the goose loves shamrocks

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! I'm proud to be half American-Irish (which means that my dad's family is from Ireland, but many many generations ago)! Billy is also more Irish than Scottish, but don't tell him that... So in my email awhile ago, I got a coupon code for 10 free greeting cards from Shutterfly! I don't usually send out cards for St. Patrick's Day (or most other holidays, as I don't get around to it) but this looked like a great opportunity. So I made a little bowtie for Bentley from leftover material from his Christmas stocking, Billy snapped a few photos of him with my "fancy" Canon, and voila - St. Patrick's Day cards for the family!

And on the inside...

But we had so many other good photos of the little dog from our "photo shoot" that I had to include here for your enjoyment (or at least my enjoyment!).

Looking off into the distance.... (probably looking at a treat I was holding)

Thinking hard about what to have for lunch.

Alert, for food, as always.

His model pose.

I think he loves his bow tie.

Hoping he makes it into American Dog Magazine.

And a better angle of the bow tie...

What a serious little beagle.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Everyone!

bentley loves adolph

On Sunday and Monday, Bentley was a sick little puppy. He was sleepy and lethargic, and wasn't as into his food (that's a good sign something is wrong!). So we took him to the vet on Tuesday morning, and decided that he had eaten something bad but it had made it through his system!
[They also cleaned out his anal sacs because they were full... yucky...]

Since he was such a good boy at the vet's, and since he's been chewing through his toys like crazy, we decided to pick out a new, durable, long-lasting toy for his chewing pleasure. However, Bentley knew what he wanted, and picked out one for himself (it was in a low bin, right at doggie-eye level). So we came home with Adolph the Alligator:

As you can see here, Bentley already started loving Adolph on our way home, and already bit Adolph's lip. Adolph Hitler may have (barely) made it through WW2, but our little Adolph is not making it through a day with Bentley!

Adolph is supposed to be a tough toy, though. The guy at PetSmart said that he knows pit bulls that couldn't get through this alligator. So I asked him if I could bring the toy back if Bentley was able to destruct Adolph, and the guy said yes. So looks like Adolph might make his way back to PetSmart pretty soon...

I love this one above - Adolph looks like he's about to bite Bents in the face!

And then in this one below, Bentley shows Adolph who's boss, while Adolph happily watches.

And the makeout session continues...
This last one is my favorite - I think Bentley's saying "this is MY alligator - back off!"

Poor Adolph only has one eye now, is missing a good chunk of stuffing, and his mouth is cracked open... so much for being a "tough" toy!

the goose loves catching up

So it's been a few days - I guess my Lenten resolutions are keeping me so busy?

I've got some exciting posts coming up - including St. Paddy's Day and sewing projects - but in the meantime, here's a few random photos, catching us up on a few things.

A couple of Sundays ago, I made some scones for breakfast! I'd been wanting to for awhile, but never got around to it. I'm not a fan of the overly-dry incredibly-crumbly scones, so I wanted to make sure I could bake a soft, moist, and tasty morning treat. I used this recipe and didn't have raisins, so I subbed chocolate chips (way better, in my opinion!). And they turned out great!

Here's our pile of freshly-baked scones! Yum. I can't wait to try other variations on the recipe.

We also recently ran out of jam, and when we went to the pantry to find another jar, we found this instead!

It's one of the little jars of jam leftover from our wedding! About a year ago, we made lots of jam from mixed berries as favors for our July wedding. It was a lot of work, but we got some help from the girls - thank goodness! We decorated them with a purple (of course) ribbon and a clever little messsage on top: [please forgive the poor-quality phone camera photos]

Anyways, we popped the thing open and it was as tasty as ever!

And lastly, we'll close with a cute shot of my two favorite boys, having a romantic moment:

Bentley was acting super flopsy - Billy must have been scratching him in the perfect spot!

the goose loves fat tuesday

Happy Ash Wednesday (and 1st day of Lent for you Catholics!)...

