Roxies Recovery 4- 12 days post Heart Worm Treatment

Everything has been going well since the last update. I talked to the vet on the 27th when she was still coughing a good amount. She said she would like to do some X-rays of her chest to see if anything has changed or if there was a new problem. Luckily the next days and everyday sinc she has been doing really well. Today was her best day yet. She only really had one coughing set today and it was more like she was clearing her throat than coughing. So everything has been looking up. Last week I gave her 2 benedryle a day for a few days so she could rest and recover quicker and I think that was a good call considering she is doing so great now. But I am still on watch. Since her shots she has not been alone either John and I have been with her 24/7. And that will continue atleast for the next 4 to 6 weeks. Depending on how she reacts to her pills. Maybe a little longer it depends when I feel safe leaving her alone.

She has also been eating really well. I think she might have gained some weight. Now she wants to eat everything. She also eats 3 times a day now plus all the treats she can get her paws on and those she can only reach with her nose to knock off.

I am still praying everything is going to keep going smooth.

Roxies Recovery 3- 7 days post Heart Worm Treatment

I have been keeping everything pretty updated on her recovery from Heartworm Treatment. Probably just to kinda try to let out the stress I am feeling. And maybe to let someone else out there know what it is like to deal with a dog during heartworm treatment and the scariness of the situation.

We are one week Post treatment and I am still worried and can't keep many of my thoughts straight. I get that way when I am stressed beyond boundaries which doesn't happen very often. Last time I remember being this stressed like this is when my husband was deployed to Iraq for 18 months and when some of our other furbabies have had surgery or a severe medical issue. So maybe 4 times in the last 5 or 6 years. So my thoughts are not all together at this moment. And I am actually sitting here waiting for one of our vets to call right now about Roxie cough.

So lets recap.

• Last Monday Morning Rox had her first shot. Did well throughout the night.
• Tuesday she had her 2nd shot. She also did well this night and the next day.
• Wed she stayed till 3pm and then we picked her up. She was happy to come home and almost at like her normal self. If you didn't know she had the treatment you would have just thought she was a little tired.
• Thursday she was tired. She laid on the couch all day and just spent time with us. She didn't run around all though she got kinda excited twice but we were able to calm her down w/o any coughing. That night I didn't sleep because I wanted to stay up and watch her all night. I stayed up till 6:30am and my husband was supposed to get up at 7:30 so I fell to sleep. Also I had finally realized that they didn't send any Pred home with her and although she wasn't showing any symptoms I was wanting that as a precaution to stop lung inflammation before it happened.
• Friday I called to ask why they didn't put her on Pred at home and asked if they could. They said "no" they don't generally do that with stage one heart warm disease. I told them she had coughed a little on Friday and even though I though she needed it they didn't so they dismissed my thoughts. errr. I hate it when people do that. She coughed 4 times that day. A dry hack once every so often like when she would drink or eat. Stayed up with her most this night too.
• Saturday she was coughing a little more. I was worried but I was trying to believe what they had told me and not worry about the light cough she did her. It was a dry hack still until later that evening and it was more like a productive sounding cough but nothing was being hacked up. She laid around more lethargic this day and by evening she was shivering on and off. She really didn't do much then sleep even though I would let her out of her kennel. She would just kinda plop down and sleep.
• Sunday morning. Johns first day back to work I am woke up by the neighbors dog making my dogs freakout because he got lose. She was shivering pretty good and I realised that sometimes you shiver from having a fever. So I take my poor spongebob thermometer and insert it were it needed to be inserted. And he temp was at 104.3F at 9:30am. I knew normally temp was 100-102F so I called out our E-vet and they told me I should bring her in. I decided to wait and see if it would go down. about an hour later it was at 103.9F than an hour after that it was at 104.9F. So I decided to run her into the E-vet. she still has a cough. I was afraid to take her in because she gets excited in the car. I didn't want to stir up any HW's to go to her lungs and cause an embolism. But I had no choice but to take her. We got to the vet her temp was back at 104.0F. She said it was probably do to lung inflammation or pain. Which I had already pretty much known. So she gave her a Dexamethasone (Pred) shot and a Torbugesic shot. She also sent her home with an Antibitoc called Doxycycline which I had also read about online. It is supposed to treat the bacteria that live with the Heartworms. It is in the newer protocol for HW treatment. Plus Prednisone for the next month. She also told me to give her some Pepcid AD for her tummy every twelve hours to see if we could get her to eat some. She also told me at stage one she was not having such a great reaction and should be watched closely. The inflammation isn't a good sign at all. If she can't breath because she has an embili the prognosis isn't good at all and most dogs will not make it. We would only have a few minutes to get her to the Vet.So now I am really worried. That thought keeps playing over and over again in my brain. I kinda figured that but she really made it clear. She gave her enough Tor to let her get some rest that evening. There was no coughing and when she woke up at 7pm she no longer had a fever. It was at 101.3. Her gums were nice and pink she had a great cap response and she just over all felt better and you could tell. But she still slept good for the rest of the night.
• Monday She did a little coughing. You could tell she felt so much better. Her temp was still in the normal range at 101.8F. She wanted to play with the other dogs and with us but I had to keep putting her back into her kennel to keep her calm. She was feeling really good and even ate about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of food. But you can tell she is coughing a little more.
• Tuesday the coughing kinda changes a little each day becoming more and more. Used to it would only be when she was excited. Now its almost every time she drinks and eats. She is feeling good today though and is protesting her kennel stay. She ate about 3/4 cup of food before her Pred pill this morning which is good. She will no longer listen when I say "In" and point at her kennel. I actually have to push her into it. She pircks up at any sound and really just wants to be a dog. But her coughing today is getting more frequent. Today make day 7. So we have three weeks worth of recovery to do from just the shots. This cough is nerve racking and I really want to speak with out vet. I really wish I would have pushed the 3 shot method more. So it would have been a slow kill for the HW. But everyone tells me she should be fine. Should be isn't necessarily is and every dog isn't alike. I just really want her recovery to go smooth past this point. She has been kenneled more for the last two days than the first few since she is feeling more active. But she sits there and cries, claws, whines, and digs at her bed trying to destroy it. She makes me feel awful. But I know it is for her own good. I am thinking about asking the vet for something to keep her calmer. Wish the vet would call me back.

