What Would You Do?

I'm currently so bloody frustrated!! Last weekend when hubs invited his co worker and puppy for dinner I told hubby to make sure that the puppy has her shot up to date. Call me paranoid I just don't want the boys to mingle with other dogs that don't have their shots up to date just in case the other dog has any disease that we don't know about and is contiguous. Some disease you won't know about it and won't show up until is too late (I know that is unlikely but there is a possibility). So anyway hubby told me that he don't think that his co worker will bring the puppy over for dinner and when they arrived he had the puppy with her.

I was dumbfounded because hubs said that his co worker was not going to bring the puppy. Anyway we allowed the boys to play with the puppy but Stanley keeps wanting to hump her since she's a female which surprise me because Stanley normally only does it to the female dogs several times and stop but this time he was trying to hump her all evening she was here!

Anyway today the same co worker had hernia today and needed to be admitted to the hospital for his surgery. Hubs had to sent him to the hospital from his home because he could not drive from his apartment to the hospital. Later this evening hubby text me and asked me if I mind that he watched the little puppy. I told him personally I don't agree with this idea because as you know she is still not up to date on her shots and Stanley loves to hump her (which is not a big deal). It just bothers me that she has not have her shots since birth (she's about 4 months old) and has not been to the vet so we don't know how healthy is she.

Hubs started to say well we've had those 4 stray dogs that we found by the road side and I told him that I told him I was not comfortable with those too. I don't want my Stanley to be contaminated with any disease from any of them too but I told him that he insisted on keeping those dogs!I told hubs if it was up to me I would not keep any of those dogs because I don't want any of my dogs to get sick because I was being nice.

Anyway hubs thinks I'm inhumane because I didn't want to take the little puppy since her owner was in the hospital. I asked if his girlfriend or his son (since it was supposed his son's puppy anyway) take the puppy. Well the son is 15 years old and does not have a car to take the puppy which is fine with me but what about the girlfriend. I mean shouldn't she help him out too?

This situation is pissing me off because all I want to do is just protect my boys from any unforeseen diseases. To top things off I am currently watching Uncle Richie's three dogs because they went on vacation!

Do you really think I'm inhumane? Do you think I'm paranoid?

Should I be happy?

I've been thinking about changing my cell phone plan for quite some time now. I want to change my plan to get the internet so that I can use internet on the go and also use black berry messenger with my friends. Hub's has been thinking of changing my plan for me since he knows I want the internet but I told him I should just wait till my contract ends because I would have to pay $200 plus dollars to cancel my current contract. Well since my Birthday is around the corner the hubs thought that he would surprise me on the day of my birthday with a change contract. He changed my contract so I can have unlimited minutes, text and internet. Wooohooooo...I was happy but then it makes me cringe when I think about the cancellation fee that we're going to have to cough out!

I asked hubs why didn't he discuss with me before changing plans and his answer was he didn't need too...0_0 I know he just wants me to have internet on my phone since he knows I want them..Like hubs said oh well is just once and no I didn't grumble at him :P

I guess I'll be using my cell phone even more now. I'm already using my cell phone to do many things having the internet will just make me make use of my phone even more. I wonder if I should ask hubs for another new phone? (I don't think so because I just got my phone about 6 months ago and hubby's phone is so warn out and has not been changed for a year now so I think he would change his phone first).

Buns!Buns!Buns!

Most week the hubs does not finish his deli meat because I honestly thinks that he's sick and tired of eat sandwich everyday at work hence he doesn't and I always have left over deli meat in my fridge. I normally just toast them in the freezer and use them to make soup but this time I decided to use them to make buns with the left over deli meat.

