Lacey ORT Roadtrip

 Today was a small road trip to Lacey for my mom's dog Gypsy to take her Odor Recognition Test (ORT). Passing these tests allows her to start participating in K9 Nose Work search trials.

 Gypsy is wearing her red bandanna which means "reactive" and keep away. :) It was a pretty small group of dogs and there was decent space around the fairgrounds.

I did video in during each ORT and one video of her working on the prep box set-up they can do before they go in for their test:

Prep box work video
Birch test video
Anise test video

I have some work to do on filming a dog. The zoom has a hard time catching up and while the alert was always clear the body language wasn't really captured.

I have never actually seen Gypsy in a working environment and she is a perfect example of a dog that is built to work thriving in a work environment. She had a distinctly different demeanor than what I see at home. I think she enjoys the specifics of K9 Nose Work: the harness, the lead, the clear distinction of working and not working. She also is a very independent worker which is a really nice trait.

I made a point of keeping Nim separate from her until she was done with her testing. I have seen reactive dogs shut down after a bad dog on dog interaction and I wanted her focused on her task.

After all was done, the above photo is about the closest we could get them. Nim has gone to his happy place and Gypsy is plotting. :)

Proof of passing!

We also just figured out today that Nim and her share the same birthday of May 12th! He will be turning 2 and she will be turning 4.

Brussels Sprouts and Millet

Right now I am hoping to get to see the "Supermoon" they are predicting for tonight. Since it is 8:44pm and it was supposed to happen at 8:34 I may be out of luck.

It has been a long time since the news had made me laugh, however this did crack me up:

But KING 5 Meteorologist Jim Guy says there are a lot of clouds over the Cascades, so we may not get a good look.

“You’re going to have to wait until that moon climbs up over these clouds that we have,” he said. “And at that point I’m not sure it’s still going to be ‘super.’”

Totally figures.

At least I didn't drag Nim out for a night hike like I did one terrible freezing night to Odin, only to find out whatever celestial event I was chasing that time was too much to the south and I was on the wrong side of the mountain.That was a miserable, icy, and dark, hike down.

Today was a baking day.

The main course recipe is called "Creamy Lemon Tofu Layered Bake." The above photos is of course the beet and millet. I have never worked with millet before and not even sure if I have eaten it. Another great experience. I will be seeking out more recipes with it in my continued effort to diversify my diet. It is considered a very healthy grain and it was cheap which is a huge bonus to me. I absolutely loved it plain.

Naturally I added kale to the veggie layer. I just used plain crimini mushrooms. I also used miso instead of the soy sauce.

I had to substitute both vinegars on the tofu layer. I used balsamic in place of the apple cider and red wine in place of the umeboshi. These were possible substitutions I could find online. I don't know enough about all the vinegars out there. The tofu layer did taste good however so it must have been sufficient.

In between all the stages of the layers I was very excited to work with two different Brussels Sprouts recipes!

Sweet and Sour Brussels Sprouts
Roast Veggie "Candy" (because of this post I now know that Brussels Sprouts come on a stalk. I don't know how I thought they grew before, but large stalk wasn't the immediate visual).

 I couldn't chose between the two and have only had them once in my entire life to my memory with my Grammy Mary and Grandpa Tom. As memory serves they were frozen and I remember liking especially the novelty of them. We were a nook eating area and Grandpa still got his wine in a jug at that time. He is probably the only wine drinker I know that the brand of wine was in a jug. I wish I could remember what we talked about that night because all around that is a strong memory night.

Back to the Brussels Sprouts...

Much to my surprise, I truly loved both of them the same. I kept eating from one and then the other. The ones on the right are the Sweet and Sour and the ones on the left are "Candy." Dry roasting and putting the coconut oil on afterwards made a huge difference and I will remember that for other veggies. Also, who knew that Italian spices and cinnamon would work together?

