Kitchen Helpers

Last night I started to make Riley and Agave's birthday cakes. I had a general idea of how I wanted the cake done but no real plan. I headed to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients:

3 lbs of ground beef
a bag of boiling potatoes
3 sweet potatoes
a small glass roasting pot

I already had parmesan cheese, ketchup, bread crumbs and fresh garlic in the refrigerator at home to add to the recipe. I call it the, "Slow Cooked Garlic Meat Loaf with sweet potato filling and mashed parmesan-potato frosting." Hmm....seems kinda long...

It was really quite simple. Here's the final product:


The sweet potato is layered inside the cake. I wish I had a side cut view to see what the inside looks like. The "frosted" lettering on top is done by blending a can of Merrick's Cowboy Cookout and squeezing it out of a makeshift pastry bag (ziploc bag with corner cut off).

This morning I finished the cakes. Riley and Sabrina were allowed in the kitchen to help of course.


Cleaning the "batter" bowl...


And afterwards posed with their new handsome personalized bandanas.


Riley almost couldn't stand looking at his cake. Sabrina wasn't trusted anywhere near the cake.


Sabrina shares her secret scheming plan to hijack the cake to a very innocent and oblivious Smiley Riley.


And the Birthday Boy seems to like the sound of her plan!


The party starts at 2pm. Where will YOU be?
More photos coming....

Running Thru Woods on a Rainy Day

Riley and Sabrina had a blast with their BFF (best fur friend), Jaxx, yesterday afternoon. Because both of us fur-mom's had the day off, we decided to take the dogs somewhere different to explore.


We went to Great Brook Farm. It has been raining for 4 days but it seemed to let up just long enough for us to enjoy the woods for awhile. Even so, we came prepared with rain gear and waterproof boots. The recent downpour of rain has left everything feeling clean and fresh. Huge water puddles collected all around and they were all filled with clean, clear water.

Riley happily stuck his snout up to the fresh, crisp air and ran with his tail held up high like a flag. Sabrina found a new best friend in Jaxxy. She is now almost as tall as him and could run with him side by side. They both enjoyed crashing into the big puddles, criss crossing the path, not wanting to miss any interesting smells on either side. Sabrina tried several times to engage Jaxx in a game of tug-a-war with a stick. However, stuffing a large tree branch at Jaxxy's face did not encourage him to play. Usually Sabrina is pestering Riley so it was very cute to see her try with Jaxxy too. They all ran and they ran and they ran. It was pure satisfaction for them as well as for us to watch our furkids enjoy their outing.

We stopped at a small pond to let the dogs swim. Jaxxy is a proficient swimmer. Not only does he love the water, but he will go out to swim just for the fun of swimming! The expression on his face is priceless. Sabrina was a bit adventurous and swam out to retrieve sticks that were thrown about 20 feet out from the bank. She looked very nervous while swimming; which made me nervous and ready to leap into the water to rescue her. I think she needs to take more lessons from Jaxxy so I won't need to be rescuing my retriever in the future. Riley found the entire activity disturbing and stood ankle deep at the shore barking and grunting his disapproval. Whenever Sabrina returned from a swim, he reprimanded her. Perhaps it made him nervous too!

As we drove home, three dogs slept peacefully in the back.

Alas, I apologize for not bringing a camera to capture these precious moments. You will have to use your imagination to picture the wide, happy grins on their faces as they ran carefree, as happy as canines could be.