Please everyone Heartworm prevention is the key here. Mosquito's are every where and it only takes one bite from an infected mosquito to give your dog HW's. A heart worm test is relatively inexpensive ( our was $26.50) and HW preventative (6 months around $40 or 12 months for $65.00 prices very depending on size of dog)are too. The south has a huge population of HW infected dogs and mosquito's. Normal count for HW load here is 8 to 10 per dog the southern states have a range of 50 to 80Worms per dog. Please even if a shelter said the dog has been tested have your dog retested in a couple months to make sure there really is no HWs. It can save your dogs life. Please have your dogs tested and put on prevention. HW treatment can be costly. Right now we are at (Test cost) 26.50+(x-rays and blod work)$250.00+ ( treatment cost included 2 Viles of Immiticide, exam, hospital stay, Pred Inj and Benadryl inj) $480.00+ (E-vet visit included emergency fee, exam, Pred inj, Tor inj, Doxy pills, Pred pills) $177.oo. So in total right now her treatment cost is at $933.50. I would give our babies the world. Finding money is an issue but I would do almost anything to keep them safe, happy, and healthy. Our financial situation isn't great. It isn't even good right now but the money is the least of my worries when my baby is sick. This could cost alot more than just money it could cost a dog her life. So please take that into consideration when you have a dog or cat. This is a very serious issue.

Iam Prescription Cat food recall!

Click for Recall info

Roxies Recovery 2- A trip to the E-Vet

Well we had a little snag over the week end. Saturday evening Rox started shivering and feeling lethargic. Sunday morning I wake up to the neighbors dog was running through our back yard barking at our chickens and stirring up all the dog including Rox who isn't supposed to be stirred up and excited. So that pissed me off bright and early. So I went and caught the dog and returned it to its tie out next door. Came back and and made sure Rox wasn't coughing any more. She was laying in her kennel shivering and very nor herself. So I finally decided to take her temperature. It was 104.3F. Normal range for a dog was 100 to 102. I called the E-vet to see what they said. She told me to bring her in. But I decided to watch her and see if her temp came down. Every 30 minutes all morning I checked it. It came down to 103.9 than went way up to 104.9. So I finally decided when the bulk of the storms we were having left I would take her.



