Our dear sweet pretty pit bull Stella is a girl after my heart. She loves her treats.  And everyone else’s treats!  We have to monitor her as she tends to get in the “bulking” stage which isn’t good for her knees.  I’m serious!  She actually had one knee replacement years ago and we were told by the vet that she might have to have another.  But if we kept her in shape and her weight down than we had a better chance of avoiding it.  Stella is ten years old now (that is 70 in doggie years folks) and so far so good.  However, she has fallen off the wagon every so often and the repercussions haven’t just been her gaining a few L-Bs (thats pounds for those of you on the metric system or stone system).

One such time that she got into some sweets trouble was when I had baked a wedding cake for a friend of a friend.  It was a simple three tiered cake.  The wedding couple were having an all inclusive dinner for their wedding at a hotel in County Wicklow and only wanted the cake for the photo opps.  Bespoke wedding cakes in Ireland are seriously out of control price wise.  So I offered to make a cake which would be delicious, and though not super fancy, would look nice while not breaking the bank.  The result was a lovely sponge with butter cream frosting and some burgundy colored ribbon accents and rose petals to match the decor of the wedding.

Back then I was working full time as the manager of a gourmet fresh food store in Dublin and so I had to bake the cake through the night.  Besides, I always like my cakes to be eaten when they are super fresh.  My Hubby was supposed to deliver the cake to the wedding for me since he was also going to be doing some filming for them.  I left for work the morning of and didn’t expect to hear from Hubby until later that night after the wedding festivities. Then mid morning I received a phone call at the shop that literally stopped my heart.  I heard my husband’s voice and it sounded as though he had been crying.  He was so upset he couldn’t speak.  I kept asking him what was wrong.  Luckily there weren’t any customers in the shop at that moment as I was the only staff there.  Finally he uttered sounds in fragments, “Sttttt-eeee-lll-aaaaaaa, got….” and my first though was Stella got hit by a car or something.  I said, “Dear God, what happened to Stella is she okay?” and then he pulled himself together and said, “Yes she is, but your cake is not. Honey I am so sorry.”

At this point he was able to relay the story that while he was carrying his camera gear out to the car he left the wedding cake in its box on our living room coffee table.  It is a very cool coffee table as it is a door that was converted to a table.  But it is quite low.  In fact so low that it is just the right size for four legged creatures to come sampling cakes!  Yep, our pretty pit Stella decided she would have her elevensies just minus the cuppa!  My Hubby was gutted and I could tell he was panicked as to how I would react.  I calmly told him to bring the cake and my decorating tools to me at the shop before he went down to the wedding.  I thought I might asses the damage myself and see if I could resurrect it.

When he arrived he looked as white as a ghost.  I stayed calm and while Hubby was profusely apologizing  and I starting working on it.  But I realized quite fast that there wasn’t much I could do.  I would have needed to bake another layer for the very top and re-ice almost the whole thing.  I couldn’t leave the shop and so I just told him to take the cake as is and explain the situation to them.   Luckily since the were mainly using it for photos they could turn it to hide the dog eaten part.  The dinner at the hotel included the dessert so they were okay on that front.  Finally I told him to apologize and offer that I would bake another cake for them to make amends.  And of course I emphasized to refuse to take any money at all for the dog eaten cake!

This wasn’t the first time Stella showed an interest in my cooking or baking.  In fact, as my snapchat followers know, she plays a pivotal part in all my snapchat stories.  She is always nearby hoping for a morsel from mommy.  But she had never, and I mean never taken something unless it was given to her.  She is good keeping a distance (even if at close range) and waiting for the magic words.

I realize she is foodie focused but being a sneaky sweets eater was a first!  But once she got the taste for it, I have to say that it wasn’t the last!  Case in point, the brownies below!  So now I have to make sure that she is never ever alone with goodies in a geographical range!

So what happened with the wedding cake you are wondering?  Well, since the couple happened to be best friends with the people that have taken care of Stella since she first arrived in Ireland from the States, they were fine.  In fact, they thought it was actually funny. They were able to take fantastic photos and no one seeing the pictures would have even guessed that it was a half eaten cake on the other side!  And the kicker of it all is, they actually ate the cake!  They cut off the Stella slobber part, then sliced and served the rest!  They even told the whole wedding reception the story, which got a good laugh, and seeing as they were all dog lovers, didn’t bat an eye while they were eating it.  In fact, I actually got a few more baking jobs out of it as the guests at the wedding said it was the best cake they had eaten! OMG!!!

Well thanks be to God, nothing else has left my kitchen with her special sauce on it!  But we love to talk about that story.  Though it was stressful at the time we can laugh now.  The only lingering aspect is Hubby is still on a self imposed moratorium from watching, caring for, monitoring or delivering any of my baked goods!

Four legged Licks of Love!

YDP

When Halloween falls on a Saturday night you know it’s gonna be even more spooky and special than normal!  It also helps because then everyone has all day Sunday to recover before the new week starts.  And it is a time that the “big kids”, aka parents, can do some good quality control of the trick or treat candy.  Come on, we’ve all done it!  I mean, personally, it is the only time I actually get to eat my fav candy Snickers!  But I would always ask permission, with a pathetic looking face that my kids couldn’t resist of course.

A few years ago the U.S. late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel challenged his viewers to make videos of their kids’ reactions to saying they had eaten all their Halloween candy. The result, well hilarious, but also strangely sad.  And considering the Youtube video has been viewed nearly 55 million times, it was a success.  He has done it every year since and people still love to see the different responses of the kids.  Some are downright evil, spewing forth green venom like Linda Blair in the film The Exorcist.  And others are so kind and forgiving and tell their parent’s that they still love them. As I have seen every year’s version I am awaiting the one for 2015!

