A Peanut Butter Carrot Doggie Cake//Oddball turns 2

   If you have ever read my blog, especially the beginning posts, you will know I love my animals.
So If you aren't that much of an animal lover you may want to leave now because this post is going to be mostly me talking about my dog, Oddball who is 2 years old today.

 Oddball and his siblings were unplanned, but adorable little surprises seeing as Marley wasn't fixed yet because there weren't any male dogs around until we got Blue  who was suppose to be taken to get fixed by the person who found him. But that never happened and I get a phone call while I was in Hawaii from my mom saying that Marley like most likely pregnant. Needless to say Blue had a vet appointment soon after to prevent any future "surprises". Our older dog, Playful (or Mama since she's the matriarch of the animals) came to us when she was pregnant and had 8 puppies so that was the number we were expecting for Marley to have..except she added 4 more to make a litter of 12! Out of 12 puppies, only one resembled Marley's tan coloring while most were either black or black and white.

Nutella & Sea Salt Fudge

 My mom and I finally went to Costco's this past weekend after having it been open in the next town for about 3 years. We used to shop at Sam's, but there isn't one anywhere close to us so we went into Costco's. We only got a few things which included a 1.5lb box of Macedonia nuts which was way cheaper than at Whole Foods, Dried fruit for baking, packages of both salmon and turkey burgers, some granola cereal, and a fuzzy throw blanket for me. I thought it was okay, except for the fact that my mom and I don't eat much processed foods which is almost everything they sale at those stores in bulk to eat. So I decided that someone should have a bulk store except with gluten free, vegan, dairy free, organic, and other "healthy" things (like a bulk Whole Foods) because I know that we'd be customers for life.

Honey Walnut Banana Bread

Last Wednesday I went to my first physical therapy appointment which mainly consisted of  trying to pin point where the problem was (without knowing the MRI results), discovering that my right leg which is where i'm having pain in is weaker than my left, and learning new stretches that help strengthen my core without straining my back or leg. I also learned that if you have back problems, that you shouldn't lean forward which  can aggravate the problem area, but to bend down. I never realized how much I lean forward until someone told me not to.

 Charlie and Gus Gus visited the vet on Friday to get fixed. I was a ball of nerves while they were gone since this was the first time they would be with other people besides us. It seems like just yesterday they were 2 tiny balls of orange that could fit in my palm and needed to be fed every few hours. Charlie got her belly shaved and she was the only cat that I recall in all of our years of owning cats to be aggressive and testy after getting fixed. I finally took pity Gus Gus since he was at the receiving end of her wrath and I took Charlie into my bedroom for some quiet time where she turned into a purring, cuddle bug.

No-Bake Energy Bites & 2 Orange Kittens

  Meet the 2 newest occupants of the Ranch, Charlie & Mel Gus Gus.

 Mel Gus Gus saying it was feeding time.

  A Family friend found these little babies at his work and decided to take them home to care for them. After seeing pictures on Facebook, I told them that I could take care of them if they wanted since they are still really young. So Friday night my mom and I went over to pick up the kittens. These babies brings my total for kittens that I've hand raised to 13 16. They are quite older than the others that I have received seeing as they are about 3 weeks old. We named them after the couple that we got them from and it turns out that Mel is a little boy and Charlie is a little girl. I had to give them a bath since they were found in an engine and were covered in dirt and they both hated it, but they will need a few more to get completely clean.

  Mel Gus Gus, who I really want to rename Elvis since he is so vocal, is the darker & fuzzier of the 2, is an expert milk sucker, timid around dogs,but not cats, and is a huge cuddle bug! If I'm sitting down, he will curl up either on my arm or sleep under my neck.

  Charlie the little girl is a contradiction and I say that for this reason..she is the little explorer & isn't afraid of the dogs, but will hiss and hide from certain noises or movements.  She is a lighter orange than her brother and has bigger eyes, she reminds me of  a golden tiger. She is more advanced than her brother in the way they she bites on the bottle instead of sucking it, likes canned kittens food better than her milk, and was the first to try the little box.

