From Jackson to Rudder

It's been a while since I participated in 23 Paws...  I had REALLY good intentions of doing this monthly, but well, I didn't.  First time I participated, I introduced Rudder.

I'm going to today though, because I remembered.  :o)  [...and because I'm avoiding work]

So, here's a little story about how the Ruddster got his name.

It was a dark stormy night nice sunny day so we headed up towards Palmer to hang out at one of their many little lakes.  When I took Rudder home from the trailer park, his name was Jackson.  Jackson to me just isn't a dog name.  Last name of my family on my mom's side?  Yes.  Name of a cute little blonde haired farm boy?  Yes.  Name of a spazz'tastic Springer Spaniel?  No.   Or at least that was my opinion.  :o)   It just didn't fit his personality.

I had, in my wishing for a dog mindset the previous year, created a list of names I liked from dogs.  This ranged from Echo, to Gatsby, to Remmy, to Grover.  Oh and the list went on...  Not a single one of the names fit him though.  Not at all.  We tried a few on for size, ya know, one or two a day.  I wasn't loving any of the randomly assigned names though.

But back to the lake.

This dog was SCARED of the water when I first got him.  Would MAYBE put a paw in, but swim?  Heck no!  Then, this day at the lake, it was like he found his little fish fins and I haven't been able to keep him out of the water since.  He was a swimming fiend and happily hopped in the water and swam around after sticks and his blue bunny.  However, I must say he nearly made me dizzy watching him swim around in curly cues.  Apparently he hadn't learned the fine art of steering himself while swimming just yet.

Avoiding the water.

He took a leap!

So, I was in a canoe and kept cringing every time we went over a log.  I think its a learned response to my days as a coxswain for the crew team in high school.  You were supposed to steer around those suckers, not go over them!  Going over a log could mean that you just required the team to make a costly repair in fixing or replacing the.... rudder!  (See where this is going??)

After once again gasping when hitting a log and looking towards the underside of the canoe, I commented, "Man, I keep forgetting we don't have a rudder!"  Click.  Saying the word rudder + watching this brown and white ball of energy create a spirograph pattern in the water = the ah ha moment.

I shared the "I'm pretty sure I'm going to call him..." with my sister and parents.  They gave the, "Um, yes, well, that's um, different...  Did you say Rudder??" response.  Well, it's definitely different, but it fits him.  He needed a rudder when he swam, so I gave him one (at least in name).  :o)

I have to say, he has become a pretty awesome swimmer and swims in a straight line like nobody's business. :o)




And just for fun....

Frosty Mornings

Warning - This is an overload of backlight images, mostly of the dying plant variety.  Surprise, surprise!

It has been SUNNY but COLD here lately.  I'm happy for the sun, but wondering if I was sleeping for 10 days... because I woke up and the temperatures had dropped a good 20 degrees from before.  Oh well, at least the sun has been awesome.  :o)

So what comes from cold clear nights?  Frost!  Oh I love how it sparkles...

I felt like sharing pictures of things other than food, so here it goes:

The "ughhh are you done yet!??!?" face.

And for a sneak peak of what I was up to tonight...

See the steam coming off the bowl?  Perfect dish for a perfectly cold night.  :o)

I'll recipe share [hopefully] tomorrow.  :o)

The One Where Pumpkin Beer Became Even More Awesome

Anyone else think of the Friends episodes and how they all start with "The One..."  I'm in a Friends kind of mood...

Anyways, the point.

Kevin had a brilliant suggestion of how to serve our pumpkin beer.  Oh goodness, it was good.  It made it a beer'ssert.  Yup, pumpkin beer for dessert.

Yeah, I was having a little bit of fun with photo editing there...

So, we've had a bit of a weird Fall here.  First it rained buckets.  Then we had these super crazy winds that blew off all the leaves from the tree (and knocked quite a few of them over).  This means fewer leaves on the trees to turn a beautiful yellow for fall.  So here we are, in a wind damaged, rain soaked, and color diminished state of Fall, and it snows.  What???  Snow in September??  Not just a few flakes randomly falling.  We're talking ground sticking, grass covering, snow.

