AKC Agility, Amite, LA and a day off spent around the house

Saturday Grace and I ran AKC agility in Amite.  That is to say we ran our first two runs of the day and then trotted the third run.  We were consistent - 3 NQs for our efforts.  Poor Grace looked like her mother had been out of town for several days taking care of grammy.  It seemed very hot too me because I've been sitting in the AC of the hospital or my Mom's house and not outside walking, practicing agility, or working in the garden.  Grace and I are working on fixing her triple jump again before our BTR club agility trial this coming weekend.  We need several walks around the block, a few jump chutes, numerous weave poles runs, and spread jump practice before next weekend.  Grace and I are striving for more zen in our runs this coming weekend.  Mike said he and Grace practiced her lotus position meditations while I was in Oklahoma.  This may explain her lack of stress this weekend.  Grace was very happy to be running agility and she interacted with several people at the show site in addition to me and Tracey which is the most obvious sign that she is not stressed.  Less Grace stress = Better Grace Performance!

Sunday was spent doing chores around the house, running errands, and hanging out.  With Mike's help most of the dirt from the pile in the backyard was shoveled into the cart and dumped into ankle turner holes around the yard, especially in the agility practice area.  The first hole we filled was the abandoned turtle hole  which grabbed my foot and twisted my ankle every time I walked anywhere in the future veggie garden area. (Mr. Turtle now lives next door with Dr. and Mrs. Sanders in their yard where there are not dogs there - unless Grace goes over to play).  Later in the day the fig tree beds were cleared out of bamboo and larger misc growth  Just clearing these beds managed to fill up the trash bin - Yup that's right - those beds were just a wee bit overgrown.  Overall the yard is looking better.

I cooked several Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) legal dishes over the weekend which generally meet Jules' minimalist 5 ingredient/15 minute (prep) rule that I'm embracing for 2011.

• First I cooked Jan's Cream of Mushroom Soup recipe which was very tasty, meeting the minimalist 5 ingredients mantra because I don't typically salt any food.  I use black pepper in a few dishes but not this soup.  Prep time on the soup was slightly longer than 15 minutes because of browning the onions. 
• For dessert I made my sister's recipe for Black Raspberry Greek Yogurt Sorbet which was very tasty and contained only 3 ingredients (Greek yogurt, honey, and black raspberry fruit spread).  The sorbet base was quick to prep using an immersion blender.  I then froze the sorbet in my small ice cream maker that pre-freezes in the freezer section of my fridge.  I wash it up and re-freeze it after each use.
• Lastly, there seems to be an eggplant shortage currently so my Sunday dinner plan for Eggplant Lasagna morphed into Turkey Lasagna (when life gives you ground turkey....)  The Lasagna contained a red sauce, turkey, spinach, black olives, and feta cheese.  It took a little longer than 15 minutes to prep  because I browned the turkey and steam the spinach plus the lasagna then baked for an hour BUT while it baked I was outside in the garden working.  I look forward to next fall having home grown fresh spinach for my lasagna.