use real butter

Recipe: greek beef/chicken salad with tahini-yogurt dressing

My favorite weather to hike in is overcast and cool (50s F). That was the forecast for Boulder this morning, my last “good” morning before my body is overrun with side effects from: my primary drugs, my secondary drugs (to treat side-effects), and my tertiary drugs (to treat side-effects from the secondary drug side-effects). Even so, round #5 wasn’t quite done with me and I’ve gained 10 pounds of fluid in the form of swelling over the last 2 days. Uncomfortable, painful… annoying as hell.

But I wasn’t to be deterred because I knew if I didn’t go wildflower peeping, they might up and bloom and wither away before I am well enough to see them after chemo #6. Jeremy knows how important this is to me – to get out right before I go down for the count. He offered to spend the morning with me and chaperone the pup (deprived of her rightful hiking all winter and spring) while I got my fix.

Have you ever heard of degustation? a tasting menu? I had no idea what it was until I got an email from a stranger one day… she said she liked my web pages and had I ever dined at The Flagstaff House in Boulder? She lives in Sydney, but had been there the year prior and enjoyed the 9-course degustation. Needless to say, today Kell is one of my best pals and I even had the pleasure of visiting her in lovely Sydney earlier this year (and we had a great degustation at Restaurant Balzac).

So yes, a degustation is something to pace yourself through. Tiny plates. Many tiny courses that the chef has prepared for you to experience on your culinary journey. Seems that every time I am within 2 plates of the finish, I feel like I am going to burst, to die right there at the table (just one after dinner mint?). But if you ever get the opportunity – go for the degustation. It is so much fun.

And fun is what Kaweah is all about. Today it is her 9th birthday! I know what you’re thinking… “too much spare time?” Well yes. Doc’s instructions were to “take it easy” after surgery. Gawd – take it easy?! Not in my vocabulary, really. I’ve been chomping at the bit for a week, so grant me this diversion and I won’t make a rude gesture with my good arm…

Recipe: peanut butter dog treats

I’m sorry, were you expecting something to eat? Errr, it’s not terribly tasty but… my best girl loves them. I’ll be honest though, she loves anything. She’ll eat rocks and sticks if you let her. I don’t let her.

Kaweah, has made a few guest appearances on this blog in the past. She’s my furry and somewhat faithful companion. Her faithfulness increases with the amount of food I am preparing. There are two behaviors she exhibits that amaze me (there are a lot of behaviors that make me nuts). Normally, she won’t let us pet her unless she’s lying on the bed with us. She’ll even duck away when you try to pet her – unless there is food – see a pattern? But the couple of times I have received devastating news, she was there and she knew. She leaned against me and let me cry into her scruff. Best.Dog.Ever.

The other behavior is *knowing* when I’m baking something for her to eat. Like I said over Thanksgiving, I bake and cook all the time while she snores her brains out nearby. As soon as I make anything intended for the dog, she’s right there – like Chucky from those horror movies.

I found this recipe on this website with a nice selection of dog treat recipes. It’s not as hard or brittle as I was hoping. Maybe I just need to bake them longer. They taste dull and flavorless, but we all know labs could care less about taste – the act of scarfing down food is their raison d’être!