Cherry Mistmas ?

Good LORD it has been a rough year. I sincerely hope 2011 decides to be nicer to us - more Merry and less Bah Humbug!
Let me do a quick recap:
1)Sport was diagnosed with Cancer of the anal sac, in October. He went through 4 chemo sessions, and is now resting at home, until his recheck in February 2011.
2)Spice (who I adore but was allergic to, and she was pregnant and popped out a single puppy 2 weeks after she came to live with me), the puppy was adopted in October, and later Ms. Spice was finally adopted to a loving home just before Thanksgiving this year. We are very relieved to be down to only 2 dogs at that point, whew!
3) We also adopted another Basenji Mix, named Molly in August 2010. Molly is almost identical to Sport, but her colors are reversed, she is mostly white. She is doing well, and has recently learned to "shake" and what "belly rubbins" are. Sport adores her, and for some reason, every time we watch DEXTER (the serial killer series), she and Sport start playing like crazy. She is also learning to behave herself outside of her crate, so we are starting to leave her out of the crate from time to time. So far so good.
4) We replaced the ENTIRE roof (it started leaking in multiple places), replaced part of the driveway, cut down the massive tree that was tearing up our driveway (obviously not in this order), and repaired other minor things around the house. Can you say FINANCIAL DRAIN? yeah. exactly!
5) So everyone is getting Japanese Maple saplings from my front yard this year, instead of gifts. I tried selling them to a professional landscaper or nursery, but they said I had to have the trees "certified" somehow? and that was a huge pain in the you-know-what, so I said "screw it" and decided to just give them away.
6) I figured out how to make "Gluten Free Baklava" but you have to literally eat it, just after you remove it from the oven - maybe after letting it cool after 5 mins. It does NOT last well. If you leave it sitting out overnight, the rice paper (which I used instead of filo dough), it gets soft and is no longer crispy. It will also start to MOLD (yeah that's fun) if you cover the top of it, and leave it sitting out for more than 1 week. That is very different than normal Baklava. So just FYI be careful of those things. It does taste good, and in fact one person told me she liked it BETTER than regular Baklava. Interesting. I am proud of figuring this out, but disappointed in the shelf-life. I would not feel comfortable mailing this to my family for the holidays.
7) We upgraded to the new iPhone 4 hardware - works MUCH faster than the old iPhone 3G devices we had.
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Recipe Variations
So I made the Pumpkin Soup again last night, but I added some other ingredients:
Instead of meat stock/broth, I used veggie stock/broth.
I added chopped cabbage
I added minced fresh ginger
I used Green Curry paste instead of the other
I added Cayenne Pepper (just a little) instead of the White Pepper.
It was very good but needed LOTS more salt. Not sure why.
Anyhoo, enjoy!
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Happy Holidays everyone!

Whew it's been a long time

Yes I know, I've been a terrible slacker/blogger. Well it's been a very busy year and I'm already exhausted. However, there have been a lot of good things going on, so it wasn't all working (Thank God!).

In a very quick nutshell, here's what I've been up to:

1. Visiting Grandpa - a lot. mostly monthly. lots of mileage.
2. Celebrating my girlfriend Lisa's 40th Birthday - Bahamas Cruise.
3. Eating as Gluten-Free as possible.
4. Recruiting new Wine Club members (please let me know if you are interested? All of our ladies keep getting "knocked up" and can't attend for 9-12 months at a time, and it's dwindling our attendance).
5. Travelling for work - a TON.
6. Doing the Modern Atlanta Home Tour (it ROCKED btw)
7. Going to Zane Lamprey's "Drinking Made Easy" Comedy Tour
8. Got a nasty Ear Infection, got better, then hurt my back, realize it was my mattress, switched mattresses, finally getting the back better
9. Working out more
10. Hosted Mother's Day Brunch for 3 moms
11. Hosted brunch with the White Russian
12. Went to the Princess Diana exhibit
13. Went to the Public Forum for the Nutrition and Health Conference to meet Dr. Andrew Weil and see Sanjay Gupta.
14. Finally attended "Wednesday Night Dinner" (missed 2 of the 3 though)
15. Cooked Paul Prudhomme's Shrimp Creole 3 times (over 2 months)
16. Dined on "The Queen's Paella" - and other Spanish yummies
17. Discovered Hi-Life
18. Gearing up to cut off my cable - for good. Hello Mac Mini!
19. Got a Yoga Ball Chair (they are awesome!)
20. And last but not least - planning a trip to visit my peeps in Ohio finally.

Well that's all the news with me. I probably missed something in that list, but that's okay. Anyhoo, hope you are all well, and thank you for bearing with my slacker-ness in the blog department.

Hope you are having a GREAT summer!

Sniffling through the Season

Well it's been a bizarre week post-party-month.
My Auntie Julie told me about how she went Low-Carb and took Wheat Gluten out of her diet, and promptly lost 50 pounds (over the course of a year). She looks fabulous btw.
Not long after that, my parents did a detox and started slowly introducing foods back into their diet, and they discovered that they both had issues with Wheat Gluten and Dairy. My dad especially (Auntie Julie is his sister), has had terrible allergies and asthma his whole life. He would take his inhaler DAILY. Now he has figured out that he only needs his inhaler when he eats gluten or dairy or refined sugar. Go figure. It took the family a good 31 yrs of my life to figure this out. Anyway, good to know.
I was sorely ticked off at first, because I'd actually PAID a damn allergist to test me for issues with Wheat Gluten, Dairy, etc. And nothing showed up except Bananas and Shellfish. 1) I don't eat bananas anyway, I don't like them. 2) I rarely eat shellfish, and when I do, I have not had any issues. and 3) If my weight issues ARE gluten/dairy related, then why the hell didn't THAT show up on my test? My OB/GYN tells me that the allergy tests can only show true allergies, not "food sensitivities" blah blah blah.
Well well.
I guess once that inordinately large Birthday Cake, and gallon of Birthday Ice Cream is gone, then I can start doing the dairy/gluten free thing.
Oh that will suck, I LOVE, love, love cheese, and eggs (do eggs count?).
At least Wine is gluten and dairy free, right?
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To add insult to injury, I started having sniffles almost daily now, in the mornings. At first I thought I was getting sick, and thus I have been working at home this week, but now, I'm rather inclined to think it's allergies. I DO have half-n-half in my coffee every morning. And we've been slowly eating away at that cake. Hmmm...
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In other news, we are knee-deep in planning our Thanksgiving vacation. This year, we are going to The Big Apple to dog-sit. Yeah that sounds weird, but think about it. The most well-behaved dog (next to mine of course) in history ... Free room and board in an apartment 1/2 block from Central Park... RIGHT on the Macy's Parade route...romantic time alone with the hubby...7 gorgeous days to explore the city and wine and dine ourselves...ooh I cannot wait!
Not that we are avoiding family, but all our trips this year have been family or work related, and it is nice to finally be ALONE and get to do OUR thing.
Love to the fam, but we are "do-not-disturb" for Thanksgiving this year.