Dokor

That's the nickname we gave Dakota. And the "R" is silent. Here's how we came up with it.

Jon loves to sing songs about the dogs in our life. It used to be Sammy and now it's Dakota. We will turn literally every song into a dog song. With Dakota, Jon has been singing along to the tune of the Oscar Mayer balogna song. You know the one, right? Jon's version:

"My doggie has a first name. It's D-O-K.....O....R"

Spelling is not his strong suit. That's as far as he got because I started laughing. "Doko?" I asked, thinking he said D-O-K-O-A. The name stuck, but you spell it "Dokor", with the "R" being silent of course. Here are some "Dokor" pictures

They were edited with iPhoto. The program really makes it too easy! Photoshop is way too intimidating to me.

I mentioned yesterday how much I miss knitting. I also really miss baking! Some classmates of mine had a BBQ a while back to celebrate a birthday and I made some cute little lemon tarts

The recipe called for sweetened condensed milk and I still have leftover. I'm leaving for Washington tomorrow and was wondering how to get rid of this leftover. I really hate throwing things away! My solution? Dulce de leche brownies! They look too good! The idea planted into my head last night as I was watching a program on Bolivia and they were talking about alfajores. I really didn't want to make alfajores because they are way too time consuming for me. Anything I have to roll out, really. A quick search led me to the brownies. The recipients? My old co-workers as I plead for them to water my plants while I'm gone!

Nursing school level 1....check that off my list

Summer semester is finally done. Well, I shouldn't say "finally" because session 2 flew by! Time seemed to go quicker while we were out and about in our various clinical settings. It definitely did when you compare that to sitting through lecture all day!

I started the summer off in OB. I was so excited for this, but wanted to have it last so I could end the semester with the babies! We only had two weeks in OB and two weeks in LTC (long term care). My very first day in OB I got to go to labor and delivery and watch babies being born. To be honest, I thought I would have a problem with it because everyone is right there all in mama's business. But it wasn't bad at all. As long as mom was fine with me being in there, I had no problem. 

The whole process amazes me. It was beautiful. Watching mom see her baby for the first time, baby taking her first breaths and screaming, and mom holding her baby. The nurse I was following was a great teacher. I suppose she remembered what it was like to be a student--she looked very young. I was able to watch her do the Apgar's on baby, listen to the heartbeat, I even picked up the placenta!

After that was mother & baby. We did a lot of assessments and some teaching, which I totally felt under-qualified for seeing as how I have zero children! Being fluent in Spanish, especially medical Spanish would have been extremely helpful because all my patients spoke very little English. I had a harder time with this unit, main reason being that I really hate bugging people. All us students had our own patients who, of course, also had a real nurse. I felt like we were really bothering them. Us going in to do our assessments and vitals with our instructor and the nurse coming into the room in between--I would have been going crazy if I were the patient! Poor sleep-deprived, sore mothers had to put up with us and our learning. 

Nursery was my favorite. All day babies would be coming in. We were busy with vitals, heel sticks, Ballard scoring, first baths, and swaddling. All of us, even those who had zero interest in babies initially, fell in love. It made me want a baby that much more!

The last half of my semester was spent in LTC. It was somewhat of a downer coming from OB, going from one developmental stage to the complete opposite in the life timeline. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it was still hard for me. Can you imagine your life changing all of a sudden, being told when to eat, bathe, sleep, smoke (for some), who you're friends with? There are very limited choices here. As a resident, any modesty you once had will have to go, since you rely on others to bathe, change, and clean you. What got me the most, though, were the two younger men in the facility. Both experienced situations that left them unable to talk, walk, and eat/drink without assistance. I cried at the end of my first week, thinking about it in bed one night. I'll never forget...and I don't plan on going into that field. It really takes a strong person.

So that was my month! Full of projects, presentations, and clinicals. I'm glad to say I'm done! Yesterday, I realized that I really miss blogging. Not just the writing, but even reading and commenting. I feel extremely out of the loop!

You know what else I miss? Knitting! I had to take one of the cars in for an oil change. I fully prepared myself for two hours of sitting. I toted along Sara's Elefante, fully determined to finish the darned thing already! However, on that day of all oil-change-days, the Volvo mechanics decided to fly through it and I was in and out in less than 40 minutes. But don't fret! When I got home I planted my butt on that couch until I was done! I even neglected dinner duty and had leftovers instead. Behold the results

These projects have been eating away at me! Originally, I had planned on whipping them out before nursing school even started, but then Sammy passed, and you know, life got in the way. I can now move on to the next project.

Miss me yet?

