News Trend Ham Dinner|Actual

Like all the other big ticket holidays of my childhood, Easters were spent at my mother's parents' comfortable home. They lived a few hours away from us in the poetically named town of Three Rivers, Michigan, so when we visited, we stayed for the whole weekend.

That meant that along with a passel of four kids came an energetic and clever Irish Setter named Kelly.

My grandparents were not dog people. Grandma grew up on a farm where dogs were considered working animals and treated accordingly; Grandpa was a bit put off about dogs altogether, though honestly, I'm willing to bet he was afraid of them.

But we loved our boy madly so my grandparents learned to tolerate their furry fifth grandchild.

Easter dinner at my table.

It was the Easter of Kelly's fourth year, when I was about fourteen, that my darling dog put his grandparents' hesitant love to the test.

As usual, as our midday mealtime approached, Grandma was a flurry. Fresh-baked cloverleaf rolls, scalloped potatoes, home-grown green beans, pickled beets and a big ol' heap of mashed potatoes were paraded in from the kitchen to the dining room. But it was the cornerstone of the meal - a glorious golden glazed ham - that was the first dish to reach the table, triumphantly positioned near my grandfather's plate and poised for the ceremonial carving.

Banned from the crowded kitchen, I lingered silently in the dining room, watching the feast come together and waiting for an opportunity to make a few unauthorized taste tests.

I thought nothing of it as Kelly came wandering through the dining room.

I wasn't surprised when he stopped near the ham.

I smiled as he stretched his nose out toward that steaming platter and drank up the fragrant aroma.

But I was totally and utterly unprepared for what happened next.

My second setter, Casey, never stole an Easter ham but he did once help himself to an entire meal's worth of Dover sole while I was changing a diaper.

In the blink of an eye, Kelly leaped up, braced his front legs against the table, sunk his teeth into that ham, and hauled it off the table for all he was worth.

I froze up, too horrified for words.

Kelly was halfway to the front porch when my grandfather caught sight of him.

"GRACE!! COME GET YOUR DOG!"

My mother surely noted the panic in his voice and flew into the room.

I will never forget the look on her face as she caught sight of that funny, handsome, clever dog who by now had dropped the heavy ham onto the floor and backed the slippery thing into a corner so he could properly dig into his prize. I'm sure she was ninety-nine percent amused by her darling boy's audacity, but well aware that her father was about to blow a gasket. So she summoned up the necessary outrage, wrestled our Easter dinner out of the dog's chops, and told my grandfather to calm down because everything was going to be fine.

"Your dog ate half the ham. I don't see anything fine about that."

My mom had already deposited the partially gnawed ham back on the plate and circled through the kitchen to come back with the electric carving knife.

With a practiced skill - this was definitely not her first dog-bitten-food rodeo - she sliced away the offending bite marks and reshaped the ham to look almost normal again.

"See?" she showed my grandfather. "It's fine."

He was not impressed.

My third setter, Ranger, was usually not one to jump up and steal human food but he might have considered his options had he caught scent of this flank steak.

Kelly was sent outside where I'm sure he licked his whiskers and congratulated himself on a job very well done.

We kids were told in no uncertain terms to lay off the ham until our grandparents ate their fill of what was left.

And once the holiday weekend was over and we were back on the road, we finally enjoyed a hearty laugh over our crazy dog's ham dinner and hugged him all the way home.

* * * * *

Go here to read a sweet recap of all my pets

or here to find a collection of stories about their antics.

* * * * *

More Easter stories? Yes.

Easter All Over Again

About Easter

Ham Dinner

New Life

The Gifts Of Easter

What I Know About Easter

What Is Easter Dinner?

Easter Dinner

Good Friday

Maundy Thursday

Easter Morning In Malaysia

Easter Eats

The Very Colorful Easter Art

Better Than Bunnies Part Two

Better Than Bunnies Part One

News Trend Damsels In Distress|Actual

Heavy black clouds raced menacingly across the sky.

Winds twisted their branches in dizzying gusts.

Rain pelted down, soaking their delicate faces and threatening to blow them to pretty pink bits.

But through it all, they held on for dear life.

And I must say, these precious harbingers of spring are far more tenacious than I would have ever guessed

News Trend Buying Apples|Actual

Only two of the Granny Smith apples remain, but I also bought some Pink Ladys.

I was counting out four Granny Smiths when I noticed him staring at me.

An ordinary man, about my age. He faced me across the apples, smiled nervously, and blurted out, "Do you live in the Chennault Beach area?"

