Chip in for Marvelous Manny!

Poor, precious Manny.  Manny is one of the most recent additions to Pitty Love Rescue.  He is a wonderful pup with an unfortunate condition.  At some point when he was younger, he most likely suffered some sort of injury to his front legs.  Combined with malnutrition, this has resulted in his front legs being deformed.  

Even after being dumped on someone's porch then being brought to a shelter, Manny is as sweet as pie and just wants to play like a normal puppy.  Here's some more information about Manny from Pitty Love's webpage and facebook:

"Please meet Manny. This is a hard video to watch as his two front legs are severely deformed... For now his legs don't seem to slow him down but they are affecting other ares of his body, so that will change. We realize this is a tough case but this little guy is SO sweet, we couldn't NOT give him a chance. His spirit is so bright!..."

"Manny went to see a specialist last week about his legs and the Dr. who saw him is very confident he can help Manny.  It will take major surgery but it will also give Manny the ability to walk upright and get around a lot more normally.  Many people may ask us why. Why this little dog? Our response? Because he is sweetness defined and he deserves his chance!  Manny was once someone's throw away but he is now and will always be part of the PLR family."

Description of the surgery:

"Essentially sections of bone need to be removed from each leg so they can put plates in place of the bone.  This will allow Manny to stand upright and walk around a lot more normally... We realize this surgery is extensive and expensive but the specialist is essentially doing the surgery at an extremely reduced cost.  The chip in amount includes surgery, weekly bandage changes for 8 weeks, and follow-up x-rays. Any amount donated will be completely appreciated, $1, $5, $10, no amount is too small! Please consider helping Manny!"

✰✰✰Here's Manny's Chip in. ✰✰✰

Adoption Spotlight: Holly

Poor Miss Holly.  It always breaks my heart to see a momma without her babies.  Holly's story is particularly heartbreaking.  She was found this winter in a Kodak parking lot, abandoned in her crate.  She was still full of milk and miserable without her babies. 

 How could you throw a face like this out in the cold by herself:

Despite still being away from her babies, Holly has rallied in an impressive way.  She is such a sweetheart.  She has a light in her that you wouldn't expect from a dog with such a recent trauma in her life:

Ever the momma pitty, she loves everyone around her.  She's still just a baby herself, only a year and a half old and you can tell that she just wants to be loved.  Whenever she can, she tries to cuddle with the people around her, crawling daintily onto the nearest offered lap:

She loves children, especially the canine kind which is not surprising since it seems like she wasn't able to spend a lot of time with her own.  She gets so excited when she sees a puppy, maybe she thinks it's one of her babies coming back to her:

Holly is looking for the comfort and protection of a safe forever home.  She would do wonderfully in any home setting, whether with a single owner, couple or family.  She just wants to love and be loved, and maybe be a lap dog if you let her.  

How could you say no to this face?:

Holly is available in the Rochester, NY area.  If you are interested please go to her web page to learn more and fill out an application to be her forever home.

French Onion Soup

 This recipe is one of the many reasons that I always trust Julia.  Whenever I'm looking for a recipe, if I see one by Julia, I know it will be good.  It might not always be the easiest version of what I want to make, but it will definitely turn out fabulous.  Luckily, this recipe couldn't be any easier.

Ever since going to France, I've been craving Onion Soup.  Going to France really opened my eyes up to why French cooking is the heart of so many techniques and recipes.  They really know what they're doing when it comes to food.  I never used to think that Onion Soup was anything to jump up and down about, but for such a simple soup, its fantastic. 

This soup is so easy that I was able to make enchiladas to freeze for the week at the same time.  And it makes enough for multiple meals.  Being a poor college student, I didn't make it with white wine, vermouth, or cognac.  I also used mozzarella for my cheese on top as well as an Italian bread from Wegmans. 

Gorgeous Onion Soup that I had at the Angelina restaurant in Versailles:

First just melt your butter and oil together. Add all your onions and sweat them out while covered.

