What a Good Sax will do to a Woman...

     Last night my husband and I went to our second Michael Buble concert, mostly because I sorta liked his music for our Saturday morning breakfast parties. We went to his first concert in our area in 2008, and he was such an all-around engaging performer that when I saw he was coming back down South I bought pre-sale tickets! 

     Anyway, we started off "date night" with some amazing fondue (can I tell you that the brownies dipped in white and dark chocolate was so amazing that we had to ask for more?! Nice restaurant, fancy outfits, four courses before dessert and yet the hubby and I are flagging down the waiter for another round of brownies! DE-LISH!) Then we skidded into the concert after the opening act was done (sorry, guys, I'm sure you were amazing but if you would have tasted those brownies you would have stayed too!) There was a huge group that had taken over our seats so we moved to the next pair of available seats in the next section. The ticket lady insisted on moving the squatters out of our seats, but I had Michael Buble's voice and a glass of white wine and I wasn't in the mood for anyone's night to be mussed with at that point, so we kept our new seats.

Our seats, comically far from the stage...

We sing along and laugh at Michael's jokes (honestly, the man is an entertainer and a half... funny, witty, adorable accent and, oh by the way, he can SING!) And then as he finishes a song he heads off-stage for his goodbye by walking down our aisle... there were security men galore and I angled for a good, fairly close up shot of Michael as he passed. Here is the result...

Not my hand, for the record... Not big on petting celebrities, I'm afraid...

Imagine my surprise when he mounts a set of steps to a big platform behind our row (that I had previously assumed was some mixing booth because we were so far back) and continues the show... RIGHT BEHIND MY CHAIR!! I am now hustling back to my chair, my shoddy "photo-over-screaming-girls'-heads" behind me, and enjoy Michael's "thank you to the Gulf Coast for all of our strength and courage" (yea, we're pretty great! Turns out he gave 400 free tickets to the concert to people affected by the oil spill... I knew I liked this guy...) and his own, four-feet-away rendition of "Home" which always makes me cry thinking about my husband and I being apart for our jobs so often...

Anyway, all in all, an amazing show and one that took place (at least in part) less than four feet away from me! I love Michael Buble and I love that we lucked into such great seats too!! Now if only he would stop dating such waifish model types, maybe I'd have a chance... But wait... is that a ring on his finger?!? Drats... missed my chance! Wink! Enjoy!

Please, I love getting dressed up and going out on dates with the husband!

Our New Addition...

It has been almost six weeks since Sadie passed and, though we are not fully past her death yet, we had room in our home and in our hearts for another dog and so, just a few weeks after her death, we went looking. We wanted a dog who, like Sadie, had been passed over and wasn't adoptable because she was ugly, old, or just generally a sweet dog who inexplicably wasn't going home with anyone.

We tried met-ups with several pups and nobody got along well with our boys (including one dachshund mix who literally chased Scout around the room snapping and barking until he dropped his treat and hid. Scout - 45lbs, dachshund mix - 11 lbs.... hilarious...)

I had seen a Vizsla-Pointer mix at a local pet welfare and I'd waited a couple of weeks to visit her and finally went on my own on July 1st. I just loved her, but it takes a few visits to really get to know a dog. The next week brought another visit, this time with my husband, and on the 13th we took the dogs to meet her... and she came home with us! Formerly known as "Kali," we changed it to "Cali" so that she could be a California girl like her mama, me! Also, I am convinced that changing the letters up in common names only leads girls to grow up to be strippers and I want more than that for my little pup!

She's supposedly six years old, but she's got a bit of gray around her muzzle already. We are at least her third home after three shelter stays from Sacramento to the deep South (and she's been at pet welfare for six months already with no interest in her at all!) based on the history that we were given, but her history doesn't start until she was 3 1/2 and being a Vizsla-Pointer mix she was bound to have a ton of energy as a pup and I'm sure she was probably turned into a shelter at least once after her puppy cuteness wore off. She's still got a lot of spunk in her (especially after a few minutes inside in the air conditioning) and she's kept me busy asking to go outside every half hour so that she can run wind sprints up and down the yard until I get too worried about leaving a geriatric patient out in the 108F heat index! Watching her play with Scout is a hoot (she bounces like an South Central lowrider... perhaps she's more of a California girl than I thought!) and other than the fact that you can tell that she thinks we are going to send her back to a shelter at any minute (yesterday's vet visit was... interesting...) things are going great. YEA for our expanding pack!

Update: Want to see how Cali is settling in at our home? Here is an update from a few weeks later...

Watermelon and Cucumbers and Squash... Oh My!

