Sunday Randomness #124: B-B and the door (A mystery!)

B-B planted himself by the bathroom door. 

What has so captivated his interest?!?

Ahhh, but of course!  It's the little piece of popcorn between the white door frame and the brown door, lurking in the the shadow on the tile, just behind the door, with not enough space for B-B to get it out. 

He lay there pondering the piece of popcorn for a particularly puzzling period of persistence.  Then the barking started and we retrieved the popcorn piece and B-B got his coveted prize.
 

Thursday Throwback #12 : Goodbye, faithful little rice cooker!

 

For 12 faithful years the little Imusa rice cooker produced fluffy rice of all kinds from nutty Basmati to sticky Calrose to traditional long grain rice along with a few other kinds. I've lost track of how often we consulted the little manual that came with the cooker.  But then one day it started cooking the rice and stopped mid-cycle.  Nothing we tried made any difference in helping our little cooker. Sigh. 

We bought a replacement rice cooker but it's just not the same and the new rice cooker is smaller but we decided that would be best for our current rice needs.  

 Mica used it for a bit while at college and it was one of the items that made the cut to come home.  I'm so glad it made the cut because it's worked so well, being used on an almost weekly basis.  I'm also glad it was an example that there are still a few appliances that last at least a decade or more.

Sunday Randomness #127 : Visiting Scheels with puppies

Scheels has the Hoka brand shoes that are really comfortable for working at the library.  I'm on my feet for most of the day and getting in an average of 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day which isn't a lot compared to some but for me it keeps me moving.  Mego and Daisy accompanied me along with B-B and B back in January of 2024.

They have a connected aquarium set-up at the entrance.

Along with a number of photo back drop opportunities.

Daisy posing with B-B who was getting a little tired by this time.

Daisy with another photo op at Scheels.

Perfect example of B-B and B and their everyday personalities.  B-B is kind of paying attention but B is actively waiting for the next command.

And a moment later B-B is losing interest, but B is still focused on me.  What a good girl (and boy)!  We appreciate their differences and that they are both great additions to our family.  Sometimes we wish B-B would pay more attention and sometimes we wish B could calm down a bit and not be so hyper-focused but we wouldn't trade either of them for practically anything.

 

Sunday Randomness #101: chicken soup with chicken feet

Two different ways of trying to cut off the chicken feet toenails.

 

Soup with the chicken feet.  I took out the feet before serving to the family.  I was the only one to try the feet.  They really didn't have a taste-similar to unflavored gelatin.  I had a coworker who suggested eating them with lime and that really did improve the taste.

Container with a dumpling, a foot, and some floating carrot bits.

B and B-B took awhile before they figured out that they could eat the raw chicken foot.  I did cut the toenails off before giving them each one.  They played with their feet at first and then eventually crunched them down.  

Cooking with chicken feet was an interesting experience that I will definitely try again.  The chicken feet cooked up cleanly with no weird white foaming goo.  They smelled clean out of the package, smelled clean during cooking, formed a really nice gelatin when cooled.  It was like cooking chicken from when I was growing up and we had our own chickens.  Who knew that I would be promoting chicken feet as a great way to make broth?!?  And, they're easy on the budget.  Yes, there's no meat to really talk about but I just used canned chicken in the soup.  The feet added to the flavor and the gelatin in the feet helped to naturally thicken the soup.

Sunday Randomness #113 : Mrs. Backers Bakery in Utah

Mrs. Backers Bakery has been around since before I was born. (Which is a number of decades now!)

We bought their mini eclairs for Mica and FryGuy (Sven?)'s reception.  They are one of the last if not the only bakery left in Utah to make everything from scratch for their eclairs from the choux pastry to the custard to the ganache and buttercream flower on top.  We received so many compliments on the eclairs-we had done taste tests with over a 1/2 a dozen other bakeries and definitely preferred the ones from Mrs Backers.  The above cookie and other treat pictures were taken this year (2024)-so glad they are still making their delicious bakery goods! My personal favorite?  Their white cupcake with the pink poof frosting on top.  I remember getting one after obstetrician appointments (when I was expecting Hedgehog and Daisy) which happened to be at a medical office building conveniently across the street from Mrs. Backer's. 

See their website for more pictures of their treats and desserts: https://www.mrsbackers.com/desserts/  They are also on some social media platforms.

Mego found these pages from a 1958 Mrs. Backer's Pastry Shop calendar that his mom had saved-I'm sharing the vintage nostalgia:

 

Sunday Randomness #187 : Dogs and Rodents don't always mix...

B cornered the rat, barking ferociously in the early morning hours when they went outside for a bathroom break.  The rat was trying to escape through the gap on the top right between the cement and the wood.  But it was B-B that snatched up the rat, and in one swift chomp, it was dead.  Mego saw most of this happening and got the rat away from B-B with a bribe of cheese and was able to scoop up the rat's body with a shovel and tossed it outside the fenced area.

 

We didn't know that B-B was a rat killer-constantly learning new things from our animals.

In a lighter moment-the pups after going out in the falling snow.

B-B looks a bit thin in this picture but it's an illusion.  He was a healthy 75.5 pounds at his recent vet visit.