celebratory cupcake.

dress for success cupcake, originally uploaded by uncommon jasmine.

After seven long months of joblessness, and just over a month of super-fun/super-low-paying job, I finally got a “real” job. It’s a really awesome contract with a humongous international non-profit, which is basically my dream job. I still can’t believe they hired me, and I’m really excited to start!

In celebration of my new job, my husband bought me cupcakes from my favourite cupcake place. The one in the picture is called “Dress for Success.” Much better than flowers, don’t you think?

first taste of poutine.

first taste of poutine., originally uploaded by uncommon jasmine.

For a dog that’s not really into human food, she sure sits pretty for it. This photo is taken at the Beaver Tails stand in Whistler Village.  She sat very patiently on the concrete while we shared a giant portion of poutine at a stand-up table. It didn’t last long, because Greg eats super fast, and I am always paranoid that he’s stealing all of the cheese curds. We did agree to save half of a gravy coated fry for Miss Tess. Unsurprisingly, she LOVED it.

Here’s what the rest of it looked like:

Mmmmmmmmm.  This place has awesome poutine.  Real cheese curds, perfectly balanced and not-too-salty gravy, and extra crispy fries.  Nom nom nom.

i stole your spot.

i stole your spot., originally uploaded by uncommon jasmine.

Tess likes to steal your place in bed as soon as you get up to go to the bathroom, even if you intend to return. Once she’s comfortable, she’s surprisingly difficult to move for a dog that weighs 12lbs.

This picture was taken up at our family cabin at Whistler. I do not have log walls in my condo bedroom.

stolen.

stolen., originally uploaded by uncommon jasmine.

I’m impressed that she’s not trying to bite his face off after taking her bully stick away from her.  (Though she would try to later over a cow hoof.)

If you’re wondering where I’ve been lately, I got a job with a doggie daycare.  I’ve been too tired from hiking with dogs, and trying to wash off dog slobber for the last two weeks.  Tess has been much too sleepy at the end of the day for me to photograph her (the lighting is terrible in her crate, which is directly where she goes when we get home from work), so that’s why there hasn’t been a Weekly Tess in so long.  Both of us are getting into our new groove, so we’ll be back more often now…I think.

pie at the chilliwack airport coffee shop.

strawberry rhubarb pie, originally uploaded by uncommon jasmine.

I didn’t bake this. Actually, I generally don’t make fruit pies. Kinda odd, since I bake a ton of stuff, right? Well, here’s an admission: pie crust scares me. I have a sweaty-palm fear of tough, doughy, bland, dense pie crust. Because of this, I leave fruit pies for the professionals.

Greg read about the Chilliwack Airport Coffee Shop in the Georgia Straight several weeks ago, and was excited to take me there. Sure, it’s a 45-minute drive in the wrong direction from anything (unless you’re driving to the Okanagan or Toronto), but we like to take random drives to yummy food things. Alas, life interfered, and we weren’t able to find time to go after work or on weekends.

After a long-weekend in the Okanagan, we decided to try to stop by the Chilliwack Airport Coffee Shop for some pie. It coincided with reasonable lunch eating time, so we ate a meal there while we were at it. Our meals were decidedly not great — I don’t imagine that they’re supposed to be. Despite the lunching hour, 90% of the other customers were only there for pie. Mental note for next time: don’t waste your time eating normal food at this place.

Another downside of eating real food before pie? Watching the pie flavours of the day disappear from the menu board. Unfortunately, our server was the most flustered lady in the joint, and constantly forgot about us. It appeared that she was just frantically speed-walking randomly throughout the restaurant, out to the patio, then into the kitchen in some sort of random middle-aged woman circuit. This was particularly frustrating, as the pie menu dwindled down from about a dozen yummy options to about four decidedly less appealing flavours. Eventually, she did clear our plates and offered us some pie.

At this point, a miracle happened. As we’re about to order from the lackluster selection, one of the other servers adds “strawberry-rhubarb” and “peach-blueberry” to the board. We excitedly ordered one of each.