Sandwich bread or buns adapted from here

Ingredients

(starter dough)湯種:
150g bread flour
12g caster sugar
200ml hot water (I used milk)
60g unsalted butter (I used oil)

Main Dough:
450g bread flour
100g cake flour
1 whole egg
350ml water (I used 300ml milk)
9g instant active yeast
6g salt
75g caster sugar
25g milk powder

30g unsalted butter

Filling:
200g deli meat
8 to 10 Cheddar Cheese Slices or 1 Cup of Shredded Cheese
Mayo
Shredded Parmesan/Swiss Chesse


Method

1. In a small pot, cook the starter dough ingredients with low fire till the mixture comes together. Remove from fire and set aside to cool completely before use.
2. Mix all ingredients in main dough except for butter together in a large mixing bowl to form a soft dough. Place on work area to knead or mixer to do the kneading. Knead the dough till it is not sticky, about 20 minutes.
3. Add the unsalted butter in and continue to knead till the dough is shiny and elastic. To test if the dough is ready, pull a small piece off and stretching it with your fingers. If dough is very elastic and pulls to almost see through without breaking, then it's done.
4. Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap and allow to proof for at least 90 minutes to 2hrs.
5. Divide the dough into 2 equal portions. Half for ham and cheese, the other for other fillings of your desire.
6. In one half of the dough portion, divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll round and let rest covered before shaping them. The remaining half dough portion, do what ever shape you like, else make more ham and cheese buns.
7. For the 8 pieces, roll it into a round flat circle. Place a slice of ham and cheese in the center and roll it up like a swiss roll. Seal the edges and cut right in the middle, so you have 2 small logs.
8. Place the 2 small logs, cut side facing up in your desired greased baking pan. Repeat until all dough pieces, ham and cheese slices are used up.
9. Let proof covered for 45 mins. Sprinkle the top with Parmesan cheese
10. Preheat oven to 180°C.
11. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes till the top is golden brown. Remove from mould after 5 minutes and let cool on rack.

-I made the started dough waited for about 1hr and just dump the rest of the ingredients in my bread maker to make the dough.
-I used half the dough the make ham and cheese. I used a quarter of the dough and made chocolate bun and the other quarter I made pork floss buns.

The buns were super soft and super yummy especially when it just comes out of the oven. I didn't even make dinner that night because I was just thinking of eating the buns since hubby would not take them to work and I gave most of the buns to Uncle Richie because I know that he will eat them every morning.

Chicken Enchiladas

I've been craving for some Enchiladas for a few days and since I had some left over chicken from my potato roasted chicken and I had some homemade enchiladas sauce, homemade salsa and a tub of sour cream that I need to finish I decided to make some enchiladas thinking that hubs would come home for lunch since he had to work a little bit today.

Hubs didn't come home for lunch and I had a pan full of enchiladas. I was suppose to make potato roasted chicken again this time with two whole chicken because hubby invited one of his co worker home for dinner (he's single and he don't get to eat home cooked dinner often) and we were thinking of calling Uncle Richie and Aunt L over too. At about 5pm Uncle Richie came over and told me that they were starving and that they had ton of things too do so they won't be coming over for dinner. So I went in the kitchen and I saw the pan of enchilada and send them home to them with him so him and Aunt L can eat them since they were hungry then.

Ingredients
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1-1/2 teaspoons dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
10 oz Enchilada Sauce
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons chopped green bell pepper
1/2 clove garlic, minced
4 (10 inch) flour tortillas
16oz Salsa
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons shredded Cheddar cheese

Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium, non-stick skillet over medium heat, cook chicken until no longer pink and juices run clear. Drain excess fat. Cube the chicken and return it to the skillet. Add the onion, sour cream, Cheddar cheese, parsley, oregano and ground black pepper. Heat until cheese melts. Stir in enchilada sauce, green pepper, salsa and garlic.
3. Roll even amounts of the mixture in the tortillas. Arrange in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Cover with taco sauce and 3/4 cup Cheddar cheese. Bake uncovered in the preheated oven 20 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

Apparently I had more chicken than I thought so I had to make more. Since this is the first time I made enchiladas I didn't really know how to wrap it. Although it doesn't look that nice but I'm surprised it actually taste pretty good. Aunt L and Uncle Richie loved it and I told them to finish them before bringing home the pan :)..I will have to make some for hubs next time.

