Beef Satay with Peanut Dipping Sauce

Another one from America's Test Kitchen. Beef Satay with white rice and Peanut Dipping Sauce. The white rice was just instant box stuff. It is flank steak marinated and broiled. I liked the peanut sauce, a little spicy, like peanut butter with a kick. I wasn't crazy about the Beef itself but i've never had a different beef satay so I can't compare. Hef's dad liked it, but I don't know if I will make it again.

When decorating, add bunnies!

We are still filling our entertainment center cabinets with decorative items and nice liquors and wines. So at TJ Maxx (usually a good place for bunnies) I picked up two more bunnies. This one, I decided is a girl, and shes a little judgemental with her squinty eyes, but shes a sweetheart with her pretty flowers and butterfly. haha!

I thought this bunny could go in our new vegetable garden. But his goofy smile just makes me laugh so right now he's in the house. He is made by http://www.stonebunny.com/ and they have a lot of other cute rabbit stepping stones and plaques. I love when things at TJ Maxx have tags and I can get more adorable bunnies.

I smell presents!

I definetly smell presents in the air! AND I have big ears so I hear you, Mom and Dad, when you keep talking about my birthday!

I'm going to be 3 years old in two weeks and one day (7/11)!

EARTHQUAKE!

The word going around is that there was a 5.0 magnitude earthquake in Ottawa Canada. Some people and many animals felt it all the way down in here in Western New York. I was at work, in a strong brick wendys and didn't feel a thing. Hef's dad was in Pennslyvania on business and was too far away. Shadow the dog was home with Heffy. It appears that Shadow the dog felt the earthquake and reacted quite badly. Shadow the dog has always been upset and nervous about thunderstorms, heavy rain, and strong winds. When I cam home from work she had a open sore on her nose and the couch cushions were all dumped and flipped over. There were blood stains from her wiping her nose on the couch and chair. Poor thing! Heffy is just fine and made it through the earthquake without a problem.

Buns & Beaches

Okay so we really only have one bun and one beach to talk about but it was a nice sounding title. Hef says "Look at me, I could be a lazy beach bun, but I don't like sand in my carrotini!"

So, Hef didn't want to come. Shadow and I went along. This stupid sign is always at the beach. I called last year and spoke with a park official. She explained pets are allowed on the sand but in the "lifeguarded beach area". Of course this sign is like 500 feet from the beach area so its stupid anyhow. And what do they mean no animals on the beach? There are a lot of seagulls they should go ticket for trespassing.

I thought Shadow's doggieprints in the sand were pretty cute!

Here's Shadow on our beach, officially called Beaver Island Beach. I should have taken a picture of the big plantationesque house by the beach. Hef's dad and I just might get married there someday!

NEW CAMERA

We got a great deal on a reconditioned pink Polaroid i735. It is 2 megapixels more then our old camera, bringing it up to 7 megapixels, with 3x optical and 4 times digtial zoom. It is also very much smaller then my other camera and fits easily in my purse so we'll have a lot more photos to share! Here are the furry kids first pictures.

Shadow the Dog was submitted to the very first photo test, since she was close by.

Then Heffy posed with our new veggies, front row with Hef is tomatoes and the row behind is bell peppers, behind that are beans, and some herbs.

Veggies are coming! Yum!

Here we have a potted eggplant, doing pretty well. I read that eggplants liked dark pots to keep extra hot so this eggplant ended up there.

This is a little sweet potato. I bought a 6 pack of sweet potato plants too early and only this trooper survived. It's being overshadowed by another plant.Which is this massive zucchini plant! Its a crazy fella, and its almost up to the deck. All these plants were planted the same day but the zucchini really took off. Its got a few flowers already.These are scallions/green onions. I planted them last year, and they kind of fizzeled out. I didn't realize they were a two year crop. Now they are doing well.

And these are my yukon gold potatoes, I believe ony 4 potatoes went in the ground but they are doing well. Hef's dad also tilled a bit more land and we'll be planting more this weekend.

