Happy Hump Day - The Happy Veteran’s Day Edition: My Favorite Veteran

Happy Veteran’s Day! And most importantly, a gigantic THANK YOU to everyone who is serving or has served.

My favorite veteran is my grandfather, a.k.a. Dad Dog. I know, I know. That one needs a little bit of explaining:

I’m the first grandchild on both sides of the family, and when I was born I had three sets of grandparents (my mom’s parents were divorced and both re-married), as well as a set of great-grandparents still living. Being the long-awaited first grandchild, I spent a lot of time with grandparents.

The decision was made to come up with different names for all four sets to avoid confusion, and to help me learn who was who. At the time my paternal grandfather was caring for some puppies, and once referred to himself as their Daddy Dog.

The name mostly stuck. It became Dog, then Dad Dog for me, Daddy Dog for my sister, and Daddy Duck for my cousin (he was caring for orphaned ducks when she was little). I know it sounds odd, but it works for our family. 

In addition to caring for a wide variety of animals over the years, Dad Dog also served in the Army and Air Force (once the two became separate) until his retirement. I grew up listening to his war stories.

Once again, Happy Veteran’s Day.

Happy Hump Day - The Dressed Up Dogs Edition

Yes, I’m one of those people. The ones who dress their dogs up for just about any reason. Or no reason at all.

In my defense, I’ve been dressing Emma for so long she probably thinks dogs are really supposed to wear clothes. And I think she enjoys wearing pretty little outfits. She has had a lot of them over the 12 years I’ve had her. Duke associates being dressed up with getting a treat, so I’m pretty sure he’d dress himself if he could. And I’ve only dressed up foster dogs who seemed like they were into it. Playing dress-up is voluntary.

I don’t think it gets much cuter than dressed up dogs, so for today’s edition of Happy Hump Day, I give you dressed up dogs.

Sandwich Day

Today is Sandwich Day. You can read more about it here, but basically it’s a day to appreciate sandwiches by biting into your favorite sandwich.

In honor of Sandwich Day, here are two of my favorite sandwich recipes:

Chicken Salad Sandwich:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and parsley for cooking)

1½ cups seedless green grapes

½ cup seedless red grapes

1 medium apple, chopped (any kind works, my favorite is Granny Smith)

¼ cup honey mustard

2/3 cup Miracle Whip

Place chicken breasts in slow cooker with spices and cover with water. Cover and cook on Low for 3 – 5 hours. When chicken is fully cooked remove from water and shred with a fork. Allow chicken to cool to room temperature. Combine chicken with remaining ingredients, mixing well.

These are great on onion rolls or croissants.


Fried Green Tomato Grilled Cheese Sandwich:

Fried Green Tomatoes (click here for the recipe)
Loaf of French bread, sliced into pieces about ½ inch thick)
Sliced Provolone Cheese
Butter

Place one slice of Provolone Cheese on a piece of bread, top with tomato slice, top with a second slice of Provolone Cheese, top with second piece of bread. Butter top and bottom of sandwich; Heat a large skillet over Medium-High heat and fry sandwiches until golden brown on both sides.

So what about you? What are your favorite sandwiches? Will you be enjoying a sandwich today?

Coconut Aminos

I love soy sauce. I’ll just go ahead and put that out there. I could practically drink the stuff. I love Chinese food, in large part because they give you so many little soy sauce packets with it. I used to be the person drowning the bowl of white rice in soy sauce. I love that! I also enjoy making stir-fry at home. And of course using soy sauce. Lots of soy sauce.

However, after being diagnosed with hepatic adenomas two years ago, I decided to drastically reduce the amount of soy in my diet. (Soy can mimic estrogen, and they’re estrogen fed.) It hasn’t been easy to reduce soy. For one thing it’s in practically everything, and I love it.

I resigned myself to only very occasionally having soy sauce; usually at a dinner out for a special occasion or treat. And I completely stopped making stir-fry at home.

Then I heard about coconut aminos as a soy sauce substitute. I hadn’t found anything else that seemed like it would even come close to working as a substitute for soy sauce, so I decided to give the coconut aminos a try, and ordered a bottle from Amazon.

I tried a little plain before cooking with any. There’s no point in cooking with a sauce you can’t stand, right? I liked the flavor, so I decided to try it in place of soy sauce in a stir-fry. The stir- fry came out well, and I’ve since become a huge fan of coconut aminos.

In all honesty, the flavor isn’t just like soy sauce. It has a little more spice, and a little less salt to it. There’s also a suggestion of sweetness, but no coconut flavor. I think the spice is probably the biggest difference. You also have to refrigerate the coconut aminos once the bottle has been opened.

A bottle of coconut aminos is a bit more expensive than a bottle of soy sauce, but I consider it worth it to open so many food possibilities back up, and to avoid soy. I checked my local grocery store to see if they carried the coconut aminos, but only found soy aminos (so do be careful to read the label on any "aminos" if you’re trying to avoid soy), so I’ve been ordering it from Amazon.

So what about you? Do you like soy sauce? Have you tried coconut aminos? Have you found any other good soy sauce substitutes?

Happy Hump Day - The Jack ‘O Lantern Edition

Since Halloween is just a few days away I thought today’s Hump Day pictures should feature Jack ‘O Lanterns and other carved pumpkins. I wish I could take credit for the more interesting ones, but they’re all my friend Crystal’s handy work. She takes her pumpkin carving very seriously!

Have you carved your pumpkin yet? Do you do a traditional Jack ‘O Lantern or something else?

Points if you recognized this as being the design on the South Carolina flag!