Categories
Cooking

Grilled Tofu

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Let’s face it, a lot of us are not the biggest fans of tofu. I’m really not that fond of it. However, I discovered that I greatly enjoy grilled tofu. I bought extra firm tofu, cut it, pressed it with paper towels, put it in my toaster oven on 300 degrees, with the door open, for about 20 minutes (this is to further remove some of the moisture, the open door of the oven will allow air to circulate to better dehydrate the tofu), brushed the tofu with veggie oil and grilled it. Once your tofu is grilled you can brush on any sauce you want. I used a soyaki sauce and sprinkled on some extra sesame seeds. This totally is my favorite way to eat tofu. The best part is the chewy, slightly tough layer just under the grill marks. This dish is also pleasing because tofu is good protein and it is very inexpensive at certain health food stores.

Categories
Animals

My New Dog – I Wish

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So this beautiful guy came into my work. He is 4mo. old and already close to 60lbs…. Love him! His owner said he is an Armenian Gampr. That’s the first time I’ve heard of that breed. As if he wasn’t cute enough already, his bushy curly tail sends it over the edge for me.

Categories
Life

Meet Jaffrey

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This is Jaffrey. I recently got a new bedroom set and Jaffrey came with it. I didn’t want Jaffrey to come with the set but he did. The person I got the set from actually said I had to take him if I wanted the rest of the set. When I put him in the truck with the rest of everything I told him that he was weird and ugly and that I wish I didn’t have to take him. I feel really bad about that now.

Jaffrey is made out of paper mâché. He is a paper mâché giraffe with leather ears. Since taking Jaffrey home I have told him that I am really sorry for calling him ugly and even though I still think he is weird, he is my friend and I am happy to have him. I have even put a pretty scarf on him that I think matches his personality very well.

Categories
Cooking

Low Calorie Gluten-Free Mushroom Gravy

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I have been dieting recently and when I wanted a dinner that felt really hearty I knew I wanted a mushroom gravy. First, brown your sliced mushrooms over a medium-high heat with the margarine in a skillet or large saucepan. Once your mushrooms are nice and browned add the chicken broth but reserve a couple tablespoons to mix your cornstarch in. Turn your heat down to a medium-low and make sure to get everything that stuck to the bottom of the pan mixed in with the broth. This is what will give your gravy a nice color. Mix your corn starch with the reserved chicken broth until completely dissolved. Finally, add the corn starch mixture and stir until the gravy becomes nice and thick. I don’t add any salt to the gravy because the chicken stock provides enough of it for me but at this point you can add salt to taste.

about 15 medium white mushrooms, sliced
1 can of low sodium chicken broth (or vegetable broth if you want it vegan)
1 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp. margarine

The mushrooms are 100 calories, the chicken broth is 20, and the margarine is 45 calories. That’s about 165 calories for around 3 cups or more of gravy which you will eat a fraction of. I cooked my gravy in advance and then heated it up and poured 1 cup of it over peas and a relatively small amount of roasted potatoes. The gravy along with the peas and potatoes definitely satisfied my craving for something hearty and filling.

Categories
Life

Feels like Fall?

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Last week I was so excited because it seemed like I could start to feel the season change. I even took this picture… seems a little like Fall right? Not right. The past four days have been the hottest all summer : (

Categories
Animals

Dog Toys

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It turns out that it’s pretty easy to make your own dog toys. A co-worker of mine found instructions to make your own dog toys and we decided to start making them and selling them to raise money for the local pet shelter. I had already planned on being a vendor at a dog agility trial to raise some money for animal services and dog toys just fit right into the whole scheme.

We have made the toys in all different sizes and I have been really happy with them. All you need is two different colors of fleece fabric. For the size toy that Loki uses I cut my fabric into strips that are 4″ wide and one yard long. Get together four strips of fabric and tie a loop knot on one end. Next you will need to start the toy by arranging the fabric as the picture shows on the left and pulling tight. The rest of toy is assembled by a series of consecutive ties as shown by the picture on the right. Make sure to leave enough fabric on the end to make a final loop knot to finish off the toy. You may need to trim the fabric on either end to make them even.