You can see the falling snow and snow covered houses and trees from the window.

 So sadly, the house begins prep work for the winter.  This year Kevin convinced me to try some of that plastic window covering stuff.  Assuring me that the plastic won't look that bad (jury is still out by the way) and that I'll save a lot on energy costs.

This room is actually a blue'ish gray.  Not at all green.  Yay strange lighting and not working on white balance!

 At the grocery store today, we picked up a six-pack of pumpkin beer.  It's pretty rare that we drink beer at home, but I was in the mood for some pumpkin goodness.

Here's how to make an already awesome pumpkin beer an awesome pumpkin beer'ssert!

Sugar & Spice Rimmed Pumpkin Beer
From: Kevin's suggestion

Ingredients:

• 1 T light brown sugar
• 1/2 T white sugar
• 1/8'ish t pumpkin pie spice
• orange slice (or orange marmalade) 
• pumpkin beer of your choosing

By the way, I totally made up those measurements.  I think its probably close to the ratio I did for ours though.  :o)  

First, rim your glass with either an orange slice, or if you don't happen to have one but have orange marmalade in your fridge and thought "oh that'd be tasty!', with orange marmalade.  You could really use anything here to make it sticky.  I did really like the orange marmalade though!

Then, roll your glass into your mixture of white and brown sugars, and pumpkin pie spice.

Pour in beer.

Drink!

I love that my Grove City College pint glass, home of the [then] dry town, has beer in it.  Just makes me giggle.  Guess you would have to be a Grover to get the irony of the situation... :op

Or take pictures of it.  :o)

It's quite delicious and really is a dessert (even if I did drink mine while making dinner...) :o)

Foodie Penpals: Made in Massachusetts

Well, made in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and other wonderful NE places.  :o)  I think I get particularly obsessed with New England in the fall, so I've been REALLY lucky to get two foodie penpals from New England the last two months!

This month I was paired with Patti from Massachusetts.  She sends an AWESOME box!  Thanks to the pokey'ness of the post office and the incredible distance it needed to travel, I didn't get the box until yesterday, but it was SO worth the wait! :o)

A sweet letter in a fun art print card (the 6 year old in me still loves horses).

 

The deliciousness!

1. It all came nicely packaged in a Trader Joe's reusable shopping bag.  I really like this one because its more wide than tall.
2. Pumpkin coffee!  Well that just has me written all over it.  Coffee + Pumpkin = favorites
3. Zucchini Relish - I wasn't sure about this at first.  I'm not much of a relish person, but the zucchini with a hint of wasabi?  Sold.
4. Harvest Grains Blend - I saw someone else get this from their FPP this month and was a wee bit envious that I couldn't hop on over to Trader Joe's and get some  Then I got some from Patti!  Happy Birthday to me! :o)
5. Sweet Maui Onion Chips - pretty sure once I open these, Kevin will demolish them.  :op
6. Pure Maple Syrup - perfect little glass container.  I told Kevin it'd be perfect for camping.  He rolled his eyes (even though I know he totally agrees).
7.  Massachusetts Rubies Jam - combination of cranberry, strawberry, and raspberry.  Yum!
8. Apple Butter!  
9. Chocolate Biscotti - I took this to work today, but didn't have a chance to eat it (it was one of those eat lunch at 2pm kind of days)
10. Lobster Dog Biscuit - well, Rudder was feeling pretty fancy and has decided he could probably dig the whole New England thing if lobster biscuits were part of the deal. ;o)

Whatcha have there?  Smells pretty good...

Meeeeeee!  I want I want!

Yummmmmm!

Kevin made caribou and some homemade bread for dinner.  At first I thought I might be a bit crazy/impatient having jam on my bread with caribou...  After first bite of the bread and jam, followed by the caribou, I decided that I am going to have to try this jam as some kind of sauce on caribou.  YUM!  

Thank you Patti!  I really appreciate all the delicious things you sent! :o)   A big thank you goes out to Lindsay too for organizing this fantastic program!

**I sent an Indian themed box to Marcy at Plating It Up**