper.

OK. I'll stop now. I'm drooling onto my computer. But as you can see I have a deep love (or some might say obsession) for seafood. Unfortunately, there are no fresh seafood stores in Texas. Or at least where I live. So when I need a seafood fix I have to buy it at the seafood counter of the grocery store, usually frozen. It makes me sad. Very, very sad.

A few weeks ago I had a craving for seafood and gave in and bought some of the frozen stuff. I found two recipes on the Food Network that looked good and tried them out.

Steamed Mussels by Bobby Flay was the first. I did not have shallots, so I substituted onions. I also did not have tarragon, so I used dried marjoram. (Always use less if you're substituting dried herbs for fresh herbs. They are much stronger.) I thought this recipe was good, but not great. I've had some mussel broths that are so delicious I want to lick the bottom of the bowl. This was not one of them. However, it was quick and tasty and did the trick.

Next, I tried Scallops Provencal by the Barefoot Contessa. Again I substituted shallots with onions. I never have shallots in the house. I made some spaghetti and served the seafood over it. I thought this recipe was yummy. The sauce thickened up nicely and it made enough that I could heat leftovers up the next day for lunch.

I must say though- I am counting down the days until I'm back in the northeast with fresh seafood. It makes a WORLD of difference. Excuse me while I go dream of lobster rolls and clams on the half shell...

The Kentucky Derby...

I love horse racing. This is not too surprising, given that I love sports, gambling and animals. If you combine them in a way where I feel like the animal actually enjoys it- then its my dream come true. I love watching how beautiful the horses look as they run, I love the joy on the trainers and owners faces when a horse wins and I love how the horses run their little hearts out, showing everyone that they were born to run as fast as can be. I also love getting so invested in something that it consumes your whole soul for the 2 minutes the race lasts.

I remember the derby my first year away at grad school. I ordered Pizza Hut to be delivered and it arrived just as the derby started. There was no way I was missing any of it, so I insisted the delivery man come inside and watch with me. Given that I was a single gal living alone in the country, this is probably a clue as to how involved I get in these races. As born and bred New Yorker, I am usually overly cautious with strangers. But put me in the middle of a derby race and sane thoughts fly out the window. There was no way I was missing a second.

I always pick the filly if there's one in the race. Girl power and all. But if not, I usually go for something Irish. This year my money's on Paddy O'Prado. The son of El Prado, the Irish champion. This year every member of my family has bet on a different horse, so it will be a fun time as we do the conference call for this year's race. I'm sure that Paddy will win though...

You tell me that this isn't the face of a winner.