The E-vet was really nice. I have never met her before but she was really knowledgeable and actually set Rox up with everything that I originally wanted her to have as a precautionary measure. She agreed with me that the fever was probably inflammation in her lungs. So she gave her a Pred shot for the inflammation and a Tor shot just in case she was in pain. She also gave us a prescription for Pred and Doxy antibiotics. And told me to give her Pepcid AD for her belly to see if we could get her to eat some. It all went very well. Till we left.

This is Rox at the E-Vet

We leave and about 10 minutes down the road she starts drooling. and its not a regular drooling it is a slimy there is no end soaking the seat tipe of drooling. So I called and ask and they said with one of the meds that is normal. So I keep coming home and she keep getting worse and worse. Her gums are pink but getting a little white and I keep stopping the car to check on her. I was totally freaked out thinking she might be passing away. The vet said if she would have an embolism that I really wouldn't have enough time to make it back to the vet. So I wasn't sure what to do. I decided maybe it was just the meds and the heat so I decided to rush home to take her out of the heat and let her rest. By the time I got home she was falling over and kinda whining and falling asleep. I come inside and she walks right into her kennel and goes to sleep. As soon as she laid down and went to sleep her breeding was normal again. She wasn't breathing in the short panting motions. Her gums got pink and her Cap reflex was back to normal. So I finally calm down a little sit down and look up the Pain Med (Tor) which I figures could probably make her sleepy. I found that it can be a sedative for a dog. So I called the E-Vet just to make sure and she said she had given her a little extra to knock her out for the evening. So she would have time to rest. So after all my freaking out I guess I did make the right decision to bring her home. She rested till around 7pm when John got home and she wanted to see him so we let her out for a few minutes to visit. Her Temp was back to normal at 101.3 and only went up to 101.8 right before we went to bed. But she slept well all night. She was very comfortable all evening and night and that was nice.



Today she is doing good. She has been sleeping and being good most of the day. Not because she wants to like yesterday when she had a fever. But because she is locked in her kennel or sleeping beside me on the couch because she isn't aloud to do anything else. She still isn't eating and her only peed once today. That worries me a little. But hopefully after her tummy meds kick in her belly will feel much better. I am really glad I took her yesterday. She is doing better today. The vet said her lungs and chest sounded good and she doesn't have a fever today so I am sure she is doing alot better.



So now it is just wait and see now. Its still going to be a very long three weeks till the next vet appointment for her HW prevention pills to start. They will keep her the whole day while the Mircro HW's are killed. Then another month of worry. But I am praying that everything will go smooth now. Ii will write another update later.



Please Prey for our Roxie.

Roxie's Recovery 1

Well Roxie has been home from the vet since Wed. It has been a long few days of worrying. But I am glad she is home and from what I can tell she is doing pretty good. She has coughed a few times on Friday and a few more times on Saturday which was scary but she quickly recovered and didn't act like it was anything that she really had to recover from. She would act like everything was fine afterwards and go about her business. We have not been keeping her totally confined. But she has been taking it easy and sleeping alot on the couch and in the recliner. Some vets told me to keep her totally confined the one that I seen before she came home Wed told me to have her be a normal lazy dog. No excitement but she could be out to walk around and be a comfortable lazy dog. Even though I originally wanted to keep her totally crated. I feel she might be a little safer if we did. But she gets worked up and I don't want her to be depressed during her recovery so she is on her lazy dog schedule. Which in some ways works out well. We let her sleep with us at night. But I don't always sleep at night. I normally start sleeping after John heads to work or a few hours later. So she stays in bed till I get up with no excitement because all the dogs stay in bed till I get up. So Rox stays in bed all night and half the next day. When I do get up I make them food and put her in her kennel to eat and calm down from the burst of energy she has in the morning. Once I see she has totally calmed down I let her out. If I see any kind of excitement we say "in" and she heads into her kennel to lay down. For the time being she is using puppy pads in the house because she gets extremely excited when she knows she is going outside. We have also locked the back porch doggy door because when they hear something outside they normally go running to see what it is. With it closed Roxie doesn't even attempt to run back there. I also hung a sign on the from door that says "Please do not knock on door or talk loudly in front of house. Please call to get ahold of me" It has our numbers and my mothers info find her. So I think most of the issues we have worked out. The only issue left is when john comes home from work and she normally goes crazy. He was off from work all week for me this week and now her is going back tomorrow. Something new thrown at us but I knew it was coming. I really hope recovery goes well. Rox Pibs is such a wonderful dog and I cant wait till she can play and be her pibble self once again.

