Fall-o-ween!

I don't know why but Hef's dad isn't into Halloween much! So we don't decorate for it, we decorate for fall. We keep talking about carving our pumpkins and have not as yet done so. Instead we opted to be lazy buns eat a wine, cheese, and olives platter in front of the tv. If we end up carving our pumpkins then we are going to roast the seeds. AND Hef was kind enough to make this face! If that doesn't scare a bun owner I don't know what will!

"OOGEY BOOGEY!"

A little fun on Friday!

Last night we learned why Bandit frequently went upstairs for a little while and came back down. Apparently she is just confirming her good looks. Silly!

"Who's a pretty girl?"

Now I have to clean my poor neglected house, it needs it so bad!

Pouty Bunny!

Yesterday I was minding my own business after work, checking out all your blogs, when my boss comes up to me and asks me to work today. So I say sure, why not? I didn't have real plans but ya know I did intend to do some things to Hef's room.

"Fine Mama, I'll just stay in here all day,"

Well, ok, I was also going to take Shadow and Bandit for a walk, but ya know its windy out and rainy so it probably wouldn't go for a walk anyhow.

"Yeah but Ma, now we are in our cages!"

Poor Doggies! Yes we crate train, mostly because Shadow has seperation anxiety, and we don't know what Bandit will do. Shadow never minds much, knows to go right in her cage when asked. Bandits more of a struggle but will walk in when you get her up to the cage.

"Aww Mama, we still love you!"

Also last night I got a book I ordered "Help for your Shy Dog", I am seeing some cues that Bandit is a bit of a shy dog, so I have some reading to do! Bandit is a very mild shy dog, she does not shake but she pins her ears back a lot. Also she will still crouch and cower sometimes. So time to read up and let the healing begin!

SHADOW!

Hef has a blog and bedroom of his own, Bandit is the new dog and thats exciting. At the same time we must remember Shadow the Dog. She is a very good dog. I have to remind Hef's dad to pay attention to Shadow sometimes and Bandit sometimes thinks her name is Shadow. Shadow is still getting used to not being the only dog.

We really thought Shadow would be excited about Bandit but she has been indifferent. Sometimes Shadow likes that their is another dog to shoulder some of the dog responsiblities. Also Shadow is at least 6, if her birthday is acurrate. so she likes to take it easy. Hef's dad took this photo last night, capturing almost all of Shadow's smile.

Manicotti? Cheese Lasagna?

A few days ago I planned to try America's Test Kitchen's recipe for Manicotti. It called for briefly soaking no boil lasagna noodles in hot water to soften them up. Then you spread the ricotta filling on the noodles and roll them up. Well I couldn't wrap my head around this and I couldn't get the idea to match up with the picture in the recipe book, so after a few failed attempts at roll-ups, I gave up and decided to make a cheesey lasagna with the filling.

I should have left the lasagna to set up a bit more. Lasagna is tricky to serve anyhow. I think without any meat in it, all that cheese made it a slippery lasagna anyhow. Hef's dad likes to get a lot of protien, so I served him some meatballs leftover from a different ATK recipe. So it goes in the kitchen, sloppy but delicious.

Hef & the NuDog

It seems official that our new dogs name is Bandit. Bandit has gone in Hef's room a few times. Bandit was well behaved, some sniffs and thats all. Hef however choose to do this wild rabbit leap off his shelf when Bandit sniffed him. It was crazy!  But then Hef slowly came out of hiding. Yesterday I brought Hef down in my lap and Bandit was very good, again some sniffs, then Bandit just sat and watched Hef in my lap. Everything is looking good but I am still keeping Hef's door closed.

 Tonight my tv show that Hef's dad hates is on (Gossip Girl). Now that Hef has furniture I will watch it in his room. My plan is to let the dogs in and see how things go and then maybe Hef can go back to an open door.

NEW FURNITURE!

