Hot Pot!

The Chinese have a traditional dish that reminds me of the Stone Soup story.  We decided to have hot pot and everyone brought some veggies to share.  How it works is we provided the broth, and once it's boiling everyone puts in whatever they want to cook.  Pretty much anything is possible: tofu, dried tofu, frozen tofu (changes the texture apparently), cabbage, lettuce, Chinese root veggies, our veggies, potato, herbs, ginger, garlic, rice and fish balls, lamb, beef...it was amazing! 

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated our dear friend's birthday with dinner (of one of our favorite meals: garbanzo bean and potato stew) and a Cold Stone Creamery's ice cream cake...very delicious! 

Baking Adventures: Bread!!

Brian's perfected his time in Switzerland-inspired bread recipe.  Delicious...delicious...delicious.  20 hour rise, no knead, full flavor, absolute bread paradise.  Crispy, crunchy crust with an almost creamy textured crumb.  Only flour, water, salt, and yeast required.  This is the whole wheat version:

Baking Adventures

We couldn't help but indulge in a little tropical treat when it finally started to get warm and when my brother visited, a huge coconut fan.  Getting the coconut was a little adventure in itself.  The first one had mold on the inside, so we took it back and got another.  On the second trip a customer recommended another store to me as I was standing in the aisle shaking coconuts like maracas to my own beat trying to determine which one was the best deal for the coconut water sloshing inside.  So we trekked up north for this famed coconut, and upon finally selecting our perfect coconut we heard on the loud speaker, "Can owners of a beagle dog come to the service desk?".  We look at each other.  Well, we have a beagle dog, and he was in the car.  Thinking he was howling and thought to be distressed, Brian ran out to the car as I hurriedly checked out my prize winning coconut.  Brian returned, breathless to announce the news: no dog in the car!  At the service desk we foud a woman holding Moab who, upon seeing us, peed in excitement on the woman who rescued him from the parking lot.  Our Moab, the escape artist who so badly wanted to come to the store with us, figured out how to open the door that had not latched because of a caught seat belt.  Lucky dog.  Lucky he didn't get run over, lucky a nice woman caught him, lucky he got to go into a grocery store (a beagle's paradise!).  And even more lucky, we gave him the hull of the used coconut which became his favorite toy for weeks!  It slid on our wood floors every time he tried to pounce on it and challenged his little brain for hours at a time!

The cake was delicious, by the way!  Only lasted 2 nights.

Moab's Big Day!

Recently the city's park district had a party at the "Bark District" doggie park complete with tricks and treats for both the dogs and humans.  We couldn't miss it and good thing because Moab had a blast!  He ran and played with 30+ dogs, ran through agility tunnels, over jumps, and practiced his sitting, down, and stay, and tried to learn some new tricks.  At the end of the day they gave two prizes out: one to the most creative dog's name, and one for the most obedient dog...and guess who won!?  Moab, of course!  He's such a good pup!

The winnings (don't the treats look tasty?):

Tasty looking enough that Brian had to try a nibble...and found them pretty good.

Moab loved his new toys!  We decided to keep them just for playing fetch or we think he'd destroy in a day or two (maybe just a day).

To Garden is to be Complete

We're learning more and more what it means to garden, and what it means to work towards completion.  Lesson one: you are never complete in the gardening tasks.  We think we're more self complete when gardening.    Maybe it's when we eat that fresh salad.  We'll let you know when we get to that point.

Regardless, we tilled the garden plot in back for the "salad vegetables" like lettuce, spinach, escarole, tomatoes, carrots, etc.; tilled a row on each side of our driveway for the new herb garden; and tilled a rented garden plot in the community garden area in a nearby park for all the vines like squashes, cucumbers and melons, as well as the potatoes.  We couldn't decide on the type of potato...so we bought four kinds of starters, and a handful of different onions.  We also splurged on buying seed and have probably close to 100 types that will see germination in 2010 if we can work towards that completion!  Brian has them all organized by family and uniquely labeled so we can keep precise notes on how each variety of heirloom vegetable fares.  Our friend told me the other day that what he loves about Brian is that he never does anything halfway.  So, maybe Brian is as near completion as they come!  I like to think so.  He doesn't do marriage halfway either.