giveaway Archives - Page 12 of 14 - Lovin' From the Oven

Help our Dog, Bo, and a Giveaway

May 15, 2011 by kim 27 Comments

This past week has been a little hectic for me. My DB and I have been busy with work, trying to look for an apartment, finding furniture, and now, this…

First off, here’s a little background. My DB and I got a dog about a year and a half ago. He was rescued from the pound and was about 4-5 years old at the time. He’s an Anatolian shepherd mix (we think he has Sharpei in him because of his black tongue and loose skin) and was abused as a puppy. He’s very cautious around new men and is terrified of cables and abrupt, loud noises. His original owner named him “Bojo.” I kid you not. We shortened his name to just “Bo.”

My DB and I knew that we couldn’t take him with us to Berkeley, so we started looking at no-kill shelters for him weeks ago in case we couldn’t find someone to take him. Unfortunately, no shelter was willing to take him because of his age and because they were already backed up.

This past week, we noticed a growth on Bo’s hind leg. It didn’t seem to bother him; he walked fine and didn’t react when we touched it, but we kept an eye on it. When it didn’t go away after three days, we decided to take him into the vet. This was this past Thursday. The vet stuck a needle in it, expecting to draw pus, but it turned out to be blood. We left Bo overnight at the vet to have surgery that same day to have the growth removed.

This is Bo the first day back after surgery. He had the “cone of shame” on him but he could barely sleep with it and ran into everything, so we took it off. He’s not much of a biter/chewer, so it was fine. Seeing him in a little cast seriously breaks my heart. What was the bump? Well, it was worse than we imagined. It turns out that it was a malignant tumor and the doctor couldn’t completely remove all of it. He said they might have to remove a toe or his paw, depending on the lab results. Basically, Bo has cancer… we just don’t know what kind of cancer it is.

My heart seriously feels for him. He had such a terrible previous life and now this?! What did he ever do to deserve it? 🙁 Poor puppy.. He’s even quite young to have cancer.

My DB and I decided to have a biopsy for Bo, in order to find out exactly what’s wrong with him and what we could do to help. The problem is: our total bill is just over 600 dollars now for the surgery and biopsy… not to mention any additional surgery/care that we’ll need to pay for after we get the results back. We are definitely not in a position with that kind of money (especially with having to move out in three months), so I’m asking you guys for your help!

We couldn’t just leave Bo like that, every dog deserves a chance. So I created a paypal donate button especially for Bo’s vet bill pictured above. It’s a click through link that’ll let you donate any amount you wish through paypal. Any amount will help! If you’d like to donate through other means, please contact me at: kim@lovintheoven.com

Giveaway details: I wanted to be able to give something back to you guys for donating, so I’ll be giving away a SIGNED copy of George W. Bush’s Decision Points book. I know, it’s kind of random and totally not related to my blog, but I thought it would be a neat giveaway. Regardless of your political affiliation, it’s kind of fun to have a President’s signature. I’ll be entering anyone’s name who donates over $5 into a raffle and draw a winner at random. I’ll do the drawing on June 11th, 11:59 PM and let you guys know that Sunday.

You see, I work at the Reagan library and we were lucky enough to have him come give a lecture during his book tour a couple of months ago. I even worked the event so I got to sit in and listen to the speech:

Yes, that is an actual airplane at my work. It’s Reagan’s Air Force One, the one that flew Nixon’s last flight as President, and you totally get to walk through it. Kinda cool, huh?

There’s G.B. Jr.

Anyways, we really can’t thank you guys enough for taking the time to read our story, being so supportive, and just being there. After all, dogs really are.. a man’s best friend.

Day 5: Chocolate Jumbles

December 13, 2010 by kim 110 Comments

Day 5 of my 12 days of cookies: So far, so good! I’m still on the right track to finish my list this year and I am ever so determined to do it! Chocolate Jumbles. A dark chocolate, cakey cookie with chopped pecans and white chocolate. You can make them as big or as small as you want. The recipe says it yields 18 cookies, but I managed to make over 4 dozen with the batter by using a small cookie scoop. Instead of making them huge, I baked them into miniature poppables. The recipe also said that you have to flatten them a bit before baking, but since I made mine so tiny, I left them as is.