Potato Roasted Chicken

I was blog hopping one day and I came across Christine's Recipe I knew that I'm going to have to make this soon (it was summer) when the weather cools down. It was suppose to cool down yesterday so I decided to make this dish. I went to the store at noon yesterday to go get a chicken so I can make this dish for dinner. Hubby also bought a bunch of very huge baking potatoes a couple of weeks ago so is a good thing that I can use some of those potatoes up. Hop over to Christine's blog if you want the step by step on how to prepare this dish.

Ingredients:
1 bird Chicken
1 1/2 tablespoon Coarse Salt or Sea Salt
A good shake of Ground Black Pepper
1 teaspoon of Rosemary
1 teaspoon of Thyme
5 cloves Garlic
50gm Butter(I used 2.5tablespoon)
2 tablespoon Olive Oil

Potatoes
3pcs Potato
5 cloves Garlic
A good pinch of Fine Salt

Method

1. Rub coarse salt or sea salt all over inside & outside of the chicken, give a good pinch of ground black pepper all over inside & outside of the chicken. Keep in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
2. Preheat oven at 180c. Remove the marinated chicken from the fridge, again rub all over with rosemary & thyme. Stuff garlic into the chicken.
3. Place the chicken in the oven proof glass tray & pour olive oil all over the chicken. Place the chicken into the oven & roast for 15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, cut the potatoes into 1cm in thickness. Fill the cooking pan with enough water, place the potato & garlic into the pan, boil it with high heat. When it's start boiling, boil for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat, drain off the water & leave aside.
5. After 15 minutes later, open up the oven door & place the butter on the chicken. Roast until the chicken becomes golden brown in colour, this process take about 25 to 30 minutes.
6. When the chicken has become golden brown in colour, remove the glass tray from the oven. Turn the entire chicken upside down & place the potatoes all over the glass tray. Again place the glass tray back to the oven & roast until the chicken become golden brown in color.

This is a really yummy dish..Hubby gave two thumbs up and he loves the potatoes. Since when I cook I don't usually measure my ingredients to the T my chicken was a little too salty and a little spicy from the black pepper but if you eat it with the potatoes it was just right.

Another reason why I made this dish is because I wanted some left over chicken so that I can make some chicken enchiladas for dinner sometime this week for dinner. I would make this dish again because hubs really love this dish. I love the garlicky taste in the potatoes even though we have garlic in the chicken you can really taste the garlic and the garlic is still crunchy. I prefer the softer garlic that was boiled with the potatoes. I will put more garlic with my potatoes next time just because I'm a garlic lover!

Asian Style Salmon

I suddenly had cravings to eat fish last night at about 10pm so obviously I could not/did not want to whip up some fish and eat them then go to bed so hubby suggested that I take the fish out from the freezer so I can cook them the next day.

I found two salmon that I bought a couple of weeks ago and decided to cook that. I tried cooking salmon on the pan before and it stunk up my whole house thus I don't cook salmon in the pan anymore. I normally cook my salmon on the grill so that it won't stink up the house but hubby was at work when I tried to cook this so I decided to use the oven instead hoping it won't stink up my house.

Ingredients
1-1/2 pounds whole salmon, cleaned
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1-1/2 teaspoons chili sauce
1-1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh ginger root
1/2 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 lime, juiced
1/2 lime, zested
1-1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
1-1/2 green onions, chopped

Method
1. Prepare outdoor grill for high heat.
2. Trim the tail and fins off of the salmon. Make several shallow cuts across the salmon's skin. 3. Place salmon on 3 large, slightly overlapping sheets of aluminum foil.
4. In a bowl, stir together soy sauce, chili sauce, ginger, and garlic. Mix in lime juice, lime zest, and brown sugar. Spoon sauce over the salmon.
5. Fold the foil over the salmon, and crimp the edges to seal.
6. If using hot coals, move them to one side of the grill. Place the fish on the side of the grill that does not have coals directly underneath it, and close the lid. If using a gas grill, place the fish on one side, and turn off the flames directly underneath it; close the lid. Cook for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove to a serving platter, and pour any juices that may have collected in the foil over the top of the fish. Sprinkle with green onions.

