Goodbye Tree

So pretty!

 I'm taking down the Christmas tree today and I'm a little sad about that. It's just so pretty! And when the lights are turned on, it just makes the room so much more peaceful. And shiny. If I could find a way to keep it up all year long, I think I would.

I know someone else who will miss the tree too. Someone small and fury and sneaky and silly. Someone who likes to go for walks and chase rabbits and squirrels...

Resting in front of the tree.

And not just because it makes a good backdrop for her to take a nap and rest in front of the fire. No, in addition to all those things, this year, Kramer found the tree to be an excellent hiding spot for her beloved rawhide bone.

See how well Kramer hides her bone?

Cajun Chicken Sandwiches

One of the things I love about my husband is his ability to make up recipes or adjust recipes on the fly. We'll try a new recipe and after the first bite, I think it's a total bust. He'll rummage around the spice rack and come up with some mix of spices to make it more palatable. Then he'll plan ways to improve the recipe for next time and start to come up with a whole new dish. It's amazing.
Earlier this summer, we stopped at a Backyard Burger and ordered their Spicy Chicken Sandwich. It was a delicious simple chicken sandwich, but it had a kick. The sandwich was just GOOD. So, Drew decided we could easily make this sandwich and he developed this recipe the next week. It tasted so good and it's so easy, we've added it to our repertoire. And since we grill even when it's snowing, we can enjoy these whenever the mood strikes.

Cajun Chicken Sandwiches

Spicing it up.

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt
• 1 Tablespoon Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic Seasoning
• 1 Tablespoon Emeril's Original Essence
• 3 Tablespooons Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning
• Lime Juice
• 2 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

Colorful mixture.

 In an appropriate marinating container, combine the spices and enough lime juice to create a marinade. We never measure, but I'm guessing it's somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 cup lime juice.



  

Mix well and place the chicken breasts in the marinade for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

Marinating.

We usually grill them for about 13 minutes on each side and serve them on buns with Cajun mayo. What is Cajun mayo, you ask? It's plain old regular mayo spiced up with some Tony's and lime juice. Very tasy!

Grilled goodness.

Enjoy!

Kramer the Squirrel Hunter

Just being Kramer.

 Kramer is our dog. She's a little four year old wiener dog. She's a purebred, but we're fairly certain she's part rabbit. Also, sometimes when she yawns she sounds like a pterodactyl. Or what a pterodactyl sounds like in my head since I don't actually know what kinds of noises a pterodactyl makes.

Kramer likes her sleep.

Squirrels are Kramer's nemesis. She chases them. They run away, get far enough above her to feel safe, and then they taunt her. This only feeds her disdain. It's a vicious cycle.
Last weekend, she treed two of these pesky creatures in the backyard. Our trees are small enough and spaced far enough apart that once the squirrels get up there, there's no place for them to go but down. So Kramer circles the tree, looking up at them, and barks. Oh how she barks. She informs everyone within a two block radius that there are squirrels present.

Enter my husband, Drew. He got Kramer as part of the deal when he asked me to marry him and one of their shared interests is their hatred of squirrels. So, when he heard Kramer's incessant barking, he grabbed a broom and headed out to the backyard to assist.

Kramer makes a snowball.

Drew used the broom to shake the tree a bit and one squirrel went flying one direction with Kramer hot on its tail. It escaped to the neighbor's yard where it promptly climbed another tree and started taunting Kramer from on high. The other squirrel opted to leap in the opposite direction. Drew, still armed with his broom, let out a mighty roar and lunged after the squirrel. I'm talking about a Braveheart kind of roar that nearly caused me to fall on the ground and into the snow. Not due to intimidation, but due to the fact that I was laughing so hard I had trouble standing upright. 

Protecting the indoor tree from squirrels.

Ultimately, both squirrels escaped unharmed, but Drew and Kramer felt rather proud of themselves and exhibited some swagger on the walk back to the deck.