I'm a Georigia Peach at heart

As you know, I love to bake. So it was only fitting that I make some sort of delicious dessert to welcome Jarrod home. I chose a peach cobbler, even though I'd never made a cobbler before. It just sounded so good! I used this recipe from All Recipes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Southern-Peach-Cobbler-2/Detail.aspx and it was a great success. I used frozen peaches instead of fresh; I didn't know exactly how much eight peaches would be in cups, so I used 1 1/2 bags. Next time, I think I'll use two entire bags, and add a little more cornstarch. The cobbler was perfectly sweet and peachy (and I even used a bit less white sugar than called for), and the topping was soft, sweet and had an amazing slightly crisp crust on top. YUM!!! This is definitely a keeper.

Time flies!

I can't believe we've had Conan for three years this summer. And he's almost 4 years old! I was looking through some old pictures the other day and came across this top photo, from right after we first got him. This picture actually appeared in the Northwest Florida Daily News as a "pet of the day" photo. And it even got printed in color!

It's amazing to me how different Conan looks now. He's clearly still a puppy in the first photo. And in the second picture, from a few weeks ago, he's clearly an adult dog. Just look at how much of the white fur on his muzzle has changed to black, and how much of the pink skin by his nose has vanished. These are things that you don't really notice as they're happening, because they're gradual.

I'm assuming these same things happen with human children too. That's why parents say, "It seems like just yesterday that I was changing her diapers, and now she's starting kindergarten! Sniffle, sniffle..." Maybe it's symbolic of a larger factor in our society. Things happen so fast these days. We're busy, and going going going. We wake up one day and all of a sudden, a whole month has passed. Where did it go?! And then, seemingly the next day, we wake up and it's New Year's! I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, but it's important that we stop and appreciate each day. I try to take a few moments every day to be thankful for my great life, my wonderful husband, my loving family, and of course my furry little boy, who (just like real kids do) is growing up too fast!

Becoming a pack leader

This is my favorite picture that I've taken recently of Conan. :)

When we first got Conan in August 0f 2007, he was completely different from the Conan we know now. He never, ever, ever barked. For months, the only time I even heard his bark was when I ran the vacuum, which he was afraid of for some reason. (Now he loves to chase the vacuum and even likes it when I use the crevice tool to suck off all his shedded fur!) He was shyer, far more timid. He would never bark at another dog or person (except the mailman or UPS deliverer); he was always the one getting barked at. Eventually, Jarrod decided it wasn't normal that he wasn't barking and actually encouraged Conan to bark at people when they walked past the house. Then we moved to Del Rio, and Conan all of a sudden started barking certain dogs on our walks. Then we moved to San Angelo, and Conan all of a sudden started barking at certain dogs and certain people on our walks, specifically two ladies who got around with walkers and moms pushing strollers or pulling wagons. Toward the end of our time there, he occasionally would lunge and growl at another person for what I deemed "no reason." They appeared to simply be minding their own business, but somehow managed to offend Conan.

Then we moved here to Hawaii in October and Conan's aggression shot to a whole other level. He began snarling and lunging at any other dog we passed on our walks. Not only was this mortifying, but Conan is pretty strong and I've sustained plenty of scratches, smashed feet, arms ripped half out of the socket, and leash burns. And after we'd been here for a couple months, he began snarling and lunging at nearly all the people we passed on our walks. Mind you, I don't mean he'd growl at the person tending their garden up by their house who didn't even glance our way, but he'd get aggressive whenever another person was walking toward or near us. And sometimes, bizzarely, he'd lunge and snarl at someone for what seemed like no reason at all. One time, a kid on rollerblades skated up to us and started up a conversation about a beloved pet boxer his family had. Their dog had to be put down because it had gotten sick. He and Conan got along great, until the kid started to skate off. Then, out of nowhere, Conan lunged and growled at him, scaring the poor kid half to death.

The problem escalated so much in the past few months -- and so quickly -- that I started to dread walking Conan, especially at times when I knew lots of of other people would be outside. And I new instinctively that I wasn't helping the problem, because every time we'd see a person coming toward us, or whom we'd have to pass close to, my heart rate would go up and I'd feel anxious. I know how intuitive dogs are, and I could tell that Conan was picking up on my nervous energy. It created a vicious cycle (literally!). I noticed that his behavior on walks had gotten worse than ever since I came back from Florida (partly, I think, because Jarrod isn't here. Jarrod never has these problems with Conan, because Conan clearly respects him as the alpha of the family.) And my friend Jessica, who watched Conan for me, said she didn't really have any problems with him on walks. That lead me to a revelation: the problem must be me!

