Chloe Lives On

Chloe had her surgery/dental cleaning last Friday. I was nervous dropping her off, but she did fine, I was relieved when I got the call that she was all done. I know it's silly that I was worried she might die...but since the vet said "there's always a risk"...that made me worry. But Chloe lives on! yay!
Her teeth are like brand new, shiny and clean, like puppy teeth all over again! :-) Now, I just have to try to maintain the cleanliness by brushing her teeth on a more frequent basis. They ask that you do it DAILY, but we all know that not going to happen, so I am going to shoot for 3 times per week or so. Chloe is pretty easy and she lets me do it, so I think once we start doing it more often she will just get used to it.

Louie had a strange day without his sister at home. He was quiet calm (after the initial shock when Chloe left without him for the vet). He just followed Joe around all day while I was out running errands. I think Chloe pretty much leads the way in terms of their daily schedule, so if she isn't home to eat and sleep and play with him, he is just not sure what he's supposed to do. He was tired that night because he didn't really sleep like he usually does because Chloe wasn't there to sleep with him. Joe did say that he enjoyed taking him for a walk without Chloe though. Chloe is a major sniff-aholic, she has to stop to sniff EVERYTHING and Louie just likes to run and walk. He could care less about who peed on that tree before he got there. He just does his business and then gets on with walking. Funny how different dogs can be...totally different personalities.

5 Minutes of Fame Continues...

More of my 5 minutes of fame...
Harrington College of Design has a blog where they feature important news about things going on at the school, alumni, general design stuff. Well, they asked if they could write a story about me winning the IIDA Logo Contest for their blog....and here it is.....enjoy. I promise I will quit bragging after this! Ha-ha.
http://myharringtoncollege.com/2010/04/01/harrington-alumna-mindy-zimmer-wins-iida-illinois-logo-competition/

Nervous Mama

Chloe is scheduled to get her teeth cleaned on Friday, April 2nd. I am SO worried about it. I know its silly, but the vet really freaked me out when she told us that she has a "slight" heart murmur.  The doggie dental procedure is a big deal, they have to put them to sleep and do the cleaning, etc.

Obviously, she is 5 years old and they have been telling us she needs this done for a while so we can't put it off any longer. In small dogs tartar and plaque builds up easily and can lead to liver and heart problems down the road. So it's time to do it, we scheduled it, and because of the supposed heart murmur, they have to take extra precautions when they put her out, they have to have IV fluids going, etc.  I AM SO WORRIED! Especially the way the Dr. was saying that there is always "a risk" when you put a dog out. SCARY. I need to relax and realize that they do this all the time. I just can't imagine is something happened to Chloe. She is my baby and I would just die if something bad happened to her.
If I am this upset about my dog, I can't even fathom REAL children! ahh!
Anyway...hope it goes well.

All for now, off to Turbo Kick! Woo!

Some Random Things

I haven't posted anything in a while so I thought I would write a few quick blurbs about stuff...

Julie and Julia:

We rented this movie several weeks ago now and I wanted to write about how much I liked it. I really liked the first 3/4 of it and then the end wasn't so great, but it was still a good movie overall. The beginning half had me hooked, I could relate to the main character's life in some way. It was definitely cute - and it really made me want to go out and get the Julia Child's cookbook and start cooking all those yummy recipes! I doubt I will, but I definitely want to try one of the famous ones that she makes, like the Beef Bourguignon - maybe in next winter.  Anyway, if you haven't seen it, you should, it was good.

Also - I really like Meryl Streep for some reason, she is good.

Spring is almost here...I can feel it!

We've had a week or two with some slightly warmer days here in Chicago, several days in the 40's and even 50's and even a couple hitting the low 60's. I love spring here because everyone comes out of hiding from winter, people are walking around, riding bikes, enjoying being outside, walking their dogs, etc. I just hope it stays nice and that we have a nice long spring before it gets super hot and humid! I like my moderate temps, which is not what Chicago is known for...but hey...I take what I can get I guess. So far I've already enjoyed a couple long walks with the dogs at the park (long muddy walks, one bad thing about spring) and the other day I took a long walk across the loop (downtown) one evening when it was nice and in the upper 50's. It was so nice to walk around without burying my head in my coat and rushing inside as fast as possible. Ahhhh....spring.

Speaking of Mud...

I gave the dogs their summer hair cuts a little early this year. They were so shaggy that I was getting sick of having to practically give Louie a bath every time we came in from our walks. His furry belly and legs and feet would just be covered in mud splashes. I took some video and I will post it soon. They are both so different when they have short hair, its funny. The mud is definitely easier to wipe of the short hair. Yay!

Good Eats & Such

I love to cook, especially yummy dinners....so I had to write about this great new recipe I made for dinner this past Thursday night! I'm still drooling over it....

I started subscribing to Cooking Light Magazine a few months ago so that I could expand my recipe database of healthier recipes that aren't just the same old thing. We tend to eat a lot of salmon and veggies (lots of broccoli), chicken breasts, shrimp, etc. I could eat that all the time really, but its nice to find some great new recipes that are also healthy and more fun. So far I have found that this magazine has some great recipes. I have made a couple of them so far and they've been great.

So, Thursday night I made Maple and Soy-Glazed Flank Steak with Scallion Noodles from this month's issue. See the steak recipe HERE.  I really love Asian food but often I find it's hard to get good Asian recipes that satisfy that craving and taste as good as a restaurant when you make it yourself. This recipe has some great Asian flavors, it was SO good.
This was also the first time I made flank steak - a cut of steak known for being tough - but marinading and slicing it diagonally against the grain turns it into wonderfully tender slices! I will use this again for sure! The Scallion noodles were good too and really easy, rice noodles are so yummy and fast to prepare.  I was also excited to add another Asian staple to my pantry (sesame oil) and also use Sake for the first time in a dish (thanks to Trader Joe's for having a cheap bottle). It was a really great meal! I will definitely add it to my recipe rotation and make it again!  :-)

Also, just a note about "maple"...I am really not a fan of "maple" flavor...but I recently started buying REAL maple syrup instead of the fake crap with all the added sugar - aka "pancake syrup" - you know what I'm talking about. Who knew that stuff was not really maple syrup?! Hey, I'm not from Vermont...so shoot me.  Well, REAL maple syrup which comes in Grade A or B varieties (I bought grade A from Trader Joe's) is so different, much less sweet, and still really good on waffles, french toast, etc. So, that's what is used in this recipe and it's delish! Once all the ingredients were mixed in the marinade you wouldn't even know there was maple in it, it was a yummy Asian concoction that I could put on anything! yum~

The photo from the magazine is below. It shows the steak and the noodles that I made, I would have loved to make the Sesame Cucumbers also, but Joe thinks he doesn't like cucumbers, so I didn't make them. Yummy dinner all the same!

Happy Cooking!