It was funny, as both recipes started roasting up (one in the oven and one on the stove) the memory of the smell did hit me hard. Frozen or fresh, that apparently is not a smell that you forget.

The Tofu Bake came out well. By the time it was done I had been eating my way through the baking experience so I didn't eat much of it for now. The leeks might be pretty strong. I will reassess tomorrow.

Meanwhile I have made my favorite attempt of Genius Blondies to date! Still no flax so I went back to omitting the oatmeal and I added apple sauce. I have decided chickpeas versus white beans really are different and I prefer the chickpeas.

Finally I needed to use up my pineapple and coconut milk before it went bad. I have been going with the mini loaves, cutting them in half and freezing them. This round of the Coconut Breakfast Cake I divided into 12 muffins. This was an OK experiment. They seemed to stick to the paper more than a muffin would. I will go back to mini loaves or greasing a muffin tin next time. They definitely taste fine however.

Tomorrow myself, Nim, my mom, and her tiny mini-Aussie-with-giant-attitude "Gypsy" will be heading to Lacey so that Gypsy can take her odor recognition test (ORT). Everyone into Noseworks will be familiar with the term.

Nim Goes to the Eye Doctor

On Wednesday Nim went for an eye exam at Northwest Animal Eye Specialists in Kirkland. This was just a basic exam. I have had no reason to worry about his eyes.

First we had two rounds of drops for dilation. The vet tech (Keri I think) was SO good with him. He loved her!

The exam was done by Dr. Sandburg and she was also absolutely amazing with him and a really nice person. Definitely a vet I would take him back to for eye problems. He really struggles with a sit-stay on a slick surface so we worked with a down stay.

He was really good during the entire process. He never tried to get up and really was nice and calm. He loved having the gals talk to him and he got all this attention in the waiting room so as far as he was concerned it was a good day for Nim.

Everything checked out fine. He has dots of pigmentation in his right eye that has something to do with what happens with the blood vessels during development. I can't entirely remember. Anyway it is nothing to worry about. 

I loaded him up in the car and went inside to get some paperwork. When I came back out his eyes were barely open!

If I have had my eyes dilated it was so long ago I can't remember the process. I alternated between laughing at him and feeling sorry for him.

He rode with his head between the hammock and the seat. Not really knowing how it felt or how it impacted his vision I decided that if he stood up as we drove past Robinswood that I would take it as a sign he was good enough to walk. If not I would keep driving by and go about my errands.

He stood up. I think most of the walk was done with half-mast eyes.

I absolutely HATE baby duck season. Not because I hate ducks or their babies, in fact I am overwhelmed by them. It is dealing with all the ducks that die on the road at this time of year. Every year. Of all the animals I see dead on the side of the road (and where I live it is super common) dogs and ducks are the ones that just stab me in the heart.

I was curious if Nim could even see the ducks. He could hear them but I am really not sure that he could see them.

After our walk I pretty much put the key in the ignition and he was already out cold.

Single-lady Cookie Dough Pie Testing Fun

 Chocolate-Covered Katie's blog was SUPER active today with voting on recipes we wanted for May, a tease of a special announcement, and the news of a Vita-Mix giveaway.

I am really hoping the special announcement is cookbook related and she wants recipe testers. And think a good thought for me for the Vita-Mix giveaway! It is nothing I would buy for myself, and actually I have a cranky story about how a Vita-Mix was once in my household and its subsequent exit with a boyfriend...but there are much more enjoyable things to talk about!

For example, three different attempts at a "not perfected" recipe that Katie put in the comments for a Single-lady Cookie Dough Pie.

This is definitely a good way for me to relax for the night. The above attempt is true to recipe, with spelt flour and substituting applesauce for the coconut oil.

This was actually my last of the three tests. There is a huge amount of her readers that prefer to cut out as much fat and calories as possible so I wanted to see what happened.

It cooked up nice and actually was pretty good. I preferred the coconut oil versions in texture and taste, but I would also eat it this way.