Oddball turns 1

oddball when he was a puppy, a photo by raylynntexas on Flickr.

This was one of my favorite pictures of Oddball when he was a pup. Its hard to believe that 1 year ago I was outside looking at marley's litter of 12 tiny puppies. I was actually going to keep another puppy (houston), but soon I changed my mind and picked oddball because of his attitude and his gray leg(hence how he got his name). He knew he was here to stay too because he would always push his siblings out of the way so he could sit in my lap and as they got older, he would find ways to sneak into the house and try to sleep. He also has this weird thing about trying to climb up the back of the couch and trying to stand on your shoulder which is a bad thing since he weights over 45lbs, though in his mind I think he thinks he is the size of a cat.
Yes, he can be a brat and he has gotten into a good amount of trouble, but he is still my little boy.
Here is of a picture of him now.

Strawberry Lemonade

My cousin is having a girl. Yay!
The baby blanket is coming along  nicely. Im starting to think up with new ideas on for my next few projects. One thing I really want to make is a cowl. And then Pinterest comes up with things like this, this is cute!, or this cute owl and I become completely addicted.

Slikey wanted to see what I was doing.

Today we discovered that my pup, Oddball (who will turn 1 on the 13th) is a thief.
Sometimes, he or his mom, Marley will go over to the neighbor's house and bring us their newspaper- if only we could teach them to take it to the neighbor's back door instead.
Well, today, they didn't steal the newspaper.
Instead, Oddball jumped in the neighbor's back yard were they keep their dog, Banjo, grabbed his stuffed toy, and jumped back over the fence and ran to our back porch. Our dogs generally run free, but our neighbors keep Banjo in a backyard with a fence that is about 5 feet high.
Here is a little info to help ya'll understand more:
Banjo was dropped off in front of our neighbor's property before we moved nexed door, and was very afriad of people, even our neighbors. Well, we have coyotes in the back of our property and one night they attacked Banjo, making him have to go to the vet, and stay inside the house for a few weeks to recover. And ever since then he has to stay in his yard. The coyotes have never attacked our dogs, I think because we have so many. Also when we had Chubby, our large male, he would be on a chain at night and would bark all night long. Well, come to find out in the morning the coyotes had brought some dead rabbits and left them about 5 feet from the end of Chubby's line. I guess like a peace treaty.

and back to the story...
When my dad came in the house to show me, Oddball followed loyaly and sat down thinking that dad was going to give him the toy. Well, I kept Oddball in the house while dad went over to give Banjo back his toy.


Okay. Now lets talk about this drink......

Meet Porky & Funky Chunky Cookies

I survived my SAT test , but now I have to wait 3 weeks before finding out my scores......
Oh, I got a hedgehog too! Who was named Mad Martigan, but is now called Porky or Hedgie.

 Ive always wanted a hedgie, but my mom would never let me buy one. Rabbits, hamsters, turtles, fish, goats,cats, and even a crawfish from our pond- she would let me have, but never a hedgehog.
   Porky, the hedgehog who I find myself calling him "Hedgie" more, was my cousin's pet, but she recently had to move back here and with her being pregnant and trying to get back on her feet, she didnt't have the time for Porky so he came to live with us. Simple as that. Tigger hates him though. He doesn't even have to see him for him to start hissing. Its funny because Porky "huffs" when he is nervous and scared and Tigger hisses back at him. All you hear in my room at night (hedgehogs are nocturnal) is huffing and hissing.
Porky is prickly, but not sharp. He likes to lick my fingers. He likes both can and dry cat food. He has a fleece blanket that is decorated with puppies that he loves to sleep in/on/&under. He's cool.

  I originally was going to make Spinach Artichoke Dip That I found in a magazine, but for some reason when I was at the grocery store, I didn't feel like making it anymore. I blamed it on taking the SAT-its kinda ruined my saturday. I mean, who wants to get up at 6am on a saturday morning inorder to sit in a room for 4 hours to take a test?. No one thats who. The teachers even were falling alseep.

