Crockpot Chicken with Apricots and Dates

I wanted to use my crockpot again, so I turned to my go-to blog for a recipe this morning. This is the one I tried today and it's very tasty. I used bone-in thighs and removed the skins part-way through cooking. I should have removed the bones earlier because we ended up with a lot of cartilage pieces in the meat, and I did cook it a bit too long because the meat ended up a bit soupy. The flavor is really good, though, and I'd definitely make this one again. (Note: I added salt to taste at the end because it was a bit bland, as many of her recipes are. I've learned by trying them that she likes things less flavorful than we do.)

I served this over couscous, mainly because I had some on hand. It would have been better over a bigger grain, like rice, or over cauliflower couscous. I also roasted some broccoli in the toaster oven, which went with this really well.

Roasted Broccoli

Cut broccoli florets into halves or quarters, depending on size. Cut stems into equal size pieces. Put broccoli on baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat.
Sprinkle with granulated onion, granulated garlic, salt, and pepper.
In oven or toaster oven, bake at 400 degrees. Watch closely and as one side starts to brown, remove tray and stir.
Return tray to oven and continue baking to desired tenderness.
For toaster oven, baking time is approximately 5 minutes. For oven, baking time is 15-20 minutes.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had a lovely day today. We all wore our green (sorry, forgot to take pictures) and the kids had some fun activities at school. The highlight for them was the Irish dance troupe that came and performed for the school and now our older daughter is dancing around the house trying to imitate them. To be honest, if she was interested in doing some kind of dance, I think that would be the perfect type for her - non-stop motion and very high energy! The older two had swimming this afternoon and then we came home so I could get dinner done for all of us. I did corned beef, which seems intimidating, but there is absolutely no easier way to do a big hunk of meat. I got a 3-pound corned beef brisket and put it in the crockpot (my second crockpot meal this week!) with an onion, 3 cloves of garlic, some peppercorns, and 2 bay leaves, covered it with water (about 2 cups), and turned it on high. 5 1/2 hours later - dinner! It was really good, too - very tender and tasty. I served it with twice-baked potatoes that I made myself and steamed asparagus. It always surprises me when a meal I plan and make turns out really good and this one was really tasty and actually quite easy. I will definitely do this again!

Play Ball!

Today was our son's first baseball game of the season. He's playing Little League for the first time, on a farm team, and really enjoying it. It's been a great learning experience so far and we've already seen a lot of growth in his skills. He and his team mates seem like such a band of goofballs at practice, but at their practice game yesterday and the real game tonight, they played like they'd been doing it forever. I'm not much of a baseball fan, but I have to say, it's pretty fun to watch your kid make a great catch and then throw it where it needs to go or hit a good one when he's up at bat. The other thing we're finding is that by the time the games are over and Mike and our son get home, his sisters are in bed, so it's a really nice chance for the three of us to sit down and have dinner together and chat. That's definitely a gift, considering how busy our days usually are, and it's time that means a lot to me.

Spring Has Sprung

We had our monthly Leonberger get-together at the beach this past weekend. We lucked out with an absolutely stellar day - sunny, blue skies, and warm - and we were all ready for some outside time after all of the cold, gray days we've had this winter. The kids can't resist the chance to get in the water, even when it's in the 50s, and Sunday was no different. They were running in and out of the water, jumping off of the big rock, playing in the sand, and just generally being the beach kids they are.

Zatarain had a fabulous time, as well. He swam and swam and swam, chasing his ball in and out of the water, for about 3 hours. At one point, he lost sight of both me and his ball and ended up swimming around for probably close to 10 minutes while I kept directing him from the shore. He did eventually find his ball, after coming in to shore and then chasing a rock that Mike threw out towards the ball. Silly dog. Bella and Goulash joined him playing on the beach and we ended up with 3 very tired pups.

After our time on the beach, we headed over to the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company for a late lunch with our friends, Mike and Mandy and their girls, Allanna and Daniela, who own Bella, and with Ian and Mo, who own Goulash. Ian joined us for lunch last month and the experience didn't scare him off, so that says a lot about his constitution! We took over about half of the back patio, the kids spread out and played and colored, and we had a really lovely lunch. Fun conversation and good food and tired dogs. It was a great end to a really fun day.

Foot Trimming

For any of you who do not have Leonbergers, just skip this post. It will be utterly meaningless!

For those of you who stuck around, here are the instructions I sent to Teresa Schlaffer recently about how I trim Zatarain's feet. Feel free to comment if you have any questions. And yes, I know his nails are pretty long. I may be good at trimming the fur, but I have ALWAYS been awful at trimming nails.

Here's what I do (each foot takes about 10 minutes):

I use a pair of hairdresser's scissors for the whole thing.

Lay the dog down on his side and start with the underside. Trim around each foot pad, cutting as short as possible and as close to the skin as possible, including between the pads.

Trim the outside edges to even with the bottom of the foot pad.

Trim upward between the toes, just to the bottom of the nail.

Cut around the face of the foot, making a straight face from the nail upward and creating the shape of the foot that you want.

Pull the hair up between the toes, so that it sticks up over the top of the foot. With the scissors held parallel to the top of the foot, trim the hair that you pulled up down to the surface of the foot, using small cuts to help hide the scissors marks. Push the hair back down between the toes.

Trim any stray spots around the nails or along the sides of the foot until it looks neat.