I think blogging has slowly taken a back burner in my priorities as of late. I've been wanting to write all week, but have not found the time to. Did I mention I'm never going to get sick of lounging around with my husband? I really think that will be never!

I just wanted to share some pictures of my most recent baking attempts. I've been neglecting my blog, my baking, my knitting, and exercise (although involuntarily). What am I doing you may ask. Well....nothing! Up to now. 

I got the urge to bake something on Easter so I ventured over to a nearby Walmart to get some Peeps and candy eggs. I had seen a picture floating around the internet of some really cute Easter cupcakes, but wanted to wait to buy the candy for it when everything was on sale. Here is what resulted from my flour-fest

They just scream SPRING!! to me. I personally hate Peeps, but I think they're adorable and actually feel bad for them when I see all those unwanted pink, blue, yellow, and purple chickies and bunnies. There are always so many left over after Easter! The cupcakes are carrot and the frosting is of the necessary cream cheese variety, dyed green of course to represent grass. While these look cute, I wasn't too crazy about them. I messed around with the frosting too much, which resulted in an over-whipped goopey mess. No amount of refrigeration or pushing it through a small pastry tip would alleviate this problem, so I had to abandon my plans of piping "grass" with my special tip. I had to resort to the spatula. The cupcakes themselves, weren't all too tasty for me, especially after an hour of hand grating baby carrots (I had no normal sized carrots on hand!) Too much work for less than spectacular results. I will not be making these again, and handed the recipe I used to a girl at work that loved these cupcakes. Maybe I'm just not that big of a fan of carrot cake??

So after that failure and in need of something satisfyingly scrumptious, I searched dessert recipes on trusty Martha's website. Realizing that I had over a pound of Costco strawberries left that were about to go, I settled on some strawberry shortcake, which I've never made before. It was sooo good!

Drool! I didn't add as much sugar to the strawberries as the recipe called for and it was plenty sweet. Mmm....way better than those Peep cupcakes. I've been redeemed!

In Elefante news, I finally figured out a way to sew on the head without the stitches looking all gross and ugly. I just have to sew on two more feet, eyes, and the tail and she's done! I will post pictures as soon as I'm done and get my lazy butt to uploading them. Seriously, pictures will stay in my camera forever! 

Good night everyone! I've missed you all!

Weekend wrap up

I'm exhausted! I've been going nonstop this whole weekend. I had volunteered to bake cookies for the soldiers of Jon's battalion that are finally coming home. In fact, as I type many families are enjoying the company of their loved ones after a long 15 month separation. I'm going to be watching the coverage that the local news station is putting on at 10 tonight and I know I'll have tears (of happiness)! I wanted to go to the ceremony, but didn't want to take time off work I didn't have and post is 75 miles away....plus, like I said, I'm exhausted.

There were a lot of soldiers to be accounted for (600+), but as much as I would have liked to, I wasn't able to have enough cookies for all of them. I ended up with 97 baggies when all was done.

I started making the cookie dough last Wednesday night because I was going to try to bake them all for Friday so Jon could take them in to work with him. With homecoming information constantly changing, though, I found that I would be able to have them done in time and as fresh as possible by Monday (today). They were all simple recipes. I didn't want anything too complicated if I had to bake a large volume; no rolling out of dough, no cookie cutters, no rolling in sugar/cinnamon/etc......nothing like that. I baked Almond White Chocolate Chunk Cookies, a tried and true recipe I've made several times. I also made my Lime Meltaways for a different flavor, and Alton Brown's wonderful Puffy Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Almond White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Lime Meltaways

Puffy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I hadn't made the chocolate chip cookies before, but I had made Alton Brown's chewy cookie version and that one turned out soooo good! I ate 7 in one day! The reason I made the puffy one this time was because I didn't have enough butter! I had gone to the commissary that day and bought one pack of butter, thinking that would be enough since I already had 5 sticks in the fridge at home. Wrong! I remembered the puffy cookie recipe used shortening, but since shortening grosses me out to no end, I decided to use half shortening half butter. They turned out awesome! Even my official taste tester (and his wannabe) thought so! Jon ecstatically exclaimed "They taste just like Mrs. Field's!"

After all that baking I had to package the cookies. I ended up putting one of each of the chocolate chip and almond white chocolate chunk cookies and three meltaways per baggie. I got done late because I started late as a result of weekend traveling.

Don't worry, Jon wasn't left out. I made some Cream Cheese-Lemon Bows for him (and Sammy). These cookies are staying put here!

I was discouraged when Jon later told me that lemon wasn't his favorite, but he actually liked these! I hadn't planned on the dusting of powdered sugar since I pretty much considered it decorative, and come on.....guys don't care about presentation! But Jon wanted it, so he got it!

