J5’s Blog

Forget all that sci-fi mumbo jumbo and papers on University Professors injecting themselves with microchips.  The future is now and for years they have been implanting tracking chips in pets to aid in recovery if they ever got lost.  Never mind that I a bit jealous that my dog got the bionic treatment before I could have some sort of electronic enhancements embedded in me, not that I would want a tracking device under my skin.  And, no, it isn’t because I am a cruel task master or that I have an ugly mug which makes me afraid of Ty running away.

Ty has actually been great on the long leash though he does get distracted and run ahead sometimes.  In my driveway I can leave the gate open and let the leash hang free, confident he will listen to all my commands and not bolt when he had an opportunity.  Outside the gates he is a bit less disciplined as sensory overload tends to win over his short attention span.  Hot dogs do have the power to eventually bring him back though.  Right now I am trying to train him to eventually be able to walk off leash.  If he walks ahead he doesn’t go that far before he circles back to check that I am still there and when he is by my side (usually begging for treats) he will stop when I stop and turn when I turn.  All of this are good signs but I still need to train him to stay by my side unless I release him to run around.

Because I wanted to have confidence to drop the leash while training him I wanted him to be chipped.  I didn’t want to confuse him or make him nervous by being myself being nervous when letting go of the leash.  I brought him to the vet and lo and behold, he already had a 24 Hour Pet Watch chip in him which saved me some dough.  Actually the vet didn’t know which company Ty’s chip was from so I ended up cold calling one of the companies whose tech person was more than happy to take the serial number and tell me it was a 24 Hour Pet Watch chip.  I signed up on the web site and now Ty is good to go.  For further insurance I also bought a dog tag which has the number of the company along with the serial number engraved on it.

This is all leading up to a fall camping trip I am trying to put together where I am going to allow Ty to hike with just a light clothes line attached so he feels like he is off leash.  If he does well eventually he will be able to walk in the numerous off leash dog parks in the city, including Russell field right behind my apartment and that would be trey cool.

I threw together this dish a couple of days ago after sneaking out on Ty to go to the pet store and supermarket. I knew I wanted to make a mushroom cream sauce and when I passed by the Tilapia on sale at Whole Foods I thought it would be perfect. As all seafood needs some sort of acid to bring out the flavours, and since citric always works well, I was going to pick up a lemon when I remembered I had unused oranges at home. That would prove to be a great choice for this dish. I also chose string beans as a side because they are easy and are 99 cents a pound around here.  Warning, I love cream and butter (I cook mostly French style) so you can reduce and substitute to make the dish healthier but in reality when fresh, non-processed ingredients are used, health is more about portions than any one component.

Ingredients

Sauce:

• 2 cups of baby bella (cremini) mushrooms sliced
• 1/4 cups of onions diced
• 1 clove of garlic diced
• 2Tbsp. butter
• 1/4 cup of white wine
• 1/2 pint of heavy cream
• 1 bay leaf
• 1tsp. powdered cayenne pepper (adjust to taste)
• salt and pepper to taste

Side:

• olive oil (enough to coat beans)
• handful of string beans per serving
• a clove or two of garlic sliced
• salt and pepper liberally

Main:

• olive oil  (coat bottom of pan)
• 1 tilapia fillet per serving
• 1/2 orange per fillet (juice and zest)
• a small sprig of fresh rosemary (reserve some for garnish)
• fresh parsley for garnish
• salt and pepper liberally

Instructions

Prepare the fish by marinading the fillets in fresh squeezed orange juice and dusting the sides with salt, pepper,  shaved zest from the orange rind and rosemary leaves.  Set aside.  Make sure not to leave it marinading too long (5-10 minutes is good) as we are not making cevice and don’t want the acid to cook the fish.

Start the sauce by sautéing the onions in a small pot with 1Tbsp. of butter.  Add a pinch of salt.  After a few minutes add the rest of the butter and the mushrooms and some pepper.  Sauté until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms soft.   Add the garlic towards the end of the sautéing process being careful not to burn them. Next add the wine and boil off the alcohol.  Finally stir in the rest of the ingredients and adjust the seasoning.  Let the sauce reduce and thicken on the stove.

