Friday, February 27, 2009

Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Pepto

Some times.... Reggie gets sick to his stomach. There is no way to tell what it is that is making him barf. Too much air ... for all I know. Bottom line, it's gross. And makes me paranoid about taking him places or him eating/drinking to fast or walking to much, or sitting the wrong way... cuz he might barf. That's a lot of paranoia.

The other day I did an interview with a volunteer who also has an old bull dog. She explained that they have the same issue! And to solve this barfing-with-no-determinable-triggers issue, they starting giving their dog pepto-tablets. GENIUS! Ben was also excited about this idea.... but we didn't have any tablets.

Now... mind you, Reggie will eat anything. Paper, plastic, aluminum. You name it. BUT HE WON'T EAT PEPTO. It was so nuts. So had to work on trying to find ways to trick him into eating it. Ultimately he would get a lick of it and go 'Nope - that's got pepto in it. Nice try'.
Blast this Dog!!
This is Pepto pedigree. You can see him sniff it and ...

Nope... Nice try..
What is REALLY strange - is that we have a dog that will he aluminum wrapers but not Pepto - and another dog that barely will eat her dog food but LOVES PEPTO!
Notice her pink beard.
Okay - I know this looks gross. But it worked. We made multi grain, honey smoked turkey, and pedigree pepto sandwich....aaaannnddddd....
HE ATE IT! Swallowed the dang thing whole.... but he hasn't barfed in like 3 days.
Reggie doesn't like being tricked....

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Little Celebrations

Life can be so boring some times. So Ben and I find times to have silly celebrations. Shakes up a daily routine. There was a time when I put sprinkles in all Ben's food.... 'now it's a party!' Party pancakes, party pears, party milk, party mustard.... you get the idea.

So this last weekend marked one year of having Reggie -- therefore ---

REGGIE'S BIRTHDAY! Horray!


Yeah! It's my birthday! What'd ya get me??

I love this action shot. See the size of mouth? Yikes.
...Now he's gotta go hide it from Tally....
What else did ya get me?





Don't worry - he didn't really Barf.... just freaked me a out a bit...


Treats!


Had so much fun on my birthday.... now i need a nap....

(This is what Reg looks like 90% percent of the time...)


What are you celebrating today? :)

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

A Day for Presidents

Happy Day of Presidents! Oh, and Valentine's Day. :) Ben and Kim mostly celebrated a 3 day weekend. Ben reserved us a room a couple weeks in advance (how prepared is he!) Then the night before... realized that he couldn't remember where we were staying.
Here he is calling around all the Lava Hot springs motels... "am I staying there tomorrow?"

Winner! Looks like we're at the Alpaca Inn! A really awesome place - run by really awesome people. I would recommend it for any one.

Not a lot to do in Lava. Hot Springs...but I can only cook so many hours. We did find a really cool 'Lava Museum' that I thought was going to be lame -- but turned out to be full of interesting pioneer artifacts and old things. :) This picture is for my Dad. POSTUM!!
This is an example of those printing press things. I couldn't have this job. I can't spell and you have to put the letters in back words. I'm sure I would be fired very quickly.
Okay so... there is this crazy store call the purple moon. One half is pretty home made jewelry, crystals and incense - and the other have was really scary tools of war. Ben pretended to be Donatello - from the Ninja Turtles for like 10 minutes.
Oh yeah.
Monday the Fetters Family came to visit! I gave Lizzy the remote. You can see her looking at Mamma Muffin....'what do I do with this?'
Then CLICK! ... on comes the food channel.....
....that was awesome.....
A new Sharples/Fetters tradition is tasting. This is the 'Creme soda' edition. Lots of sugar.
Tooo mmuuuccchhhh sssoooodddaaaa...
Virgil's Black Cherry is my favorite. It and many other wonderful sodas can be purchased at Liberty Heights Fresh in Salt Lake on 1300 South and 1100 East. Check it out.
This was the winner - Liked so much that Amanda is reaching for it as I'm taking the picture
HEY! DROP IT!
Over all a great weekend. Very relaxing.
Don't you enjoy those weekends? I made HUGE head way on the blue baby sweater, took naps, Ben played Diablo, watched LOST! (Thank you WIFI)

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Food Alchemy: Mustard Accomplished!

I love this picture. It is black mustard seeds half way through the grinding process. I just loved seeing the bright yellow erupt forth from out of the blackness of the seeds. In case you couldn't tell this is mustard time! The post is quite delayed, since I made the mustard some time ago and have eaten some already (quite good). On to the Alchemy!!

This is my ingredient spread for my first and favorite mustard, spicy apple mustard. It consists of mostly black mustard seed, apple juice concentrate, apple cider vinegar, and a touch of vinegar. It rocks, the sweetness of the apple works very well with the heat of the mustard, success!
This is a more simple mustard, I like to think of it as my margarita mustard. Lime juice is the primary liquid, with some salt added for good measure. I made it a bit too salty though, sadly, but I like the tang of the lime.


The last mustard I made (below) was also made with pure yellow mustard seeds. It was inspired by a mustard I ate with my wife on a date many years ago. The dominant flavor was supposed to be dill, but I don't think I used enough. I also overpowered it with lemon... oh well, lessons learned.
Here they are in all their glory...

Note to self... Hand grinding mustard seeds may seem like a neat idea, but after a half an hour and still grainy I am going to just buy mustard powder for my recipes that are meant to be smooth.

The Barn Project

During the 6 years I lived in Cache Valley I fell in love with the 'barns' through out the valley. I like the rustic feel to the sagging wood cabins and barns that are sleeping in between the new Ivory Homes. I wish I could look through something and see when they were at their prime - little families running farms in a hidden valley. Little House on the prairie - type.
I have wanted to start a 'Barn Project' and capture their beauty. And so starts the portfolio. The lighting wasn't so great here - and I'm looking forward to going up in the spring....







This isn't so much a 'barn' but a mysterious building near my old apartment. All boarded up... I wonder what's in it.....

February Adventure

I'm running a little behind on blogging -

Last weekend Ben calls me at the office about 3p.
"Hey....sooo....whatcha doing?' We decided on a whim to head up to Logan for the USU Men's Basketball game. Our Aggies are doing really well this year! It was a sold out game and it was really fun!
We lodged up in the 'Super 8' on main street - which wasn't a fantastic place but It was great to be able to play with the Muffins really late and NOT have a hour drive ahead of us. :) Ben is celebrating in this picture.
Next morning - drive through McMuffin and then church with the Muffins.
We enjoyed a relaxing day through the city -
I really like the Logan Temple. Always thought it looked like a Castle when it's all lit up. :)
Look! Ben found a stick.
Tell me about all the organisms on this stick.....
Aw.

This is not my child - but she's dang cute :) Its a crazy thing when I only see my BFF's Baby Lizzy maybe once a month, she grows so fast! I'm so glad she's not scared of me anymore. We were playing this sunglasses game (after I let her dump out all of Mommy's stuff)
CHECK ME OUT! You go girl. :)
Ma. I'm tired already.
Put me to bed already.
We're headed to Lava Hot springs this weekend and I'm excited to hang with those Fetters again! And Lizzy's Tank-kini!