At this point they should look translucent and smell delicious:

  

I uncovered it at this point and cranked up the heat to get some color on my onions.  There was a lot of liquid from sweating the onions out, don't worry though, you'll cook it off.

Don't get wimpy with your coloring. My first instinct when I start to see color on something is to either yank it off the stove in a panic or turn the heat down a ton.  Don't do this.  You want brown, caramelized onions for this soup, trust me, it will taste delicious.  So you want to pass this point:

  

And get to at least this:

I actually browned mine a little bit more to get some more color. I had to stop it before I really wanted to because I was afraid of setting off the fire alarm (the joys of living in a college dorm).

After you get them nicely caramelized and brown (can't stress it enough), add some flour to get some roux action going.  Cook for a few minutes then add the stock and simmer for a bit longer.

My bowl was way too big so I didn't get the classic "French Onion Soup" look that I loved in France:   

I saw this Corningware Soup Mug at Wegmans that would have been the perfect size but didn't want to waste the money on it:

One day I'll have a set of these:

Onion Soup [Soupe à l’Oignon]

Adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking

1 1/2 pounds (680 grams or 24 ounces or about 5 cups) thinly sliced yellow onions

3 tablespoons (42 grams or 1 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter

1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil

1 teaspoon (5 grams) table salt, plus additional to taste

1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) granulated sugar (helps the onions to brown)

3 tablespoons (24 grams or 7/8 ounce) all-purpose flour

2 quarts (8 cups or 1.9 liters) beef or other brown stock*

1/2 cup (118 ml) dry white wine or dry white vermouth

Freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons (45 ml) cognac or brandy (optional)

To finish [Gratinée] (Optional)

1 tablespoon grated raw onion

1 to 2 cups (to taste) grated Swiss (I often use Gruyere) or a mixture of Swiss and Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon butter, melted

12 to 16 1-inch thick rounds French bread, toasted until hard

Melt the butter and oil together in the bottom of a 4- to 5-quart saucepan or Dutch oven over moderately low heat. Add the onions, toss to coat them in oil and cover the pot. Reduce the heat to real low and let them slowly steep for 15 minutes. They don’t need your attention; you can even go check your email.

After 15 minutes, uncover the pot, raise the heat slightly and stir in the salt and sugar. Cook onions, stirring frequently, for 30 to 40 minutes until they have turned an even, deep golden brown. Don’t skimp on this step, as it will build the complex and intense flavor base that will carry the rest of the soup. Plus, from here on out, it will be a cinch.

After the onions are fully caramelized, sprinkle them with flour and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the wine in full, then stock, a little at a time, stirring between additions. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and simmer partially covered for 30 to 40 more minutes, skimming if needed. Correct seasonings if needed but go easy on the salt as the cheese will add a bit more saltiness and I often accidentally overdo it. Stir in the cognac, if using. I think you should.

Set aside until needed. I find that homemade onion soup is so deeply fragrant and flavor-rich that it can stand alone, but that doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy the graitinéed top once in a while. Here’s how to pull it off:

Preheat oven to 325. Arrange six ovenproof soup bowls or crocks on a large, foil-lined baking sheet. Bring the soup back to a boil and divide among six bowls. To each bowl, add 1/2 teaspoon grated raw onion and a tablespoon of grated cheese. Stir to combine. Dab your croutons with a tiny bit of butter and float a few on top of your soup bowls, attempting to cover it. Mound grated cheese on top of it; how much you use will be up to you. 

Bake soups on tray for 20 minutes, then preheat broiler. Finish for a minute or two under the broiler to brown the top lightly. Grab pot holders, and serve immediately.

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

Adoption Spotlight: Adalai

That big, perfect pitty grin belongs to the amazing Adalai! How could you resist that smile?  For my first spotlight on an adoptable dog from Pitty Love Rescue, I chose this gorgeous girl because she has such a fabulous personality.  Everything about Adalai just screams "Love me!"  She seems like the perfect family dog.  I bet she would love playing with kids or snoring belly up on a couch next to you while you watch tv. 