Next start on the string beans.  In a bowl coat them with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Drop into a hot pan and sauté them until cooked but still crunchy.  Getting a sear on one side of the beans will enhance the texture and flavour.  At the last minute add the garlic slivers.  Put this mixture in tin foil to keep them warm.

In the same pan, wiped with a clean dish towel, put enough olive oil to coat the bottom.  Make sure the oil is hot and place the tilapia fillet in the pan.  Cook until the fish becomes flaky and delicate (3-6 minutes per side).

On a plate place the string beans to one side and the tilapia on the other.  Top the tilapia with the sauce making sure to include a heaping of mushrooms.  Garnish with rosemary and parsley.

The contrast between the heavy cream sauce and the light taste of the orange and flakiness of the fish was amazing. There was a good balance of spiceyness and sweetness with a little bitterness provided by the parsley and string beans. About the only thing I would add would be a bed of rice. I even used the sauce to great effect on a pan fried chicken breast the next day.

Ty even hangs around when I cook. And the truth is now that I have to feed, wait an hour and walk him at night I have a set hour in which to relax and cook every day. Go figure.

OMG HSFC!!!  Today I went to Enfield, CT to pick up my adopted dog Ty.  Adopting Ty was sort of a impulsive 3 year decision.  After moving to Porter Square I had always said my next apartment would have to allow dogs.  When Bryan Clark needed a third roommate and asked me to move in I jumped at the chance.  Part of the reason for that was his dog Moose who was and still remains to be awesome.  When Bryan went to Mozilla Messaging in Vancouver, Moose went with him.  With no dog to greet me when I came home from work it started getting pretty lonely at the apartment so I started looking for the perfect dog to fill that void.

While on vacation in Aruba I spotted Ty at Pet Finder and instantly fell in love. After getting back I called up Adopt a Lab and found out that Ty was still available and that they were coming to New England that Saturday. The catch was I had to agree to adopt Ty, sight unseen, for them to go through the process of getting him checked for transport and bring him from the midwest to the east. The way it worked they explained, is that I had to commit to at least two weeks with the dog and if it did not work out they would arrange foster care and refund my money. After a day of deliberating I called them up again and started the process rolling. That is when the adventure began.

My friend and resident dog expert Sara agreed to venture two hours out of Boston with me to the agreed upon meeting place where 22 other adopters were gathering to pick up their chosen dog at 11am. All was well when we pulled into the parking lot of Enfield’s Town Hall fifteen minutes before the pick up. Whole families had come to get the first glimpse of their future pets. This is when one of the volunteers notified us that the air conditioner on the transport vehicle had broken down and that they were delayed until 1 o’clock because they had to replace it. This was no big deal as Sara and I were hungry and it would have been hard to get lunch once we had a nervous dog on our hands.

Coming back at 1 brought new troubles as the skies opened up and proceeded to deluge us. On top of that, the transport only made it around 3 o’clock.

I didn’t mind the rain or the delay.  I was just anxious to finally meet Ty.

When Ty finaly came out of the truck, he was a bit excited.  I could hear oohs and ahhs from my fellow adopters which was the chant recited whenever a particularly cute dog came out.  I walked him around a bit on his lead away from the crowds to calm him down.

A quick drink and bathroom break later, we were finally on the road to Ty’s new home.

To calm Ty down even more Sara gave him the plush mole toy she had bought him as a gift.  The funny thing about that mole is that Ty seems completely indifferent to the Kong with a snack in it and the tennis ball I had gotten him.  He loved that mole though.

It was pouring outside which made our way home slow going.

Ty didn’t mind though as he darted his head from window to window taking in all of the new sights he was experiencing.

After dropping off Sara in JP we made our way back to Cambridge and Ty’s new home where he drank a couple of bowls full of water.  When the rain died down I took him for a run and he finally settled down enough to eat.  Even after the run he was still a bundle of energy and even though he kept nodding off he would quickly wake up and nudge me to play some more.  Finally around 8 he fell asleep for an hour and a half.  Right now he is calmly watching me write this blog and perking up every time I look his way.

Oh ya, J5 and Ty - I think I’m going to keep him!!!