Sweet 16

Today, I'm celebrating my 16th wedding anniversary. When I recently mentioned this to a friend, she asked me what I thought the secret to a successful marriage is. My immediate, knee-jerk response was, "Please don't ask me that." :-) But after I thought about it for a minute, I told her that I thought it really depended upon what her definition of a successful marriage is. My definition would almost assuredly be different from hers. I'm not sure what the best answer is to her question. But as of right now, this is how I would define a successful marriage:

A successful marriage is one in which God is first, and the spouse and the marriage are second. Family, children, work and everything else comes after those two things. And a successful marriage is one in which the couple has made the commitment to stay together through all the bad times, so that they can enjoy the good times together. Because when you decide to stick together through everything that challenges your marriage, pushes your marriage to the limits, and everything that takes you outside your comfort zone, it makes all of the good times so much better.

I am so happy that today I get to say, "Happy Anniversary, Hector."

I asked...

... and you delivered. I have an over-abundance of cucumbers growing in my garden this year (last week alone I picked 8 cucumbers, and they aren't small). I think that brings my total up to 36 cucumbers in the past month. And I mean, would you look at that 1 lonely, pitiful jalapeno pepper - pretty pathetic if you ask me...

Anyway, as I was saying, I may not have a whole lot of anything else growing, but I do have a lot of cucumbers. And when I ran out of ways to prepare and eat them, I asked you all for recipes. And well, you sent them to me. Thanks! So now, I'd like to share with you some of the cucumber recipes I've made over the past week.

Lemon Cucumber Water - This idea was sent to me by my friend, Sarah T. I tried it, and I liked it! Very easy and extremely refreshing on a hot summer day.

Greek Salad - This recipe was sent to me by my friend Paula W. I made this for my in-laws over the July 4th weekend, and they gobbled it up. And after they left, I made it again, all for myself to enjoy! :-) But the second time I made it, I used green olives because I was out of black, and I forgot to add the feta cheese (2nd picture below). But it was still yummy and I loved every bite of it!

Greek Salad

5 medium tomatoes

2 cucumbers

1 small red onion

18 Calamata olives

1 - 8oz. package feta cheese

Dressing:

3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

4 Tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Cut the tomatoes into wedges. Peel and seed the cucumbers and cut into chunks. Cut the red onion into slices and separate into rings. Crumble up the feta cheese. Then add everything together, including the olives. Mix the dressing and add to the salad right before serving.

Rachael Ray's Crunchy Tuna Burgers - Now then, you might be asking yourself what Tuna Burgers have to do with cucumbers. Well, the Tuna Burgers themselves don't have anything to do with cucumbers. But the Asian Hot Sweet Pickle Salad that accompanies the Tuna Burgers have a lot to do with cucumbers. These recipes were sent to me by my sister, Nina C. I will start off by telling you all that the onion rolls I bought to put the tuna burgers on had molded while sitting on my counter top - bought them on a Thursday, molded by Saturday - so I didn't use them for obvious reasons. I was not happy about that, but I pressed on and decided to serve the tuna burgers on plain wheat bread (see the picture above). The burgers and pickle salad were both delicious. And the flavors were outstanding!

Tips I'd like to offer: The tuna burger patties were very moist and crumbly. I added about 1/2 cup of bread crumbs to make them stick together better before frying them. I would also suggest putting a lid on the frying pan when you're cooking the tuna burgers. They popped and sizzled a lot in the pan (the pan I was frying the patties in did not have a lid - bad move on my part).

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You might also notice in the picture above that I made some Cucumber-Dill Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes. This idea was sent to me by my friend Stephenie R. They tasted great as a side dish with the Tuna Burgers. I really enjoyed them!

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Shrimp Ceviche - This idea was also sent to me by my sister, Nina C. I liked this recipe in particular because it recommended boiling the shrimp to kill possible bacteria before marinating the shrimp in the juices. This recipe was quite easy to make, and is also very refreshing on a hot summer day. But a word of warning to anyone with sensitive taste-buds, the Serrano pepper was pretty spicy... Good, but spicy...

Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki - One of my cousins, Shelby S., suggested that I look on the http://www.epicurious.com/ website for cucumber recipes. Great tip, Shelby! Thanks!!! Because they have 596 cucumber recipes on there. Who knew there are so many recipes with cucumbers in them? Not I... Anyway, from all of those recipes I decided to make Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki. You might be asking yourself, "What in the world is tzatziki?" Well, it's that dip that they put on Greek Gyros. I used this recipe to make the Chicken Gyros for dinner last night, and they turned out really good. I liked this recipe because it called for ingredients that I tend to always have in my kitchen (chicken, onions, olive oil...). But I didn't like the tzatziki recipe that was included with the chicken gyro recipe because it turned out frothy and watery. Not good... So I used this other recipe for the tzatziki called Cucumber Yogurt Dip. Same basic ingredients in both recipes. But the Cucumber Yogurt Dip recipe tells you how to drain all the extra liquid out of the yogurt first. That's why I prefer that recipe over the one included with the gyro recipe. Very easy and tasty, and Avery helped me prepare everything too, which made this recipe even better!

Tomato Cucumber Gazpacho - I also got this recipe from the http://www.epicurious.com/ website. It was a lot of work, and it made a ton of soup. So maybe next time I might cut the recipe in half. But Hector and I gobbled it up. I love soup, but come on, who wants to eat hot soup on a hot summer day? That's the beauty of this soup, which is served cold. I think this is quite possibly the next best thing to iced coffee. Just my opinion...

And believe it or not, I still have 5 cucumbers left and more growing in the garden. So please send me some more of your tried-and-true recipes with cucumbers in them. Next week, I'm going to try my hand at making deconstructed sushi with a recipe called California Roll Salad. I got this idea from my friend, Gina O. Can't wait to try it!

