For the Dogs, Week Four

There are very few things I won’t eat. My words are not one of them. More on that later.

For now, the week in review (also, I learned how to link stuff on this site so it opens in a new tab, so click away!):

Saturday: The kids each had a friend over, so we did make your own pizzas! I had really lofty plans to make this beautiful rainbow pizza, but once I realized I’d be the only one who would eat it, I decided to scrap the beautiful toppings for sodium and fat-laden ones. I bought pre-made balls of dough ($3 a piece--can’t make it for less!) from the hot foods pizza section of Mariano’s and a bunch of toppings including jarred spaghetti sauce and mozzarella cheese.

Since I was a kid, I’ve had this fantasy of shaping pizza dough into a perfect circle. I had my 11th birthday at Garibaldi's (anyone else remember this place?), and I vividly remember watching the “master pizza maker” toss and simultaneously spin the dough in the air into a perfect circle. No matter how many times I have tried to replicate this over the years, I have failed. I always tear holes into it. So on Saturday, I finally wised up and searched online how to do this. This site had some useful tips, which resulted in one really great, round, canvas o’ dough!

The girls enjoyed topping the pizzas with tomato sauce, pepperoni, and sausage. The boys enjoyed playing Fortnite while they baked. Everyone enjoyed eating them! Pre-baking the crusts was a great tip from the rainbow pizza site. It resulted in a perfectly crisp bottom crust.

But the boys voluntarily took a break to make a sweet treat later in the evening. Baking beats Fortnite any day of the year! We assembled these simple pretzel bites and each friend got to bring some home.

WARNING: This next section will be littered with poultry puns. Can you find them all?!

Sunday: M took on quite the challenge today--roasting a whole chicken! If you’ve never done this before, give it a try! And there’s no need to wing it--this recipe for lemon rosemary chicken clearly lays out the steps. Not only does the end product turn out visually impressive, the meat is moist and delicious. And in the end, if a nine-year old can do it, so can you!

I rinsed the bird, emptied the cavity of the packaged giblets and such, patted it dry, placed it in the pan, and set it in the fridge, uncovered, for about 4 hours. This isn’t a necessary step, but it helps dry out the bird, which will result in a crispier skin.

Once the two of us started prepping, the questions flew. She pointed her finger to the opening where the neck would have been. “Is this the butt?” she asked. We could not proceed until I told her where the butt was.

The first instruction told us to flip the bird, breast-side up. “How do you know where the breast is?” I explained how I used to get the front from the back mixed up, but in the end, you can tell the breast side because it’s squishy compared to the bony back side. My little chick thought this was hilarious, “It’s got squishy boobs!”

We then stuffed the cavity with lemons and she was pretty much appalled by this fowl task. I taught her how to truss the legs with twine (avoid blue twine or else you’ll end up with blue soup a la Bridget Jones), and then it was time for the good part--slathering the bird with the marinade.

These pictures say it all:

We literally did not touch it, baste it, etc. the entire time it was in the oven. We skipped the potatoes and instead added the second helping of marinade to Brussels sprouts, which we roasted along side the chicken for the last 30 minutes. After about an hour and a half, I used my digital thermometer to determine if the chicken was done. And when it came out, she was wowed by her creation! I mean, look how gorgeous that sucker is!

She carved it up, and since we were all feeling peckish, we dove right in. Yum!

Monday - Long story short, it was a crazy busy day, but we celebrated N getting a lead role in his junior high’s production of Legally Blonde, Jr., at Olive Garden (his choice)!

Tuesday - It was N’s night to make dinner, and we had some last minute guests join us, the Abuelos! We beefed up the number of peppers in this sweet pepper pasta with sausage recipe, so it easily fed the six of us.