At the vet

Treament area

First day home from the vet

Car ride home

Picture to pot soon its on my cell.

The garden is producing- slowly...

The cucumber plants are really pretty and doing great right now. Think I will plant double next year so I can make lots of pickles.  :)

Cucumbers are coming along nice. 

Lots of  Cucs

Yummy fresh Cucumbers

Only a couple Bell peppers. but they are doing better this year than any other year I have planted them.

There are tons of Serronos 

More green

Love the heirloom toms. Wish I wrote down which plants were which...

Lots of green tomatoes

Looks so pretty from above. But had a hole in it and was split.

First Red one of the year and of course it splits and has a huge bug hole. Chickens will love it.

Some kind of animal is making a path through the Zuc plants. So they are dieing off now. We ended up with 6 or 7 before they totally died off.

A small curved Zuc

The Zucs are producing still

Of course the chickens got the first Red tomato of the season... since it had a nice big bug hole in it...

Heart worm Positive

Two words you never want to hear together. Unfortunately Friday I was given the news that our Roxie has Heart worm disease.

When we had her transported up here she was given a clean bill of health. She was suppose to be tested for heart worms and my paperwork said she was negative. I thought about having her rechecked but everyone thought it would be redundant so I didn't.

Fast forward 8 months... I got a weird feeling last week that all the dogs needed tested. It bugged me till I had it done Friday. I was dreading the results but really thought everyone would come out clean. I knew when I seen our vet come from her office that it was bad news. She took me to a patient room and asked a couple question. She knew she had come from South Carolina and that it had been at the end of last year. She asked if I was sure they had done a test because the worms had already started producing babies. Which means she has had them for at least 7 to 9 months. The chance of her getting heartworm here would be really low considering the stage they are at. She came her in the winter so that lowers the chances even more.

She told me blood work and chest x-rays needed done before her treatment would start. She told me that the "medication" used for the treatment was in short supply and to call the Vet Hospital immedietly to see if they had the meds to treat her. They did. So I asked our vet to do the blood work and x-rays even though the other vet wasn't going to do them. I feel safer knowing how her blood work looks for kidney and liver function and X-rays for heart enlargment. The blood work came back pretty good. Her glucose was really low, her liver and kidneys are looking good right now. They will take the brunt of the meds because they cycle the meds out of the system. The white blood cell count is really high at 16.6. There were no Bands indicating that she has had heartworms for a while. If it was a new infection should would still have bands in her counts. Her Neutrophils and Eosinophils are also high. But as an over all look she said it looked pretty good. Her chest X-ray showed a small enlargement to the right side of her heart and one of the arteries was enlarged. Both from the extra work to get around the heart worms.

This is extremely hard for our family to deal with and I am sure she can feel our sadness right now.

But our family vet keeps assuring me that this has been caught early and she is a great candidate for the treatment. She has good liver and kidney function, she is only 2 years old, she shows minimal damage to her heart, she has no outwards signs or symptoms, and she said that she wouldn't at this point even consider her even a stage one. Which all sounds good on paper and even spoken but to think about the method used to kill the heart worms and what can happen after the heart worms die is really truly terrifying.

My heart is broken and the only thing that will make it whole again is our Roxie coming home safe and sound to recover and become a healthy strong dog once again. She will be going through something that is painful, scary, and something that could have been prevented. She is an awesome dog and I can't stand the thought of her going through this. But this is the only thing that can save her life. So please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Isis has hatched her first Surviving baby!!!