I play fetch with Loki with the toy and he loves to take a break and chew on it before bringing it back to me. Of course, Loki is a master chewer so I can’t let him chew on it for very long since he will eventually destroy anything but the toy has been very durable. It also holds up in the washing machine extremely well!

Categories
Life

Are You Ready For Some Football?

If you are not a football fan, you can stop reading now. Otherwise, hell yeah another season is upon us. The Packers play the Seahawks on NBC tonight at 8:30 ET. My team hasn’t really done shit in several years anyways but, hey, your team is your team for better or worse. I am a San Diego Charger fan by the way. We have a tough division, ongoing coaching problems, and I think Phillip Rivers acts like a baby sometimes.

I heard something funny a few weeks ago on ESPN. The Dallas Cowboys sent all of their season ticket holders tickets to not only the regular season games but also playoff games including the NFC championship game. They are the first team to ever do this… That’s a nice thought Cowboys.

If you have never played fantasy football or anything like that, I encourage you to. It is actually very easy to do and makes all of the games much more interesting. I assure you that drafts are easy and all you need to do is spend about five minutes per week managing your team. There is also a Pick’em game that ESPN does where you just pick which teams will win their games each week.

Categories
Animals

Caption This

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Mr. Kitty is so special in so many ways. Can you caption the photo? My caption would be, “You wish you looked like this… bitch.”

Categories
Life

Nauticat

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I was kayaking in Ventura and found this little gem. I believe this is my favorite boat name of all time

Categories
Life

Gluten Free

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Gluten-free foods have been super trendy lately. Im not sure what the benefits of gluten-free eating are for people who do not have celiac disease or a sensitivity to it but I’m sure there must be something. One thing that really gives me a chuckle is all of the gluten-free signs on foods that are clearly gluten-free. I do know that some products that one might think would be gluten-free might contain small or trace amounts of gluten which could be dangerous for those with celiac but those people seem generally used to checking labels closely for things like wheat gum or other gluten something or others. However, do I really need a big “gluten-free” sign in front of meat at the deli counter? I don’t think so.

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Categories
Animals

Piggy Parade

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Last pic from the Pooch Parade. This pig was too cute. Zoe kept smelling Mr. Pig (I don’t remember his name) and he didn’t even care. Furthermore, Mr. Pig does a great job walking with a harness and leash.

Categories
Animals

Pooch Parade Frisbees

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This is my favorite pic from the Pooch Parade day. Zoe (an agility dog herself) is watching this amazing red merle Border Collie catch some frisbees. Check out how high the dog in the upper right is in the air.

Categories
Cooking

Black and Bleu Ribeye

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To me, the virtues of a thick-cut beef Ribeye are unparalleled by any other kind of steak. A nice Ribeye is incredibly tender and flavorful. One is able to get a nice sear or blackened crust on a thick-cut Ribeye without being in danger of easily overcooking it. I am by no means a fan of well-done steak. Overcooking meat ruins it’s texture and moisture in my opinion. I know a good deal of people, Gar included, that do not enjoy any pink in their steak and I respect that although do not agree with it. However, I have converted Gar at least on the medium rare to medium Ribeye front.

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Categories
Animals

Pooch Parade

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I am officially in love with going to massive dog walks and events. This past weekend I was at a “Pooch Parade” hosted by a local canine adoption and rescue group. A couple of co-workers and I attended the event to represent our hospital and have a great time. I took Loki with me because he is generally extremely well-behaved at events like these and he’s just a big goof who loves to greet other dogs. I didn’t take nearly as many photos as I should have but here are some of the best ones.

Continue reading “Pooch Parade”
Categories
Animals

Malteighties

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Have you ever seen a Maltese with an eighties hair do?

Now you have.

Categories
Cooking

Beer Batter Tempura

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I had no freakin idea how easy it is to make tempura until I decided to try and looked through a few recipes. I settled on trying a very simple beer-batter tempura. Simply whisk together 1 & ½ cups of beer (the beer needs to be light in color), 1 & ½ cups of cake flour, and 1 & ½ teaspoons of salt and that’s it! Dip whatever it is you are frying into the batter, let the excess drip off, and drop it into some hot frying oil. I set my fryer to 375 degrees so that the batter would cook fast once dropped into the oil and not stick to the first thing it touches. If you are using a deep fryer do not put your tempura in the basket before dropping into the oil. Your items will stick to the basket and lose some of their fluffy crust.