So I started reading one of the books by Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer. Turns out I've been doing everything all wrong. I think Conan's aggression on walks stems from three things:
1. My weak, unconfident, anxious "energy" (i.e. not calm-assertive, confident energy), causing Conan to view himself as dominant over me and feel the need to become my "pack leader."
2. Cesar thinks that most problems with American dogs are at least in part a result of their owners humanizing them. Obviously, we think of Conan as our furry kid. I even have a cute little decoration that says, "A dog is a furry person." Well, not according to Cesar! And his logic makes perfect sense. Dogs don't think like humans. They aren't humans. They're not better or worse than humans, just different. And it's unfair to them to treat them like humans, just to get the affection and attention that WE crave.
3. Not enough exercise and too much affection. Cesar talks in detail about how wild dogs would spend hours and hours walking and hunting every single day. Unfortunately, Conan isn't getting nearly as much exericse as he should, or as he has in the past. In San Angelo, we had a much bigger yard where he'd run and run and run every day. And we had a decent-sized neighborhood with plenty of walking routes, so we'd walk at least a mile everyday. Here in Hawaii, barely anybody has a "large" yard. Our yard is pitifully small for Conan, but it's better than what we would have gotten off-base. And our neighborhood is very small -- just a loop -- and the adjoining neighborhood is currently undergoing remodeling, so the streets are blocked off right now. And Cesar says most Americans give their dogs way too much affection. His model of what a dog needs is 50% exericse, 25% discipline and 25% affection. Conan has definitely been getting 50% (or more) affection!

I haven't finished the book yet (I got quite depresssed and frustrated and resentful and decided to put it down for a few days... I see where Cesar is coming from, but I don't necessarily agree with every single assertion he makes) but I've already started putting some of his advice in effect. It's very, very hard to start treating Conan differently after three years, and I don't feel like I'm a natural leader (I am constantly struggling with low self-confidence). But I am doing my best to assert myself as Conan's pack leader. I made him sit and stay seated as I put his collar and leash on. Then I made sure to exit the door before he did (Cesar says this is very important). I attempted to think confident, in-control thoughts and I made him walk next to or behind me the entire time, only allowing him to stop and sniff poles or bushes ocassionally (rather than him pulling me over to every single lamp post, tree or bush in the neighborhood). Any time he started to pull the slightest bit ahead of me, I tugged on his leash. He's pretty good at heeling anyway, but he'd still veer off whenever he wanted to pee on a pole or sniff something. And, miraculously, today he pretty much ignored all the things he normally stops to sniff. We passed three people and he barely even looked at them (granted, they weren't walking on the same side of the street, coming toward us -- those are Conan's most frequent victims). I also took Conan around the block twice, giving him some extra exercise, and didn't give him any affection until we got back inside the house. I felt it was a great success! I still have a long, long, long way to go to make him see me as his leader and stop being vicious to other dogs and people on our walks, but I feel like I made a great step forward today. Wish me luck!

Success with yeast!

My favorite website for recipes is http://smittenkitchen.com/. I discovered it a few months ago, and it's a blog written by a woman in New York City who somehow has time to juggle a husband, a baby, and making several gourmet recipes a week. She gets the recipes from other places -- cookbooks, magazines, newspapers -- but always adds her own twist and advice. And she takes gorgeous pictures of every step of the process. I've made a few recipes from the site, including the absolutely heavenly Best Cocoa Brownies, which will be my go-to brownie recipe for life. A few days ago, a recipe was posted for Braided Lemon Bread, a project that just looked so delectable I had to go ahead and make it this weekend, even though I know there's no way I can eat an entire loaf on my own (since Jarrod is not here to share it with me) and the neighbor with whom I usually share treats just had weight-loss surgery. I think I'll put a few slices in the freezer to take out and have with a cup of coffee here and there.



Anyway, I was a bit intimidated, since the bread looked gorgeous and complicated, and also I don't have much experience working with yeast. But I decided to give it my best shot. I had no trouble making the lemon curd (and for the first time ever, I didn't zest the skin on my knuckles along with the lemon peel!), the cream cheese filling, and the bread dough. Luckily I had an entire afternoon at my disposal, because it was quite time-consuming. Of course, I had to sample the cream cheese filling and lemon curd as I was assembling the bread (and Conan and I enjoyed licking the beaters and spatula!) and they were amazing, especially the lemon curd. (Why is it called curd? That's such a gross-sounding word. I'd rather call it lemon pudding.) The finished product came out beautifully (even if my braid did come a bit undone at the end) and I couldn't wait to sample it!



I was a bit disappointed, unfortunately. As I expected, the filling was delectable. But there was just too much bread! I know the recipe is supposed to showcase the yeasty, slightly-sweet bread, but I felt like it was weighing down the light, fluffy, sweet-tangy, lemony filling. I almost wanted to scrape all the filling off and just eat that (talk about nutritious!), but I spent so much time making the bread that I forced myself to eat every last bite (ok, except the pieces I fed to Conan). I even made more filling (almost twice as much) than the recipe called for. Maybe I would like the bread more if it were sweeter? I'm sure plenty of people thought there was a perfect ratio of bread to filling and that the bread was a perfect flavor. But I have realized over time that I'm much more of a filling person than a crust (or bread) person. Sometimes I would rather just do without crust altogether. I'm not sure I would be disappointed if I never ate another graham cracker crust. I'll happily take all the filling, though!



Overall, I'm glad I attempted this recipe. For one thing, it gave me confidence to work with yeast. I've only used yeast once before when I made a disastrous recipe from a book I bought this winter called "Kneadlessly Simple." My loaf of bread turned out to be brick-like with a scorced bottom. I was so disillusioned that I've been avoiding trying another yeast recipe for months now. But in the future when I'm craving something lemon-flavored, I think I'll stick with my trusty recipe for lemon bars: tons of mouthwatering lemon filling, only slightly interrupted by the mandatory crust.