Luka's Big Adventure

Sigh. Nothing else to say about that. I am not one of those people who look forward to the leaves changing, the frost on the pumpkin, and all that crap. It will get progressively colder and the days get shorter & all you can do is hunker down in front of the wood stove in your long underwear. And wait for spring.

A friend of mine came up with the best description of Luka. I can only wish I thought of it. I sent her a picture of Luka dancing around with Sophie. She said Luka looks like a slightly chubby ballerina who ate too many Dunkin Donuts. In this picture she is wearing a Mobius scarf I made and she does look like she stuck her head in a stray tutu.

Anyway……On to Luka’s Big Adventure. Poor Luka had one of the worst night of her life last night. Our basement is ¾ finished, carpeted recess ed lights, ¼ is unfinished, cement floor, water heater furnace, boxes, boogie man. Luka is very curious and always the first to dash through any opened door. Unfortunately, last night she forgot to dash out. BG & eldest son were searching for a large bag of rice that disappeared (don’t ask) and of course the dogs were helping. I got up this morning stumbled to the back door, let Sophie out, let Sophie in, And said “Wait a minute. I have two dogs.” I checked the garage. No Luka. Maybe she ran away last night when the garbage was put out on the curb. No she would have been waiting by the front door. She knows were her kibbles live. Finally I went down stairs and Sophie ran to the far door to the unfinished part of the basement and I let Luka out. Sophie proceeded to jump on her and bark at her as we tripped up stairs. Then Luka climbed into my lap on the sunroom loveseat (strictly forbidden) and told me about her horrible night on the cement floor with the boogie men. Life is very scary and uncertain for Luka.

In my continuing canning adventure, I canned pickled green tomatoes this week. I did not taste them, but they smelled like my friend’s bread & butter pickles so I have high hopes. Another cooking adventure: I made reconstructed chocolate chip cookies. I truly think that the traditional toll house chocolate chip cookie is pretty close to cookie perfection. I make lots of different cookies, but always come back to chocolate chip. But I always experiment and I thought I would melt the chocolate chips and swirl the chocolate into the batter. Sounds pretty good. I made the batter. I melted the chips in a double boiler. The melted chocolate seemed a bit clenched so I added some cream and it smoothed out nicely. When I added it to the batter it just melded into the batter and I got chocolate cookies with a few caramel colored swirls. The cookies came out really flat, but surprisingly good and chewy. I think next time I will add less cream. All in all a very good experiment.