Last night we had a mini (maybe I should say micro?) Fat Tuesday celebration - much more low key than the late-night parties in the Commons at UP - but we did have alcohol at ours...

Carolyn came over and we made jambalaya - from this recipe at allrecipes.com.

We had two pans though, since we like shrimp and spice and she's not so into that... :)

So here is our jambalaya, pre-rice and pre-shrimp, simmering in our beautiful All-Clad...

And here's the final result, - ready to be eaten!

Along with our tasty cajun food in honor of New Orleans, Carolyn and I mixed up a delicious drink, which she dubbed the "Strawberry Delight" (even though there is nothing strawberry about it). We mixed lemon-lime soda, grenadine, lemon juice, and vanilla vodka, and it turned out fantastic.

And now we begin a period of fasting, meatless Fridays, and sacrifices. Hooray.

bentley loves ikea

This weekend, while restoring the house to an acceptable level of cleanliness, I realized how much I love sewing but how little I love cleaning up my sewing things and carting them upstairs to their home. On top of that, Bentley (who should have been named George, after the series of book starring that curious little monkey) loves to pop up on his hind legs, get his chin up on the table, and poke around with his paws/nose and find something good to grab with his mouth and pull onto the floor for a good chew session. Due to my habits of leaving all my sewing accoutrement

all over the table, his recent tabletop finds have included a pincushion, scissors, yards of fabric, straight pins, spools of thread, and patterns - all of which he found suitable for chewing until we convinced him to let them go.Therefore, we travelled to Ikea on Sunday and found me a shelving system to house my sewing supplies. A local and easy storage center incents me to put my things away, allowing us to use the dining room table for something useful... like dining?... and it will save us a trip to the vet to extract a straight pin from the dog's molars... ouch.

We built the cabinet last night, and tonight I look forward to installing the shelves etc and filling it with my precious accessories! A photo will come of the completed effort.

But for now, we can enjoy how much Bentley loves Ikea - from his perspective, the store is awesome because when we buy things, they give us big cardboard boxes for free! Destruction is so fun! (Sorry the video is kinda long...)

the goose loves her boys

Hadn't posted much this week, so I wanted to share with you a sweet picture of my two favorite boys! They decided to take a little nap while I worked on my sewing projects last night... :)

Have a great weekend!

the goose loves food

This weekend was horrendously cold and wet. So what better to do than make tasty goodies in the warm kitchen? :) Also, Billy's dad Bill has visited us this past weekend, so we had to treat him to a good time.

We started the morning with mini quiches, bacon, and a new attempt of mine - pop tarts!

Sure, we've all had the cardboard-like, overly sweet version of the breakfast "pastry" from the box, but have you had a home-made pop tart yet? They are both easy and delicious!!

Here they are cooling, before I frosted them. (Sorry, they were too tasty to photograph after they were frosted...!)

For dinner, we decided to make a traditional curry recipe that Bill's family started eating when they lived in Saudi Arabia years ago. We decided to primarily follow Billy's mom's recipe.

Here's the boys, ready for dinner!

Billy made a cardamom rice to go with the curry - here's the beginning of it...

And the finished product! Yum... nice job Billy...

The curry itself is pretty basic - saute onions, brown chicken breasts, then cook them in a sauce of chicken broth, curry powder, flour, and cayenne powder. Here it is, simmering in goodness!

Per family tradition, various "condiments" are prepared to go alongside the curry. Everyone can pick their own toppings, but most people use almost all of them. It seems like it wouldn't work, but the various textures and tastes really make the curry pop. Here are our condiments - yellow and green onions, coconut, pineapple, tomatoes, chopped peanuts, and crispy onion straws.

And the final result - nice hot curry on my plate, pre-condiments!

Bill was very pleased with the result, and we all ate more than we needed. It's probably not an everyday dinner for Billy and me, since the prep is rather involved, but it'll be great for company and welcoming the McWoods to our house! :)

And now, a little teaser photo...

Tune in soon for the details on this cutie...