a99kitten's Musings

Last weekend I found myself craving an Egg McMuffin while out a long hike. I think the combo of starving, exercising and cold weather was makinmg me crave yummy, comfort food :)

I tarted thinking, I can make that at home. A healthier version! What I needed was something to make the egg perfectly round like McDonald’s is. Hysterically (to me anyway!), a friend of mine posted a pciture of a hoemmade Egg McMuffin on Facebook the next morning! I was like – hey!!! See – it can be done! So I asked how they made the egg part. My friend’s wife bought a little doodad at Crate & Barrel. Ok!

The following Wednesday, I ended up at Bed, Bath & Beyond to get some GMCR K cups for work. And I remembered my egg quest. BB&B HAD to have one! Sure enough – they had 2 different kinds. A set of metal ones with little folding handles and then a single one:

Joie Egg Ring

I liked it mainly because if the little chicken face :) So I bought both (not very pricey) and figured I’d test them out. The Joie was $3.99 at BB&B but then add sales tax. Amazon has them for $4.27.

So I tested both out this Sunday. I used the Joie and also one of the metal ones. They both worked well, although the Joie didn’t stick to the egg at all and the metal one was a bit of a challenge getting it to come out without wrecking the shape. I used PAM on both. Also, the metal one has a little place near the folding handle where egg gets stick so you need to soak and then use the sprayer or a toothpick or something tiny to get it out. The Joie cleaned up very easy.

So I VERY excited to have my new little kitchen gadget. I think I will buy another 1 or 2 Joie rings. It was a super easy breakfast to make! And I used cage-free brown eggs, Canadian bacon, a slice of sharp cheddar and a Thomas’ English muffin plus a little PAM on the egg ring. That’s GOT to be healthier than the McD’s version! And I think tasted just like it but less greasy!

YUM!

Of course I bought those same-shaped hash browns at the store and baked them because I LOVE those from McD’s and I’m guessing they are healthier or at least the same calories badness. Pretty sure McD’s probably drops their’s in to the deep frier. I baked these even though I’m sure the pan frying method on the package was delicious :)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101028/ap_on_he_me/lt_brazil_mcdonald_s_obese_manager;_ylt=Ai1qAWpBrENKEk5Hj6Srqlpv24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTQ1YzJjMmliBGFzc2V0Ay9zL2FwLzIwMTAxMDI4L2FwX29uX2hlX21lL2x0X2JyYXppbF9tY2RvbmFsZF9zX29iZXNlX21hbmFnZXIEY2NvZGUDbXBfZWNfOF8xMARjcG9zAzkEcG9zAzkEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNqdWRnZWZpbmVzbWM-

Unreal. And yet not really…

Fattie could have brought in his lunch (like tons of health conscious people do) if he didn’t want the “high-caloric” FREE lunches.

And “sampling” food products won’t make you gain 65 lbs. Eating the entire Big Mac and large fries every afternoon after the Big Breakfast every AM will. Let’s look up the word sampling in the dictionary shall we?

And you can quit dude…any time…

But clearly no one is ever responsible for their own condition.

Today, August 4 is said to be the day Dom Perignon invented champagne back in 1693. Now, I have no idea if this is true. Not sure anyone can confirm this as all parties involved are long gone and record-keeping was a bit spotty back then what with no iPhones, laptops or even a PC around ;-)

The funny thing is naturally occurring bubbles were seen as a problem at the time in wine-making so this was more of a problem than an invention but I’ll take it :) And from what I have read, what was invented back then as a sparkling wine/champagne bears no resemblance to what we love to toast with now.

The Dom :) Looks like its bubbling over to me :)

Now, if you know me, you know I call all bubbly ‘champagne’ (or just bubbly) because that whole “it can’t be called champagne if the grapes aren’t from that region” is phooey to me. But I’ve ranted about that before so won’t re-hash :) So if you are offended if I call a delicious Gloria Ferrar Carneros Cuvee or a Schramsberg Brut “champagne” – you should hang up right now because I simply don’t care if I offended your delicate sensibilities about that.

Champagne is a happy drink.  It can be served, and goes well, with any food – from fanciful 6 course dinners to pizza. A long-standing holiday tradition for me is when trimming my Christmas tree I order pizza and drink champagne. Love this! Another of my favorites treats is, when my husband is out of town and I don’t need to make dinner and feel like being bad, a glass of dry Brut with a McDonald’s cheeseburger and fries. The salty food and sweet but not really that sweet Brut mixture is fantastic!  I *highly* recommend you try it!

But whatever the truth is about the true origins of champagne, we do owe the Dom (not to be confused with the Don!) a big THANK YOU anyway! And I see this as a good enough reason to toast him this evening with a glass of bubbly  – although likely not opening one of my bottles of Dom to do it since I can’t drink the entire thing by myself and it is school night after all :)

If you love champagne like I do, I highly recommend reading “The Widow Clicquot”:

I really liked this book.  A good amount of reading on champagne making history in general plus about the Widow’s life. Fun read for sure. Starts off a bit slow so keep with it :)

And if you really want to try a “fancier” bottle of bubbly but find the prices out of reach, look around for a newly released vintage and just hold onto it for a few years.  They are still pricey but much less so and it’s a great way to enjoy a really nice bottle on a special occasion later. Champagne should be enjoyed within 10 or so years of its vintage year (on bottle.)    Although I had a bottle of Cristal that was given to me as a gift (2 bottles actually) about 13-15 years ago. I finally just opened 1 of them last year and it was GREAT! I need to enjoy the other one soon because if it were to go bad – I would definitely cry over the needless waste of a $400+ bottle of anything!!