A few cookies were topped with caramel candies and some with butterscotch chips.

 

Busy Weekends & Homemade Dog treats

                                                             This past weekend was crazy.
  Saturday my mom and I went to 7 different stores! 7 in one day! Target, Home Depot, Petsmart, Macys, Kirkland's, Fiesta and Albertsons. Then today we had to go to Walmart to get some last minute baking items and then to Home Depot again because our thermostat broke.  

Playful in her chair

  I also got my christmas present early. Its kind of a habit with me... getting my presents early, but I had a good reason for getting this one early. My mom got me a Kitchenaid Artisan mixer which was on sale due to the holiday season. She- my kitchenaid- is red and her name is Rosie. Since Im in charge of preparing/making all  of the food except the turkey and a few other things for thanksgiving, Rosie will be used much this week. I will be making sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, a corn saute, pumpkin roll cake, cookies, and deviled eggs from scratch. The rolls, the stuffing, gravy, and green beans are either canned or boxed, but will be modified to. Its weird, I usually prefer homemade to boxed, but when it comes to stuffing, I tend to prefer Stove Top over the homemade stuff.

Sunday Morning Muffins, Doctor visits, and Tigger the chirping cat

An updated picture from 10-21-12. I used raw sugar instead of the streusel. 

>This post has a few different topics because I decided instead of posting 2 different posts, to just combine them and make it a big post. So sorry in advance for my rambling.

Its 11 pm Saturday night as I'm writing this and I just finished making 3 dozen muffins.
3 dozen pumpkin, cream cheese filled and streusel topped muffins.
Our house smells amazing right now.
Why did I make 3 dozen muffins?
Well this Sunday it was my mom's turn to bring breakfast for her class and I agreed to make it. Plus, some of those muffins are for my class. I didn't know if I wanted to make pumpkin muffins or if i wanted to try something else, but it being last minute I didn't want to try out a new recipe especially on a church full of people.So I went with the pumpkin muffins I posted a while back, but I added some things.
I didn't add nuts to the streusel this time because I don't know if anyone has nut allergies and I really do not not want someone to turn purple and their throat and tongue swelling on a Sunday morning because of me. I would never be able to live it down and I would feel horrible. So no nuts this time. The cream cheese filling is sweet, but not overly sweet and stills has that tang that only cream cheese has.
The cream cheese filling and the streusel topping make enough to fill & top 2-3 batches of  muffins. Extra streusel can be stored in your fridge for at least 4 days.

Practice makes perfect. This was the first time I made muffins with a filling.
The 1st batch I made looked like something you would make for a Halloween party (they looked creepy but tasted yummy), luckily the next two turned out looking a lot better.

Sunday Morning Muffins  (pumpkin muffins with cream cheese and a streusel topping)

Adapted: A Cozy Kitchen (muffin recipe)

Yields: 12 muffins, but enough filling & streusel for 2 1/2- 3 dozen

Muffins:
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup canned solid packed pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tsp pumpkin or apple pie spice
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Cream Cheese Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp pumpkin or apple pie spice

Streusel:
4 tbsp. butter, softened
1/2 cup a.p flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 nuts, chopped (optional)
1/2 tsp. pumpkin spice or cinnamon


For Cream Cheese Filling: Makes enough to fill 2 1/2- 3 dozen muffins
1. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, vanilla, spice/cinnamon, and cream cheese and mix until well combined and smooth.
2. Using a teaspoon, I added about 1/2 tsp. of the cream cheese mix on the batter per muffin.




For the streusel topping: Makes enough for 2 1/2- 3 dozen muffins
1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, nuts, pie spice (or cinnamon), and butter.
2. I use a tablespoon measure to distribute the streusel on each muffin.


Muffins:  yields 12 muffins
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line 12 muffin tin with liners.
2. Combine the flour and baking powder.
3. Combine the pumpkin, oil, eggs, pie spice, sugar, baking soda, and salt until smooth.
4. Slowly whisk the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture. Fill each muffin cup 1/2 full (I use a ice cream scoop), add 1/2 tsp of cream cheese mixture, and then cover that with some more batter so it is 3/4 full. Sprinkle streusel over each muffin.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean.
6. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then transfer the muffins from the pan to rack and cool completely.

