Friday, November 23, 2007

Tired Thanksgiving Day Helpers

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! We gave thanks for everything good in our lives - especially our little ones. The dogs love to help us in the kitchen. Mostly this consists of sleeping in the dog bed in the kitchen, or in the crate under the table. And yesterday was a prime example. We decided to do a traditional Thanksgiving dinner yesterday - turkey, dressing, cranberries, brussels sprouts (particularly appropriate, we thought, since we have Brussels Griffons!) and pie.

The cooking fest began on Wednesday when I made my famous (in my own mind) chocolate pecan pie - from scratch. Many steps, very time consuming but not that hard. Then yesterday morning, while watching the Macy's parade we made the cranberry sauce first so it would have time to chill and set. Then peeling, chopping and browning 3 pounds of onions and a head of celery for the dressing. That took a while - and Roc, Dax and Golly helped all the way through. Ceilidh was sleeping in the other room, in front of the vent. (Did I mention that it was snowing yesterday morning? So much so, that I was glad we weren't travelling yesterday!)

Since we would be a small group, we decided that a boneless turkey breast would be just right. This is totally cheating, but Hope and I discovered that we can't roast a turkey successfully! Oh well, I can bake bread - I don't have to roast things.

Then right before dinner we whipped some cream to go on the pie and got out the mini-blender. Roc went crazy! His arch-nemesis! Worse than the vacuum! The little guy spun in circles, jumped against the cabinet while barking at the top of his lungs! The other dogs didn't know what was wrong and barked at Roc. At the top of their lungs. Noisy, tired dogs! They all dove into their well-deserved dinners!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My dogs think their solemn duty is to keep the floor immaculate of any food droppings. I never realize how valuable they are until I start cooking while they are outside.

Anonymous said...

My Bichons used to anticipate Thanksgiving and other eating holidays with great pleasure and lots of salivation, as I let them lick bowls as the cooking progressed. Sweet potatoes: check. Pumpkin: I'm on it. Corn bread: got it.

Fran said...

Dax is a good one for getting the floor clean! She's on it almost before the spill hits the floor! And, licking the bowls! How lucky can a dog get?!

Cyn said...

I love to hear about the antics of Griffons. I have nine of them, see some on my blog http://cyn-itsadogslife.blogspot.com/