Sas goes all disappointed-dog

Sasquatch was a little depressed...She was bored with everything. You'd think she'd have been excited by the remodeling and her new boyfriends H. and A. but no, she wanted to go to work with me. She'd heard about some enlightened companies that allow, even encourage, dogs in the workplace. And she could not understand why she couldn't accompany me. It did little good to try to explain to her that da man had forbidden dogs and even cats. Sas wants what she wants...I don't know where she picked up that trait.






Actually, since the remodeling has been wreaking havoc with our domain, the office hadn't been the worst place to be...and I cannot believe I have written such a sentence.





But things at the office are familiar. Oh it may look like all is in disarray, but I know where everything is, unlike at my house. And it's quiet there. It has all the conveniences of home...coffee, ice, the Internet, lots of reference books, in case I need to look something up, like a banking law term...There's that pesky work thing, but many days that can be easily knocked out in a few hours...other days, well, other days it's more difficult. But even so, I walk on carpet or tile at the office instead of plywood and it's not that dusty and there are not men opening my drawers and closets. So I completely understand Sas's desire to be someplace relatively orderly and not dusty.



To distract her, I've shown Sas a new (to her) channel on television. The Food Channel. She likes food, a lot, and she's always interested when I cook, so I was pretty sure she would enjoy some of the simpler shows on the Food Channel...The Semi-Ho, for example. You can't get much simpler than she, with her penchant for taking convenience foods like canned icing, and transforming them into gourmet dishes like chocolate truffles. Her recipe for truffles is brilliant! Canned icing, powdered sugar and the flavoring of your choice. She uses vanilla, but shows us that we can use whatever we want, even imitation strawberry flavoring, which I'm sure is divine. All you have to do is mix everything together using a hand mixer, but do be sure to stir in the powdered sugar first before turning on the mixer, lest you find your kitchen sugared like a Viennese tort in a bakery window. You use the mixer to ensure all the little lumps of powdered sugar are pulverized and incorporated throughout the icing, and when all is a homogeneous mass, you drop teaspoonfuls of the stuff onto a white platter, being sure to swirl the top for a most pleasing effect, and dusting the whole thing with cocoa powder, platter and all. Fifteen minutes in the refrigerator, and you have the most luscious truffles you've ever put in your mouth. Well, that's what the Semi-Ho says anyway. I've never actually tried them, but I believe they'd be simple enough for Sas to make herself. And I'm sure they're
delicious...canned icing, powdered sugar and imitation strawberry flavoring...mmmmmmm. I would have garnished the white platter with a real (not imitation) strawberry and perhaps a few mint leaves, just for color. And hey! maybe a few sprinkles would be more fun than that boring cocoa powder. And if I were going to make them, I really think I'd use some bittersweet chocolate (60% cacao or better), melted with some heavy cream and chilled until they were firm enough to roll into balls, approximating the look of actual truffles, after which these confections were named. But that's just me...not creative at all.

--Ina