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Then I have doctors appointments both Monday and Tuesday. One is a hematologist (blood doctor) and then Tuesdays its down to Children's Medical to see my Rheumatologist. So depending how this week goes, depends on what and how often I post. Maybe I'll make french onion soup(one of my mom's favorite) and I might even try out some cookie recipes that I'll will be making for holiday gifts.

    I might regret this, but I'm going to be baking like a crazy person this holiday. I am making the desserts for our "late" Thanksgiving dinner along with all the side dishes, Christmas cookies with icing (all from scratch) for our church's holiday dinner (and maybe some other desserts), pumpkin granola bars among other things for some friends coming into town,  and different cookies and goodies to give as gifts for family and friends. I think this will be a very big test for me. I like baking, but I don't always have the patience for it, especially after having disasters -Once I had 3 baking disasters right after each other and I didn't bake again for 2 weeks; so hopefully all goes well- And I want to bake like a lunatic because its something I've never done before. In our family we don't bake and decorate Christmas cookies or having dessert exchanges during the holidays (or ever) so this will be my time to make up for that. I have a feeling that my dad won't be complaining about the high amount of sweet treats that will be made in our house either.
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Here are some pictures of my cat Tigger. Our neighbor found Tigger in their tree when he was only a few weeks old. Since we only have 1 neighbor and both theirs and our cats were fixed and our dogs would have treed a stray cat, we didn't know where he came from.
Tigger isn't your ordinary cat .

see # 10

Tigger playing with a chicken  that I bought @ World Market

  Facts About Tigger:
1. He is terrified of strangers- the only people to see him is my mom, my dad, and I. No one else-we aren't real sure why because we did get him when he was young and he was exposed to many different people and animals, but he is a big scary cat and hides as soon as he hears other people in the house.
2. He hates dogs- he gets all puffed up and looks like a raccoon.
3. He used to be a great bird hunter, but after loosing some cats to coyotes that live in the back of our property my mom made him and Chex (our other cat) exclusive indoor cats. So now he sits on my couch cushion and watches the birds fly around.
4. Since he is an indoor only cat now, he has become an avid t.v watcher. One of his favorite channels to watch the national geographic channel. He sits on the couch and will watch until he falls asleep or I turn off the t.v.
5. He is a very vocal cat! He chirps like a bird when he gets excited and will talk to me through the day.
6. He is very needy and if he doesn't get attention he will bite or put his paw on my face to get my attention.
7. He is very jealous and whenever I have to become "mom" to orphan baby animals, he will not come into my room (which is where most of them stay if I have to raise them) or let me pet him until that animal is either old enough to not need me anymore or is gone to a new home.
8. He hates being brushed out so I have to use a lint roller to when he sheds.
9. His favorite thing to play with are pipe cleaners and my socks.
10. He has cheek bones that women would die for. And when he sleeps, he looks like a chipmunk.
11. He doesn't like "regular" human food like chicken, but he will gladly eat the ends of toast, apple sauce, and leftover soy milk from my cereal bowl. I can honestly say that out of all the animals we have owned and I've known- Tigger is truly one of a kind.

Roasted chicken quarters & Roasted baby potatoes

                                            This is a close up of the 1st egg that our chickens laid.

It was smaller than our store bought eggs.

Its "life" did not last long because I accidently dropped it.

Oops!

But this morning, there was another egg waiting in the nest.

And this afternoon, another little egg was laid.

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Here are some other pictures from this weekend.

Marley!

2 dogs, but they only ever play with 1 toy.

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Liberally season the chicken. We left the skin on, but if you chose you can take it off since you will be cooking the chicken in liquid; so you don't have to worry about it drying out.

dried chicken= YUCK

New Camera! Birthday present

I got a new camera!!! Its a nikon coolpix L120
Its my 17th birthday present, but I am getting it a few weeks early.
Here are some pictures I took with it