Mojo Munchies

*The inspiration for these treats comes from our dear Sheltie, Mojo, who passed away in 2006.  One of the best friends I ever had.

I've been sort of craving for oatmeal cookies lately.  For some reason, every time someone makes them they feel the need to add raisins.  I never cared for raisins much; I used to eat them as a kid from those little boxes they came in just so when it was empty I could make a whistle out of it.  Being a nerd, it never occured to me to just throw the raisins away and play with the box.  Damn.

Well today my  wonderful boyfriend made me some oatmeal cookies with dark chocolate chips and boy were they good!  So with my new paying it forward attitude, I decided to return the favor to The Boys who are, admittedly, terrible cooks.  (Note: This is my second installment of "Cooking With Bobby"--you foodies can get my Fabulous Cupcake recipe here.)  Here is my recipe for Mojo Munchies, a healthy and actually pretty tasty Labrador snack:

Mojo Munchies

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked oatmeal                          1 egg, beaten

1 tbl. boullion granules                               1/3 cup butter

3/4 cup powdered milk                              1 1/2 cups hot water

3/4 cup cornmeal                                       3 cups whole wheat flour

3 tbl. parsely (fresh if possible--for breath freshening)

Now the most important step in the entire process is this:

Once that's done, in a large mixing bowl combine the oatmeal, butter, and boullion and pour the hot water over them.  Let this sit for about 5 minutes to soften the butter and cook the oatmeal.  Mix.  Next, stir in the powdered milk, egg, and cornmeal.  Start the mixer.  Add the parsely.  Begin adding flour 1/2 cup at a time.  Once done, you may need to add either a little more flour or water to get the dough to a stiff consistancy.  Let the dough knead for about 3 minutes after that.  Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick, then cut into bone shapes with a cookie cutter.  (Oh yeah you should have already preheated your oven to 325 degrees--oops!)  Bake at 325 for 50 minutes; turn off the oven and let sit in there for about 30 more.  Remove cookies and let them harden and cool for about an hour before feeding to your salavating dog-beasts.

Since I've made these plenty of times before, The Boys know the scent.  Ripley feels the need to sit in front of the oven for an hour whining and drooling long strands of saliva all over the kitchen floor until they are done while I get annoyed and start yelling "Seriously Ripley?!" every ten minutes or so.  I guess that's an unsolicited endorsement from a satisfied customer.

We miss you Mojo...you would have loved the girl!

Hoopdie Doo

Ugh...I need a new car...

1999 Ford Ranger Pick Up.

Lez Be Friends

200!  It's like "300" only without the sweaty gladiators with painted on abs...

Over the last few weeks I've been contacted by two lesbian couples who stumbled upon the blog while searching out information on agencies that could assist them in adopting a baby.  One couple is in Queen Creek Arizona about 15 or so miles from us, and the other is in Wisconsin.  We're actually becoming good friends with our AZ neighbors and had them over for brunch last weekend.  Unfortunately we were out of the traditional lesbian staples of Grape Nuts and pork rinds, but they seemed to enjoy Gregg's waffles and eggs anyway.

This week another blog friend, Michelle and Nick from Michelle's Path, are awaiting the birth of their soon to be adopted son, half brother to their cute little girl Kayla who they adopted in 2008.  The girls over at Baby Blueprint are finally pregnant, and some of our other blog friends are dealing with new contacts or TTC challenges.

I guess what I wanted to post today is that this blog started almost two years ago when we made the decision to begin our adoption not having any idea what to expect or anyone to turn to for advice.  We felt pretty alone, and it was scary at the beginning.

Now here we are on Those Two Daddies 200th post and we've come full circle.  We're about to finalize the adoption of a little girl who completely owns our hearts; feeling a love I never ever thought possible, love so strong just thinking about her brings a tear to my eye.  We're part of a circle of friends and families that share the bond of having children, trying to have them in a multitude of ways, or just thinking about it and deciding to make the leap.  Somehow we know what we're doing (or fake it well; half the stuff we did we made up as we went along!) and it's our turn to help others.  I'm so glad for everyone that has shared comments and posts with us and who actually read the drivel I've posted the other 199 times.  Some of you even came back after reading a post and didn't leave shaking your head over bad jokes.  Glad to know you all, and glad to be part of the circle.  You guys rock!

Marching to Finalization

Well everything is set.  Our finalization hearing in Los Angeles County Court will be on Friday March 5th.  That will finally be the end of this long legal process!  I called the court yesterday and found out they were going to set our date today.  The guy I talked to was so nice.  They only do Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  Coming from Arizona Friday works best because it gives us time to do the hearing, meet up with Sabrina's birth family, and visit friends we have not seen in a while.  I guess they are not supposed to allow you to pick your own date, because when I asked for the first available Friday he said "Call me back tomorrow morning before we open so we can talk off the record".  OK...so I did.  He let me pick the date and time I wanted.  I would have done earlier, but March 5th is the first available Friday morning.  The really amazing thing is, it will happen exactly one year from when we had our first contact with "Lucy" and learned about Sabrina's impending birth.  Freaky huh?  It even made Sabrina stand up and take notice...(which she's been able to do for about a week now, in 30-60 second intervals)

Oh well nothing lasts forever!

No, Please, Take Your Time

Here we are now in January of 2010.  Sabrina is closing in on 9 months old and her adoption is still not final.  It should have been done when she was somewhere between 6-7 months, so we've been trying to get this finished since the end of October.  First our lawyer (who actually, I love and think does a fantastic job) took a long time to get us the documents we needed to sign.  Since he's in Northern California and we're here in Righteous Town AZ, we couldn't just go get them.  We signed and sent them in and got them back about mid December.  (I'm sure they were slowed down by the War.  No not that one.  The War On Christmas.  You need to watch more Fox News...)  I had to get some copies, then sent them off to the adoption agency.  They were closed the last two weeks, so they only just sent their part off to the court yesterday.  Once they finally get there, we'll be able to get a date for the hearing.  I'm telling you, if you had to do all this to have a baby every time, the History Channel's "Life After People" would be happening in one generation.  I just hope we get it all finished before the end of the month.  I can see it now, "Sorry Sabrina you can't go to the Prom, we have to go finalize your adoption".

Jingle Bell Stop

Well the holidays are finally over.  The tree is down and at the recycling center, the halls are undecked, and the local radio station has stopped playing bad Mariah Carey Christmas songs and now just plays bad Mariah Carey in general.  I have to admit I'm glad.  This year I really tried to keep up the Christmas spirit all the way from Thanksgiving until the 25th of December.  It's not easy.  First, there are really only about 40 or so Christmas songs and they are played ad nauseum for a month.  I'm sorry, but you can only take so much.  By the time the new year arrives, you want to kick the stuffing out of one of Santa's elves.  Second, every time you turn around someone else wants money for something.  "You have to give to help the homeless"; "Please donate to the Salvation Army"; "If you don't send money we're turning off the electricity"; blah blah blah. 

Monday things will be back to normal.  For our last day of vacation we went to the Railroad Park in Scottsdale.  It's a fun park I've blogged about before, and the only drawback it has is that it's full of people from Scottsdale.  We met my sister Tricia and her daughter Lily.  We had fun riding the train, the merry go round, and playing in the playground. 

Family Swing Time

Happy Cousins

Once we got home, Sabrina wanted to play around a bit before dinner.  She gave Chase some lessons in how to play with plastic bowls.

"What?  We're just playing."

"Pay attention Chase"

Now a bath, then bed.  Ah, finally Those Two Daddies can have a glass of wine and relax!  Hope you all had a great New Year's!

"What do you mean I have to put my PJ's on?"