Rest in Peace, Muffin

In Memoriam
MUFFIN
1997-2009

Yesterday our dear family pet Muffin had to be euthanized. She had been suffering from skin, ear, and eye problems for quite some time. It was pretty clear to my parents that she was in a lot of pain. Muffin will be cremated and we will scatter her remains in the woods behind our house when we are together in late April.

Muffin came to our family in 1997 (I was twelve), shortly after my mom and stepdad got married. My sister Priscilla and I had been pestering them for a dog for a long time. One day they left for a few hours and came back with her. I remember seeing her for the first time in the garage; she was nervous but so happy, and her skinny little body and tail were thumping against the cars. When Muffin was happy she couldn't contain it and her whole body wagged.

Mom and Doug got Muffin from a store in Louisville called EnviroPet, which looked like a pet shop but sold dogs and cats from the local animal shelter. I was always really glad that we adopted her from there and helped out a little animal in need. We never knew where Muffin came from or how she ended up at EnviroPet, but when she came to us she was pretty scraggly and malnourished looking. When we gave Muffin her first bowl of dog food, I never saw anything eat so fast!

Muffin quickly gained weight though, and became beautiful and healthy. Muffin had medium-length, wiry, golden-colored hair, which is why we named her after a baked good. She was very cute, and some people even suggested she go to Hollywood and try to be in the movies. We loved her too much to let her go, though.

As an adolescent dog, she developed some normal but annoying doggie behaviors so we decided it was time for Muffin to get her formal education. Mom and Doug sent her to Duffy's Dog Training Center where she learned basic obedience and self-composure. She did a little three-week long camp there and then when we came to pick her up she showed us all her new tricks! She could sit, stay, lie down, heel, and displayed a surprising amount of restraint when confronted with people food. We were so proud of her! Muffin retained the skills she had learned throughout her life and impressed a lot of people with her excellent manners. Just last week Muffin performed her tricks in the driveway for Priscilla and a new friend she'd brought to meet Muffin and our family.

Speaking of new friends, Muffin loved to meet new people. She would get so excited when anyone new came around and she loved to try to get close and lick people. She really liked to be around people in general. She especially loved to lie on the carpet while we watched TV in the living room and her favorite place to lie was on the cool concrete when my mom worked in the basement.

Some of Muffin's other favorite things: paper products, peanut butter, pig ears, and cow hooves. Early on in Muffin's life we realized she had an affinity for tissues, napkins, and paper towels. I suppose it was because she always thought there would be something delicious wiped on it. But we noticed that even if we gave Muffin a clean tissue or paper towel, she would still love to rip it up and eat bits of it. Our neighbor once noticed this and said, "One of my favorite things to do is drop a napkin on the floor and watch Muffin just go at it!" Peanut butter was another of Muffin's favorite snacks, because we always hid her pills (Muffin had lifelong problems with her endocrine system) in a spoon of peanut butter. It was always big entertainment to watch Muffin lick the peanut butter off the spoon and then awkwardly try to eat the sticky stuff. Muffin also had an appreciation for the stinky things in life, like pig ears and cow hooves. She loved them, but we hated the smell. I bet if I smelled a freshly-chewed cow hoof now, though, it'd bring tears to my eyes with fond memories of Muffin.

Muffin had a wonderful life as a dog. Our whole family and even the neighbors and our friends doted on her, so I am sure she always felt loved, if a dog can feel such a thing. We moved in 1999 to Benchmark Drive, and our new house backed up to the Mount St. Francis nature preserve. We soon noticed that Muffin never really strayed too far from the house, and always came back at night, so Muffin enjoyed the freedom of being able to roam and sniff around in the woods for most of her life. She especially loved running alongside Doug in the woods or going on a hike with Mom, Doug, and Doug's grandchildren. I like to imagine Muffin had the best kind of life a domestic dog can hope for.

Muffin was such a source of love and enjoyment for my family and really brought us together. During the course of Muffin's life I have become an adult and have strayed pretty far from home at times. But even though I no longer share a house with my immediate family, we could still share the idea that Muffin was "ours." She was an important part of my notion of home. We have many other things that bind us together as a family, but nothing like Muffin. She will truly be missed.

Mango, Coconut, and Lime Tapioca Pudding

I have a box of "Minit" Tapioca Pudding that I bought a bit ago to thicken things that need thickening in my slow cooker. Tapioca usually isn't my dessert of choice, but once when I was feeling very hungry and very lazy and there was nothing else in the house, I just made the tapioca pudding according to the recipe on the box. It's really easy. All you need is the tapioca, some milk, an egg, sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla. You boil all of the ingredients up in a pan, let it sit, and it's ready.

Things that are really simple like that are also really fun to play with. For instance, say you didn't want the familiar, comforting flavors of vanilla, but instead the tropical flavors of mango and coconut with a tart twist of lime? I decided to replace the 2 3/4 cups of milk with a can of coconut milk* plus 3/4 cup of water (the can has roughly 2 cups of liquid inside), add a barely-ripe chopped mango (this is a good way to get the most out of barely-ripe fruits), and for tartness, I zested a lime and rendered its juice.


I still followed the basic recipe: I combined in a pan 2 3/4 cup liquid (in this case, coconut milk and water), 3 tbsp. minute tapioca pearls, one beaten egg, 1/4 cup sugar, plus all my tropical goodies (lime zest, juice, chopped mango). The ingredients must be stirred constantly to the point of boiling, then let to rest off the heat for 20 minutes, stirring every ten minutes.


The results were delicious! A very well-balanced dessert, it was creamy, fresh, and zingy with the lime.

*I usually buy lite coconut milk, but I heard on the show Anna and Kristina's Grocery Bag (a great show, by the way) that lite coconut milk is basically just regular coconut milk mixed with water, so if you want to reduce calories, it's much more cost effective to just thin out the milk at home yourself. Going with this idea, I bought regular coconut milk for use today. When I tasted the regular, though, it was so much more coconutty and wonderful than the lite coconut milk that I will never go back.

Aerogarden Update

Looking back, my herbs have gotten so much bigger since last time I posted about them! The mint, basil, and purple basil are so big and hearty that it seems like every time I harvest some of the leaves they grow back overnight. The parsley and dill are getting stronger everyday. The chives are doing fine. The thyme is still a bit sad and scraggly. I love thyme and use it often, so it's a shame. But if 6 of 7 of my herbs succeed, I will still deem this a success.


It is really nice to have the herbs around. I find myself using them for sort of random things--mint as a garnish for desserts and in curries, basil on goat cheese toast.

Georg's trip to Kelowna

Last weekend Georg took a trip to Kelowna to give a talk at the University of British Columbia. We were pretty excited about it because neither of us have ever been there, but we heard it's really beautiful. The day Georg left, I graciously lent him my camera so that he could take a few pictures. Here they are.

Pictures from my week

A beautiful sunset,
a Swiss chard tart with pine nuts,

some plump salmon steaks,
roasted cauliflower with feta cheese, black olives, and oregano,
and these flowers I found in the garbage can at work!