And I couldn't deprive him of his obvious favorites, the chocolate chip cookies, so he got a few surprise ones this morning. He took the cookies in to work for me.

Those Target bags were heavy! I didn't know what else to put them in. I hope they got to the soldiers in decent shape!

OK...gonna finish watching The Bachelor now. I ruined it by reading about the whole controversial ending so I know what's supposedly going to happen. Stupid reality TV! What I heard better not be true! I liked Jason so much.....

ETA: Ugh! Yeah it happened. Jason dumped Melissa after proposing to her and wants to try things out with Molly. I don't care if Molly didn't know about this but if I were her, I would drop his ass! Who does that? Probably scripted like people have been speculating. I think I'll watch the next Bachelorette since Jillian will be the one.....then I'm done.

Dinner and The Bachelor

Considering I've been eating crap over the weekend (what do you mean Goldfish crackers and a can of olives isn't a meal?), I figured I should cook dinner tonight. So after work I drove over to the running store to return the ouch-inducing shoes and raced home so I can prepare dinner before The Bachelor started. Didn't quite make it, but I was able to sit down and eat for the last half of it.....and I'm watching it now as I type! I must multi-task!

So on the menu tonight was the lemon-olive chicken, recipe courtesy of Real Simple and presented by Half Assed Kitchen. The first time I saw this blog, by the way, I laughed out loud. I especially love the description: "Eh...it's edible." So here are the pictures protraying the recipe.

I must chop all the veggies beforehand, especially the shallots. I really need to invest in those onion goggles! Tears galore! Can't you just picture me rocking those sexy things?

Fry up those little buggers! I just read that the onions have these enzymes that, in a multi-step reaction, eventually produce sulfuric acid in your eyes! No wonder they, along with my throat, were in agony! Read about it!

A shot of the browned chicken. The coating had cumin in it, so I was drooling the whole time I was cooking! It was all I could do not to bite a chunk of the chicken with it looking so pretty and smelling so delish right there!

Throw the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer for a while. We're almost there!

Time to eat! Can you tell I eat on the coffee table in front of the TV? Did you also catch the Turbo Jam in the corner of that picture?

This was really good, even though I accidentally bought cilantro instead of flat leaf parsley. Don't ask me why, but the last couple times I meant to grab parsley, I've made this mistake!

cilantro

flat leaf parsley

Am I crazy? Do they not look similar?

Oh my, I'm so excited for next week's Bachelor. They're going to Seattle!! If you saw the preview, those sea planes were a constant in my last two years living there. I had a view of Lake Union from my lab and watched those sea planes take off all throughout the day. I could hear them from my apt. less than a mile away. Oh, homesick!

OK, nevermind...on to tonight's show. I've been rooting for Melissa, although she initially annoyed the crap out of me. I don't know why, maybe I was in a bad mood when I watched the first episode? I know she is Jason's type and she's soooo cute. And....bouncy. And appearance-wise, she kind of reminds me of Deanna. Shannon creeps me out. She's psycho! Megan is kinda tough girl bitchy and while I couldn't stand her before, I warmed up to her on this episode. Too bad she's off, though. Stephanie is really sweet, but she looks way older than her age and I don't see any chemistry between her and Jason. Nikki is beautiful and I've been feeling so bad for her because she's so walled off. I guess I can just relate to her because I'm so shy and if I were in her shoes, I totally wouldn't be aggressively going after Jason. That's just not me! So she's off as well. Naomi reminds me of Eva Mendes (I think it's the lips) and I don't like Eva Mendes much. So that's my two cents. Who's your favorite? We're getting down to the wire here!

Red Velvet Cake, meet Candy-Stripe Cookie Sticks

I finally conquered red velvet cake last month. I successfully made one for Jon's homecoming. My new challenge, thanks to dear Martha: Candy-Stripe Cookie Sticks. Here's what they're supposed to look like. Here's what I came out with:
I was really looking forward to these cookies too! I'm so mad because I wasted all those precious egg whites--they ended up down the drain. Everything went wrong. I forgot to whisk the sugar with the egg white and added it late. The dough was (too?) runny. While piping the red stripes onto the rectangle cookies the tip kept getting clogged with lumpy dough. The cookies stuck to my baking mat and were hard to peel off. Once I got them off and flipped them over to roll them up they got really sticky. The end result: a big mess and a frustrated Tania rinsing the remaining dough down the sink. I'll have to mess with this one when I have more time.

So that left me with only 3 types of cookies to send out to family, rather than five (after failing with above cookies, I didn't even try the Cigarettes Russes, as they were of similar construction). At least all those turned out!

