What are you doing?

[Souschef]

Dog Day Afternoon

I fly for an organization called Pilots & Paws, who fly rescue animals to a new forever home.
I saw a post on their website looking for someone to fly a Brittany Spaniel from Phoenix to Santa Barbara ,CA. My son lives about half way between, near Palm Springs, so I asked if someone could fly the dog from Phoenix to Palm Springs, so we could fly the dog the rest of the way.
I got a response from another pilot, and we made all the arrangements. We left our little home airport in Santa Paula and my copilot Jim and I flew to Palm Springs to meet my son.
We had lunch together, and as we arrived back at the airport, the other pilot landed and taxied in. We got the dog from him, contacted the receiving party in Santa Barbara, and told them we were on our way.We learned that the dog originally came from a hoarding situation in New Mexico. What a beautiful, loving dog.
The flight back toward Santa Barbara was uneventful, but as we neared the coast, we could see the thick fog bank at the shore. A quick call to the weather bureau confirmed that the Santa Barbara airport was socked in.
We then landed at our home airport in Santa Paula, which was about 45 miles from Santa Barbara, and called the awaiting parents of their dog in our back seat. We arranged to drive the dog to a meeting place half way, and their son programmed her cellphone with the directions.
We walked the dog along the sidewalk, and soon a car pulled up and flashed its lights. The couple got out, and were absolutely thrilled with the first look at their new dog. In fact, the lady was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of a Brittany Spaniel on it.
It was the best of a dog day afternoon.

 

[Dawgluver]

That's so sweet, Souschef! And what a nice dog!

 

[Cheryl J]

Wonderful story SC....so glad to hear everyone arrived safely and the beautiful dog is with family. Happy to hear you got a visit with you son, too!

 

[GotGarlic]

What a terrific day you had Glad it all worked out.

 

[Souschef]

Dog day afternoon part 2

I just got this picture from the new owner of our rescue dog. Talk about settling in! Good digs for our friend.

 

[Dawgluver]

Obviously a lap and lawn dog!

 

[LPBeier]

Wow, Souschef, that pooch is set for life! Well done!

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Souschef, you are a real hero to both man and beast. It sounds like all involved had a very happy day. Well done, sir.

...Enjoy your slick, tall ride! I my Ford Escape Hybrid.

I've named my loaner! He's "Sam", and is he a nice hunk of...metal. When we were out looking before we bought Sally, I had wanted a higher profile vehicle - similar to my van, but not a Mom-Mobile. The 2012 Escape we drove felt kinda "trucky" to me. The Subaru Outback? or Forester? was too hard to sit in, no less try to ride in. I didn't even take that out. Then we saw the Sonata and Himself was smitten. My car, but ended up being his choice. Don't get me wrong, it's a comfy ride and she's just plain fun to drive, but I miss the height advantage and, at time, the cargo room. Wish we had money to blow, but we're pretty careful since we're now on retirement monies and relatively healthy and young. I think we're going out tomorrow, well today, for a little ride to someplace, maybe an early supper out. I'm hoping really hard than Himself falls in love with it, too. IF we get this MA house on the market we should be able to sell it for a nice profit, then turn around and buy an OH house at least at nice for a lot less money. It's time we made up for the huge hit we took moving this way in 2000. Whenif we get back to OH, he can sell his Milan, take Sally, and I'll get a Hyundai SUV. Hoping they get their loaner Tucson in before my car is fixed, since the service adviser told me she would call and ask if we want to switch it out for the Santa Fe. But...this one fits nicely in the garage. We'll see.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I just got this picture from the new owner of our rescue dog. Talk about settling in! Good digs for our friend.

What a very nice way to spend the day. Yup, you are a Hero!

 

[Andy M.]

Souschef, bravo to you for all you do for our best friends.

 

[Chef Munky]

Having a cup of coffee before I start packing.
Will be gone a few days...again! Just hope this trip will be much better than the last one.
Does it show I'm a homebody?

This time were taking the Roku box with us. Every place we've stayed at the last few trips we've been stuck watching marathon cooking shows on Food Network. A little bit of Diner's Drive In's and Dives goes a long way.