Grocery Shopping

This is my fridge and freezer. I'm going to talk about them today because last night after grocery shopping Hef's dad said to me, "Ya know for 125 dollars worth of groceries, the fridge doesn't look very full,". So I'm curious, if you'd like to share with me, what do you spend on groceries and for how many? Hef's dad and I go every week. I want to point out that our 125 dollar total includes 4 strip steaks, a 30 pack of beer, and a 18lb bag of dog chow. I didn't it was that much to spend. I also had to go back and get a coupon adjustment because the cashier decided just to make up prices for 3 of my free item coupons.

Then I cam home and made grilled chicken fajitas from my ATK cookbook, they were very good, but we tried to eat outside and it was too cold so we ate one fajita inside and one outside.

Shadow's Outdoor Update

Here is Shadow the Dog, sleeping on the completed deck. It was completed about a week ago but I didn't get around to posting it. We also took pictures of all our growing vegetables in the garden, but they have grown so much I have to take new ones to be more accurate. We are growing strawberries, scallions, yukon gold potatoes, zucchini, sweet potato, and eggplant! Also we just planted a raspberry bush. One of our neighbors came over and told Hef's dad that our raspberry bush would attract a lot of rabbits (YAY!) and Hef's dad told him I would give up a lot more then some raspberries to see some wild bunnies. Sure enough we saw one last night but our camera batteries were dead. Oh well.
Also! Hef's dad was lucky enough to happen upon a reconditioned front tine tiller (half price!) so he can put in our veggie garden! Unfortunately he happened upon it after hand tilling a garden around the deck. OH! So thats another thing we have to take pictures of because we put a bunch of shrubs and trees around the deck. I will try my best to be quick about it this time!

New Cookbook New Pan WOO!

This is the very first thing that I cooked in my new pan. It is a Ham & Cheese Frittata. Hef's dad really liked it and took leftovers to work for breakfeast. Now I am weird as I don't really like eggs but it was a good meal. Usually I can eat eggs as long as something is in them.

Then last night, I combined my new cookbook (The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Companion Cookbook) and my new pan to make stuffed peppers (p. 182). ATK's trick was to blanch the peppers first. It was very tasty, cheesy, moist and delicious. I had short little peppers so I have some leftover filling that I froze. I recommend everyone get some ATK cookbook, I've never had a bad recipe from them!

Catching Up

Vacation just took centerstage for a while, didn't it? Well we got other stuff to talk about so don't worry. For instance I bought this a few weeks ago and had Hef's dad hang it up over the cabinets above the stove. It's just perfect and was as steal at 7 dollars! Sadly I had to explain to Hef's Dad why it was perfect. Oh well, I understand it, its in my kitchen and I love it.

And of course we have Hef! Who I caught chilling like this on Memorial day. I just think its adorable, I know everybun else will too!

JDRF & More Vacation

To recap the JDRF walk. Its 55 outside, windy, and rainy. We walked 1 mile around Martin's Fantasy Island, I got a cream puff to eat, and we came home. I now have a hot cup of tea. Since Vacation was nice and 80 degrees out, lets get back to that.

Hef's Dad, Shadow, and I dined at a restaurant along the Erie Canal.

Hef's dad did not prepose on the trip, so he was sent to jail! Actually this is at Warner Castle as well.

We did some outlet shopping and got a very nice calphalon skillet ($16!!) and Hef's dad bought be a Calphalon Knife set ($70)

Then when we came home, my new cookbook had arrived in the mail. It is the Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Companion, so get ready for some new recipes!

Last call for donations!

We interuppt vacation recap to remind everyone tomorrow is the diabetes walk and if you still want to donate please go to Hef's dad's page: http://www.walk.jdrf.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=extranet.personalpage&confirmid=87690620 I reached my goal already so please help out hef's dad. Thanks to everyone that donated!

Back to vacation then. This is Warner Castle in Rochester NY. Its not very big, its like an average house. The inside of the castle has been turned into offices so its kind of weird your walking through looking at murals on the wall, then Hello! someone's desk and office. The real reason to visit is the sunken gardens in the back. There was also a very sweet kitty cat that followed us around the grounds! More photos tomorrow, along with walk results!

