Just to grin a bit . . .

"I told the doctor I broke my leg in two places. He told me to quit going to those places."
-- Henny Youngman

"You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward."
-- James Thurber

Chick the Night Terror . . .

As I've mentioned before, we often worry that Chick is not getting enough exercise. As of midnight, last night, we will cease to worry on that score. Around midnight, Chick started barking loudly and regularly . . . right outside our bedroom window. My husband knocked at the window but to no avail, Chick was a dog on a mission to bark. We didn't hear any other dogs in the neighborhood sending canine messages so wondered what Chicken was determining as a problem.

My husband went outside with a flashlight and discovered Chick's source of concern . . . a fluffy, white cat. The cat was about five feet from Chick and poised for flight . . . if only the stupid dog would retreat first. Chick was very interested in this night creature but didn't like the hissing very much. Neither one of them would back down so my husband dragged Chick into the garage with her dog bed. After about 20 minutes, Chick was released back into the wild and all was quiet . . . for about ten minutes. At that point, Chick rediscovered the cat under the tool shed so proceeded to enjoy a noisy, barking scrabble around the foundation. The cat knew it was safe so was probably taking a nap which was not something we were going to enjoy with the dog's antics. Said dog was dragged back into the house for another 30 minutes. The next release was a success as the cat had gone home so Chick curled up in her dog house.

Both Chick and my husband looked very much worse for the wear this morning. When I ventured that I was glad that Chick hadn't the killer instinct 'enjoyed' by our previous dogs vs. cats, my husband said he really wasn't interested in the virtures of either the dog or the cat right now. Unfortunately, while Chick is sleeping off her adventure in her cozy doghouse, my husband still had to go to work!

Easy Dessert Idea . . .

Over the last year, I've noticed that the newest treat idea has been Cake Pops. I read up on a few recipes and the concept is pretty easy with a great outcome which would make you look like a kitchen expert. The basic recipe is to bake a sheet cake from a boxed mix, your choice of flavor. Once the cake has been baked and cooled, you crumble it into a large bowl and then bind the cake crumbs together with either store-bought or homemade buttercream frosting. You need to add enough in order to form balls of 'dough'. You insert a lollipop stick into each of them and freeze the cake balls until firm. You dip them in either candy coating or melted chocolate to cover and form a shell.

Now, that is the bare minimum, however, it seems to me that so much more can be done to enhance these little cakes on a stick.

Ideas . . .
You could include some crushed candy cane in the crumb mix.
Have some ground nuts on hand so you can immediately dip the end of the cake ball into them.
Put some melted coating into a squeeze bottle and drizzle a design on the freshly coated treats.
Dust them with colorful sugar or sprinkles before the coating sets.
Add some tiny chocolate chips to the crumb mix.

If we hadn't been gifted or treated to so many treats over Christmas, I'd be running into the kitchen to try some of these right now. I'm thinking that this would be a great way to pass out some Valentine's Day happiness in February.