Continuing my Anastasia Krupnik-esque style of late (and Bud E. Caldwell, and all the millions of other children’s book characters writing in lists), not to mention my theme of talking a lot about myself/dog and little about books (sorry!):
By popular demand... Cooper! Now I only need to manage to upload some video of him chasing his tail.
- Monkey in the Middle, which evolved into Cooper (my step-dog) in the Middle, which evolved to Keep Cooper Out of the Middle of the Food.
- Testes toss. No, that’s not what it’s really called.
Things I cooked for my housewarming party:
- Deviled chicken thighs. Twenty two of them, to be precise. Increasing the mustard, shallots and parsley was a good move.
- A very large pot of curried squash and eggplant, with pineapple. Yummy, but I should have made it spicier.
- Mango lassi… with homemade yogurt. Yeah, slow cooker.
I was going to also make a salad and chocolate pudding, but let’s be real, I’m not that organized.
Disasters that occurred during the cooking for my housewarming party:
- Suddenly deciding to procure drinks while curry curries —> curry bubbles over —> curry onto floor
- Forgetting to depit one mango before putting it in blender —> pit chunks into lassi —> trying to strain lassi —> lassi onto floor
The cooking, folks, is a work in progress. Luckily, Cooper is an excellent helper when it comes to foodstuffs on the floor. And speaking of Cooper…
Most horrifying/hilarious thing that happened at my housewarming party:
When a friend arrived with his very charming six-year-old, we discovered that Cooper loves little kids. More precisely, Cooper loves that little kids are exactly the right size for him to hump.
Unfortunately, this child happened to also love that he was exactly the right size for Cooper to hump (or, in his understanding, exactly the right size for “giving Cooper a ride”). Which meant that he kept bending over for Cooper and yelling, “Oh yeah! Oh yeah!”
His dad was not very pleased. I, unfortunately, was in hysterics, which only encouraged the kid to keep doing it… over and over and over again.
UPDATED to add: WordPress wouldn’t let me upload this, but do yourself a favor and go find Big Mama Thornton’s original “Hound Dog,” the ideal soundtrack to this post. Elvis took this brilliant song and made it… about a dog.
Posted in Life with step-dog
Picture! Cooper’s gorgeous.
Also, you should probably put a warning of some sort on that last bit: I’m in the library trying not to laugh and making some very strange sounds as a result.
Cooper is adorable, and your menu sounds fantastic!
Oh man that is hilarious!
Can I just say that it took me like three months to be organized/de-cluttered enough to have a housewarming party? And you were ready in, what, a week? I can only conclude that your organization and cleaning skills are first-rate.
Re: the kid: I wish I’d taken video… except then the parents and I might no longer be friends.
Matt: Well, it’s not like I’m actually unpacked!
Actually, I unpacked and organized my books immediately upon moving in — even before I moved most of my stuff in… and have been more or less living out of a suitcase otherwise. Priorities, you know?
And, I think you’ve seen my “organization and cleaning skills” firsthand… they’re better than they were, but not THAT much better. Somewhere Emily is reading that comment and laughing her ass off.