Its a funny thing around here. Everytime we have adopted a dog we have gotten a new couch! We didn't even mean to get a couch after we got NewDog (who just might have a name soon!) but we ended up at a furniture store killing time on Sunday. Hef's dad found a couch, and two accent chairs at more then half off! Hef's dad said he had seen the couch before and wanted it so now he couldn't resist! It was the floor model so they wouldn't deliver it, so we got a U-Haul. When we got the furniture home (which is before we got NewDog actually) I let Shadow out to go potty and she loved the U-Haul!

Hef's dad was very funny and put my statue bun on the couch. I don't think he would like Hef on there!

And it came with lovely matching chair...

And a leather accent chair! Oh it was such a deal,I love it. I think it has this whole playboy chicago thing going on! Also that means the old furniture was sent off to Hef's room, he's working on a room makeover of his own.

In that "getting used to eachother" phase

First of all I can not get over how adorable the new dog is! Second, she still does not have a name. Hef's dad and I just can not agree! When we brought the new dog home we stopped at the convience store and I sat in the car with ND (new dog, not netherland dwarf, sorry Hef) and kept talking to her and ran out of stuff to say so I started reading the signs and when I said coffee she whined and turned and licked my face. I know BL will say Coffee should be her name and I like it but Hef's dad does not! Hef's dad wants to name her Dingo or Fido. We are considering Bandit, she has great egyptian eyeliner, so that kind of gave me that idea.

Shadow the Dog, to my surprise, has mostly ignored ND. Shadow the Dog was very interested when we brough ND home. ND has growled mildly at Shadow the Dog, mostly in a "this is my space" or "I wanna play!" way. They told us ND was probably three but she is a ball of energy for the most part so maybe she is younger. ND has a problem with our hardwood floors, she is very nervous about switching from carpet to floor or vice versa. We are wondering if maybe her problem at the shelter was the floors and not people shyness. When we are in the carpeted areas she is a bouncy happy pup. However on the floors she whines and moves slow and cautiously. We think ND may have been an outdoor or mostly outdoor dog. She finds things like turning on a lamp very interesting. Also when we go outside and come back in she looks to make sure she is supposed to come in.

"Hey about sharing that beer?"

Unfortunately I must admit we had one tussle between our pups. Hef's dad and I were watching TV and both dogs had settled in with rawhide bones. For some reason Shadow got up and left the room. When she came back she went to ND's bone and they had a scuffle over it. All of the sudden we had two dogs on hind legs, front paws on eachother, growling and bumping snouts! Hef's dad and I both started yelling "HEY! HEY!" and brave Hef's dad got up to seperate them. When we yelled they seperated and  I said to Hef's dad, "Get the bones. Get them out of here". Boy, we were scared! However with the removal of the rawhide bones no problems ensued.

Everything was fine, until Shadow approached the wrong bone...

Lucky me, I have a four day weekend and can help ND get settled quicker. We use crates for the dogs when we are not home so lucky dogs don't have to go in them for a long time!

How do they get along?

 Some people were curious and cautious about our new shepherd and Hef. Some asked how Shadow and Hef get along. I once read that rabbit droppings are like caviar to dogs and I said to Shadow your a lucky dog to have a caviar factory usptairs! When we decided (or I decided) that we would adopt a dog I knew some base rules. No terriers, no hunting dogs, nothing predisposed to hunting rabbits. No dogs that said they shouldn't be around cats. A nice calm dog, young but not a puppy. So we got Shadow a four and a half (at the time, now 6) shepherd mix. So mostly Shadow helps us herd Hef into his cage when he runs circles around it and won't go in. Shadow will go to Hef when Hef is downstairs and sniff him, checking out if he wants to play. If Shadow is being a pest Hef will grunt and smack her on the nose. For the most part Shadow lays down and watches. Last night Hef and I were sitting on the couch and Hef hopped down. Then Hef hopped back up, using Shadow's back as a step  up.

"Give me a lift, pal?"

"Thanks bud!"

So there are my furry kids so far. Hef has his own bedroom so we will shut the door for now. When we get a feel for our new dog and she is calm we will put her on a leash and take her upstairs. She will be leashed and we will gage her reaction from there. Shadow was so calm we had the both out the same day. Only once did Shadow put her paw on Hef and I pushed her off so hard it made Shadow stumble away, no problems since. Shadow will chase wild rabbits but not Hef. I swear Shadow knows Hef is a special rabbit and there is no messing around here.