Trip down Rochester way

Trip Facts: Rochester is about an hour and a half from The Bunny Lounge. We drove Hef's dad's 2004 Nissan Maxima, and hit 110,000 miles on the odometer during the trip. We stayed at the Airport Radisson, but oddly never saw the airport. It is located on the RIT college campus. Shadow the dog came with us. She rode in the backseat in her crate.

Its hard to tell but if you look close or enlarge the photo you can see the welcome to Rochester sign. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon around 5 o clock.
Shadow the Dog was charged $25 for joining our trip. I expected to leave her with a coworker, but at 10:30 tuesday morning I was told she couldn't do it. So I called and the Airport Radisson was very nice and let us add her on. We had to take a two double bed room instead of a king room but thats ok. After we checked in, Hef's dad and I went to the Marketplace Mall while Shadow stayed in the room. At home Shadow is crate trained and will just chill out with a bone or go to sleep. However as we walked down the halls to leave, she barked and whined. Fortunately the mall had a pet store and a grocery store. Shadow was extra spoiled with pig hooves filled with peanut butter and her new favorite treat Frosty Paws ice cream! In future outings she didn't bark or complain.

Here is the rest of our room, and Shadow's crate. Its a nice one, airline approved and all. So, I told Hef's dad, she can go on more vacations! At first we thought we would feel bad taking Shadow with us and leaving her there. I'm sure she spent less time in her crate on the trip then she would in a regular week. There was also a nice trail from the hotel to the RIT campus, so she had some good long walks with a lot of new smells. On Wednesday morning Shadow and I went for an early (6am!) jog and saw a beautiful deer, very close by. It then ran away a bit and crossed the street and stood and looked back at us for a while. Shadow was barking and jumping in the air, but the deer, a doe, just watched for a while then turned and hopped away. In NY we have white tail deer, so it struck me as pretty funny to watch a giant white cottontail hop away, and I said to Shadow "Its like a giant Hef hopping away". Then Wednesday afternoon, Hef's dad was with us and we saw two more deer across the driveway, hopping along. Hef's dad and Shadow raced after them.

We did a lot of shopping, saw a castle, and walked along the erie canal too, I'll show and tell about those things tomorrow!

Reunited!

We are all safe and sound, back home but tired! Hef was very happy to see us, of course. Then he peed on our bed, so I guess alls fair now. Nothing bets coming home from vacation to wash the bedsheets right? Its time to rest for now but tomorrow we'll start telling you about it.

p.s. my pants aren't dirty, we were also welcomed home by a big thunderstorm.

Party On!

Ok, veggies are out, and the scotch is next to the right glasses

What is that rumble?Its the 7-Bunny-7! Let the Party Begin!

P.S. Mama and Daddy and Shadow arrived safe and sound, checked into their hotel, all set. Mama will tell you about their adventures when they get home. I'm going to go have my own adventure with the bun party!

-Hef!

Party Prep

Ok so Hef got caught, but thats ok! This party is now Mama approved! Everybun has been great donating to our diabetes walk. We reached our goal of $200. Thanks everybun!!! If you still want to donate the link is on the previous post. Or since I reached my goal you can go to Hef's dad's page: https://walk.jdrf.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=walk.supportwalker&walkerid=87690620&sr=
because he has been too busy working to raise donations. THANK YOU THANK YOU EVERYBUN!
"Mama, we have papaya and apple slices, craisins, crossiants, chew sticks, banana chips,  and nibble rings, because there is always a doe watching her fruit intake," What else do we need Hef? "It's a Bunny Lounge Party Mama! We need drinks!" OK back to work Hef!
In other interesting news our dog sitter canceled on us at 10:30 this morning, but fortunately we had already booked a pet friendly hotel. I called this morning and we had to change from a king bed room to a pet friendly two double bed room, but Hef's dad said, "That's ok, Shadow can sleep on the other bed" Hef's Dad, Shadow and I are about to start our road trip, everybun have fun at the party, but don't break anything!