Dear Friends,
The stars are in alignment, and today I saw Patrick and Steph at lunch and Keith and Judy for dinner. I love being with them. Lots of catching up.
Before that, I spent a couple hours writing short business letters. Each started long; the work was to make them short. For those dog lovers among you, I’m including the letter to the UC vet concerning Zing. More interesting will be Dr. Karen’s response.
Also, I made a richly repeatable dessert, chocolate pots de creme (recipe below). Keith and Judy brought Thai food from The Coconut, and I was not quite sure what would go with it. Fruit, I’m afraid. So I sliced a couple of oranges and served them on a blue plate. But then, chocolate is always right. We each finished the chocolate, and left the oranges.
Love,
k
Here’s the Zing letter:
Dear Karen,
Zing and I need a recalibration. We’ve followed your regimen and now we’re at a plateau.
We’ve been in Sacramento 6 months, and I’m ready to have a normal life, but Zing is still anxious when he is home alone.
Without Clonidine he whines and barks, but not frantically, after 5 minutes alone. He was up to about 10 minutes, but it’s been less since I left him at Grateful Dog when I visited Miami. With Clonidine, he’s pretty quiet the first hour, then there’s an occasional bark or whimper. At 2 hours, barks increase. The “training” of leaving him for gradually longer times is now a game. No treat occupies him more than 5 minutes. I’ve tried them all! It takes a lot of time -- preparing the food in cardboard rolls, doing the activity, listening to the audio — not to mention the interruption of whatever routines we have developed. The training has become our routine, and it doesn’t seem to be working anymore. Being together all the time might even reinforce our mutual dependence.
Zing is fine alone in the car as I do errands, but soon it will be too hot. We walk 2 miles a day and go to the dog park on Sunday. He goes to Grateful Dog happily; he is known as a barker there, but at home he rarely barks under normal circumstances. He seems happy and makes many friends on our walks.
To give us more flexibility, what about a citronella collar? It might stop the barking and hopefully the anxiety will seep away gradually. I wanted to check with you before trying it. Maybe you have some other idea.
Thanks!
Kathleen
Chocolate Pots de Crème
Epicurious
2 C. whipping cream
1/2 C. whole milk
5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used Ghirardelli premium semisweet.)
6 large egg yolks
1/3 C. sugar
Preheat oven to 325°. Bring cream and milk just to simmer in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat. Add chocolate; whisk until melted and smooth. Whisk yolks and sugar in large bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in hot chocolate mixture. Strain mixture into another bowl. (I skipped this part and nothing bad happened.) Cool 10 minutes, skimming any foam from surface. (Missed this step.)
Divide mixture among six 3/4 C. custard cups or soufflé dishes. Place cups in large baking pan. Cover with foil. Add enough hot water to pan to come halfway up sides of cups. Bake until custards are set but centers still move slightly when gently shaken, about 55 minutes. (Mine took less -- start checking at 45 minutes.) Remove from water. Remove foil. Chill at least three hours.
I only had 3 small cups so I poured the remaining custard into a small casserole. It took a little longer to cook.
I topped these with just a dab of sweetened whipped cream. Comments on Epicurious say they are too rich to finish even one. NOT TRUE.
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