Who Will You Be This Halloween?

Well...I already know that my grandson, Cooper, is going to be the cutest bumblebee ever!

You see, he already buzzed around in a pet parade near his home in Connecticut and was even asked to participate in a picture contest at his local pet store. Isn't he the cutest!! Four months old now.

As for me, I haven't quite decided what I will be this Halloween. Grammie Jill gave me all sorts of good suggestions and, while we were in Columbus weekend, I tried on all sorts of costumes. So far, I think I like Suddie Panda Bear the best. What do you think?

Bloomin' Rose

My grandaughter, Rose, at 4 months.

You Say Tomato, I Say Beagle

Beamer is a Babe

Do you remember my friend Beamer? You know from my post Dogs of The Corn!! If you don't remember, check it out. You'll find a really great recipe for Creamed Corn if nothing else. But you will find something else cause there are more pics of Beamer and he is a HUNKSTUD!

You know... they say you can tell a lot about a boy by the way he treats his mother. I don't go in for that cause I have the BEST BOYS and they don't call, they don't write, and they hate to talk on the phone.

But, anyway, Beamer is so sweet with his mom. But then she is BUNKYCOOKS of bunkycooks.com. You know what that means? Lots of good food all the time. What's not to like? You see she is like this real famous, but down-to-earth, food blogger.

The Sexy Chef, Colin Bedford

In addition to great, easy-to-follow recipes and great sexy celebrity chef interviews, BUNKYCOOKS has THE BEST giveaways ever. I am always entering to win one of these great kitchen-related items. Well, guess what, I finally won!! And it is a fabulous Magimix by Robot-Coupe Vision Toaster. It is an amazing toaster with a window that allows you to watch your toast toast. What could be more fun? Watching paint dry? Oh no! It is very cool. It has this great feature that allows you to toast only on one side which, as BUNKYCOOKS points out, is great for Bagels:


"One of the features that I really like about the Magimix Vision Toaster is the bagel toasting option. You can toast one side of the bagel so you don’t end up with an overly crisp bagel that nearly breaks your jaw when chewing it. I always opt out of toasted bagels at restaurants for that reason. With this toasting feature, you can have slightly toasted bagels on one side and still have them chewy on the other."

It also has a defrost setting for toasting frozen bread. It's great! I love it. Thank you for BUNKYCOOKS!! Do you believe I've developed a taste for lightly-toasted biscuits? I won't have them any other way. Magimix, you have CHANGED MY LIFE.

Now, you really can't go on about MS. BUNKYCOOKS without sharing one of her recipes. Here's one that's sure to make you drool.

bourbon bread pudding with ice cream and caramel sauce

Yield: 8-10 servings Prep Time: 1 hour Cook Time: 40 minutes Total Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

This rich and elegant dessert can be made ahead of time and refrigerated before baking. If you use a softer brioche (I used a pullman brioche loaf), you may only need a 1 pound loaf. The pullman loaf has very heavy crusts that are removed before cutting into 1/2 inch pieces.

ingredients:
1/2 cup raisins
1/3 cup bourbon (I used Woodford Reserve)
1.9 pound brioche or egg bread loaf, crusts trimmed and bread cut into 1/2-inch cubes (I used a pullman brioche loaf) * See note above
8 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup bourbon (I used Woodford Reserve)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Homemade vanilla ice cream or very good store bought vanilla ice cream
Homemade caramel sauce (or your favorite recipe)

directions:
1. Place raisins in a small bowl. Pour bourbon over the raisins, stirring occasionally to be sure they are all thoroughly soaked in the bourbon. Soak at least one hour and longer, if possible.

2. Once raisins have soaked, place bread cubes in 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan and sprinkle raisins over the top of the bread cubes. Whisk eggs, whipping cream, milk, sugar, bourbon and vanilla extract in large bowl to blend. Pour over bread cubes and raisins. Let stand 30 minutes, occasionally pressing bread into custard mixture. (Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake until pudding is set in center, about 40 minutes. Cool slightly.

4. Serve warm topped with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

Runyon Canyon

A nature enclave in the midst of Hollywood?

