Shadow the Dog at Niagara Falls

Lucky us, Niagara Falls NY is just 15 minutes from home! Its in a lovely state park so dogs are welcome! Here they are Shadow the Dog and Hef's dad!

"That's a lot of water, Mama!" 

It sure is, Shadow! And a long way down!

See, its a pretty pretty park!

Shadow was unsure of the water at first, didn't like the mist at all! However since she is a black dog and it was about 86 degrees out, she gave in!

This is the Maid of the Mist on its way to the falls. For those not in the driving range of the falls, this is a fun ride if you visit on a hot day! It goes right up by the falls and you get soaked! Too fun! Brad Pitt and some of their million kids did it recently!

Hef's Dad and Shadow at the calmer river with a little hot tub looking falls.

Shadow drinks from the Niagara River!

Love was in the air...

Monday was our 6 year anniversary! Hef's dad brought home long stem roses and chocolates, but no ring! Oh well they are very pretty roses and very tasty chocolates.

Look at all the fun chocolates! YUM! What to eat first?

I picked a chocolate ganache heart, it was delish!

And for dinner we had snow crab legs and asparagus with hollandaise, with champagne of course. I love crab legs and they are so easy to steam. But my goodness they are messy! Hef's dad had a piece of meat in his hair, haha! The asparagus was also delicious and hollandaise is being coming a well known recipe. I follow Mastering the Art of French Cooking's recipe of course!

Getting back to it, fair food, NOM!

So wednesday was crazy, Hef's dad was off and I worked 11-2 so I didn't sit around and have time to blog. Then yesterday I sat at work from 8-11 started at 11 and then my coworkers who were giving me a ride were sent home early because business was slow and so I was sent home with them. I worked an hour yesterday, haha! That's ok I went home walked Shadow the Dog and cleaned house. Now let's get back on track two days ago I promised fair food, here it is!
Oysters! YUM! Isn't that a funny fair food? But they had them and I love them, so does Hef's dad. They were delicious and no one got seafood poisioning so yum!  I think the vendor was drunk, his stand was attached to the beer gardens.

I also had fried mac & cheese. Mac & Cheese is probably my biggest weakness. I could eat it every day! I have had fried mac and cheese before and it was delicious! This was too greasy! But stil it was homemade, looked like a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese inside.

Ok and somehow the picture of Hef's Dad's pizza and fries got deleted, so here's an omlette! I made this for him on Sunday the morning after the fair so I'm throwing it in. It's a steamed broccolli and cheese omlette.

Flipped it over pretty well and sprinkled with cheese! I think Julia would be ok with it, but she'd probably dump a handful of parsley on it!

In other exciting news we have a wild bun! He has actually taken up residence under our shed. I can't say I blame him at all. See here is the shed and all that dirt is now our veggie garden! This wild bun has a prime lot on a veggie garden, I suppose thats like waterfront property to them? Hef's dad saw him twice yesterday and we had the flashlight and saw his little bun noise under the shed. I haven't gotten his picture yet, but I'll keep trying.

Fair Rabbits

There are a great many pictures of rabbits at the fair! I love rabbits, what can I say, but my rabbit fun was slighty dampened on! So before we get on with the rabbits and all I have to tell what happened. The rabbits are all in cages in a nice big open ended barn. So Hef's dad and I are going up and down the aisles pointing out different rabbits to eachother, and Hef's dad is being very sneaky and petting rabbits, and he likes to pick up their hay and have them crunch it. So Hef's dad is up by this little black Netherland Dwarf doe, and she's munching hay from Hef's dad and a lady comes up to use and says "exscuse me", uh oh! We think we are going to get in trouble for the hay, but no! She asks us if we are married, of course I have to say no. Then she asks if we are a couple, and we say yes and she tells us "what a beautiful couple we are and how nice we look togethe"r, well isn't that nice? (And I don't want to offend anyone here because this is where I got annoyed, but hey if you go for it thats your thing, and I'm not against it I'm just against the overzealousness some people have) so she goes and starts talking about the lord, hopes the lord blesses us, etc. I'm sorry but I find it annoying when a nice rabbit viewing turns into some religious chat/conversion/whatever. Ok anyhow on to what we are all here for, rabbits!!!

Here I am being a bad Hef's mom and petting a different rabbit!

This guy, I think he was a lionhead, cool coloring, huh?

Oh the beauty of a Blue Eye White, just goregous! Bet you'd like that huh Shell? Goes with your decorating?

Some bunnies just cracked me up to be in these positions wide open in a fair!