I have to say, that after the crappy meal, the shitty service, and um….interesting valley atmosphere, the pie made it worth our while. It was delicious. It was not what I expected, though. They are renowned for their pie crusts, and I had assumed it would be a sugar-topped dough. Instead, it was a super light, flaky, noticeably sweet, yellow-tinged crust without the yummy sugar top that I was looking forward to. Very interesting. I had the strawberry-rhubarb, and the filling was gorgeously chunky and sweet, but not overly so.

Overall, it wasn’t that great of an experience, but again, the pie is most definitely the star of the show. If you decide to make the trek out to the Wack for this place, make sure you don’t shit around — just order pie. It will be worth the trip.

(If you’re keeping pie score, Duarte’s in Pescadero was SO MUCH BETTER.)

be gentle with him, he’s my favourite.

be gentle with him, he’s my favourite., originally uploaded by uncommon jasmine.

Ray, my uncle’s 9-week-old puggle, is spending a week with us.  The first 12 hours or so were a bit sketchy — Tess isn’t a big fan of the little guy.  However, things have taken a turn for the better in the last few hours.  Just a little while ago, Tess made the ultimate peace offering: permission to play with loofah dog.

maple-chipotle ribs.

i love ribs., originally uploaded by uncommon jasmine.

There are few things I enjoy more than a chunk of grilled meat in the summertime.  Ribs are one of my personal favourites.  Until recently, I have lived in white-knuckle fear of tough, barely chewable, over-cooked ribs — which is why I only ate them at restaurants or at my in-laws’.  I’m happy to say that after a couple of tries, I have conquered the fear…and have even come up with a kick-ass recipe (if I do say so myself).  Fear not, rib-lovers!  If I can do it, you can too.

This recipe is a hybrid of a few recipes, with my own preferences thrown in.  I like my ribs sweet, saucy, sticky, and spicy.  If you don’t like your ribs like I do…well, I guess you can use a bottled sauce of your choosing.  I will judge you, though.

uncommonjasmine’s maple-chipotle ribs

Serves 4-6 hungry people.

For the ribs:

• 2-3 full racks of back ribs, cut into 2 or 3 bone sections (or however you prefer, as long as the pieces fit in your pot)
• 1 whole lime, cut into small wedges
• 1 tbsp of whole black peppercorns
• 1 tbsp or so of dried chipotle flakes (these are for smokiness rather than heat – if you don’t have them, you can substitute liquid smoke, or just omit it)
• 2 bay leaves

For the sauce:

• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce or Bragg
• 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (the real stuff!)
• 1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• two chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, finely chopped (you can find these in cans in the Mexican section of your grocery store)
• lots of freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp-ish coarse salt
• tbsp of lime juice

Preheat oven to 250F.

Fill a really big pot of water (big enough to hold all of the ribs), and throw in the lime, peppercorns, chipotle flakes, and bay leaves.  Bring to a rolling boil.  Plop in ribs, and boil for 10-12 minutes (up to 15 if they’re in bigger chunks).  Remove with tongs, and place on a foil lined baking sheet, meat side up.

While the ribs are boiling, make the sauce.  In a medium saucepan, saute onion and garlic on medium heat until soft and on it’s way to translucency.  Add the rest of the ingredients for the sauce except for the lime juice, and simmer together on medium-low heat for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.   Using an immersion blender, whizz the mixture until it has an even texture.  I like my barbeque sauce (and my women! snort.) a little bit on the  chunky side, but you can make it as smooth or chunky as you want.  In fact, if you don’t have an immersion blender, food processor, or stand-up blender (or if you’re feeling lazy), you can skip that step altogether.  Stir in lime juice.  Taste the sauce, and adjust for seasoning.  Reserve about half of the sauce for basting on the grill, and a bit more if you want to serve some sauce on the side.

Liberally brush the sauce on the meat side of the ribs, making sure to get all of the edges.  Cover with foil, and bake on the middle rack for about an hour and a half, or until cooked through and tender.

Preheat your grill to medium-low heat.   Grill the ribs until caramelized and yummy-looking, basting often with the reserved sauce.  (This part is Greg’s job in my house.)

