Fab Friday Five - VACAY NEEDED

If this morning was any indication as how to how the remainder of my day will be, then I'm screwed.  I opened up Aria's car door at daycare (7 minutes early I might add) only to discover that I had forgotten her sneakers on the living room floor.  Sure, I've got plenty of Crocs in the car, but they're not allowed at school.  I quickly called my boss (and subsequently woke her up) and informed her of the situation...I'm pretty sure she chuckled at me...then I drove to the other side of town to go to my parent's house and grab a pair of Aria's shoes there as it was closer than driving all the way back to Grovetown.  Upon arrival, I struggled with the locks because, unfortunately for me, my key wouldn't even go in the stupid things.  So I got back in the car, started out the driveway, and called dad to find out if he had changed the locks when he was screwing with the locks not too long ago.  He hadn't changed the locks, but found it odd that my key wouldn't fit.  As I got ready to put my car back in drive after having reversed all the way out of the driveway, I realized my problem:  I was using MY house key on MY PARENTS house.  Dad's laughing, I'm trying to figure out how to get the phone to switch back from the bluetooth in the car to the actual phone itself so I can get back out and try the appropriate key to get in the damn house (after finding the magic sweet spot because the locks are ridiculous) so I can grab Aria's shoes and head back to school!  Needless to say....my 7 minutes early turned into 30 minute late.  Stupid shoe rule!

I was so flustered I realized I had forgotten my lunch in the car and had to turn around and get it steps before entering the building.

From this, Aria and I have created a new routine:  when she gets home from school on a day that Dave picks her up, she's to take her shoes off and immediately take them upstairs to place on her bed rail where I put her clothes for the next morning.  I'm also contemplating keeping an extra pair of sneakers in the car just in case!

Anyway...I've decided that I SERIOUSLY need a weekend away BY MYSELF!  No kid...no husband...no anything.  Just me, a comfy bed, a place all to myself with no chores, a bottle of wine, and a book.  

Yep, that's exactly what I need.  

Wanderlust has been high on my Pinterest searches again this week....no specific locations listed today...just beautiful pictures.  None of them are mine, I must say...but you can visit my travel Pinterest board for the specific links to the pictures.

Coincidentally, three of these pictures are from Greece (Santorini and Mykonos)....I'll get there one day!

And one more for good measure....

1/2 Healthy

Of the six lives that are in my household, only three of us are "healthy".

Dave had testicular cancer (and will be going for another CT scan next month, FYI).

Fifi (the cat) has asthma and requires quarterly-ish prednisone shots.

And now Sophie (the dog) has cataracts and could soon be on her way to glaucoma.

She went to the vet last week Thursday for a chronic rash that we've been unable to get rid of.  She was chewing and licking on her paws (completely unheard of for her) until they were red and raw and her eyes (which are always PRISTINE) turned bright red and developed a brownish colored crust accompanied by mild hair loss on her forehead (thanks to scratching).  She's always had sensitive skin, but anything we see on her typically clears up on it's own in a few days...this had been going on for nearly two months (the ear thing was new).  Hypoallergenic wipes seemed to soothe her, but didn't get rid of the problem and a hydrocortisone spray seemed to relieve the chewing, but only for a few days.  So off to the vet we went!

Turns out, she had environmental summer allergies (which started the itching and chewing).  The itching and chewing opened up the skin enough for bacteria to enter.  Bacteria weakened the immune system enough for a fungal infection to move into her ears.  So my poor baby got sent home with an antibiotic, anti-fungal ear drops, steroid, and medicated wipes.  On top of that, she got her annual checkup and vaccines, so her poor little legs were so sore she could barely walk up the stairs (a common thing for her after shorts...her legs are just little).  Since then, it's been steroids twice a day (switch to once a day today), ear drops once a day, antibiotic once a day, and wipes once a day...for the next two weeks.

Her ears are looking great and back to their normal light pink color.  Her feet are slowly healing and she's chewing and licking on them much less.

BUT...

We noticed on Thursday that her left eye was looking cloudy...like an old dog.  The vet didn't mention anything about it that day.  It has steadily gotten worse since then.  Dave called the vet yesterday to find out if he could bring her back in on Wednesday (his only day off this week).  They said if there wasn't any sort of drainage, whatever it was could wait until Wednesday...but if she developed any kind of drainage, she needed to come in immediately.  Naturally, when Dave got home yesterday, poor Soph Soph's left eye was swollen and crusty and goopy and she could barely keep it open.  Back to the vet!

