January 23, 2011

White Dog agreed that it was the perfect day for Jambalaya. "If dad is still too sore for us to run at the Bosque, at least we can cook up a storm and fill the house with great smells," she said. Nuka agreed and suggested that maybe Dragon and his parents could just come over and hang out and eat with us. "We could at least play chase in the yard and do zoomies," Quinn added.

Steve's back was actually feeling a bit better but we were trying to keep him from jumping into his normal active routine too soon and undoing his progress. Puff's bronchitis cough is still hacking but less vigorously and with less frequency. Nuka seems to congestion-free but she is still batting at her ears. So a slow day seemed like a good plan. Dragon and his family jumped at the invite.

White Dog, TOWD, SAWD and I got to work. AWD napped in the living room where she could look into the kitchen and watch intermittently. Steve was given tasks he could comfortably perform without strain his back.

In no time, there were onion, peppers, and celery sauteing on the bottom of the pot. TOWD and SAWD helped Steve as he sat and shelled shrimp...Puff thought she really wanted to hold a shrimp but when the chance came in the form of a dropped specimen, she nommed a bit and walked away. This provided clear ownership for Nuka, our Florida girl, to swoop in and grab it!

Quinn oversaw the cutting up of chicken leftovers and White Dog supervised the frying of the spicy sausage and the addition of the jambalaya spices (although she sneezed after inhaling a good whiff of the file). We made a nutty rice.

None of the White Dogs was interested as I halved artichoke hearts, quartered mushrooms, and sliced olives for the salad. But they were ALL totally focused on the cheesecake Steve picked up for dessert from our bakery around the corner (with fresh blueberries).

The house smelled mighty fine as things simmered. The recovering sickies had time for a quick nap and then everything was ready! Gregg and Candace brought a crusty baguette and Dragon, a huge appetite. We had mixed a White Dog Army version of rice and chicken and shrimp in a beef and tomato sauce, so everyone got to share in the meal, the conversation, and the relaxing time spent together. At the end we were all stuffed, but very satisfied!