Though I was trying to wait for these cucumbers to darken into a deeper green, the little critters were starting to munch on them already so today became harvest day! YEA!! As you can see we had quite a bountiful little harvest for this round of cucumbers! With the hot weather here in the South, we should have another round in a month or two (judging by the weather and the dozens of tiny, spiky little baby 'cumbers that are already starting to grow in the garden!) so I've decided to make this entire batch into pickles and relish. The canning posting for those suckers should be coming very soon!

Next on the harvest list are the butternut squash who look amazing (if a little early... I think of those more of a fall treat, but Mother Nature bows to no man... or clock...) Cardinals are also out in force right now too and I think of them as winter birds... am I crazy or are there just no seasons in the South?

Finally, my "little watermelons that could" are finally coming in slowly but surely. Last year my UPS man mocked my efforts in the front yard because our lemons were bigger than our melons! I don't know that we are outpacing last year's melons for size, but putting in bird netting this year led to some ambitious vines and some interesting fruit placement, like this watermelon perched on top of the fence rail! I'll keep you posted on the harvests as they come!

Green Groceries on the Cheap?

We were out of town all weekend driving to Virginia and back visiting family, so with so few hours of sleep this week, I am reposting a comment on the Green Baby Guide that has plenty of content for a beginning-of-the-week blog post. Thank you so much to Joy of the Green Baby Guide for giving me the idea for this post! Enjoy!


How to Lower the Grocery Bill while still staying Green?
Good for you all for looking at your spending this closely and knowing where you put your "food dollars!" So many Americans don’t pay attention and we all know where that leads our nation… Anyway, I agree with Joy, that to go organic, a food box through a co-op weekly or bi-weekly (for a two person family, bi-weekly is enough for us) and then planning meals around it is the way to go. We get whole chickens from a local farmer and those have gone up (to nearly $12 a chicken!! Sweet heavens! This economy, I tell you what!) but between that and organic meats from our local grocer (Publix here in Florida) we keep the grocery bill at about $200/mth for two people. Now, that’s not awesome, but I share your problem that I make recipes set to serve four and they serve me… and three servings for my husband!! But here are a few super basic, but easy to overlook tips:


#1. Are you including toiletries or other houshold items in your “grocery” bill? A regular $40 grocery checkout can soar to $140 easily with a month-plus worth of shampoo, toothpaste, dish soap, paper towels, etc. in the checkout aisle. Look at buying these items in bulk through “Subscribe and Save” on Amazon.com (especially if you buy Seventh Generation, Alba or other “green” brands that can be super pricey in the super market!) where not only do you get bulk prices but you receive an additional 15% when you subscribe for a regular shipment (which you can cancel anytime without penalty! Bonus!) Drugstore.com has more items in bulk but no subscription discount that I know of.


#2. ALWAYS make a list, NEVER buy anything not on the list. Ever… ever… seriously, I know we are all grownups and we think we can walk around Target without a case of the “gimme-gimmes” (a great Bernstein Bears book, by the way!) but we can’t. Make a list with literally EVERYTHING you need and buy off the list and not a single item more. Seriously, it works. This is after considering what will be in your CSA box and knowing what is in season, but don't just wander around mindlessly picking up high fructose corn syrup products wrapped in ten layers of plastic packaging. Gross...

 #3. Become a substitutioner… I used to be a Martha Stewart recipe fanatic but dinner parties through her regularly cost $200+ because of her exotic ingredients. Even everyday recipes that call for mushroom soup when I don’t have it necessitate a trip to the store. So I am “The Great Substitioner”… I google first the item I need and substitutions for it (if something useful comes up, I go with that) but generally I just think about the item “Mushroom soup is thick, creamy, and salty” and then add accordingly with what makes sense (milk, cornstarch/cream of tartar to thicken and salt). And voila! A meal! Now, my husband is not at all picky (and he’s never had a bad meal) but in our three years I cook nightly and several times a weekend (we never eat out) and I’ve only made two meals that weren’t edible to me (none that weren’t edible to him!) One was bean soup that I reheated from the freezer and burned (it tasted like cigarettes… BLEH!) and a crockpot recipe that I followed by the book and it had no consistency and smelled like dog food… the dogs wouldn’t eat it, but my husband loved it!


#4. Use up EVERYTHING in your pantry. Challenge yourself for a month to use EVERYTHING in your pantry. It puts your cooking skills to the test and uses the Economics ideal of “sunk cost” at its best. Old canned pumpkin is not only delicious in June, but everyone loves a quick pumpkin pie cobbler because they haven’t had one in ages!


#5. Create your own standby meals and always have the ingredients on hand for them and then add in what you’ve got. Mine are quiche, vegetable soup and crumble. For quiche I either need to make a pie crust (flour, salt, butter) or have one in the freezer; eggs; milk; and whatever is leftover and soon to "go off"… meat, veggies, spinach/greens, bacon, cheese, etc. Quiche takes whatever you’ve got a little of and makes it into a meal for a family. Crumble takes whatever fruit you have that’s about to go off tomorrow, sprinkle it with lemon juice and a 1/2 cup sugar, and then put together equal parts flour and brown sugar with enough butter (a few tablespoons) of cold butter cut in to make a crumbly texture. Put that on top of the fruit and bake at 350F for about 45 minutes or until the inside begins to bubble... VOILA! Instant dessert and no one even requested it! Congratulations, you’ve just won four more wife gold stars!