And get yourself a champagne stopper so you don’t have to drink it all in 1 night (this is for the less expensive bottles – finish your good ones!) Or *horrors* waste it….this was the best buy ever! I love mine from Beverages & More.  I think it cost like $5.00 or something. I had one from Bed, Bath & Beyond – not as good.

Hope you enjoy some soon!

I had to take my huskies to the vet today. They needed more Heartguard and they were due for their every 3-year heartworm test. So before the vet would sell me more, I had to bring them in for their test. But they said go ahead and save the office visit fee and bring them during them the Tuesday evening shot clinic. Nice…save $45ish times 2 dogs. Sold!

So I left work at 6:45ish for the 7:00pm – 8:00pm shot clinic. Pulled into parking lot and saw a line of 10 dogs/customers in line. Funny thing I first noticed…all the guys had the little dogs and the women had the bigger dogs. I smiled.

My error – when I got dressed this morning I was not thinking of the vet visit.  I dressed for work in jeans, cashmere sweater and 4.5″ heels. At 5:00pm when I took the buds out for their potty break before dinner, I realized the error of my ways…as I almost slid down the hillside by my office.

So I got in line to check the buds in at the vet. Once checked in, you wait in line to be called in, pay for your services and then be seen. I was waiting in line when the pit bull family pulled up. Stereotypical. Whatever. Yet annoying at the same time.  But I never blame the dogs. Also..to the girl in this family…you don’t know what ‘hydrid’ or ‘altered’ means?  You look to be about 25-28 yrs old – buy a dictionary.

But Angelus was attacked by a pitbull as a puppy and he simply does not forget.  Anyone that says dogs have little to no memory is an idiot. Angelus knows when a pitbull is anywhere around and remembers that he doesn’t trust them. When he was a puppy he was attacked at the dogpark by a male pitbull – the only reason he was ok is tht he is SO dang fluffy, the dog couldn’t lock onto his neck before he got pulled off by me and the pitbull owner. That was one of the scariest few minutes of my life as I felt SO helpless as I was just physically unable to drag the dog off. Now I (theoretically) know what to do.

Angelus also had to defend his little brother Storm when he was a puppy. We were at a SuperBowl party and people could bring their dogs. One of the dogs there was a pitbull/Rhodesian Ridgeback mix.  Storm was a tiny puppy. He walked past the food tables and the other dog freaked and attacked Storm. Angelus responded by jumping on the dog. Ended up putting a hole in his (puppy attacking dog) head and he was bleeding. I didn’t like to see that but he (other dog) attacked my puppy. And his big brother defended him. End of story.

Another more recent incident was where a a guy had his pitbull off-leash on the street by our house and he came running at me/us. Angelus jumped in front of me, and bit the butt/tail of the dog as he came running at us. Made the dog turn tail and run away. Angelus defended us. Nothing more to say about that.

So anyway, this couple walked up with their obviously very strong dog pulling them. She was in a harness and the woman was walking her. It was quite obvious in the first minute that she was not in control. At all.  Once I realized it was a girl, I knew Angelus would be fine. He is ok with female pit bulls.  My biggest issue was the glaring fact that the woman had no physical control over her dog. At all. I don’t get why people can’t learn this. It’s actually not that hard. And when you have a dog that is stronger than you, you need to pay even more attention to this. Annoys me to no end as people will end up blaming the dog when it’s a doggie parent issue. Same thing with unruly children.

But then I really noticed that all the people there with big dogs (by now, 1 guy with a giant lab came) had no physical control over their dogs. And their dogs were pulling, barking, growling, etc. Basically = being doggies.  But the thing is, this isn’t the dog park. And there were people with tiny dogs there that were obviously a little stressed. Plus I didn’t want my dogs to topple me over in my ill-thought-out shoes…

BUT, my dogs were just sitting there. Or laying down. They were being very well-mannered which I appreciated a lot at this point since between my shoes and the craziness of the other dogs, was totally expecting something to happen that involved me getting knocked down :)  I have nothing to say but awesome compliments about my dogs’ behavior. But the pitbull (sweet but crazeee), pitbull puppy (x3), Golden Retriever and Lab, (oh yeah that tiny poodle was a spaz!) well…they were all very sweet but…:)

But the staff were, as always, extremely friendly, efficient and quick once with them. I found them when I lived in San Bruno years and years ago, and my cat was sick on a Sunday and needed a vet when mine was closed. Found them, brought Jack in and I have been a client ever since.  They offer a shot clinic every Tuesday between 7pm-8pm. This is very helpful and cost efficient for puppies!! And for all dogs really. Plus the doctors there are not the “give them meds and send them on thier way” type of doctors. I appreciate this.The buds’ main doctor is Dr. Cucaro and they love her. Angelus doesn’t like just anyone…and he really likes her :)

If you live anywhere nearby, I highly reccomend the Linda Mar Veterinary Hospital:

http://www.lindamarvet.com/

Tonight I found out that huskies (and german shepherds) have flat/small veins so it is harder to draw blood. But they were both very brave :)

Oh, and since we didn’t get out of there until 8:30pm, and the buddies were so good about their blood drawings and the other doggy craziness, I took them to McDonald’s to get them their favorite after-vet treat…a 6 piece Chicken McNuggets that they (grugdingly) share.  :)