I took just over 3 dozen cookies to work, thinking no one would want them in my family (my parents aren’t a big fan of chocolate). When I came home, my mom asked me where the rest of the cookies went. I had left a little plate of about 6 cookies on the counter, which seemed to have mysteriously disappeared while I was at work. My mom confessed to eating 4 of them and was asking for more. Um, what? Where is my mom and what have you done with her? Apparently, they reminded her of some cookie she ate back in the day. She wasn’t even phased by the chocolate in it.

I was in a rush taking these pictures because I did it in the morning before work, so I texted my DB asking if he could take some extra shots just in case I didn’t get one that I liked. “Sure,” he said, “but you never like my pictures!” Grateful, I started uploading the pictures when I came home. Curious as to what his shots look like? Notice anything out of the ordinary?

I was laughing so hard when I saw this. He didn’t even bother flipping an upside down cookie! EVERY picture he took had a flipped cookie. Hahaha.

This recipe came from a beautiful cookbook that I recently received from Tate’s Bake Shop. Not only did they send me a cookbook, they also sent me cookies! Three different kinds!

The beautiful box it came in..

and even more boxes!

Each pack has two individually wrapped packages, each filled with a row of cookies. White chocolate macadamia nut…

Oatmeal raisin..

and your classic chocolate chip…

These cookies were thin and crispy. I’m not usually one to like those kinds of cookies, but I couldn’t stop eating the white chocolate macadamia nut. My dad actually finished all of them. True story. The oatmeal raisin, I could do without… but as for the white chocolate macadamia nut– I’d eat it for dessert every day.

For those of you who want cookies right away, you can use the 15% discount code “cookie” on their website (valid until December 31st) for instant satisfaction. Here’s the recipe for the jumbles to tie you over!

Chocolate Jumbles

By Kathleen King from Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook, p. 50

2 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
1 1/2 cups firmly packed dark or light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups white chocolate chips or chunks
1 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two cookie sheets, or line them with silpat.
In a lage bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Cream the butter and the sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix and scrap down the sides of the bowl.
Add the white chocolate chips and pecans. If the dough is too stiff, wet your hands and finish the mixing by hand. (Don’t worry, it’s not a big sticky mess.)
Using two tablespoons, drop the cookie dough onto the cookie sheets. Use and ice cream scoop if you have one. Wet it with warm water between scoops so the dough falls out easily. Press the dough balls down gently with your fingertips.
Bake the Jumbles for 20 minutes. The cookies will be soft when they come out of the oven. Do not overbake them.
Cool them on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes and remove the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Knockoff S’mores & Winner!

October 1, 2010 by kim 4 Comments

First things first, I picked a comment to win and this came up:

Congratulations to comment number 55 by Anny! Please email me at kim@lovintheoven.com so I can forward your information about the prize.

I’m the kind of gal that while browsing tastespotting or foodgawker, I always initially click on the photos with star shaped sprinkles, light pastel colors, and cakes shaped into cute characters. The pretty desserts are what catches my eye.

After making this, I realized that the pretty things aren’t always the tastiest. These knockoff s’mores are certainly not the easiest on the eyes, but it’s darn good for the stomach. I was craving s’mores at home but didn’t have any graham crackers or hershey bars, so I had to elaborate with what I had on hand. Sometimes throwing everything you have into a pot does wonders (not to mention it only took three minutes)! And okay… I always swear I don’t do knockoffs when it comes to purses/designers, but I’ll let it slide for dessert. 🙂

I never measure my ingredients when making rice crispy treats, so why do anything different with these? I didn’t. Feel free to play with the marshmallow/cereal/chocolate ratio until you get what you like. In fact, I’ll give a guideline for you to play with!

1 tablespoon butter
1 cup miniature marshmallows
2 cups golden graham cereal
a handful of miniature chocolate chips

Melt the butter and marshmallows in a pot over the stove over low/medium heat.
When the butter and marshmallows are completely melted, turn off the stove and remove from heat.
Stir in the golden grahams until well covered. (Make sure to mix AWAY from the heat, as the golden grahams will loose their crunch when it’s too hot)
Dump the mixture onto a piece of wax paper or tin foil and sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. Enjoy straight from the wrapper!

This totally reminds me of college food. ::sigh::, how I miss those days!

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