Things I've learned...

... about Maggie.

She loves going on car rides. But she seems to hate the cat...

She eats, drinks, huffs, and prances, all like a horse. Funny enough, when the gate to the back yard gets opened up, she sees that as her open invitation to plow right out of said gate, showing us that she also runs as fast as a horse.

She does not know the meanings of the words stop (as in, "STOP RUNNING, MAGGIE!") and move.

She does not like to go into her crate and she is determined to let us, and all of our neighbors, know this fact.

She knows how to sit and shake.

She also knows how to lay down.

And she seems to be really fond of flashlights.

I've also learned that she's an extremely smart, sweet and playful dog. She walks great on a leash and she even knows to slow down and look back to let me catch up (here again, she runs like a horse, I tell ya'). In the past few days we've had a few trying moments, like when she ran out the back gate and got about 5 blocks away before Hector and I caught her in the car. But she follows me around the house like Maisy used to do, so it's just been really nice having her here. I am really enjoying her company.

Website

Looking for a new furry friend to welcome into your home? Go to www.petfinder.com. This website lists all area shelters with animals waiting to be adopted. You can see pictures of the animals and select a specific breed you might be looking for, as well as a specific size, age, etc. You can even specify whether or not you want an animal that gets along with young children and other animals. This is how I found Maggie. It was very convenient and helpful!

Our New Addition

So, here's how the story goes... My brother-in-law had just gotten off of work one night, went out to his truck to head for home, and found this puppy in the bed of his truck:
The poor thing was covered in ticks. So, he brought the puppy home, and he and my sister-in-law removed all the ticks, cleaned her up, and took her to the vet the next day. And even though they found out that the puppy was healthy, they already have 3 animals in their home, so keeping the puppy was pretty much out of the question. When I saw the picture of the puppy, my heart went out to her because, well, I am an animal lover. And the thought of her going to a shelter was heartbreaking for me. So, I immediately started making plans to welcome this puppy into our family. The thing was though, that even though my heart was telling me that I really wanted the puppy, the more I began to think about it, the more I began to realize that this puppy probably was not the right dog for me and my family. And so, I very reluctantly said that I could not welcome the puppy into my family.

But here's the happy ending to this story. The puppy is going to a great home, my in-law's home. And I know that she will be cared for and loved immensely.

Still, all of this puppy talk got me thinking that maybe I was finally ready to welcome another dog into our family. So, Hector and I talked about it, and we made the decision to start looking for the right dog, the perfect dog, for our family. I spent the better part of 2 days looking online at the websites of local shelters. I had a general idea of the age, breed and size of dog that I wanted. And as I kept scrolling through page upon page of dogs in shelters waiting to be adopted, none of them were really speaking to me, saying, "I am your dog." So, I expanded my search options on the websites. Instead of listing specific breeds of dogs that I was looking for, I just said that I wanted to see all female dogs available for adoption. And so I pulled up all female dogs within a 100 mile radius, waiting to be adopted. Over 1300 dogs, all waiting in local shelters or rescue centers, all waiting to be adopted.... And out of all those dogs, I found her...

Needless to say, my jaw dropped to the floor. Because you see, the picture above is of a dog that was waiting to be adopted in a local shelter. And the picture below is of my beloved Maisy, at around the same age:

Now folks, I do not believe in reincarnation. But I did for a split second wonder if Maisy had somehow been reincarnated, because the resemblance was quite amazing. And because I do not believe in reincarnation, I will tell you what I do believe. I believe that every now and then, life seems to hold up a big, bright red arrow, as if to guide us in the right direction and point out certain things to us. When I saw that dog's picture, I saw that big, bright red arrow pointing to her, telling me, "This is the dog you are meant to have. Go get her now!" And well, that's exactly what I did.

I met the dog at the shelter and I took her into the yard to get to know her better. I tugged on her ears, I pulled her tail, and I even flipped her over on her back and rubbed her belly. She never once snapped at me or the kids, or yelped or tried to get away. She did it all with a calm, warm demeanor. She is an extremely sweet, obedient dog. All of the kids petted her and loved on her (ALL the kids!). Samuel did not want a small dog that would bark loud in a high-pitched tone and scare him, or jump up on him. He really liked this dog because she didn't do any of those things. And all Avery really wanted was a pretty dog that she could brush and pet. Needless to say, they all bonded with her immediately, and I just knew...

This dog was with her previous owners from the time she was 8 weeks old. They took her to the vet regularly, and when she was brought to the shelter, they gave the shelter staff all of her vet records. She's already spayed and micro-chipped. And she seems to be in perfect health. Her previous owners are sadly going through a divorce, and they are both moving into apartments. Neither one of them feels capable of caring for her at this point. And so, they surrendered her over to the shelter. The shelter staff told me that her "father" wept as he said goodbye to her, and begged the shelter staff to find her a good home. It might be just my opinion, but I truly believe that anyone who says, "It's just an animal, not a child." has obviously never been a real parent to a furry child. Some people simply own animals, and when they do, they miss the point and they miss out on being that pet's parent. That family gave up their furry child that day when they surrendered her to the shelter. And now we are lovingly taking her into our home, our hearts, and our family, as our furry child. And now, I will get off my soap-box and introduce you to the newest addition to our family.

Introducing Maggie Mae Acevedo

DOB: August 14, 2008

Current Weight: 39 lbs.

Current Height: Unknown

Welcomed into our family on July 9, 2010, exactly 4 months to the day that we said goodbye to our sweet Maisy. We are so hopeful that we will have many wonderful years with Maggie.