Best buns in the barn

Thanks for the hay, Hef's dad!

Either these are two very catty buns trashing the ribbon winners, or its bun love, either way had to take a pic!

This shot was for Hef, it's a nice grey Netherland Dwarf Doe, practically asleep!

Aerial bun shot! Those ears make me want to make airplane noises!

Ribbon is for Rabbit Dressing, what's rabbit dressing? Is it like ranch dressing, but more carrots? Or is it little outfits?

The fair can be tiring, stretch out and take a nap.

This ones going to win the hokey pokey contest, right foot in!

Funny ears!

Itty bitties! I love the last guy paws just out flat!

How about this adorableness? He reminded me a lot of baby Hef!

Yup, its not bad being a bitty bun at the fair.

Super small itty bitties!

Tired Mom of above super itty bitties

Lastly some more itty bitties, they were fluffy incase you can't tell. Hef;s dad liked that one brown one that is squashed in there the best! So thats the fair and the buns, tomorrow, fair food, yum!

Shadow's "boyfriend"

On Friday my coworkers brought over their dog, Oliver, a 1 year old golden retriver. Oliver has come over once before to meet Shadow.

Shadow played it cool at first, didn't want to come on too strong to this younger man.

So Hef's dad played fetch with Oliver.

Shadow tried to join in but she doesn't fetch, not ever, not interested, doesn't do it.

Smart girl, that Shadow, let the man go get the toy!

Shadow does like Oliver a lot. She tries to wrestle with him and he just wants to play fetch! What a couple!

Almost the weekend! YAY!!

Maybe its the big black shepherd, maybe its excitement for the weekend but Hef is not much of a flopper bunny. This is usually about how relaxed he gets in the dining room. He loves stretching out in his cage and flops there, somehow the dining room doesn't have the same effect.

Anyhow we have a busy weekend ahead! On Saturday we are going to our county fair, its a biggie! They have a whole section of 4H rabbits, a great photo op! Then on Sunday it's time to CELEBRATE!

"Congratulations on 6 years together Mama and Daddy!"

Thanks Heffy! Cheers everyone, have a good weekend!

Masterchef!

OK I love love love Master Chef! I don't like that they moved it to wednesday because America's got Talent is on at the same time now and Hef's dad makes me flick back and forth! One of our UK friends asked if we were seeing a new American version or the UK version. It is a new american version with Gordon Ramsey and two other guys who's names I don't remember. Anyhow last night there were two episodes and the episodes make me think what would I cook if I was there? The big challenge in the first episode was to make a chinese dish with Mandarian Oranges. I personally was thinking a bok choy salad with chicken and mandarian orages, maybe make a Mandarian Orange Ginger vinagrette. but no one did that. There were a million stirfrys and the chefs got sick of it, I don't blame them. Then on the second episode the big challenge was to identify ingredients in Texas style Chili. OMG easy! I could name a bunch without even tasting it.

Alright anyhow I cooked last night as well. One thing I like to do is take a can o' something and make it better. Last night it was a can of Broccoli Cheese soup from Campbell's. Added some steamed broccoli and shredded cheddar. From this:

Preping, cheese and broccoli in the bottom

Add soup and stir, top with pretty cheese and broccoli

And it makes those delightful cheese strings from the spoon to the mystery glob of cheese under the soup surface. YUM!

Also Hef's dad decided to harvest lettuces while I was taking a nice bubble bath and I came downstairs to this on the counter:

After a VERY vigorus washing (dirt, no thanks!) Salad was made!

Oh yeah! The tomatoes and red pepper were from the garden as well. Our tomatoes are just starting to come into ripeness as we planted late. The biggest is a hybrid tomater, the next two smaller ones are beefsteak and then some cherry tomaters, delicious!

Lots more tomatoes to come! Get ready!

Playing the Shell game

Since I've been spending most of my time and energy fighting with Hef's dad about proposing, I'm going to steal Shell of The Raspberry Rabbits game of when I win the lotto. So I found these gems at Marshall's and loved them. They had a whole dinner set and everything but as I haven't won the lotto yet, I had to select my favorite two pieces. They do say food & microwave safe, but I am not sure what I will serve in the big casserole dutch oven. Its so white and pretty, how do I dirty it? Maybe just hot dinner rolls...

 And this beautiful tray  is going to be filled with carved turkey at thanksgiving. AND since I've won the lotto in this scenario, I'd have a nice dining room set instead of an empty room, lol! So then I could host fancy dinner parties, that'd be nice.