"Sure do," I replied, suddenly uncomfortable in my orange fleece jacket. My favorite ancient outerwear for walking has no business being worn in public but I had not bothered to change between my walk and a few quick errands.

"I thought so!" He smiled again, this time more comfortably. "I see you out walking all the time."

I began twisting shut my plastic bag, and braced myself for what was surely coming next.

"Hey, is your dog okay? I haven't seen him lately. I asked my kids about it and they said they haven't seen him either. We all notice you've been walked alone..."

My hands held the bag still. "Yeah, we lost him in January."

"Oh. I'm so sorry. He seemed like such a friendly dog. We all miss seeing him around."

Our small talk quickly trailed off. I thanked him for his kindness, balanced the apples in my cart, and pushed off toward the ice cream aisle.

And while I undoubtedly appeared to be an ordinary woman reaching for a carton of salted caramel, my heart was soaring among the heavens. What an extraordinary thing it is to be noticed and known by perfect strangers, to live in their hearts and to warrant their compassion and care. And what an insane gift it is to have such a person reach out to you, in the most ordinary circumstances, to share this miracle with you.

I'm glad I thought to buy the apples.

News Trend Ranger's Human|Actual

September 27, 2013 - oblivious to everything but the scent

December 18, 2014 - Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays this courier from the swift completion of his appointed rounds,

March 27, 2015 - Dandelions for dayz.

August 20, 2016 - Cooling off in the front yard after another day's walk.

* * * * *

Me: [stands on corner, waits to cross the street.]

Man and woman in car at same intersection, waiting for me to clear cross walk: [put down their window and smile at me]

Me: [smiles back even though these people are complete strangers to me.]

Man in car: "Hi! Where's your dog?"

Me: [draws a deep breath] "Oh, he passed away."

Man and woman in car: [overlapping] "Whatttt? Oh no! That's so sad. I'm so sorry. He was such a good dog!"

Me: "Thank you. He had a long, lovely life."

Man and woman in car: [continue to smile at me as they make their turn and drive off.]

* * * * *

Over three months have passed since Ranger died. I continue to encounter strangers about once a week who ask after him.

I am so amazed by the impact that my dog made on the world and so honored that I was Ranger's human.

* * * * *

As long as we live on in the hearts of others, we are never truly gone,

A Good Dog Goes To Heaven

I'll Never Walk Alone

On Grief

A Dream

Buying Apples

News Trend Naptime|Actual

With gorgeous blooms like this just outside my car window, you know I'm having sweet dreams.

On the average weekday, after several hours of teaching algebra to my brilliant homeschooled high school students, I often swing by the store to grab some groceries on my way back home.

Not uncommonly, I'm worn out at this stage of the day, and sometimes I'll take a moment to regroup. Tilting the seat back, I give myself permission to close my eyes... But of course, only for a minute or two.

And you know, some days, my brain cooperates with that plan. My eyeballs snap back open in a matter of moments and I'm re-energized and ready to jet off into the store.

However. There are also days, like today, when I wake up forty-five minutes later from a dead sleep, blissfully unaware of the cars and shoppers coming and going all around me, and feel like I've enjoyed an entire night's sleep in the Target parking lot.

That's completely normal, right?

News Trend Sunset Over Walla Walla|Actual

"He too serves a certain purpose who only stands and cheers." -Henry Adams

We were all brought here for a reason.

I was brought here for a reason.

You were brought here for a reason.

And when we discover even just a tiny piece of what that reason might be, in our hearts we feel all the heavens explode in glory.

We were all brought here for a reason.

News Trend My Homemade Pad Thai|Actual

Ok, I'll be honest. When it comes to Pad Thai, I'm utterly, hopelessly, desperately spoiled.

First of all, I learned to love this Southeast Asian delight at the dining tables and food stalls of my friends in Malaysia. What reads as exotic fare to me is simply home-cooking to them, and their love for and familiarity of the dish shone through in their handiwork.

And following up my fantastical foreign feasts, I found a local Seattle joint that serves up an equally legitimate plate of the good stuff. Thai Tom's on the Ave is not known for its comfortable surroundings or courteous staff, but they can cook like the proper Thais that they are, and their food definitely rings true to my Asian experiences.

So it was with very high expectations and a shocking lack of experience with these flavors that I set about perfecting my own version of Pad Thai. And I readily confess that my early experiments were disappointing.

