Gingerbread house

Well, it sure has been a while since I wrote anything on the blog!

Today we had our second annual gingerbread house making evening at Paul and T's house. This year the theme (chosen by Paul and T) was "Hillbilly house".

To begin with, we were a little unsure what to do for this, but T's Dad told us that as long as we remembered to put a shotgun by the front door then it would be perfectly acceptable as a hillbilly house.

We decided to model ours on a house we saw a few weeks back at the Howick historical village.

For the mud bricks, we made russian fudge and ginger fudge… yes, I know, neither of those are gingerbread. The ceiling diaphragm (to help stabilise the walls), chimney and roof were all made of gingerbread, along with the doors and

windows.

So far we have not actually eaten any of it… but I am sure it will not last long.

The only criticism that there seemed to be of our house is that it isn't quite ramshackle enough. We would like to point out that the windows are not level, and the gaps between the bricks (and the bricks themselves) are not even!

A fun time had by all, and no doubt Paul will have a good blog showing all the houses up soon.

Day 7 with the caged animal

Today we enter a new stage of Chica's recovery. She has pretty much ignored the wound with it's dressing since the operation, but over the last day or so I noticed that the dressing was beginning to come off. Now this is fine, until she starts licking at the wound. So, we went for a walk this morning to the vet - her first time off the property since the op last Wednesday.
That was an exercise in frustration for both of us I am sure. For Chica the frustration was that she is desperate to run, and I won't let her, and for me the frustration is that her on leash training is pretty much being undone as she is so frustrated at only being allowed to walk. Normally I would wear her out with some ball chasing before we go for a training walk. But I digress.
We saw the vet's nurse, who removed the dressing that was by now only hanging on by a corner. The wound is ok, but a little weepy, which may be because the dressing was flapping around, or it may be that Chica was licking at it. The solution?

I don't think she is very impressed with me for this.... the look she gave me was accusatory to say the least.

A caged animal

Chica is officially 5 months old tomorrow, and with this milestone comes the choice of whether to spay her or not. Quite frankly, one puppy is enough work, and there is no way I would consider looking after several, and then having to find homes for them! So, it was off to the vet yesterday. Chica and I walked along the road, and she was so keen to get in there that I had to laugh. She had no idea what was going to happen - but then how could she given that she has only ever had fun there.
She is now missing the essential bits for reproduction, and thus we are safe from ever having to care for a litter of puppies - phew!
We have our instructions on how to care for her, which include quiet rest for at least 36 hours, and on leash walks only for 12-14 days until her stitches come out. For anyone who has met Chica, you will understand how difficult this is going to be. She is currently a caged animal in the family room, and is doing a fair bit of whining about being confined. Thankfully the noise of the TV seems to calm her down enough for me to get out of the room without her going crazy.

Week 65 Challenge - Sausages

What to do with the humble sausage? That was the challenge last week.
I thought I would go a little bit retro on this one, and so had a look through an old Alison Holst book. I found a recipe that reminded me of something we did in Intermediate School Cooking, and though it would be worth a go - A sausage and apple plait.

I had bought some nice looking pork sausages, and combined the meat out of these with diced apple, sauteed onion, cooked diced potato, egg and herbs. This was laid along 2 joined flaky pastry sheets, and the pastry plaited over the top of the sausage mixture. A quick brush with some beaten egg, and it was into the oven to bake.

As the plait had potato in it, we only needed some green veges to go with it. It was very tasty, and Daryl gave it a 4.5/5, and the kids were more than happy to eat it.
It was a great way to stretch 500g of sausages, and I will definitely use this recipe again.

Puppy preschool

Hooray! I had a call from the vet today, and they must have got enough people for the puppy preschool classes as they will be starting next week!!!

For 1 hour from 6:30pm, we will go to the vet along the road, and Chica will get to socialise with other puppies, and we will get to learn some basic training etc.

I am really looking forward to this - a great chance to get her off the property in a safe environment, and get her used to other dogs.

Roll on next Wednesday!

On another note, Daryl tells me that after the 30th of June, he will not be so busy at work - will we actually get to eat dinner with him again?

Sunshine helps...

After wishing this morning that we had never even got a puppy, I am feeling a little more positive this afternoon.

The sunshine definitely helps, and I hope (probably in vain) that we get a lot more of it.

Chica and I have just spent some time out on the deck with tiny squares of luncheon sausage- with the aim of teaching her to sit. The lesson began with Chica rushing madly around me as she smells the luncheon sausage, and me thinking what a silly idea this was. Once she had calmed down a bit, I saw glimmers of her beginning to grasp the idea of "I do something and then I get the treat".

We will work on this more, and hopefully have some success!

More rain..

Turns out it is quite hard to keep a little puppy occupied when it continues to rain.

When we take her for a walk onto the lawn so she can do her business, she often gets to the end of the deck and sits down. At this point she looks at us with her head to one side as if to say "you have got to be kidding me… have you seen the size of the puddles down there!"

She has spent most of the morning in her cage inside, surely there will be a break in the rain soon so we can have a quick wander around? It would be much easier if I was allowed to take her for a walk along the road - hopefully the next 5 weeks are not continuously wet!!

Rant over.