I really don't ever want to be waken at 2 am by some cobwebbed eyes women having an all out barroom brawl. The Real show Real House Wives Of Beverly hills, I think it was. Either way they looked freakish.Thought I was having a nightmare. Seriously go home and sleep it off. Stop rolling the cameras!

This is going to be interesting.

 

[Cheryl J]

Have a good trip, Munky! Let us know how it went when you get back.
I've never watched any of those 'Real Housewives of wherever' shows, and yes, Food Network does get old after a while...

 

[Aunt Bea]

Making peanut butter!

I have been thinking about buying a food processor for a long, long time and I thought I had settled on a very basic little Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus 4-Cup Food Processor. I figured that the mini-prep would be good for me because all I want it for is making peanut butter and minced ham or chicken salad spreads, anything else it can do would be a bonus. I was all set to run out and buy one this morning when I decided to give peanut butter making a try in my ancient Osterizer blender. I heated a cup of roasted peanuts in the microwave, tossed them in the blender, hit the button labeled grind, added a drizzle of canola oil, a dash of salt and hit the button labeled whip. In less than a minute I had about a 1/2 cup of nice smooth/gritty natural style peanut butter that even Tim and Richard Smucker would be proud of! The food processor is on hold, again until I give ham salad a try in the old blender!

 

[Dawgluver]

Just got off the phone with DH. He's in Florida on a "business meeting". Their plane was delayed, and they didn't get there till after 11 last night, then they were up till after 3am after they found a bar. I offered no sympathy. I did laugh.

 

[Cheryl J]

Aww, poor DH, Dawg...(snicker...)

AB, I love ham salad (spread) and use my blender for it all the time - it works great. I just chop the ham in cubes, drop in the blender and pulse it. Need to keep an eye on it though, it can lose it's texture in the blender and turn to paste pretty quick. I like some texture in it.

 

[Aunt Bea]

Aww, poor DH, Dawg...(snicker...)

AB, I love ham salad (spread) and use my blender for it all the time - it works great. I just chop the ham in cubes, drop in the blender and pulse it. Need to keep an eye on it though, it can lose it's texture in the blender and turn to paste pretty quick. I like some texture in it.

Thanks for the tips!

I will give it a whirl with a piece of the Easter ham, it won't be long now!

 

[Lance Bushrod]

Aww, poor DH, Dawg...(snicker...)

AB, I love ham salad (spread) and use my blender for it all the time - it works great. I just chop the ham in cubes, drop in the blender and pulse it. Need to keep an eye on it though, it can lose it's texture in the blender and turn to paste pretty quick. I like some texture in it.

I love ham salad and never think about it. I can remember my mom making it with a hand crank grinder attached to the kitchen table. She ground up Planters peanuts in hers.

Another one she made was ground Spam, onions and longhorn, ground then broiled on burger buns in the old gas stove. I want to do that one of these days.

I use the Kitchen Aid grinder now days.

 

[Aunt Bea]

I love ham salad and never think about it. I can remember my mom making it with a hand crank grinder attached to the kitchen table. She ground up Planters peanuts in hers.

Another one she made was ground Spam, onions and longhorn, ground then broiled on burger buns in the old gas stove. I want to do that one of these days.

I use the Kitchen Aid grinder now days.

We used to use the silver meat grinder to make ham salad too. I thought about getting one at the flea market but I looked around my kitchen and I don't have a suitable location to clamp it down, progress.

It took a special plate to make the peanut butter.

 

[Cheryl J]

Thanks for the tips!

I will give it a whirl with a piece of the Easter ham, it won't be long now!

You're welcome, AB! Yep, I'll be getting a ham soon too....I love it, and so many ways to use the leftovers!

I meant to say earlier, I'm glad you had such success with your peanut butter. Sounds really good.

Lance....those 'spamburgers' sound good!

 

[Dawgluver]

I love ham salad and never think about it. I can remember my mom making it with a hand crank grinder attached to the kitchen table. She ground up Planters peanuts in hers.



Another one she made was ground Spam, onions and longhorn, ground then broiled on burger buns in the old gas stove. I want to do that one of these days.



I use the Kitchen Aid grinder now days.

Hmm. I just froze some leftover low fat Spam that I fried, then glazed with maple syrup and cubed. Bet that would make some killer ham/spam salad! Thanks for the idea, Lance!