candlelight dinners

I’ve never had much luck with pot roasts - I’ve always cooked them in the slow cooker and they end up dry and stringy, perhaps they were cooked for too long. Last Sunday I tried a blade roast in the instant pot. I looked up a bunch of recipes and settled for one with what looked like lots of flavour, but instead of following the suggested 45 minutes of cook time, I reduced it to 40. Well. It turned out beautifully - I could hardly wait till the next night when we got to have the leftovers.


We had Pat, Trudie & Leo for supper last Sunday and this Sunday - maybe we’ll make it a tradition of Sunday suppers - there was lots of laughter and a few arguments (all in good fun!). The line up of instant pots and crockpots on the counter was quite a sight. Last night was just an instant pot and the actifry.


Spike wore his DAP bandana to supper both nights, and I believe he did better each time. Pat gave him a good cuddle and he seemed okay with that.


Nothing much else has gone on here… just the intermindible winter that goes on and on…


… I wrote the part above a week ago, but then set it aside and forgot about it. I’ve gone back and edited it with some more recent events but the tense and what not might be off.


The weather has shifted and now we are having spring like days with sun and melting snow. I clipped the dogs nails outside this morning in just a t-shirt - no coat required. Such a lovely change from the -40C wind chill we’ve had so much of.


Carm and I are both enjoying hosting our ‘candlelight dinners’ (ever watch ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ with Hyacinth?). I think these frequent social interludes are helping the winter to pass by with no visits of the black dog yet. My fingers are crossed that the only black dog to cross my path is Bella.

I’d better end it here, but Spike wants to say a word:


“Hi. I wanted to tell you that it is my birthday and that I’m 10 now. I thought birthdays were supposed to be lots of fun, but Laura clipped my nails today and even made one of them bleed. I had to spend a long time in my crate, but Laura gave me something special to chew so I guess it wasn’t too bad.  Then Carm got out the table that I have to stand on when I get a haircut so I knew my birthday was going to be even worse. Luckily Laura just gave me a hair cut on my face and my belly. She did my tail and bum too but that’s too embarrassing to tell. The rest of my hair is really long and everyone says how cute and fluffy I am. I guess that’s okay, but I’d rather they just left me alone sometimes. I don’t like people cooing all over me.


Maybe Laura did all these things cause something special is going to happen so I better rest up just in case.


I should tell you about the bandana that Laura puts around my neck when some company comes over. It smells really nice and makes me feel less worried that Laura is going away when Pat comes over. I don’t know though, she’s got a bag on the floor of the extra bedroom full of her and Carm’s clothes. Why is she doing that? Are they both going away? Don’t tell Laura this, but I get pretty upset when she goes away and I worry that she might never come home, I miss her so much.”