Serve with some sauce on the side (if desired), and a giant pile of napkins.

ray, with bonus tess bum.

ray, with bonus tess bum. (crop), originally uploaded by uncommon jasmine.

Today’s Weekly Tess has a guest star: 7 week old Puggle, Ray. Ray isn’t Tessie’s new brother — he belongs to my Uncle Chris.

I took this photo last week during their first meeting. Ray was a bit overwhelmed by Tessie’s jumping/sniffing/playfulness, but as the visit went on, he became more and more interested in her. He’s got all of the best puppy qualities: clumsy, curious, cuddly, mischievous (better when it’s not your puppy), and super, super cute. He kept jumping up and crawling all over Greg and I.

We’re hoping to doggie-sit Ray while my uncle goes away on business next week. If so, there will be more pictures in the near future!

not your average baked goods.

pupcake and doggie cookies, originally uploaded by uncommon jasmine.

Those look good, don’t they?  Unfortunately, they probably have liver or something equally gross in them.  Blech.

Today is Tess’ 2nd birthday. To celebrate, I took her to her regular dog food store (Bosley’s, if you’re wondering) and bought a replacement dinosaur bum. Her old one went in the garbage this morning, thanks to a big crack in the middle (heh, bum crack…snort). If you’re keeping score, that’s two favourite toys in the garbage in 24 hours. Anyway….

A lady at the store asked me if I’d bought a cake for Tess’ birthday. Well, no. Hadn’t thought of it, but now I kinda feel like a total fake-obsessive dog mom. What kind of crazy person doesn’t buy a cake for her dog? So I decided to stop by Three Dog Bakery and pick up a few things.

I’ve seen a few locations around, but have never gone in. When I walked in, the smell of vanilla and graham crackers made me hungry. A lovely little Sheltie named Radar came by to say hello while Tess yanked anxiously on the leash. I browsed the random (and plentiful) doggie non-edibles: fancy leashes, toys, random accessories. They even have a doggie massage section!

The main event, though, is the bakery counter. It looks and smells just like a human bakery. It was really hard to decide what to get. They had a huge variety of cookies and cakes. Eventually, I settled on the pupcake and these fake-chocolate cookies (I can’t remember their punny name).

Here’s a close up of the cupcake:

And here’s a wide shot, with Tess’ new poop tart toy (also bought at the bakery):

In case you’re wondering: no, I didn’t take a picture of Tess eating her treats.  For one, she didn’t get to eat them all (just the pupcake and one cookie for today).  Secondly, she’s such a non-dog that we have to break all of her food into bite-sized pieces.  Seriously.  If we don’t, she just carries it around like a toy and licks it.  (Which, of course, is exactly what she did with the cookie when I first gave it to her.  Anyone know how to remove a mockolate stain?)  The result is a very un-fun looking photo situation.  Crumbs in a dog bowl don’t really do the awesome baker craftiness justice.  You’ll just have to believe me when I say that my super-picky dog gobbled the cookie and pupcake up like someone was trying to take it away from her.

chorizo chipotle benny.

chorizo chipotle benny, originally uploaded by uncommon jasmine.

I’m not a morning person. It’s almost physically painful for me to have to wake up before 8:30am unless I’m doing something seriously fun, like flying to Paris or something. However, my favourite meal of the day is breakfast, hands down. If it wasn’t for brunch, late sleepers like me would miss out on the most potentially-delicious meal of the day. Egads!

This morning, I woke up early — and in a confused, “why-the-heck-am-I-up-so-early” state, blurrily threw an English muffin in the toaster and slapped some peanut butter and honey on it. Afterward, I realized the potentially awesome meal I’d missed out on. I have some awesome caprese salami in the fridge! I also have eggs (well, duh), brie, cheddar, monterey jack, and chili-garlic mayo. Any combo of those would have made a seriously kick-ass benny.

Oh well. At least I’m not hungry anymore.

The above photo was taken one morning when I woke up at a more normal time, and had some chorizo and chipotle mayo on hand. It was crrrrrrazy delicious.