Here's a quote from Adalai's page at Pitty Love:

Meet Adalai! This sweet girl is smaller than she looks, she's a pocket pitty at only 35 pounds! She is a little shy but warms up quickly and just wants to be loved. And she gives the sweetest tiny kisses!

She is great with other dogs as she currently lives with four others and plays appropriately with all.

Please give this little girl the life she deserves with the only thing she wants; to be loved.

Adalai didn't show any of that supposed "shyness" when I met her. Even with my big scary camera in her face she was unperturbed.  She was such a ham:

It's 100% true about those pitty kisses though! She loves to give them to anyone who with have them.  She's perfectly gentle about it though.  Adalai is one of those dogs that thinks she's a lap dog, and at 35 pounds, it works better for her than it does for most big dogs.  

Adalai is up for adoption in the Rochester, NY area.  She's fully housetrained and good with other dogs.  She loves to play with everyone around her, even if they just met.  

Go to Adalai's page here.

Stovetop Popcorn

I can't believe that I've never made popcorn on the stove before.  It was  so ridiculously simple, and it made a bunch and was the lightest, most delicious popcorn I've ever eaten.

Every night, around ten or eleven, I get the munchies really badly.  I was tired of having to battle myself not to eat something totally unhealthy, and losing pretty much every night.  I would end up eating tortilla chips, or even worse, pita chips until I was disgusted with myself.  I wanted something healthier to munch on, since I've obviously been losing this battle.  I happened to read on a health blog the other day that a really good snack to have is stovetop popcorn. Light bulb moment!

The bag or container that your kernels come in probably have instructions, but I'll give you some basic instructions anyway.

Recipe:

1/3 cup unpopped corn kernels

3 tablespoons cooking oil

Pour kernels and oil into a medium to large pot.

Stir to coat the kernels. 

Cover but allow steam to escape.

Cook at medium-high until it finishes popping.

Seasoned as desired.

Tada!!

Tonight I Fell in Love!

With a pit/ great dane mix named Oreo.
He's named after a cookie! We're obviously meant for each other.

This dog is seriously amazing. Something about him just clicked with me.

He's absolutely gorgeous, and a huge mush.

I'm going to ask if I can possibly be considered a viable adopter next week.  I absolutely adore this dog, he's all I've thought about since I got home.

And no, I'm not linking to his page cause I don't want anyone else to get to him before I can ask.

Corn Chowder

Last weekend I made corn Chowder for the first time! Not as good as my dad's, mostly because he puts fancy sausage in his, but it was decent.  There are definitely somethings that I would do differently next time, like use a bigger pot or just start off in two pots, you'll see why soon.  Also I wouldn't be a cheap college student and just use the fat free milk that we already had. Trust me, cream is the way to go.  The fat free milk turned out to be too thin for my liking and didn't give it the healthy chowder color that I'm used to.

And speaking about being a cheap college student, my friend went to Wegmans with me to pick up the ingredients for this recipe.  Looking at my cart, he commented on how expensive it was to make soup, why don't I just by it canned?  Well this recipe more than proved that point of view incorrect.  Even though I made a double batch of it, I only ended up paying $10 at Wegmans.  Granted, I shopped cheaply by purchasing off brand products and didn't have to buy cream, but I think this is more than reasonable to spend on soup.  I even had an extra onion and most of a garlic clove left over.  Making a single batch would cost about $5 and made at least seven or eight servings.  This means that each serving only costs about 70 cents.  Plus you get the added bonus of your chowder not having a ton of preservatives and sodium in it!

Anyway, here's the recipe, let me know if you try it out.