OR

7. Prepare as stated but preheat over at 425 degree F. Bake for 20 minutes and take the top foil out so and cook for another 5 minutes. Check fish to make sure the fish is cooked.

Thankfully my house didn't stink even though I cooked it in the oven so I guess I don't need to only cook salmon on the grill. I love to cook the salmon this way because it taste so good and there is no fishy taste/smell. Even my picky hubs approved of this dish and actually eats them.

Fun morning out at the park

I've been taking and meaning to take the boys to the dog park for the longest time but I knew that I could not deal with my two boys by myself so I would have to wait for hubs to go with me. There us normally a lot of people/dogs at the park weekends hence we've not gone to the park yet. Since Stanley is so playful and gets so excited when he sees other dogs/people we do not really want to deal with that thus they have never gone to the dog park before.

SIL found a dog park by where she lives and she's been taking Sadie (her dog) there. I went there with SIL on Friday and told Aunt L about it. We decided to go there with all six dogs on Sunday morning so that the dogs can play together.

The dog park is not very big but is big enough and is fenced in good. The dogs can mingle and play together if they want and the most important thing is there is no one else there. Not many people use this park hence we feel like is our own personal dog park! :)

I've already taken my boys there twice this week and hopefully more to come since the weather has cooled down so much.Aunt L said we should make it a point to take all the dogs there every Sunday morning for a play date.

2009 Internation Quilt Festival

Hub's aunt that resides in Wisconsin had one of her photography picked to be shown in the International Quilt Festival that was held in Houston. Since she don't have any plans to come down yet she asked if we (me or aunt L) could go there and take photos of her photos and other photos there. I didn't agree to go straightaway because I didn't want to go there by myself to just take photos and I am not even interested in Quilts!



Anyway Aunt L thought that we should go for the Quilt festival Saturday evening and Uncle Richie (yes we drugged him with hubby got lucky because he had to work), Aunt L, SIL and me went to the quilt festival. That place was huge and filled with quilt lovers. We didn't go through everything because we were not really that interested but we were very impressed with some of the quilts there. Some of the quilt there was just so surreal and it actually looks like a picture instead of quilt.

Can you believe this is a quilt?

The cheapest quilt for sale was about $400 plus dollars! Even though they were beautiful but I just cannot play such money for a quilt. I really don't know how to appreciate quilt that much!. I think this was a great experience but I doubt that I would be interested in quilting at this moment.

Bak Kut Teh (Pork Bone Tea Soup)

When I was living in Malaysia I rarely eat Bak Kut Teh. If I'm lucky I would probably eat that about once a year. My last trip home I ate Bak Kut Teh once that's also because my relatives from Australia was there so I think that's the reason why we actually ate that (my parents don't really like to eat a lot of meaty dish).
For some reason I've been wanting to eat Bak Kut Teh for quite sometime now. I had cereal for breakfast today and I just decided that I'll take the stuff out from the freezer to make myself a wholesome pot of Bak Kut Teh since it was cool and rainy all day.

Bak Kut Teh

Ingredients:
1 pack of pre-packed Bak Kut Teh herbs
Handful of Goji Berries (Kei Chi)
6 bowls of water
2 garlic bulbs (skin peeled)
12 dried Shitake mushrooms (soaked and cut into halves)
A handful of tofu puffs

Seasoning:

2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
A few dashes of white pepper powder
Salt to taste

Condiment:

A handful (5-6) bird's eyes chilies
Soy Sauce
ABC dark Sweet Soy Sauce
Two Tablespoon of chopped fresh garlic

Method

Add in the water, garlic bulbs, pre-packed Bak Kut Teh herbs, pork ribs, mushrooms, tofu puffs and boils in low heat for about 1 - 2 hours. Add in the seasoning and boil for another 5 minutes. Serve hot.