!!!Please Welcome another member to The Bunny Lounge Family!!!

Alright, calm down, clam down. It is not a doe, as many of you would hope for. Hef is not fixed, he is an intact male and BL of Houseful of Rabbits kindly informed me that if I got a doe Hef would do bunny things to her and then she would think she is pregnant and then want nothing to do with Hef and she would keep going through false pregnancies so we aren't going to do that. Instead Hef's dad and I have rescued a 3 year old German Shepherd. She was at our local SPCA. This poor baby has clearly been abused or mistreated in someway, although we can not offically confrim that it is obvious. All the SPCA could us was that the dog catcher picked her up in the country. She has been labeled a "fearful dog" and we got paperwork about it. It was very sad as we approached the kennel she crawled on her belly to us. Can you picture that a 70 lb German Shepherd crawling towards little ol' me and hef's dad? Too sad! I think we knew she would be going home with us at that moment!

"I don't wanna be in a kennel, can I come home with you please?"

 Unfortunately we did not get to bring her home yet. She is getting spayed today and having a hernia fixed and tomorrow night we will bring her home! I am hoping our brave, outgoing, friendly, Shadow the Dog will bring her out of her shell and we will be able to give her a great life! Oh and we are having a hard time thinking up a name for this beauty, any suggestions?

"Oh I can't wait to go home!"

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

This maybe my new favorite recipe! It is delicious, easy, no bake and chocolate and peanut butter! What more to ask for? Also this is my grandma's recipe so it's extra special. I visited my grandma and she explained the recipe to me. There is a recipe for the crust and the filling and the chocolate sauce, but as my grandma said she usually just buys a chocolate crust premade and uses chocolate sauce on top so I will talk you thru both ways. The one shown is with store bought crust and chocolate sauce. I put a big W on it because I took it to work.

Peanut Butter Pie

Crust: 1 1/2 cup crushed chocolate cream filled cookies (oreos) or chocolate wafers (or buy one)

1/4 cup Sugar 1/4 cup Melter Butter

Combine and press into bottom and sides of 9" pie pan.

Filling:

1 cup Whipping Cream 8oz Cream Cheese 1 cup Sugar 1 cup Peanut  Butter (I actually used reduced fat and it was still delicious! My grandma always uses Peter Pan) 2 tbsp melted butter 1 tbsp Vanilla extract

Beat 1 cup whipping cream until firm, set aside

Beat 8 oz cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in 1 cup Sugar, 1 cup Peanut Butter, 2 tbsp melted buttter, 1 tbsp vanilla extract.

Fold in Whipped Cream

Turn into chocolate cookie crust

Decorate with chocolate topping

If you want to make your own chocolate sauce:

Melt 2 oz chocolate, 1 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp oil

NOW GO MAKE IT AND TRY NOT TO EAT THE WHOLE THING!

Catching up after Vacation

You ever notice when you get back from vacation there is so much to do? Maybe its just me, we got home late sunday, had to go to work at 8am Monday, had to grocery shop and run errands after work tuesday and even missed a day of blogging yesterday! Although I didn't blog because one of my coworkers was sitting with me before work, it was a very nice girl talk/coffee thing. Anyway here's some more lovely Boston photos.
Hef's dad loved the harbor! He just loves boats! We walked all along the harbor, because lucky us, it was actually 70 and sunny on Friday!

As we strolled along the harbor we came across this lovely little place called James Hook & Co. Just look at those lobster prices!!!!

 Here are those 6lb+ Lobsters, gigantic!!!

 HAHA! This Lobster thinks hes a crabby! Taha!

And here I am soaking up the sun in front of a waterfront hotel, oh how I will miss the 70 degree weather and Boston!

Harvard!

On Friday we took a subway ride out to Cambridge Mass. (Hometown of Julia Child!) We had a yummy french breakfeast at Au Bon Pain, I had pumpkin soup and a spinach and cheese filled crossiant, it was great! Then we toured Harvard Campus. Here is Hef's dad in front of the campus church.