Dice your celery into corn sized pieces. A little bit bigger than kernel sized isn't the end of the world but definitely make sure that they're all the same size compared to one another so they will cook at the same rate:

Do the same to your onions (try not to cry, Hint: refrigerate them first) and potatoes:

Heat your oil. Not too hot though, you don't want it popping and burning you:

Add celery, onions, and garlic and cook until slightly tender and translucent. Then add flour to soak up the oil (see recipe below):

Add stock.  Bring to a boil.  It is essential that this chowder boils because that is most of what thickens it to the desired texture.  Boiling helps the flour/ oil mixture to thicken the chowder:

I realized at this point that there's not a way in hell that I was fitting all this corn into one pot:

I very carefully split into two pots, trying not to burn myself:

Add in the corn and cook for another ten minutes or so:

Allow to cool a bit, at least so it's not boiling, then add the milk gradually: 

Recipe from The Complete Book of Soups and Stews 

by Bernard Clayton Jr.

Ingredients:

3 cups corn kernels

2 cups stock (chicken or vegetable)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons flour (dad and my addition)

1 cup finely sliced celery (about 2 stalks)

2 cups thinly sliced onions (2 medium)

1 clove garlic, minced

3 medium potatoes, pared, in 1/2 inch dice

1 16-oz can tomatoes, chopped (I didn't use this)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda (counteracts acid in tomatoes, again, didn't use)

2 cups milk or light cream

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Note: be sure to dice everything approximately the same size, about the size of a corn kernel.

Puree 2 of the 3 cups of corn in a food processor or blender, and set aside for later use. (I skipped this part, I just put all of them in whole because all I had was a mini smoothie maker)

In a medium saucepan heat the vegetable oil then add the celery, onions, and garlic and cook over medium heat until the vegetables are somewhat tender and translucent, about 12 minutes.

Our addition: Add two tablespoons flour and mix until it soaks up all of the oil and coats the vegetables.  If you don't do this, all the oil will float to the top of your soup when you're done cooking it and you'll have to either deal with it or skim it off.  Making a roux (flour and oil) suspends the oil within the soup instead of letting it float to the top.  It also helps thicken the soup which is very important.  Remember that the roux will only thicken the soup if the broth that it's in boils, so make sure to let your soup boil for a bit if you want thick soup.

Pour the stock into the saucepan and add diced potatoes, tomatoes and baking soda.  If you don't use the tomatoes like I did, there's no need for the baking soda.  Cook until the potatoes are almost tender, about twelve minutes.

Add the corn, pureed (if you did it) and whole to the pot and continue cooking for another 10 minutes. Stir frequently. Potatoes and corn should be tender.

Turn down heat, until it's no longer boiling.  Add the milk or cream and Worcestershire sauce.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Eat!

Note: I made a double batch and froze half of it for later, it seems to be holding up fine.  Just remember that your chowder has milk products in it, so make sure you don't keep it in your fridge too long or it will spoil.

Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles are my default cookie.  Don't know what to make for a party or get together? Make snickerdoodles.  Everyone seems to love them. Every type of cookie seems to have people that don't like them, except for snickerdoodles.  Chocolate chip: don't like chocolate. Oatmeal raisin: don't like raisins. Sugar cookies: too boring/ hard/ sweet. Snickerdoodles: perfect.  The only problem I've ever encountered with snickerdoodles is having someone not recognize the name. They're essentially just sugar cookies rolled in a mixture of cinnamon sugar:

I always make mine kind of small, so instead of getting 4 dozen out of them, I usually get five or six dozen by the time I'm done.  The dough chills and freezes fine though, so you could always make half and save the other half, just don't roll them in the cinnamon sugar first.

Feel free to play around with the cinnamon sugar mixture, I never measure, just put more cinnamon in until it "looks right."  I do recommend using a silicone mat like I used or double panning these though if your oven can be unpredictable, cause there's nothing more disappointing than a burnt batch of Snickerdoodles!

Recipe from: Baking Bites

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, soft

1/2 cup shortening (nonhydrogenated), soft

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and shortening, gradually adding the sugar until mixture is fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract. Gradually mix in the flour at low speed until a dough is formed.

In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Roll 1-inch balls of dough in the mixture and place on baking sheet. Cookies will spread, so leave about 2-inches between cookies.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until set.

Remove to a wire cooling rack immediately.

Store in an airtight container when cool.

Makes about 4-dozen.