Honestly my picture does no justice. It was steaming and I was starving so I was rushing to eat :P. I was surprise it tasted so good. I was leary about using my pre-pack Bak Kut Teh herbs because this one was really old. It was given to me by one of my friend before she left to go home. I've had it for more than 5 years and god knows how long she had it before but I am happy to say that it still taste so very good.

Oily Vegetables

Ingredients

Lettuce

Fried Onions (Shallots)/ chopped garlic

Method

Boil a pot of water and blanch lettuce. Pour fried shallots/garlic on top of the vegetable with about one tablespoon of oil.

P/s: I pour about half a bowl of oil in a bowl. I put chopped shallots/garlic in the bowl. Put in the bowl in microwave for about 4 minutes (depending on how many volt your microwave). Keep a close watch on your onions/garlic. Shallot takes a longer time to get crispy while garlic browns much quicker so after the 4 minutes nuke it 30-45 seconds each time but watch it closely so it doesn't burn. My shallot burned because I was not watching it.

I was preparing dinner so I didn't watch the onions so mine got burned a little. The next day I fried some chopped garlic in the microwave again so I used fried garlic on my vegetable the next day. I purposely fried extra garlic so that I could sprinkle some on my rice. I guess vampires was afraid of me since I was consuming all the garlic!LOL

I had Bak Kut Teh for dinner, brunch and dinner the next day and brunch again the follow day after. My Bak Kut Teh is all gone now..slurrppp....Hubby likes the soup but he didn't like the ribs.He suggested that I use pork roast next time when I make this!I'm just dumb-founded with his suggestions sometimes.I wonder whether will pork roast actually works?

Milo might be sick.............*Updated*

Milo was fine all day yesterday but when it was time to go to bed Milo started acting funny. First I toss the blanket over him like I always do every night to make him move he started to yelp. Then when I wanted to touch him he'll yelp and growl after that I would touch him again he seems fine. I examined him yesterday and I didn't see any scratches or hot spots or anything. At first I assumed that he had a hot spot because the last time when he had hot spot he was fine all afternoon but when I touch him later he was yelping and I found out that he had a patch of hot spot.
I thought he might have broken bones or anything like that because hubby accidentally stepped on his paw last night but he was fine after that jumping around and running around so I don't think that he has a broken bone.

He was yelping here and there all night long. He was sleeping on my pillow and I was just moving the blanket several times and he just yelped. He looked like he was jumping the bed just fine although not as fast as he used to be.

This morning when I tried to pat his head he yelped really loud and was trying to nip me. When I touched it again after that he was fine and I could not see anything wrong with his head/ears. I am so worried and I quickly called the vet's office. They don't even know what's going on with Milo. I don't even know what's going on with Milo so I cannot even google it to find out. The Vet said I should just monitor him and take him in if anything happens. I could drop him off at the vet and let them monitor them but if he's not showing any sign on exactly where he's hurting they cannot do anything too and I would just end up being slap with a few hundred dollar bills for test and stuff plus they might still not being able to find out what happen to him. Uncle Richie said that all I could do is just monitor him because even if I drop him off at the vet they would do the same thing.

I am worried seeing my poor baby but I really don't know what going on. He's eating fine and he's running fine although not as quickly as he was. What should I do? Would you drop your pet off at the Vet?

*Update*** Milo is all better now..He's as hyper as he was before. He was being cranky or not so hyper the next two days too and has not been playing with dear Stanley but after that he's all better like before. Basically I really don't know what happened to him but I'm glad that I didn't have to fork out a couple hundred dollars but still good my hyper boy back..xoxo