Nessie Catches the Fashion Bug

With longer hours and increased commute times now that we are in San Diego, Nessie has more time to herself during the day to do some of the activities she likes to do. She is fitting in well on the West coast and her number one activity is napping.

She also has access to the backyard during the day and enjoys the 70 degree weather by sunning herself and chasing lizards. Nessie has also taken an interest in clothes and has been eyeing one of Jessica's blue tank tops. She recently modeled it for us.

Making weeknight dinners easier!

In an effort to make weeknight dinners a bit easier to handle, especially now that Sean and I are back to work, I borrowed an idea from Real Simple magazine. There were several recipes and the included instructions for freezing each dish (for up to 3 months!) and how to reheat it when ready. Since we had a long weekend, I decided to try two of the recipes. I had to modify the chili one and use veggie crumbles instead of ground beef, but all in all they came out well.

Veggie Chili (LEFT)

Penne w/ Spinach & Sun-dried Tomatoes (RIGHT)

I ended up making two nights worth of chili and two nights worth of Penne Pasta with Spinach and Sun-dried Tomatoes. Now, I didn't actually try them out yet, but they smelled good. It will make coming home from work a lot more peaceful!! Here's a picture of our nicely organized freezer with our ready-to-go dinners!

Nessie's Big Surprise

Nessie has been such a wonderful dog recently! Her new medication is working, along with her special food, so that means no accidents! Aside from the two times she decided to go swimming in the community lagoon (which is a big NO, NO), she's been almost perfectly behaved.

During our trip to Target yesterday, we found a big surprise for Nessie - a 2 foot long rawhide bone! It was hilarious watching her try to move it around. She immediately set about trying to devour the entire thing in one sitting, but her mean parents took it away after a few hours so she didn't get sick from eating too much.

Rosemary Focaccia

With Sean home, we decided to enter the kitchen and make something new yesterday. We searched through the Moosewood Cookbook that Lisa gave me a few years ago and decided to try this bread. It was really easy and came out pretty well. First we started by soaking dried rosemary in boiling water.

After that we added the yeast and the sugar to the water until it was bubbling. Then we added wheat flour and unbleached white bread flour until the dough stopped sticking to the sides of the bowl. Sean was hungry, so I had to stop him from trying to eat the raw dough!!! Then we had to knead that dough for five to ten minutes and let it rise for 1.5 hours.

While the dough was doing its thing, Sean and I went to the Carlsbad Village Farmer's Market and picked up some items to cook dinner and some flowers for the house.

When we got back the dough was ready to be "punched down" and kneaded again. Then we stretched it out into it's final cooking pan and let it rise for another 45 minutes. Once it was done rising, we added the indentations, rosemary, kosher salt, and olive oil and baked it for 20 minutes. All in all, it turned out to be pretty delish!

Batiquitos Lagoon

After a very long drive across the country, Sean, Nessie and I were in need of an adventure that did NOT involve 4-wheels! I had driven around our new neighborhood to see what was available to us, and I stumbled across the Batiquitos Lagoon, just a mile from our house. So we headed out on a walk with the Pants to see how nice the trail was. It turned out to be a beautiful morning and there were a ton of people out.

Side note: the first thing I noticed when we got here is that people arealways outsidedoingthings. They are biking, running, walking, rollerblading (I didn't even know people still did that), surfing, exploring, etc. I guess that's the plus to having almost perfect weather year round!

Nessie was just thrilled to be out of the car and stretching her legs for a change. We had a lovely walk along the lagoon and then cut up the trail on a hill that took us up to Batiquitos Drive, where we walked back. It was a great morning for all!