A PUPlic Service Announcement

Don't get your tail between your legs. I am happy to report some news that is really something to woof home about.

While on an Olympics of errands with my mom and Princeton last week, we had to choreograph a shopping-with-dog routine: I run inside and get what I need; Mom stands outside with Princeton on a leash while passersby fall in love with his sweet adorableness (that last part may or may not be true, but, psssh, how could they not?). Good thing I was quick, I knew what I had to buy, and I chose good lines. This is what we decided to do when my mom and I spent the day together and we both wanted to hang with the P-man. It's that whole "have your milkbone and eat it too" scenario.

The final stop of the day was Bed, Bath and Beyond. We got out of the car and I promised I'd be quick while my mom waited outside with her granddog.

Only a pawful of minutes later, and I heard my name while browsing through the pillow section. Much to my surprise, the person calling it was my mom and before I could panic about where my dog was, I saw that he was in her arms. In the store. In the pillow section.

Was I dreaming? Was I in Europe? I've been so conditioned to thinking that here in our country where dog is man's best friend, we can't bring our pets into public, commercial spaces. It's always been ruff on me.

Turns out, a super nice BB&B employee saw my mom outside and told her dogs are allowed in the store. Company allows it. In fact, it's encouraged. So, into the store they came!

Say what?! Dogs are allowed in BB&B? Oh hell yes, BB&B is now my new favorite store.

So we had fun showing Princeton the ways of corporate retail America.

For example:

Had to document Princeton's first time in a shopping cart.

"Mom, what in dog's name am I doing in here and why is this so exciting for you?"

(and yes, apparently I am that dogmom who talks for her dog... at least in blog).

We even shot real, live video courtesy of mediocre-quality video camera-phone. My mom and I laugh at ourselves for having too much fun with this novel experience:

I'm so excited to take Princeton shopping with me again. Being productive while enjoying the company of the cutest little man in the world really makes you feel like you're getting so much more bang for your bark. Um, buck.

Adventures in Cooking

Bryan and I are trying to be more cost and health conscious of what we eat. We constantly find ourselves going out to dinner and it turns into a habit that's not good for either our bellies or our wallets. So, with some inspiration from some cookbooks, we went to Costco, bought, bought, bought, and planned our meals. As they say, it's all about planning.

I bought a behemoth bag of sweet onions. I figured I'd find something to do with them. A brisket. Some stir fry. Eh, sure, why not. Plopped 'em in the cart. But I really didn't realize HOW MANY onions were in the bag until I came back to reality and entered our tiny kitchen. The area of half the kitchen was taken up by onions! (By the way, just relearned that area = width times height. Very exciting).

So I had to get crafty. I sifted through our other purchases. A gazillion pounds of tri-tip. A trillion slices of turkey. An infinity of multigrain slices of bread. Neither of these would do. It sure is easy to get caught up in the dreamy world of buying in bulk. You think "so what if I don't finish 452 onions? It only cost this much for this many!" Somehow, that logic trumps "we are only one male and one female of average size." This family of 2 bought for a small country and I had no idea what to make.

Then I found it! We had also bought some pre-made pulled pork that you just heat up and voila! instant sandwich a la our many lunches poolside in Hawaii. So, in order to recreate our honeymoon, we decided to make onion rings, pulled pork sandwiches topped with sweet BBQ sauce and pineapple. Done and done!

Not so fast.

I assumed onion rings would be easy. And in hindsight, they actually are, but when I see 5 inches of column space devoted to a recipe in the world famous "The Joy of Cooking" with 3 different page references to other ingredients' sub-recipes, I get a little intimidated. So when Bryan heard the non-G-rated words coming out of my mouth, he came to the rescue. My attempt to be Betty Crocker turned into my husband saving the dinner and shall thus be named Bobby Crocker when working in the kitchen.

Bryan's Best Friend and Best Man, Brian, was joining us for dinner so I was hoping to treat him to something delicious. My frustration wasn't helping and "treating" wasn't the right word anymore since I wasn't such a treat myself. Thankfully, Bryan helped me create the batter (made out of beer, flour, eggs, pepper, and paprika) and then I proceeded to get into a rhythm of dredging, dipping, and placing the onions onto a rack. It was kind of fun! Nevermind that the house stunk for days after; we were pretty proud to say we could fry stuff.

Dredging the onions in the batter before placing them in the 360-degree pot of oil (this required a last-minute trip to the market upon realization that we had no frying thermometer).

Sizzle sizzle. No calories. Nope. None. Yup.

Alton Brown, our kitchen idol from Food Network says to place fried-anything on a cooling rack with paper towels underneath for less grease AND easy cleanup. That's my man.

Side by side: before and after!

Finally! The plated onion rings. They tasted pretty good! All in all, they took about only 20 minutes to make from dredging to plating. Not bad.

The boys enjoy their manly meal. Notice the room is smoky. It smelled just as thick as it looks. Ugh. But whatever, tasted good.

With each successful meal we miraculously throw together, I am inspired to cook the next. So far, our experiment of eating in and eating healthy has been working great! We are satisfied and feel in control of what we put in our bodies and that's a great feeling! Plus, more time at home means more time with Princeton! Can't have a post without a shout out to the little man!