Dry

Sticky

Flavorless

Bland

Oh sure, I was still clearing the bar set by the typical American suburban interpretation of Pad Thai, as served up in styrofoam clamshells for convenient takeaway at the local strip mall Asian fusion joints. But my goals were loftier than that.

Behold the beauty of my latest attempt:

The proportions of veggies to proteins to noodles to sauce are perfect.

The flavors are spot on.

And every bite is a tiny explosion of Asian deliciousness that takes me right back to my first flirtations with this dish.

* * * * *

Here's the recipe that finally led me to this flavorful Nirvana:

For the noodles:

• 8 ounces dried rice sticks

For the sauce:

• a big, fat tablespoon of tamarind pulp, soaked in 4 T of hot water
• 4 T brown sugar
• 4 T fish sauce

To chop up and then saute together:

• 2 shallots
• an onion
• 4 or 5 cloves of garlic
• a box of extra firm tofu
• 1 pound of large raw shrimp, cleaned
• 3 eggs
• 6 green onions
• 2 cups bean sprouts

To garnish:

• lime wedges
• red chili flakes
• peanuts, chopped

1. Set the noodles to soak.

Dua. Set the tamarind pulp to soak.

HINT: If you do not have a sweet friend named Rungfa who literally delivers this exotic spice from her own kitchen to your door, you can easily order it off Amazon.

3., Chop everything up.

4. Stir the brown sugar and fish sauce into the tamarind and water. Set aside.

Lima. Add a nice splash of cooking oil to a wok over medium high heat. Add shallot, onion, garlic, tofu, and shrimp. Cook until the shrimp are white and curly. Set all that aside in a big bowl.

HINT: I should probably own a wok. But I don't. So when I need to stir fry, I haul out my big black cast iron beast and make no apology for it. Feel free to improvise.

6. Heat more oil into the now-empty wok, drain the noodles and cook them in the oil for a minute or two. Push then to one side of the wok.

7. Crack the eggs directly into the wok alongside the noodles, and scramble them. Cook until set.

8. Add the sauteed veggies, shrimp and tofu into the wok.

9. Fold in the sauce, and then the green onions and bean sprouts.

HINT: My mainstream grocery stores are afraid of salmonella poisonings, so they no longer carry fresh sprouts. I have to settle for the canned version, found in the Asian aisle. However, if I take the time to go to an Asian market, I can usually find fresh.

AND THE BIGGEST HINT OF ALL:

Watch the proportions! Nothing is worse than a soggy ball of dry rice noodles pretending to be a delicious Asian feast. My end game is to always go low on noodles and high on sauce; it's easy enough to add another handful of noodles but devilishly complicated to fish out undesired noodles from the sauce.

(My recipe was inspired by this one. I owe its author a debt of gratitude. Or maybe a helping of Pad Thai)

* * * * *

I will admit, it took me a fair amount of perseverance and patience to get this dish right. I can only thank those who inspired me to keep trying:

To Baby Boy, who made me so many delicious dishes at his food stall in Shah Alam.

To Kama, who fed me untold plates of delicious food in Thai-inspired Kelantan.

To Nana, who bought me Pad Thai in Langkawi.

To Chris, who got chased down the street by the waitress at Thai Tom's which convinced me that there had to be a better way to eat delicious Pad Thai.

To Mr. David, my boss during my high school sous chef days, who taught me not to cook but to believe that I could learn to cook anything I wanted

And to Jurie, who fed me deliciously saucy noodles at his office and made my whole Southeast Asian experience possible.

* * * * *

Thai Tom's is a hole-in-the-wall restaurant on the Ave in Seattle, and if you ever have the chance, go there. In the meantime, I highly recommend you read all about it.

Life Of A Math Teacher: Number 15

My Homemade Pad Thai

Seattle > The U District > the Ave > Thai Tom"s > Nirvana

Rice Bowl Sauce: Spicy Sriracha Peanut

* * * * *

Ready for more stories about my most dearly beloved, tried-and-true homemade meals?

My Homemade Lasagna

My Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

My Homemade Spaghetti and Meatballs

My Homemade Grilled Cheese Sandwich

My Homemade Cold Tuna Noodle

My Homemade Beef Stir Fry

My Homemade Beef Stew

My Homemade Parmesan Chicken Nuggets

My Homemade Enchiladas

My Homemade Chicken Salad

My Homemade Cranberry Apple Crisp

My Homemade Pasta Primavera

My Homemade Pad Thai

My Homemade Quiche

My Homemade Potato Salad

My Homemade Cobb Salad

My Homemade French Toast