In Tinseltown, anything is possible, even a place of blissful peace and quiet. 1,320 feet above the City of Angels lies Runyon Canyon, a 160-acre haven where you can stroll, observe a variety of wildlife (deer, raccoons, birds), and relish in the scent and sight of diverse plants (black sage, elderberry, wild buckwheat).

Yoga Classes offered daily on the grass in Runyon Canyon Park

Formerly called "No Man's Canyon" due to vacancy, rather than a gender restriction on hikers, there is evidence that this was a seasonal campsite for local Gabrielino Indians before being sold to a string of millionaires. There are still ruins of the former mansion, tennis courts, and pool-house where Errol Flynn once stayed. When you enter on Mulholland Drive, walking clockwise is the easiest path to the most incredible views stretching from downtown LA to Beverly Hills to the beach. With points named Clouds Rest and Inspiration Point you’ll wish you had HD eyes.

The Honor System Snack Bar at the lower park entrance even offers dog biscuits

Sweat your way up the steep, deserty trails. The highest point in the park offers a great way to get a free cardio workout, and stellar views of the city below. Dogs are allowed off-leash in most of the park. But the best part is the people watching: celebrity sightings are a daily occurrence and beautiful people sightings happen every two minutes.

I mean they were all there. Orlando Bloom with his dog, Derrick Hough getting a workout (and a tan), Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel wearing hats and looking serious, and Matthew Mcconaughey getting all giggly while his wife chased him down the hill. And there are dogs...so many dogs. But did I get to go? No, of course not, I was left at the Chateau. Dad said I would get filthy on those dusty trails.

Dad hiked Runyon Canyon every morning very early. Hiking on the 2nd day, he noticed a simple trash can about halfway up the canyon just covered with stickers. Once he saw it, he knew he had found the perfect spot for our bumperpet.com sticker. What could be better with all the dogs, celebrities and beautiful people who pass by each day. So on his way up on our last day in Hollywood, Dad stuck that bumperpet.com sticker for the very last time on that trash can halfway up the trail at Runyon Canyon. Dad told me later that he could just imagine how those first astronauts must have felt when they planted that flag on the moon.

Sprinkles Cupcakes for Dogs

Did you know that Sprinkles Cupcakes of Beverly Hills makes cupcakes just for me. Not that I need the calories! But we have been hiking everyday in Runyon Canyon during our visit to Los Angeles (I'll write more about that soon).

Sprinkles Cupcakes sells its all-natural doggie cupcake for $2.50. The ingredients in the cupcakes for dogs are unbleached flour, eggs, honey and vanilla. The cupcake is topped with a yogurt "frosting." You can even order them online: Sprinkles Cupcakes for Dogs.

bumperpet.com

So....we read about this new online service....bumperpet.com. We were intrigued. You see on bumperpet.com you can create these great re-moveable stickers from your favorite photos. You can add words and even silly images like Santa's hat (how great for the holidays) to your image too. So we just had to order one. We used a photo of Angus and we added our website and in a few days a GREAT re-moveable sticker arrived in our mailbox. We weren't quite sure what re-moveable meant so we just had to ask. It seems that these stickers are designed so they are easily removed without leaving a big gunky, sticky mess. It doesn't really mean that they are designed to be stuck one place and then peeled off and then stuck somewhere else. But we just had to try.

We received our bumperpet.com sticker just the day we were headed off to stay at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood and, we couldn't help ourselves, we stuck our sticker all over the Chateau. And they were right, it didn't leave a big gunky mess. We stuck it on the wall at the pool smack in the middle of the life preserver and next to the phone that you use when you need a pool boy pronto. And on the door of our bungalow so the paparazzi would know just where to find us. Even on the pot of the plant outside our door. On the door of our funky old refrigerator and vintage stove. Angus looked so handsome in our minibar. And finally in the lobby bar at 2:02 AM where I rolled on the floor with Rosie Perez.

But we weren't done. We weren't sure yet. Where best to make our mark with the help of bumperpet.com?

bumperpet.com - Online Slideshow Maker

To create and order your own just click on the following link: bumperpet.com