 Here I am! Usually I am behind the camera but this trip Hef's dad wanted to take a lot of pictures so I got to pose a lot. I am in front of the Harvard Science Center and a pretty fountain. See the rainbow? Lovely.

 Here is my favorite building on the Harvard Campus. Just love the blue color and the scroll work.Of course now I can announce "I went to Harvard!"

Boston Bunny!

You ever notice how some old rich ladies are called Bunny? I'd really like to get that nickname in real  life, it'd be great! I was fantasizing about my work name tag saying Bunny, that'd be great. ANYWAY we are in Boston! So we got up at 7am and drove 8 hours!!! to Boston yesterday. We drove all the way across NYS and then all acrost Massachuttes. Oh, by the way, I am probably going to spell Massachussetes twenty different ways, oh well it's a hard one to spell. We stopped only twice, once at my fast food weak spot McDonalds for breakfeast (breakfeast burritos yum!) and then at a Papa Gino's where they had a Lobster Roll, but I didn't want my first lobster roll to be a f ast food one so we had pizza.

Isn't that nice of them?

After we checked into the hotel we went to South Shore Plaza and Legal Seafoods for dinner! First we had 6 oysters and 6 cherrystone clams!

Ahh! Finally a lobster roll! It was yummy, a little light on the dressing as I was imagining something like tuna salad, and it was cold! I pictured it being a hot sandwich, I don't know why! Look at those big hunks of claw meat!

Lucky Hef's dad ordered the 2-2.5lb lobster and they didn't have it! So they upgraded him for free! To a 5lb bad boy! Look at the size of the claw compared to Hef's dad's hand! It was a delicious dinner and Hef's dad let me taste both the claw and the tail, it was just the best lobster ever! Look at the butter, I had it running down my chin, that buttery bite was for you BL!

A little too quiet...

It's a little too quiet around the bunny lounge. Shadow the dog was picked up after work today. She is staying with Oliver (the golden retriver a few posts back) and his parents. I am sure Shadow will have fun with "boyfriend". And its not that Shadow is a barker or anything, but we did name her Shadow because she is always at my heels. Those of you who have dogs will understand that certian emptyness the house has.

As for Hef? Hef of course will be staying here at The Bunny Lounge, guarding the place, throwing lavish carrotini parties, with seasonal pumpkin treats, and all the silly things rabbits do when humans aren't around. The people Shadow is staying with have agreed to check on him, just in case. Why didn't have go with Shadow? With another dog, three cats, two birds, and a handful of fish, at their place, I think Hef is happy to have the lounge to himself. I imagine the Bunnz and everybun else will be stoping in and Hef' won't be so lonely. We leave tomorrow VERY EARLY in the AM because we are driving to Boston MA, and it is 8 hours away! So far the Boston forecast is sunny!

And a little note to Tisha since I couldn't email you back, if you could tell me the best places for lobster rolls and great clothing bargains, I'd appreciate it!

Oeufs en Cocotte, aka yummy creamy buttery eggs

 Saturday for breakfeast Hef's dad and I were joking about Shirred Eggs. I had never made them but Hef's dad loves Eggs so once I read him all the different kinds of eggs/oeufs in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. So I said well, I really could make them! Hef's dad said ok, if you want to, we'll try them. I skimmed the recipe but it mentioned a shallow dish about 4 inch in diameter, I didn't have that and c ould come up with how to improvise that. I did just get new special ramekins and the very next recipe was Ouefs en Cocotte, Eggs baked in ramekins! I told Hef's dad change in plans, I believe he said something along the lines of just make something I'm hungry. To start as MtAoFC recipes often do, with butter and heavy whipping cream. Smear butter on your ramekins, add 1 tablespoon cream each. Set into frying pan that is oven safe and has some water in it. Heat up until whipping cream is warmed. All I did was keep poking my finger in it until the cream felt warmer and the butter started to melt.