The Chocolate-Peppermint Cookies. I had leftover white chocolate after I was done so I dipped a few Milkbones in for my mom's dog and for Sammy.

And here are the Lime Flowers. I also made the Lime Meltaways, but didn't include pictures here because I made and shared them before.

So the packages are off. I mailed some to Jon too. I'm nervous that my recipients are going to end up with crumbs when they finally get these. I hope they survive the trip!

OK, I have some major cleaning to do. I got done late last night and left everything out. Dishes need to be done and my poor kitchen table needs to be cleared!

It's the most wonderful time of the year

And it's also a baker's dream! Why? Because it's a great excuse to bake mass quantities of your favorite cookies!

In my case, I have ONE tried and true recipe and a lot of those that I want to try. After reading Sara's praises about Martha Stewart's Cookies book, seeing it in the DM BX for 25% off cover, and falling in love with most of the recipes in the book, I decided to buy it! I now have a queue of cookie recipes to try. Maybe I'm a little overconfident in making these recipes for the first time and sending them out to people, but everything I've made and taken to work was promptly devoured. I'm hoping the same will be true with these cookies! And if they turn out bad, I'm not required to send them out. Here's the list of the cookies I want to make:

1. Chocolate-Peppermint Cookies--I must make these after seeing Sara's results!
2. Cigarettes Russes
3. Candy-Stripe Cookie Sticks
4. Lime Meltaways--my tried and true recipe. I have a whole bottle of key lime juice to use up, so I guess these will be Key Lime Meltaways! Easy to make and the recipe yields a lot!
5. Lime Flowers--use up more key lime juice!
6. Chocolate Macarons with Peppermint Ganache --found this recipe on Dessert First (I love that blog!). These won't keep long so they'll be for friends in town.
7. Alfajores de Dulce de Leche (link is to similar recipe)--my aunt makes alfajores, a South American treat, from time to time so this recipe is a must-try for me! 
8. Cream Cheese-Lemon Bows

Now let's see if I can actually get to all these recipes! I just want to make sure there's good variety in the cookie tins people will be receiving from me!

You should have seen my grocery basket: milk, 2 lbs of butter, 2 dozen eggs, 10 lbs of flour, 3 lbs brown sugar, limes, ground ginger, and a huge box of Lucky Charms. Can you guess what I was eating for breakfast and dinner? That's right. I went through that whole box of Lucky Charms in 2 days. Pretty disgusting, huh? I haven't been doing much cooking since Jon left. The only mouth I have to worry about feeding now is my own (well, Sammy's too but that's just dry dog food). That's why I can get away with a grocery list like that!

One aside: anyone watch Secret Millionaire? I'm watching it now and I love it! Such a refresher from all those other reality shows on TV, where the purpose is to receive money. It's a real tear-jerker. Check it out!

Rainy morning muffins

Today will be my first day back at work. I wasn't able to fall asleep until about 1 a.m. but the sound of pouring rain woke me up at 5:30 this morning. Now, considering that I come from Seattle and it rarely rains here, not to mention I sometimes miss the rain, that woke me right up.....couldn't go back to sleep. So I decided to wake up and bake these muffins I wanted to make for Jon the night before he left. Well, good thing I didn't make them for him because I don't think he would like them--they would be too healthy for him.

They still taste good though! But this is definitely more of a breakfast muffin. They're called Morning-After Cranberry Sauce Muffins, courtesy of Serious Eats. Technically, mine are week-after cranberry sauce muffins. Oh well! The cranberry sauce was still good! Such a good way to use up that excess cranberry sauce left over from Thanksgiving! 

Morning-After Cranberry Sauce Muffins

Makes about a dozen

1 cup flour

1/2 cup whole-grain flour

1 cup oats

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 cups leftover cranberry sauce

1/2 cup skim milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Line muffin tins with baking cups.
2. In a large bowl, combine regular flour, whole-grain flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Mix well. In a medium bowl combine milk, oil, cranberry sauce, and egg. Blend well. Fold into dry ingredients all at once; stir until dry ingredients are moistened.
3. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full.
4. Bake 20-22 minutes or until golden brown. 

The recipe is easy enough. The recipe didn't actually say how much cinnamon to add (forgot that detail?), but 1 teaspoon seems to be enough for me, especially since my homemade cranberry sauce had plenty of spices in it already! That's another thing....I wouldn't suggest cranberry sauce from a can for this recipe. It is a nice wholesome muffin that tastes good too! But then I did add a sugar-cinnamon-flour-butter crumb topping!