Welcome Lilly!

It has been too long since I've posted on this blog!!!!

I'm sure most of you are thinking, where is she? She doesn't even have a job - the least she can do is keep us up to date!!!

I know, I've been horrible at this.  But three weeks ago we received a special little package.

And has she ever GROWN!!!!  I just took Lilly to the vet today and she is now 14.5 lbs!!!  That is almost 6 lbs more than she was last month.  For those of you who live in the world of KG she's about 5-6 kg now and if you live in the world of Stone then you're on your own 'cause I've never understood that way of measuring :)

Lilly is a Labradoodle first generation.  This means that her Mom was a Labrador and her Dad was a standard Poodle.  Some people know this breed as being hypo-allergenic (non-shedding) but because she is a first generation breed her future shedding, personality and weight is a bit unknown.  We love her so much even though she regularly makes me want to tear my hair out!!!

Because of her Labrador heritage, she is very eager to put everything and anything in her mouth.  So far this has included rain water, plants, sticks, plastic, glass, rocks and even the decapitated head of a bird.  It has been a joy fishing these items out of her mouth.

We have wanted to adopt a dog ever since we got together.  Moving to Singapore halted this process but now that we are in a more agreeable climate we have decided to take the plunge.  It has been a surprisingly busy few weeks getting her potty trained and used to our routine but overall she has been a great addition to our lives.

Welcome to Houston!  Looking forward to all of your visits! Get ready for lots of playtime and chasing!

Asian Recipe #1

Although the Texas BBQ, Tex-Mex, and countless other temptations have been pretty exciting to try lately, Justin and I have been craving some Asian.  So....I decided to flip open my new cookbook for the first time!

I decided to go with something easy, but also delicious.  Thai Green Chicken Curry might possibly be one of my most favourite dishes of all time.  It's creamy, it's spicy, and full of fantastic vegetables.  In fact, I have made green curry before, but never outside of Singapore and also this was a slightly altered recipe that I hadn't used before.

Obviously, I had to make a few modifications to the recipe.  I wasn't going to find Kaffir Lime at the local grocery store, or pea-eggplants either.  However, it is on my list of to-do's to find an Asian supermarket in Houston, which I'm sure exists somewhere.  Then I am going to go TO TOWN on these recipes.

The curry turned out good, however I wasn't overly pleased with the curry paste that I had purchased at the grocery store.  It wasn't nearly spicy enough, and was missing some essential flavours.  NOTE - if you come visit me from Singapore, please bring me some Dancing Chef curry paste!!! That stuff is the best!

I had a great time making this recipe, and it also made me think of my friend Philippa who bought me the book, as well as Rob Sparrow and Ada Wood who signed the page.

Easiest Birthday Cake

Hello again!

Thank you all so much for all the lovely comments about our new condo.  We are really enjoying it and feel very settled already.

In other news, today is Justin's birthday!!  I won't tell you how old he is but you can always check out his profile page to find out - hehe.

Unfortunately, Justin had to leave last night for a business trip to Las Vegas.  Wait, is that unfortunate?  Sounds like a sweet deal to me!  Anyways, because I won't see him today we decided to celebrate his birthday last Friday instead.

Thanks to a new oven, flour and climate, I completely ruined my home made pizza dinner.  I was so disappointed with myself but what can you do?  Luckily, I was able to make an amazing birthday cake - everyone's favourite - Ice Cream Cake!

I can't believe how easy this was.  I bought myself a chocolate pie crust, 2 pints of ice cream, some hot fudge sauce, and one of those small gel frosting tubes so I could write Happy Birthday on top.

First, I allowed the ice cream to soften a bit so that I could smooth the first flavour, cookies and cream, into the bottom of the pie shell.  For the record, I was considering making a homemade Oreo pie crust, but the thought of having a leftover bag of Oreos in the house sounded too dangerous!

After sticking the 1st layer in the freezer for a few minutes to harden, I then added dollops of the hot fudge sauce for a chocolatey centre.  I wasn't able to smooth it out into a perfectly even layer, but you couldn't really tell when eating it!

I used Vanilla for the top layer so that the top would be smooth and light-coloured so that I could write Happy Birthday on top.  My "cake writing" is horrible, so I don't have a picture of it.  Once it was finished, I let it firm up in the freezer for about 4 hours, but overnight would have been better I think.

It was super delicious, sooooo easy to make, and I got to try out the "made in Texas" Blue Bell Ice Cream.  They have some amazing flavours including...RED VELVET CAKE!!! WHAT?!?!  Unfortunately it wasn't my birthday so I had to stick with Justin's favourite, Cookies and Cream.