The crusty goopy yuck was most likely caused by the infection...something related to the illness got into her eye and irritated it.  There was no corneal scratch or any other abrasion-related injury present.  They did a pressure test on her eyes and noted that the right eyes was "15" and the left eye was "21."  Then he looked in her eyes with the light and noticed that my poor baby has cataracts in both eyes, the left eye worse than the right.  The kicker here is the pressure.  A pressure of 21 is on the high end of normal and is of concern to the vet.  He wants to monitor it closely as pressure that gets too high will lead to glaucoma.  He also will refer us to a Veterinary Ophthalmologist in Athens (he said "the cheaper one is in Columbia, the better one is in Athens") to get a better handle on exactly what is going on and to make a plan of action that will mostly likely lead to surgery to remove one or both of the cataracts if she's a good candidate.

She's in the rare group of dogs that gets cataracts before the age of five.  She was apparently predisposed from birth as her eyesight has always sucked.  She has NEVER caught food in her mouth (literally, we've never seen it) and she won't jump up on the bed at night until we turn a light on for her.

Because she's so young, doing surgery to remove the cataracts was a pretty easy decision.  We've discussed it with the vet and decided that we may opt to only correct the one cataract (the worse one) and let the other eye just run it's course.  Full eyesight in one eye is plenty for a dog, the vet said, especially because we don't use her for any type of work or anything.  She already can't catch anything in her mouth and needs a little guidance getting on to the bed, so having vision in only one eye won't be much different.  The surgery is very costly, so we'll most likely just be able to do one eye.  Maybe at a later date in a few years we can look at doing the other one.

We'll learn more when we go back on Saturday for another eye pressure test.  Until then, we've got eye drops to give her every day (three times a day) along with the rest of all her medicines.

Needless to say, my poor pup got rewarded with a cheeseburger for dinner last night and was ultra happy about it!  She also got a few bites of Aria's burger and some of Aria's fries, too....and half a bag of treats that Aria gave her while helping with the medicine.  That dog wasn't hurting for love, that's for sure!

Sophie was my baby that I got when I was unable to have the baby I wanted.

She filled a void that I was unable to fill until I found her.

This whole thing just broke me.

Soph Soph's first picture on her first day with us!

My Magnum Opus

I know it's Friday and I'm supposed to bore you with five things I've found on Pinterest this week.  But, surprisingly enough, I haven't actually been there all week long!

I made that cheesecake for Dave's birthday...and let me tell you...that thing was a bitch!  It wasn't exactly hard, but very tedious.  It required lots of time and lots of precision and I learned lots of lessons!  That thing was my baby...my magnum opus...and unfortunately I made it so well that Dave wants it more often.  He even said I should make another one this weekend for the fam (I might not get to it this weekend, though....it was a pain in my rear!)

((see my FAB FRIDAY FIVE - CHOCOLATE post for the link to the recipe))

Baked Oreo cookie crust

I remembered as I pulled the crust out of the oven that I had wanted to take pictures of my progress...so we're starting here at the already baked crust.  Before this happens you have to struggle a little with your spring-form pan because, for some magical reason, the bottom won't line up with the grooves the first 4 times you try to close it.  Also, prior to baking your crust, go ahead and wrap the bottom and up the sides about halfway with foil.  You'll see why later. (the recipe, I might add, doesn't say to do this....so this was a lesson I learned the hard way).  Anyway...at 8 minutes, the crust was a little over-done for me, so I'll do it for 6 minutes next time.

4 softened blocks of cream cheese

The recipe calls for 2 pounds of cream cheese...that's 4 blocks.  Let them sit out on the counter for a few hours...they should be real soft...super soft.  Also, I had to google this because I always struggle with deciding which attachment I'm supposed to use on my stand mixer....use the paddle attachment, not the whip.

melted chocolate, cocoa powder, 4 eggs, powdered sugar

Your eggs should be room temp (same as the cream cheese).  I'm horrible at cracking eggs.  Without fail, 1 out of every 4 eggs will be a mess.  I also have to fish egg shells out of the eggs every time because, well, like I said, I'm horrible at cracking eggs.  Because I know this about myself, I always crack my eggs into a separate (dark) bowl rather than the bowl I'm working in.  It's just easier that way.  You need 10 oz of bittersweet chocolate, chopped.  The bars of Ghirardelli bittersweet are 4 oz for about $2.80, but the bags of bittersweet chips are 10 oz for about $3.50.  Buy the bag.  Toss it in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring at each interval.  If you've never melted chocolate before, here's a tip:  chocolate holds it shape when melted until disturbed.  So don't take it out, look at it, decide it still looks like chips, and toss it back in.  Actually stir it.  And use oven mitts...that bowl will be HOT!