These are the two coconut oil versions. The one on the left is done with oat flour and the one on the right is done with spelt.

The only thing I potentially screwed up with these two is that I cooked them in the microwave together.

So both centers were mildly underdone (not a problem for me). I have baked with both flours but never in the same item at the same time. It was really interested how it changes consistency and "wheaty" flavor. I would say I slightly preferred the spelt flour one overall but this will be an easy gluten-free recipe.

When I do this again I will use brown sugar instead and increase the vanilla! All my tests were done with almond milk.

PS. Am I the only one that didn't know what "Puppy Chow" was? I voted for that one because of the name. Little did I know it is a real thing and considering it is pretty much peanut butter, sugar, and cereal I do not know how I never knew about this.

PSS. Salt and vinegar chickpea poppers were AMAZING! Favorite combo hands down.

GiveBIG

 Quick post before I head out to take Nim to an eye appointment - yes, soak that one in.

Anyway, I just heard about this event which is today only: GiveBIG from The Seattle Foundation.

Today only if you donate to participating foundations (listed on site) through The Seattle Foundation Web site your donation will be part of their "stretch pool"/matching. Their FAQ will be much more clear than I can be.

The images for this post are two notebooks I bought last night at Fred Meyer. I only needed one new notebook but I loved both of these so much that I bought them both. A beautiful notebook cover makes the notebook as far as I am concerned.

Scrappy Broken Dishes Quilt Top

This morning I made 8 more half triangle squares. They are not my favorite fabric combination on the quilt but they used up fabric, roughly fit in with the others, and once they were put into blocks they didn't stand out anyway.

It is nice to finally have this top done. Depending what backing fabric I have available will depend if I put a border on this one. Hopefully I can get it to it later in the week.

The real reason I cooked the chickpeas was for another attempt at Chocolate Chip Blondies. It seems a bit over-baked to me this time around.

All my previous attempts have been with white beans and I wanted to see if there was a difference. I also still didn't have flax so this time I substituted quick oats (last time I omitted entirely and may have preferred that consistency better). There is definitely a taste difference between the two beans as well which I wasn't expecting.

Meanwhile I have another idea for poppers...vinegar and salt. Maybe tomorrow.

Chickpeas and Peaches

 Dear May - You know how I love the start of a new month. Couldn't we have had a little sun?

Fortunately I had a frozen peach version of Voluminous Vanilla Ice Cream setting up in the freezer. I actually had forgotten about it. I used a full teaspoon of vanilla (I like it much better that way) and two peaches (skin still on).

This was inspired by her Mucho Mango Faux-Yo but I did the Vanilla Ice Cream procedure instead so I used almond milk, froze the mixture and then blended.Also I don't seem to have the love for Mangos that a lot of people do. We are not remotely in peach season and they were ridiculously expensive but very good.

This is my favorite version so far and considering how much I loved the Peanut Butter Frozen Hot Chocolate version that says a lot.

It took me about 9 hours of simmering to get my chickpeas cooked yesterday. Definitely the slowest dry bean I have worked with yet.

Today I used some of the beans to try three versions of Chickpea Poppers.

Salt, pepper, onion powder, and olive oil.

Salt, nutritional yeast, and olive oil.

Cinnamon, sugar, and coconut oil.

My top flavor (for today at least) was the salt, pepper, and onion powder. Really addictive.

The nutritional yeast version would be a close second.

The cinnamon-sugar was the most weak but still totally edible. A couple of problems occurred one being the ratios I think but the bigger disappointment was that the taste was just really mild. I probably needed more coconut oil to really adhere the coating.

*******Post edit for good cause********

Popchips Game Changers -Athletes Hungry for Change is in their public voting stage in which an organization could win support from Hope Solo. I heard about this promotion from Missing Pet Partnership which is a local organization that I have nothing but admiration for the incredible work that they do. Please consider voting for them (there are actually several other really wonderful local organizations nominated as well).