Hope those help! Here is to Going Green in a bad Economy! Thank you to Green Baby Guide for the idea for this post!

"I wouldn't feed this meal to a dog!!"

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
-Immanuel Kant

It's 5pm, do you know what your dog is eating? A post at Re-Nest started my wheels turning about what we are feeding our pets (and what those of you out there in TV Land might be feeding yours) so I thought I would share our experiences with you. My family eats an organic, "Paleo" diet as much as possible (all things in moderation, of course!) so we decided to have our dogs go "Paleo" as well and buy grain-free dog food. 

Why Grain-Free?
Grain-free foods and treats contain ingredients and nutrient levels which most closely resemble the ancestral diet of dogs and cats; high in animal based proteins and a healthy balance of fats and low carbohydrates(derived from vegetables and non-grain sources). The protein content in grain-free dry foods is high but not so high that can damage a dog's system (there are claims that raw-meat only diets can damage a dog's pancreas and more) and the rest of the food is composed of fresh fruits and vegetables (not corn gluten, which is the corn by-product that most dog food is made of). It only makes sense that animals descended from wolves and wild cats would be healthier eating a meat-based product instead of a corn-based one, but in our corn-based American society these days, who is really surprised that we are feeding our pets corn too?


How did you chose your food? 
   There are tons of options of dog food options out there from a Raw Food diet (this all-natural, rehydratable"just add meat & water" one looks pretty neat!) to your average bag of kibble at the grocery store but here was our criteria when we chose our dog food:

1. Quality of the product: We wanted a high-quality product that provided the best nutrients specifically formulated for active dogs.

2. Ease of Use: I think that raw food diets (especially one that incorporate vegetables and other necessary nutrients and enzymes) is probably the best thing for my pet, but do I have time to be baking breakfast and dinner for a pack of dogs twice a day? Um, No... I wanted to be able to buy the product, put it in a huge Tupperware to keep it fresh and then scoop it out twice a day at mealtimes. Dry food without preparation was a must.

3. Price: Buying raw meat for our pets, especially organic meat, is often cost prohibitive for many families, ours included. I do believe that feeding creatures, be they children or pets, quality food now saves on medical bills later but sometimes the price tag right now is just too high. Bagged, grain-free foods can be found at reasonable prices at a variety of retailers, even in the boonies where we live, or can be bought in bulk online.

So what do your dogs eat?
    We are actually in a food transition right now. We have fed our dogs EVO for the past two years and absolutely LOVED it! Unfortunately, Proctor & Gamble just bought out EVO and, as they did with IAMS after the Eukanuba buy out, they plan to "adjust the formula" in the food after the buyout is complete in June 2010. By law, P&G has six months to inform the consumer that the formula has been changed, so your dog could be eating grain & other junk for six months (while you are paying full price!) and you would never know!
     In light of the buyout, we are in the process of switching over to another grain-free dog food. We have tried "Taste of the Wild" and "Orijen" foods (both in their red meat/bison formulas) and we have decided to go with "Taste of the Wild" because it is significantly cheaper. I bought three huge bags of EVO this month before the formula changed, so once the pups run out of that I will put them completely on "Taste of the Wild." and see how it goes... Another review to come! Here is a site that lists all of the grain-free dog foods and their contents if you would like to compare foods and chose for yourself.

What differences did you notice after transitioning to grain-free food?
     We transitioned right after bringing a new dog, formerly a stray, into our home (Sadie, our little princess that you've seen on the site before). Her ribs were showing she was so thin, her coat was awful and she was generally unhealthy when we brought her home. Our oldest dog, Atticus, was a little chunky thanks to too many extra treats from his Mama (oops!). After several months on grain-free food, all of our dogs had healthy, thick, coats (we received a flood of  compliments on the two boys coats today while volunteering at the local pet shelter! And those dog people know a good coat when they see one!), much improved overall muscle tone for all of the dogs and their previous health problems (chronic yeast ear infections in both spaniels) disappeared! We haven't had to take the dogs to the vet other than for accidents and their annual shots since switching to grain-free! And the dogs weights all evened out to be "perfect specimens" without having to feed any of the dogs more or less food than the recommendations on the bag.
   Additionally, because the food is so nutritionally dense, you are able to feed your pet a smaller quantity of food. Those of you out there (like Re-Nest's author) who are feeding your 50 lb dogs four cups of traditional, corn-gluten dog food daily will be able to cut back to two cups of grain-free food, in our experience. The grain-free foods are more expensive, but the smaller quantity needed allows us to make a smaller bag of grain-free last as long as the grain-based food we were purchasing previously.