I went out today to check on her and to my surprise I found her hoovering over a hatched banti egg that she has been laying on for I guess 21 days! This is our first baby that has made it past hatching and I am super excited to watch him or her grow! Lets hope that he/she turns out to be a hen... If not I will love him anyways... Just at a distance because the roosters are something else... They are not the nicest animals to hang around... But we are excited to have a baby. And I am happy that Isis gets to be a mama because she has laid on many clutches but this is the first to have a baby. I am sure she will be a great Mama!

Isis egg hatched but the baby past

Isis has been broody for a long while now. One of her eggs finally hatched but between that time and the time I found it it had already passed. This chick was big. Fully formed. I don't know exactly why it died but I am guessing it was just to week after breaking through the shell or that it was hurt by Isis or one of the other chickens. He wasn't dried off. He was still laying in part of his shell.
I was hoping she would atleast have one baby from all her effort. She has been laying for atleast 2 months. She has laid on several clutches. But the other chickens seem to destroy her efforts.

Amys Vegan Spinach & Cheese Pizza & Vegan Mac & Cheese & Soy Dream Butter Pecan Reviews

We have been trying some new vegan products and I am happy to report they are all on the good side. I have been looking for the two Amy's products for sometime and one of our Krogers have finally gotten them in. I hope they keep getting them!

Amys Vegan / Gluten Free Spinach and cheese pizza

This was my least fave of the three new products. I have been craving pizza like crazy and so we paid $8 dollars for this single serve pizza that we split between the two of us. It is big enough to split. Even have 4 servings. It reminds me of one of those 99 cent cheese pizzas you would by at walmart... So it was annoying to pay so much for it. But to get a vegan options I decided it was worth it.

It cooked up quickly. The cheese melts with the broiler. And it really melted nicely even though there was very little vegan cheese on top of the sauce. There is a vegan ricotta on the crust as well and I am assuming that was the texture that I really wasn't happy with. It might have been a mix or the rice flour crust and the vegan ricotta. The red sauce on the pizza is nice. I am normally really picky when it comes to pizza sauce and when I wasn't vegan I didn't eat those little cheap pizzas because the sauce was gross. But this sauce wasn't bad at all. The crust cooked up nicely and tasted good. I would have still preferred the texture of a regular flour crust. But i do understand why they have made it with rice flour.

I really want to try their plain cheese vegan pizza. That is next on my list. High hopes for that one.

For Amy's Vegan Spinach Pizza I give it a 6.5 out of 10. For Taster, Texture, Price.


Next is Amy's Vegan Mac & Cheese!!!!

This one I have been looking and looking for. I was so excited to try this. I really haven't liked any of the soy mac and cheese options available. So I picked up two of these at $3.79 for a single serve microwave/oven tray. I didn't know that they were made with daiya till I checked the ingredients list. so this was our first experience with any daiya products.

I chose to cook it in the oven. It came out gooey and creamy. My first taste I was surprised how tangy the cheese was. It like a very sharp cheddar. It was really good. it will take me a while to get used to the sharpness. But the texture of the pasta is perfect and the cheese texture is really nice too. It is a very "stuck together" type of cheese but it works well.

I ate about half of it before I decided I wanted to try it with chips because I have also missed nachos. It worked really well with the chips too. Plus the extra salt from the chips worked with the cheese. So it would be great for a quick fix nacho craving!

So many rating is 8.99 out of 10 as a product whole. As a Vegan Mac and Cheese it definitely rates a 10 out of 10! :) All smiles from us!!! Great product!

Last product review for now is Soy Dreams Butter Pecan.

I have been craving butter pecan ice cream like there is no tomorrow. But the last time I tried a soy version it was Purely Decadent's Praline Pecan.. And I really didn't like it. But Soy Dream Butter Pecan is everything you would want in a butter pecan ice cream. Its creamy and tastes just like the original cows milk ice cream I grew up with. I am in love with this ice cream. It is my new Vegan Ice cream favorite! But it is about 3.98 a pint.... I wish it came in a bigger container. But I will take what I can get!

Rating 11 out of 10... and so many more!!! I can't wait to get my next pint!