As the younger sister of two older brothers it was they, not my parents, that robbed my candy.  Plus they made me go out trick or treating well past my “sell by date” as I do believe there is an age limit when you should hang up the costumes.  But I’ve always looked younger than my age, so they would make me go even as a teen just so they could have free candy.  So at least I knew in advance I was only going to wind up with nothing, rather than these poor kids finding out after the fact (or in this case, get punked that it happened).

This October 31st is a special day for a few reasons.  A dear friend is arriving today from Dublin for the weekend.  I’m so excited to see her again as she was here two months ago.  We are going to see the musical Wicked tonight, a fun Spooky Saturday Night outing.  And today is a very special day as well since it is my daughter in law’s birthday!  Totally fun day to have a birthday don’t you think?  I love her to bits and am so grateful she is married to my son.  Here is a video my Hubby made for them which we showed the night before their wedding, at the rehearsal dinner. I thought I would share it since it’s her special day and it is a great reminder for me of what a devoted wife she is to my son.

So no matter what you end up doing today/tonight, have a fun time.  Be safe and sane!

No tricks only treats of love!

YDP

When I was working in Dublin as a manager of a well known gourmet fresh food store, one of the fun parts of the job was decorating the shop for various holidays.  And sometimes the company would even have a contest among all the other branches for best/most creative display.  It created some friendly and fun competition that involved the staff, and saved money on hiring outside window dressers.  The Halloween Pumpkin decorating contest was one such example.

The first year we did it, I decided not to do anything scary with the pumpkin.  Many of the customers are families with small children, and I wanted something festive but friendly.  Besides, I am a wuss when it comes to anything remotely frightening.  Thus CHEFANIE was born.  A life size pumpkin chef.  Everyone loved her.  She was festive but not frightening and she was a foodie!  Since I began my tenure at the company as a chef, I dressed her in my old chef’s uniform.   She was coined “The freshest member of staff” and not surprisingly she (we) won the contest. That’s me in the pic congratulating Chefanie on the good news.

 Then I moved to another shop and brought her back to life at that location.  We had loads of compliments from the local community, especially since the other businesses had such scary displays.  In fact, the local butcher nearly had the whole town having nightmares with the ghoulish and bloody pumpkin presentation.  But sadly we didn’t win our company’s competition that year as Chefanie couldn’t be a repeat awardee.  I guess it was kind of like having leftovers.

So when I went to manage yet another shop the following year, I decided to pull out all the stops.  I brought Chefanie back to life but also brought along her next of kin…or next of pump-kin to be more exact.

She and the fam were a massive hit.  People walking past or even driving past the shop would stop just to have a closer look and take a picture with her!  Since I spent my day off in the shop working on it I was delighted to see the warm response.  The good news is, we (they) won the contest!

So here is a little synopis of each “character” in the gang.

Meet Chefanie, our freshest member of staff and her NEXT of pumpKIN!  You may have seen her before, but this year after a little makeover she is bursting with beautiful Kurly Kale hair, cauliflower ears, pungent pupils in her garlic bulb eyes, a nice red hot chill pepper nose, GB eyebrows (green beans folks), and although a bit long in the tooth (made with corn), she still has her proper cinnamon stick tie just to stick with tradition.

Chefanie and Co. are passionate about good quality Irish grown and reared ingredients. Food is a family affair, especially when making something as special as Beef Bourgignon. While Chefanie oversees everything, each of the other members play an important part in the lovingly slow steps of this perfectly autumnal meal.

“SAMmolier”, her husband (with his cork details, who often likes to rest on a magnum) has aged well and knows a thing or two about wine. Therefore he chooses the perfect French Burgundy available to marinate overnight our Wexford reared Hereford Beef.

“Sous”, the big sister of the brood is the image of her Mum. She likes to tie her Kurly Kale hair in Gubbeen pig tails, and with her small onion eyes, garlic teeth, sugar snap pea nose (better for smelling the sweetness of life) makes sure there is depth of flavor to the jus!

“Herb” may look like a rebel with his Rosemary mohawk, tarragon tongue, sage ears and bay leaf eyes, but don’t let appearances fool you. He is the most delicate and nuanced of all Chefanie’s offspring. He is so dedicated to the creation of the Beef Bourgignon that he gave up all his Thyme for the cause!

“Spice Girl” can be quite dear with her expensive taste and is known to have fiery mouth from time to time. But of all of the children she definitely has stars in her eyes (star anise that is). She has many colorful elements such as cardamon pod ears and a nutmeg nose, but her clove and pink peppercorn hair is her pride and joy!

“Rooty” rambunctiously pitches in to help with rustic hand picked veg.  He has quite an earthy personality with his parsnip eyes and radish nose but is most proud of his carrot top hair.

Last but certainly not least are the Twins, “Baby Button” and “Little Pearl” though they are so small, they are very important!  As you can see by their mushroom ears and pearl onion ears, they add the final touches to the delicious and classic dish.

There are so many things to talk about (for instance the three BOOs, which of course one is a BAA since there has to a black sheep in every family) regarding this festive display. But mainly that Chefanie has her ‘MEAL BARROW” filled to the brim with Beef Bourgignon (which is ‘peppered with Love’ as her pepper mil says) to keep the customers Happy on Halloween and beyond!

So whatever you are deciding to do with your pumpkins this year, just know that they really can have a purpose and personality. That is why someone started calling them a “Jack o Lanterns”

Love to you and your Boo,

YDP