Kitchen Wonders

This week I've tried cooking several new dishes and the results have been excellent both times! Last week, I made pork with a mustard sauce. Doesn't sound like a big deal except here's the thing: I don't eat pork. Bacon, yes, maybe even the occasional ham but I rarely eat pork and I've never made it before. So I made pork tenderloin pieces in a white wine-stone ground mustard sauce with egg noodles (Cooking Light, of course). Accompanied by roasted asparagus and baked apples. Delicious!

Last night I was more adventerous and made chicken tikka masala. Let me back up: when we were at The Fair a couple of weeks ago, Clay Pit (a local Indian restaurant) was there giving a cooking demo and the dish they were making was chicken tikka masala. Now, I love chicken tikka masala. It's really one of the few Indian dishes I've tried but I say stick with what you like. Problem is, it's in this really rich tomato-cream sauce. Not so healthy. But I looked at the recipe they handed out and they said you could substitute the heavy cream with plain, nonfat yogurt. So that's what I did! Granted, it wasn't quite as creamy as in the restaurant but it was still delicious and flavorful (at least, that's what Michael and Stephanie told me)! So really, it was chicken, yogurt, tomato sauce, only 2 T. of butter and spices. The spices were courtesey of Central Market, thank goodness! Did you know that WalMart wants $3.58 for a bottle of ground coriander?? I don't think so! I bought mine at the spice bar section at CM and only paid $0.13 and I still have more than enough for another round of cooking, maybe even two rounds! I bought all my weird spices (tumeric, garam masala, fenugreek) there--it's not so wasteful of money or spices this way!

That's my story for today. Michael's in DC until tomorrow night for work training so it's me and my little fuzzy boy. Cheers!

Puppies of Cuteness!

These are my friend Ashley Rae's dogs, Ellie and Lucy. They're shih tzu/pomeranian mixes. How cute are they?!?!

My Space

I'm totally addicted to My Space. At first, it was just a passing fancy, I thought I'd check it out, see what it was like...and I wasn't very impressed, mainly because it took about 30 miilion years for my old dial-up to upload one, single, solitary picture for me. So, I forgot about it for a while. Left it on a dusty shelf, if you will. Then Steph started harrowing me about my "closet" My Space account, which it really wasn't since the only thing on the entire page was my picture and basic info.: name, age, location, etc. I decided, therfore, that after I got high speed 'net, I would try this whole "My Space" thing again. Now I can't get enough. I've put up the maximum of allotted pictures, changed my background several times, updated my interests, set my slideshow and have now begun finding old college friends. I probably spend at least an hour a day working on this thing. I love My Space.

http://www.myspace.com/sunnyhuny1

Sick Puppy

I took Sam to the vet on Thurs. b/c he had this scary-looking bump on his side that started looking worse as the week progressed, so, of course, I wanted to get it checked out. I took him to the Banfield (in Petsmart) near me, where Stephanie takes her Liberty and Oliver. Dr. Rachel was very nice, as were all the technicians and they drew some cells to have them analyzed. I also signed up for a wellness plan from them that covers vaccinations, dental cleaning, routine check-ups, office visits, etc. and they said, "hey, why don't you get these 4 shots since he hasn't had them and they're covered under your new wellness plan?" And I said, "sure, why not? It can't hurt him, right?" I was wrong. Not only did he cry and whine in pain when he actually got the shots but he also had an allergic reaction. At first, he was just lethargic and shaky but then he started whining when I picked him up and he wouldn't put any weight on one of his legs. So, I took him back that same afternoon. They said, "that's normal. Only worry about him if he starts vomiting or has diarrhea." Ok, so, I took him back home.


Fri. morning he had some diarrhea but I thought, "well, I DID give him wet food yesterday, I'm not too worried." So, I'm getting ready for work, putting my lipstick on and about to walk out the door, when he throws up on the bathroom floor. That freaks me out b/c it's all chunky and he's only ever vomited that foamy-looking stuff before (and even that's very rarely), so I call the vet, they tell me to bring him in. I bring Sam in for the 3rd time in 24 hours. They tell me he's having an allergic reaction and give him a shot for the nausea (which didn't really work, btw, since he threw up all over the bed about an hour later and then on the couch and floor again that night) and that I should give him Benadryl and Imodium and if he's still acting like this in 24 hours, to bring him in again.


Great, now I'm a basket case. I give him the meds but he throws up, so I'm not sure if they're in his system or not and I decide to wait a few hours to give him another dosage, since I don't want to over-medicate my dog! I put the Benadryl in peanut butter later--no dice. He doesn't want it. I put it in bread, turkey, a tortilla, cheese, yogurt--nothing. I call the vet; I have no idea what to do. They tell me to throw it in the back of his throat. That doesn't work out so well. He keeps spitting it out. And then he refuses to even open his mouth for me...now I can't pry his jaws open at all! I call Michael at work and tell him to come home ASAP, I'm at my wits end. He gets it in without many problems and we go buy some liquid children's Benadryl and a needle-less syringe, just in case (I didn't know that was an option since the vet's kept telling me to give him half a tablet, but whatever.)


Sam's fine now but I hardly ate or slept for 3 days b/c I was so worried about him. And he gets to get his boosters in 3 weeks. Lucky us. Oh, the god news is that his cyst is benign. Hooray!