I told John this would be the perfect treat to sneak into a movie with us! So next time we go to a movie in Mo-town... The ice cream is coming with us... Theaters need to get some vegan treats! and if they don't.. well than I'm taking in my own! :)

Back up and running

Well last night I was finally able to get the computer back up and running. So glad I didn't have to buy a new one or pay to have it fixed. Ran a couple scans. It ended up being the disk error scan that fixed it. Took the scan 2 hours to run. The computer hasn't worked this good in a while. So I must have had a few. At the beginning of all this mess Flock wouldn't open my aol email and I would have to go with the Internet Explorer just to open it. But even when the computer was still acting stupid some how it was fixed. Even Nortons got fixed yesterday! So everything is good now. I have been running updates all night trying to get everything up to date. I am just so happy it is fixed!

Update: Computer is still being Evil... Might be killing over... Still runs ever so often. But... I am running low on hope....

4th July Baking on July 2nd

This year I spent the 2nd of July grocery shopping and baking. Our town held our 4th of July celebration on the 3rd because the 4th was on a Sunday. Other towns around us held theirs on the 4th but our town has always held early if it fell on Sunday. So Shopping and baking were the days events.

My list for the day was....

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Rhubarb Bread
Apple Bread
Chocolate cupcakes w/ strawberry icing and chocolate covered strawberries
Chocolate cupcakes w/ peanut butter icing, drizzled in chocolate w/ a blueberry
Chocolate Chip cookies
Mocha Cookies
Donuts
Hot dog Sauce
.. I think that was all...


Vegan Pie Crust<~~~ Click Started by making some quick pie crust to stick in the fridge and get cold. It only has 4 ingredients and turns out really nice and flaky. It came from the Vegfamily website. It would be great on sweet or savory pies. It calls for Margarine, salt, flour, and water. But for sweet pies you could add a small amount of sugar. But I thought it was perfect the way it was. I am going to make a veggie pot pie later this week and I am going to us this pie crust for a third time.

Vegan Cupcakes<~~~click, scroll down to find recipe Next we went with my favorite chocolate cake recipe from The Joy of Vegan baking. I went ahead and used it for cupcakes.It said it made like 8 cupcakes but I got 12 out of each batter. I could have probably made 18 cupcakes that just reached the top of the cupcake papers. Which I wish I would have thought of when I was putting it in the papers. The end product would have looked nicer. But all of the cupcakes turned out very pretty. I was pleased with them.

Peanut Butter Icing & Strawberry Icing

I had so many things to do that day I am sad to admit I used store bought icing. I took two containers of white vegan store bought icing and added natural peanut butter to it. I only needed one can but I add to much peanut butter to it and it was to thick to squeeze out through the icing tip. So I had to take it back out and add a whole can of icing to thin it out. It is very simple to make just dont add to much peanut butter. :) add and mix till it has a nice powder sugar peanut butter taste. You can use homemade icing too. I would have much preferred this. But like I said I had to much going on. After I icinged the cupcakes I drizzled melted chocolate on them and then plopped a nice pretty Blueberry right in the middle. Nice and pretty.

The strawberry icing was also a store bought vegan icing. They turned out pretty and the kids loved them. But the icing was definitely artificially flavored. I would have much rather made my own and added real strawberry. Next time I will not buy this stuff. I plopped chocolate covered strawberries right on top which made them look gorgeous.

Chocolate Chip <~~ recipe and Mocha Stripes <~~book page
The chocolate chip cookies and Mocha stripes were the two favorites of the day. One of my friends even said the chocolate chip cookies were better than her mothers non vegan cookies. She also loved the mocha stripes and said she wanted the recipe. She is in the list of people now who have asked for vegan cookie recipes after trying these awesome cookies. The Joy of Vegan baking is always my choice for chocolate chip cookies. They always turn out great and I have never had a problem with cooking them. I also really like Isa's recipe on post punk kitchen and I made it for a long time. But then they started not turning out right. I am not sure why. But they would just get totally runny. So I now use the Joy of vegan baking.

The mocha stripes everyone seems to love.... Except my mother... They are from The 100 best vegan baking recipes. They are so yummy! try them.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie<~~~ click for recipe Strawberry Rhubarb Pie again. I just made one of these a couple weeks ago. But they are so yummy I thought why not... But what I didn't know was people either love rhubarb of hate it... I'm not sure why and I didn't know that till the 3rd when every one was staying away from all things rhubarb... that is so sad. So I guess next year I am skipping anything with rhubarb.