I decided to just make a bowl of various tempura items that we would enjoy. I used shrimp (I couldn’t get jumbo shrimp at the time), green beans, large slices of portobello mushroom, broccoli, and yellow squash. I threw together a soy dipping sauce by adding a tablespoon of finely grated ginger and garlic to ¼ cup of soy. Then, I added a tablespoon of sesame oil, a couple of tablespoons of rice vinegar, and a teaspoon of sugar. Oh ya, and some green onions.

I was so surprised how quick and easy it was to put together a shrimp and vegetable tempura dinner… and it was delicious. This tempura batter turned out to be everything I could want in tempura and more. The amount of salt in it is perfect and the beer flavor is subtle but definitely present. If you want to make a regular tempura (although I don’t know why you would unless you are allergic to beer or are making tempura banana for dessert) you can just replace the beer with sparkling water.

Categories
Cooking

Humbled by Cheese Curds

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Once again, I picked up some cheese curds from a farmer’s market. This time, I got some garlic cheese curds and was wondering for a day or so what do to with them. I’ve done a fair amount of things with cheese curds including poutine in several ways. Finally, it hit me… I should fry them.

I was so excited by the idea, I texted my foodie friend who lives in the San Francisco Bay area. She said that an awesome restaurant in Oakland does that and its really good… fuckin foodies lol. I feel like its so difficult to have an original idea in the culinary world. However, nobody makes things exactly as you do. Two people could make the same dish with the same ingredients and still they would be inevitably unique to that person in some way. So I decided to fry them with some Beer Batter Tempura. They turned out so good that we ate almost a full basket before I realized I didn’t even plate them or take a picture. That’s why you now see a picture of just five cheese curds… woops.

Categories
Animals

Creeper

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I wake up and the first thing I see is Freya wedged between two pillows, staring at me. “Hello mother, I’ve been watching you.”

Categories
Animals

Stitch Murphy Faces

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I am amazed by all the different looks that this cat has. Sometimes he is Crazy Cat and sometimes he is Grumpy Cat.

Categories
Cooking

Best Bacon Cheeseburger

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After eating these “western” style bacon cheeseburgers that I started making almost a year ago, I cannot eat similar burgers from fast food or other common restaurants. I’m not kidding, I will not eat mediocre or even relatively decent burgers with bacon, onion rings, and BBQ sauce as snobby as that sounds. Doing so is heart-wrenching because I know how good such a burger could be and I want the one that I make at home although I’m not always up for doing the work.

To make this burger you’ll need to make a Bacon Weave and Holy Onion Rings. I’ve actually deep fried my bacon weave a few times since the fryer was already going. The bacon weave doesn’t come out as pretty but it works. I strongly recommend making the Holy Onion Rings. If that is not possible you could buy onion rings from the freezer section at your local grocery store and crisp them up in the oven or toaster oven but this will give you a burger that is only really good as opposed to a knock-your-socks-off-too-good-for-words-I’m-just-going-to-keep-eating, burger. The choice is yours. Finally, I am a really big fan of using telera rolls for burgers and I will tell you why. Mainly, I love these rolls because of their chewy (but not too chewy) crust and their really soft center. I also love a round roll because I can remove a little bit of the bread from the top and create some room for the burger toppings. If you cannot find telera rolls in your area (try finding a Mexican market if you cannot find them in your regular market) then my next choice would be a kaiser roll.

When I assemble my burger, I put some BBQ sauce (I really like Sweet Baby Ray’s brown sugar BBQ sauce for this) on the bottom piece of bread. Then I add my burger that has melted mild cheddar (processed cheese is sometimes comforting and nostalgic for me but it has no place in this burger). Next, my bacon weave goes down and the onion rings are on top of that followed by some more BBQ sauce. On the top bun, I put I light layer of mayo and a little bit of red and black pepper but that is purely optional. This burger is a little time intensive to make but it is beyond worth it.