What do I do with all of my old corn-based dog food?
Don't know what to do with all of that old dog food? Corn Gluten is also a great natural, broad-leaf weed preventative for your lawn. It is part of a long term maintenance program, so check out "corn gluten" on an organic/natural gardening page, but you can sprinkle the old dog food straight on your yard and it will disintegrate after a few waterings or good rains!

Our Sweet Princess

We are taking a break for a few weeks here at High Cotton Home.

     Our sweet Sadie was cut down in the prime of her life this week and loosing our little family member has taken such a toil on us. Our sweet princess pranced away to be with the angels on Friday morning, June 4th, and our lives will never be the same again.

     We need some time as a family to regroup and to honor our baby girl's memory, and so we are taking a break for awhile from the blog... I can't imagine taking the dogs to the beach without her right now, or even having one of our fun Saturday mornings full of breakfasts and music and dancing and love...

Our angel is home with us now and she will forever be a part of our family. God can borrow our sweet Sadie Sue for a little while, but he has to play with her at the ocean all day and return her to us when we reach those pearly gates... I can't wait to have my baby girl back in my arms again. We are a pack of five and loosing one of our pack is incomprehensible for each and every one of us. From our family to yours, hug your babies a little closer today, and to our sweet Sadie Sue... you are such a good girl, princess... Thank you so much for holding on as long as you did to let Mama & Daddy say goodbye. We know you did it to save our family, and we know you are prancing in heaven, so happy that we finally figured it all out.

We adore you, angel... kisses on your little black piece-of-coal-in-the-snow nose...

We love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.

- Mama, Daddy & your brothers

These photos are the Sadie I remember...

Fast as lighting...

I just know she is about to bark right here...

"Throw the Frisbee, Dad! Come on, throw it!"

Bark, bark, bark, bark, bark...

Leap tall bushes in a single bound

(she lept this literally from a stand-still... she was amazing).

Love you, Mama...

Always the one who would swim out the farthest,

our smart & brave Sadie was the first to come back with the prize.

Farewell, my sweet baby girl...

Hump Day Happiness

     If you are the kind of person who saves wine for a special occasion or silk panties for an anniversary, than today's post is not for you... but if you regularly make margaritas because of, not despite of, it being Thursday or wear real pearls to the grocery store, than listen up... Today's post is on candles, mostly taper candles, and how happy they make me at the dinner table each night. With slow food, the entire meal becomes an event and giving it an added edge with crystal glasses, candles burning, great textures for your cloth napkins... it just encourages you to linger even more. Sure, we could catch American Idol or Biggest Loser on whatever nights they come on, or we could spend an hour with me cooking dinner (while the hubby plays with the pups in the backyard) and two hours lingering at the table talking and laughing together (let me recommend the soundtrack to The Big Chill as the perfect cooking and lingering music... I love it...). Here are a few that are on my list to purchase...

     Ana Candles are already a lust of mine and they have been on my "Ebay Saved Search" for six months or more (let me tell you, NO ONE is selling Ana candles on Ebay... boo). They run about $21 a pair and at the rate we go through candles (a set of tapers every two weeks) these are a little pricey for our blood... but I am going to splurge soon... very soon...

     I found these Hand Painted Robin's Candles on Ebay and my obsession with birds (my mom too, it's genetic... we buy bird everything) spills over into thinking these candles are perfect. Pretty sure I could paint my own candles, but these are so darn pretty, and at only $8/pair, who can beat that?

     These French Script Candles make me think of playing while drinking strong coffee and making blueberry pancakes on Sunday mornings while I let my main man sleep in for a few extra hours (yea, we don't have kids, we give in to little luxuries a lot... smile...) Also, super affordable and on Etsy as well, which always makes me happy to be supporting artists themselves, directly at the source...


     If you like scented candles (though not tapers) Yankee Candle is making a few strides... Yankee Candle used to make these "Beanswax" candles with two wick which meant they were not only made from soy, but also actually burned well as opposed to those huge one-wick wonders that Yankee Candle usually sells. They only came in a half dozen scents but Yankee Candle discontinued them stateside and overseas this past year. You can still find them floating around at discount stores (though I may have bought out my local T.J. Maxx of all of them last December... sorry about that...) but other than that, my excitement at a greener face to a cooperate company was short lived. I found these Yankee Candle Soy Wax Signature Tumblers online, but I haven't actually seen them yet so I am reserving judgement until I track one down...
   Anyway, tonight, light some candles, put out some crystal and linger until those wooden chairs make your butt hurt... than move to the couch and keep talking! Enjoy!