Ready to bake!!

Once everything is all mixed together, it will be thick...real thick.  It'll be difficult to pour.  Pour into your pan (with crust still in it) and smoosh it around to be smooth.  I apparently sucked at that, as is evident in the picture above.  Also, tap your pan on the counter a few times (kind of hard) to dislodge any air bubbles.  If you don't do this, you'll end up with a hole in your cheesecake that you had no idea was there....also learned this from experience.  Plan time for the baking...it bakes for an hour.

Fresh out of the oven 

The recipe said an hour to an hour ten minutes.  I baked mine for an hour, decided it was done, and took it out.  It had cracks, y'all.  Not a big canyon, but definite cracks.  Because it was still hot, it was still puffed up, so I could see the cracks around the edges.   That crack in the middle there...that happened after it cooled.  Those cracks, however, were small enough that I knew the ganache topping would erase them from existence.  Something else that wasn't in the recipe:  put the pan (wrapped in foil...hint hint) in a shallow pan with some water in it.  This is called a water bath.  The water not only helps to keep the temperature around the cake even, but also adds some moisture into the air to lessen the chance of cracks across the top.  Before putting it in the fridge for night, run a thin knife between the cake and the pan to release it from the sides.

Puddle of grease

Remember in the crust picture when I told you to go ahead wrap your pan in foil?  This is why.  The spring-form pan is not...NOT...leak proof.  Cream cheese has a fair amount of oil in it.  When baked, that oil looks for a place to go.....like the vulnerable bottom of the pan!  After I put the cheesecake in the oven, I took Aria upstairs for bedtime.  She went back downstairs to tell Dave night night, came running back up and said that she could smell the cheesecake and it smelled good!  So of course, as I'm walking down the stairs I'm waiting for the sweet aroma of chocolate cheesecake to fill my nostrils.  Instead, I'm greeted with the smell of smoke and burnt oil.  What the hell?!  I go to the kitchen, which is smoky, turn on the oven light, and notice that the entire oven is full of smoke!  My thermometer was still reading 350, so I knew the oven wasn't burning too hot or anything.  As I removed the cheesecake from the oven when it was done, I noticed a few drops coming off the bottom of the pan.  That's when I saw it:  the puddle of oil at the bottom of my oven (that says, no doubt, "do not use foil on bottom" so cleanup is NOT a breeze).  I had found the source of the smoke ...but was infuriated that now I had to clean my oven before dinner tomorrow and I was extra nervous that the cheesecake would taste like smoke and burnt oil.  So lesson learned:  wrap the pan in foil and place in a pan of water...the foil will catch the oil, and if it doesn't, the pan of water will!

Making the ganache

Making ganache is actually easier than the name suggests.  It's just heavy whipping cream and chocolate melted and stirred together on the stovetop.  Invest in a heat-proof non-metal whisk (if you have non-stick pots)..,it'll come in handy here!  I made this the next day after the cheesecake had sat in the fridge overnight (still in the pan!) and properly cooled.  Let the ganache cool on the counter top before pouring over your cheesecake.  After you pour it on, use an offset spatula to spread and flatten it out.  Spread it all the way to the edge of the cake until it drips down the side.  When your cake cooled, it should have constricted and pulled away from the sides a bit leaving a small gap for the ganache to fall in.

Finished product

So after you've let that bad boy cool in the fridge again, it's time to serve it (or garnish it and then serve it).  To be honest, I think I would have preferred to leave it like this.  It's just so pretty and shiny!  Go ahead and release your spring-form pan and pull that bad boy off.  Ta da...a cheesecake!

TA DA!

I put chocolate curls on mine, but I'm not sure what sort of crazy hybrid chocolate bars people use to make curls, but my curls were teeny tiny.  AND...when you shave all your curls onto a styrofoam plate, and then pick up the plate to dump on top of your dessert, there's some crazy static field that pulls all your chocolate shavings off and onto your work surface.  So keep that in mind!

This bad bay was super rich and decadent, but not in a sickeningly sweet sort of way.  One piece is too much for me.  Just too much.  It got Dave's seal of approval, though! (And of course Aria loves it!)

Have a great weekend, folks!