Animal Housewife

I made sugar cookies this weekend. I stole this recipe from my husband’s grandma, Gram. I use it every holiday. These cookies smell and taste like butter and sugar and a hint of vanilla and almond. They are delicate and sweet. I made icing for them out of powdered sugar and vanilla and milk. They didn’t turn out quite as pretty as I wanted them to, but I guess they’ll do for now.

This is a great recipe. They’re easy to make and were extremely popular. They’re richer than most of the other cupcakes I’ve made so far, but honestly - what chocolate peanut butter recipe isn’t rich? I’d recommend pouring yourself a tall, cold glass of milk to go with these.

I have been trying out different cupcake recipes lately.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

These are vanilla bean cupcakes.  It’s the first recipe I’ve ever used that calls for real vanilla bean seeds.  It was a fun recipe to make and they tasted delicious - like sugar and vanilla and butter.  They were sweet and simple and really very lovely.  Pretty, too!

Weeks ago, I tried a recipe for chocolate mint cupcakes.  The frosting was  a bit of a challenge because you have to put two different colored/flavored frostings side by side in the piping bag for the swirled affect.  My handiwork wasn’t perfect, but they still looked pretty cool.  These were VERY tasty.  The cake part was vegan, which I was very skeptical about, but it was moist and chocolatey and I honestly don’t think I would have known that they were vegan had I not made them myself.

I love Woody because he’s leggy and beautiful and wolf-like.  I love him because he’s loyal and gentle and kind.  Because he came to a house that already had two dogs and even though he’s bigger and stronger, he never challenged them.  Because he sat at the Animal Humane Society at an old age, because he sat there for a long time.  Because he needed someone to love him.  I love Woody because he’s handsome and sweet.  I love him because he tries to curl all of his horsy 70 pounds up in my lap when I sit on the couch.  Because he gets his purple ball when I ask him to, because he gets it all the time to show me now, without my even asking, because he knows it pleases me.  I love Woody because he speaks on command and howls when he wants my attention.  I love him because he tattles on the other dogs when they wrestle in the bedroom, because he lies on the kitchen floor and waits for hours for his dinner, because food is his favorite thing in the world, other than me. 

Last Name:  Meister

AKA:  Woodman, Big Guy, Woodster

Breed:  Husky?, Shepherd?, Wolf?, Pan’s Labyrinth

I was watching The Real Housewives of NYC a couple of weeks ago and the women were volunteering their time by cooking a dinner at the American Cancer Society.  Apparently, the idea behind that evening was to feed cancer patients a nice meal.  The place appeared to be a store front of some sort with several card tables set up and the kind of kitchen one finds at cooking schools.  One especially noticeable prop was a bald, sick-thin woman who appeared once in awhile in the background, as the Housewives futzed about with the salad and argued over whether or not the Countess’ husband was considered “old” or not.

It really pissed me off.

Why would anyone assume that, because I have cancer, I would want to go to something like this?  It’s not just that these women are despicable.  Any stranger could be behind the meal, and it would still be a meal made by strangers, served at a card table, in a store front.   Honestly, I’d much rather be given a gift card or taken out to a nice restaurant, thank you very much.  Or I’d rather have friends and family come over and make me something nice.  Why would I want to sit at a card table, in a store front, and have strangers serve me some meal?

Now, if I were homeless, I’d be all over this kind of thing.  However, I’m NOT homeless.   I have cancer.  Last I checked, these two situations were quite different.

Ladies?  Thanks anyway.  I’ll eat at home.