So then you crack 1-2 eggs in each ramekin, Hef's dad suggested I even add another egg, but I was using medium eggs, so thats something one would ha ve to eyeball, and add ANOTHER tablespoon of heavy cream (it is MtAoFC after all) on top of the eggs. Then they bake in the oven, I think it was at 350 for about ten minutes until they are set but still jiggle a little because they will keep cooking a little bit in the ramekin, especially with Hef's dad since he takes his time coming to the table. Here they are out of the oven! I put the cute bunny ramekin on top of Hef's dad to keep it warm.

Here it is out of the oven! I am not much of an egg person as I have mentioned, but these were scrumptious! I also made toast to dip into the buttery creamy eggyness. Blogging about them makes me wish I could have some right now! Wendy's does not serve Oeufs en Cocotte though. They could, they really could, but they don't. Thats how simple Oeufs en Cocotte is, it could be fast food somehow. It only took me about ten-twelve minutes. Man what a hit these would be!

Monday Mornin', Talking Turkey

Good Monday Morning! Everyone got a cup of coffee or tea? It is 48 degrees right now and rainy! BLECK! So I've got a nice hot cup of French Roast with Hazelnut Creamer, yum!

I recently roasted a Turkey Breast (because when turkey breast is 99 cents a lb who can wait for Thanksgiving?). Lucky me found this box of 30 minute brine on sale for 3.99. It's Herbs de Provance flavor, they also had an ancho brine but I don't want a spicy turkey thank you. I love brining Turkey! It always makes the turkey juicy and delicious! I've never cooked a dry brined turkey. Alton Brown does a Good Eats episode about brining and it is popular on America's Test Kitchen too! So take this as a pre-hanksgiving tip, brine your turkey!

I especially love buying just the breast meat turkeys. Its a smaller size which is perfect for just Hef's Dad, Shadow, and I. Also we are not dark meat people so it's perfect. The only thing that wasn't perfect about my turkey was the cranberry sauce. Why? Because I didn't have any! I could have sworn that when I bought the Turkey I bought cranberry, so the next time I went shopping I thought about buying it but knew I must have bought it last time, I didn't! ARG! Hef's dad didn't care too much, but I was sad, I was craving some cranberry! Anyway we had Turkey Breast and Stuffing with Gravy. Still Delicious. If I had had cranberry sauce I was gonig to make a cranberry mayo to go on a leftover sandwich. Has anyone heard of leftover sandwiches? They are fun, basically its your turkey dinner slapped onto some bread. So my leftover sandwich was just turkey and stuffing with no cran-mayo, phooey. If you look on the internet some leftover sandwiches are crazy! They have stuffing and mashed potatoes and yams and the whole works!

Hef's dad cooked! Messed up big time, tee hee!

So not long ago Hef's dad made Sauce Tomat or Tomato Sauce ala Mastering the Art of French Cooking. He didn't remove the skin from the onions. Oh well we press on. We had so many tomatoes from the garden Hef's dad used those and some green peppers from the garden too. Hef's dad did not like Sauce Tomat because it was not think like classic pasta sauce, but we both very much liked the taste.

 See, Hef's dad did the cooking! Boy those cabinets look nice, remember when we painted those? WORTH IT!

 Here is Hef's dad diving into Spaghetti with Sauce Tomat and Mozzarella Cheese melted under the broiler and Garlic Bread, yum yum yum!

 Also! I made the meatballs! I hadn't made meatballs in almost a year, but armed with the absolutely always yummy America's Test Kitchen cookbook I tried again. What a hit! So yummy. Hef's dad loved them! Did I ever mention that Hef's Dad is italian? He is, and my meatballs never competed with his italian grandma's meatballs, until now! YAY! Funny enough the steam from these hot meatballs steamed up the camera lens, makes it very dreamy looking, haha!

 Oh and the other night Hef's dad made HOT Beef Curry, he bought a jar with a recipe on it, just like the other one I blogged about, Biryani Curry. I didn't take pictures this time. HEF'S DAD MESSED UP! Hef's dad has not discovered the art of reading the measurements for ingredients so he added THE WHOLE JAR of hot curry sauce! Now the can said 3-4 tablespoons, so after I pointed that out Hef's dad measured the car and it was about 20 tablespoons! 5 times as much, I couldn't eat more then one bite. Hef's dad ate about 1/2 of his plate, boy that packed a punch!