You should know that I hardly ever follow a recipe exactly as it’s written. I substitute A LOT of ingredients for whatever I have on hand and also for what’s less expensive. Fresh herbs outside of parsley and cilantro seem like a luxury item to me, so I often sub them out for their dried counterparts. However, Trader Joe’s sells frozen cubes of basil, parsley, and garlic, and they are fantastic! We used the basil one in this recipe and opted for dried oregano, too. I was happy to swap out the pecorino romano cheese for that fontina from M’s pasta dish a couple weeks ago, and just like last time, it added a creamy, indulgent texture to this dish. There was literally not a single orecchiette noodle left in the dish by the time we all had seconds (and even thirds).

Thursday - Happy Valentine’s Day! Mark and I had parent/teacher conferences, so the kids “hung out” with Allie and Becca. Teaching is such a rewarding career in general, and one of the perks is always having great, trustworthy former students to babysit. These ladies have been watching the kids for the past four years, and they have grown to be great pals of M and N. They share in their successes and have a ton of laughs, too. I was thankful they could spend this special evening with the kids.

N and Allie stayed home to prepare dinner while M and Becca were at tap class. After a phone call to Allie’s mom (“Do we put both packages of pasta in the pot or cook one at a time?”...Moms to the rescue!), they assembled the “love”ly meal and then indulged in bake sale cupcakes for dessert.

Oh! And I received the best text from a friend whose daughter is reading the blog and giving this cooking thing a shot! L is one of N’s good friends, and we can credit her for introducing him to Pinterest and thus kicking this whole experiment off. How great does her sun-dried tomato pasta dish look?! 😃

Friday - Apparently, my words are best served with a side of Chicken Walnut Cheese Wrapped in Bacon.

Ever since Mark and I got married I have been vehemently opposed to getting a pet. First off, I’m allergic to cats (and so is Mark), so that was never even a discussion. However, growing up, Mark always wanted a dog. I had a fluffy, white Bichon Frise growing up--Sparkey, my “little brother.” If you’re really desperate for some reading material, here’s the memoir I wrote about him and shared with my students as they embarked on writing their own memoirs. But I swore that as long as I was an adult, I would not get a dog.

N has always been skittish of dogs. We’re not sure why, but he was never a fan. He never had any scarring experiences with them, nor did he really grow up around them. So I was in the clear. Then M was born, and I swear, as soon as she could talk she started asking for a puppy. “When you turn 18, you can get any pet you want!” I would respond. I was firm in my decision to not bring a dog into the house. As my friend Ann says, “My uncle always said, ‘Life’s bad enough; why get a dog?’” Amen to that!

Then this winter break came along and I read Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming. My students and close friends are probably rolling their eyes right now because I haven’t stopped talking about what an impact her story has made on my own life. And somewhere in between the inspiration to contribute more to the world and restore my passions, the idea of getting a dog crept in. And the craziest thing happened--I got really excited about the prospect of bringing a puppy into our family. Not surprisingly, Mark was thrilled and ready for it, too.

We told N first, just so he could process the news. Because some of his friends have dogs, he’s been getting better about being around them. So it wasn’t as jarring as I had expected. M was literally in disbelief, but once she realized we weren’t joking, her shriek of joy pierced through the walls.

We quickly started brainstorming names. I requested the name be meaningful yet cute. Almost immediately, N said, “I remember learning about the Dewey Decimal System in second grade. Dad’s a librarian and you’re an English teacher, and we all like to read, so how about Dewey?” So, meet Dewey Hahn. He’s an eight-week old Goldendoodle who, so far, has a great temperament. He’s playful and sweet, and has been great about “eliminating” outside (only one accident since Friday!).

In the midst of all this adjustment, Mark held up his end of the bargain and made dinner that night. He served it over some quick-make teriyaki rice. I always have a few packages of this stuff (in varying flavors) in the house for exactly this kind of situation.

As we sat down to dinner with our new pup running circles around the island, I ate my chicken and my words. And they were both pretty tasty.

Finally, I have been overwhelmed by the number of friends and family who have supported us in this puppy adventure. From gifting us care packages to loaning us gates, checking in through calls and texts and giving us crates, so many people have gone out of their way to make all five of us feel loved. And those are some words I know I’ll never have to eat.