Cooking with Sarah: Thanksgiving Recap

We had a great Thanksgiving at our house.  You may recall that I was planning a HUGE dinner that day and I got to admit, next year I won't be so ambitious with the dishes.  My problem might have been that I kept adding stuff (like Butternut Squash Risotto at the last minute).  Only I am crazy enough to add a labor intensive dish like risotto to an already full menu at the very last minute but seriously folks, it was butternut squash risotto and it was delicious.  While I absolutely LOVE cooking and Turkey Day is by and far MY DAY, I also didn't have much chance to chat with our guests as everything took a little longer, even though I started a half hour early (according to my schedule).  Fun fact:  when you wrap a turkey in bacon and stuff it with dressing, it takes a lot longer.  Like almost 2 hours longer.  But that's OK.  So dinner was late.  So what if the mashed potatoes were cold by the time everything was done.  It was still delicious.  Here are some highlights from our Turkey Day:

Bacon Turkey is the most beautiful thing in the world.

Our good friend Julie cooking vegetables.  Hurley supervising droppage!

Sadie supervising the Turkey carving

Sweet Potato Cheesecake was by far the highlight of the meal.  This one is a permanent T-day fixture now!

The dogs did really well with all of our guests.  Hurley did not take off with the turkey and satisfied himself with only one quick lick of the turkey plate.  Maggie did not climb on anyone's lap (that I noticed) and Sadie barely barked when our guests came to the door.  Success!  One of my favorite aspects of holidays is seeing my dogs continue to improve behavior-wise.  Having a house full of people & food is challenging for even the most well-behaved dogs and my 3 did a great job being cute, wiggly and friendly to all who would let them lick their fingers!

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!  Next stop, Christmas (or Hanukkah or Kwanza or Festivus).  The Mom-in-law is coming to visit from Cape Cod and word on the street is that she is bringing us lobster!! 

The Return of the Crate

Deja vu.  Didn't we all read a post about this subject just a week or two ago?  Yup, just like Two Grad Students, we too have had to return one of ours to crate-ville.

Every fall, we encounter the same issue with Sadie.  Indoor poopies.  I know it's cold & rainy outside but seriouslys?  I feel like pooping inside for her is the equivalent of me demanding a heated toilet seat.  Hold on!  Must get out the Honey Do List...but I digress.  Usually, her Fall Indoor Poopies only last a few nights or maybe a week tops.  But it's now the end of November and this has been going on since October.  Maybe she leaves us a surprise in the bathroom during the day or maybe she sneaks down into the basement at night.  But it's been almost daily for at least 6 weeks.

So we made the decision to start crating Sadie when we're gone for extended periods of time and at night.  I don't feel one iota guilty about this - girl's been pooping in my house, yo!  And she happens to love her crate.  When we got Hurley and set up one of the crates for him, I would regularly find her napping in it.  I had to set up our second crate after we got him just so she would have her own place to nap.  The only difference now is that the door is closed.

Yes, she gets bathroom breaks right before I leave in the morning and right before we go to bed.  She even gets alone time in the yard so that she may do her business in peace (she's always been a bit shy about doing her business in front of others and I think Hurley follows her around outside too much for her pooping comfort).   But whether it's performance anxiety in front of her brother or princess-ness about the cold wet weather or jealousy over my soon-to-be-installed toilet seat warmer (kidding!), this pooping princess has been thwarted once and for all by my good friend crate.

Who me?  I am way too cute to poop.

Has the change in weather brought out any abnormal behaviors in your dogs?