Rhubarb resistance!
I have noticed the more I cook for people and its normally baking... People do not like to try new things... They are like totally against it. I do have my mother who really doesn't like trying new foods but she will normally suck it up and try whatever it is I make. I think she is afraid of hurting my feelings... Or maybe its because I fallow her around like... Mom, mom, mom, try it,. Its good, mom , mom, mom, please... so.. who knows. but I am glad she almost always tries what I fix. I normally don't have her try things I know she wont like though. But people grow up and try something new. the next time I hear someone gripping at their child because they won't try something and I have offered them something that they wouldn't try...it is on.... ! :) No matter what recipe I use the pie as always turned out great.

Rhubarb Bread<~~~click for recipe The one new thing I have fixed this week was Rhubarb Bread. I had decided if we have so much rhubarb that I need to find something more than pie to make with it. I had been looking fir a recipe so in comes the rhubarb bread recipe I saw in the new Animal Times magazine. I was having an issue that I didn't have any silken tofu though. So I went online to find a recipe and printed out Aunt Yvonne's Rhubarb Bread on vegcooking.com. Also needing tofu... So I just used a firm silken tofu and it seemed to work just fine. But what I didn't realize was it was the same exact recipe... So find either or they both work out great. I didn't use pecans though. I used what I had and that was walnuts and they worked out great. My mother, my neighbor, my husband and I are the only people who really tried it. John was the only one who knows it had tofu in it. I choice to leave that part out. But our neighbors daughters who I grew up with didn't like it. Their mother said I should have just given it to them and not told them what it was and they would have liked it. lol. They said they don't like rhubarb... I noticed none of our guests tried it either.... scardy cats!!!! It reminds me of a zucchini bread recipe. Just with rhubarb and nuts. It was sweet and moist. The rhubarb gave it a slight tang and then the nutty flavor of the walnuts added to the altogether yummy experience. I am glad I didn't skip the nuts like I normally do. Thought I took a picture. But I guess I didn't so here is a picture of it back in the back upper left corner.

Donuts
These were the bane of my existence. I tried two recipes and not one turned out tasting like a donut. But I did like the one recipe as a sweet bread... so I guess it wasn't all a failure.

Ifood.tv vegan donuts that you fry. They reminded me a little of funnel cake because of the sweetness. But they were really oil soaked and I just didn't like them.

Next was Veganverve's Baked donuts the revised edition. This recipe worked great as a sweet dinner role. But I didn't like it as a donut. My dad really like these and said they would work as donuts and really wanted me to try everything possible to get them to work. but at the end I decided to mix some Cinnamon and smart balance light and use them as roles. I will use this recipe again as a role. I might even try them with melted chocolate to see if they can pull through to a donut... But I doubt it.

Next time I will be trying Vegan yum yums Mini baked donut which I didn't get to that night.

Hot dog sauce or Sloppy Joes <~~~ recipe to come soon I make hot dog sauce one time a year normally. I don't know why. I just don't normally make it. I didn't even start eating hot dog sauce till after I became a vegetarian many years ago. I almost always use the same recipe from one of my mothers cookbooks. It always turns out great even with substitutions. I even use it as a sloppy joe recipe and it is so yummy. Reminds me kinda of Manwhich. I made this really quick on the 3rd of July morning right before going to my moms. It quick to through together and than it just cooks till your ready for it.

And I never got around to making the Apple bread. I lost the recipe and ran out of time... oops. must not have been meant to be...

Computer Problems

Our computer has been having problems. It wasn't starting right. I would have to start it like 16 times for it to restore and start. As of yesterday I it has stopped restoring and will not even turn on. So till it gets fixed, we hook up the old one, or buy a new one... I can't blog. So sad... But I do have alot of pictures of food and our 4th of July celebration.

O yeah. Our little rooster is learning how to crow. He is so funny. Definitely a rooster. Think his name will be Prince Charming.

Our snake came back. Not sure if he is still there but every so often I walk out and see him laying sunning on our wood pile.

We actually have two rats out near the chicken coop. We are afraid to move them because they could have babies. But I haven't seen them in a couple days so hopefully they left.. yeah right.... But I will have to trap them sooner or later. Maybe next weekend. I will have to check the storage shed for babies.