Dolce Cannoli the Bolo

Meet Noli, (aka: Dolce [dohl-chay] Cannoli or Noli Cannoli) our new little Bolo dog.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that we had a very sweet little tiny toy poodle who lived to be about 19 years old. Our children grew up with him. (We all used to fight over who got to sleep with him.) He was the perfect dog and I thought he was a once in a lifetime dog. Four years ago I got a mixed breed puppy, but after two years of constant battle, we decided he just wasn’t a fit. In fact, he really gave me some serious PTSD. There were so many times he brought me to tears. I had pretty much given up hope of ever having another dog of my own.

Then last summer my daughter saw a little black poodle puppy that was sooo sweet and that started me searching again. I do love poodles. We have owned two and they were both extremely sweet! But I also know that not all poodles are the same and we have a 5 1/2 year old granddaughter, so can’t take any chances. I half-heartedly searched for a toy poodle for several months but didn’t find much.

Then on vacation in April, a friend of mine had adopted a little mixed breed that was quiet, sweet and little. I was intrigued. So I began searching again. First for a toy poodle, since two of my favorite dogs I have owned were poodles. I found a lady 2-3 hours away who breeds toy poodles and is going out of business, but I was just hesitant about it because she had trouble with the dogs getting along with each other and several of them died young from heart issues. I definitely don’t want to get into anything like that.

So… I decided to google sweet, calm, friendly, small dog breeds. I came up with 3 contenders: Toy Poodles, Havanese and Coton de Tulear. But this other little-known breed called Bolognese kept popping up. It’s a little white dog from Bologna, Italy that has been bred in Europe for centuries. The more I learned about the breed, the more impressed I was. It sounded like everything I was looking for. Like maybe I really could find another little perfect dog!

I spoke to several breeders and then heard about a litter of 14 week old puppies that was deeply discounted because they were in a rescue situation. Within days I decided on one of the cute little male fluffballs and made flight arrangements to pick him up on 4/20/2024.

First picture of Noli that was sent to me

Little Noli was a teensy bit vocal in the airport, but on both flights he was very quiet and slept most of the time. At our layover he pottied on a potty pad in the ladies bathroom. He was very quiet on the one hour car ride home from the airport. How in the world can a 14 week old puppy be quiet for that many hours? Incredible!

Sweet Little Noli under the airplane seat being a good boy.

The next day we took him to town to shop for puppy supplies. He met multiple people and went to all kinds of new places. He was a little trooper the whole time.

Today is his first “normal” day at home and he continues to amaze. He has not made any potty mistakes from the moment I picked him up two days ago. He either goes on the potty pad – without being asked, or when I take him outside. (he knows the word “potty”.) He is soooo sweet. He is a snuggler. He loves everyone. He is quiet, gentle, calm. Seriously. Why didn’t I know about this amazing breed before???

I could go on and on about him (as you can see) and it’s only been two days. Can you imagine what I will be like in a week? a month? 😆

Expect to see more of this adorable cloud with legs. He is also starting his own facebook page and blog. I can’t make any guarantees how diligent he will be about posting on them, but I’ll try to remind him. My goal for now is just for him to be a breed ambassador. This is a very rare breed in America.

Comment below and tell me about your favorite dog breed and why!

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Soooo…. there’s cookies. And then there’s COOKIES.

Among them, chocolate chip cookies are my favorite. And I think I may have found my new favorite among the chocolate chip cookies. Partly because it’s sourdough, which makes it a bit healthier. And it also has that perfect crunchy outer layer with a soft inner layer.

Here is the recipe. (which I found at sugarspunrun. com and modified slightly) It is almost identical to my previous favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, so no wonder I am such a big fan! Check out that photo! Don’t they just look perfect???

Photo credits to Sugar Spun Run . com

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 cup unsalted organic butter
• 1 cup packed organic brown sugar
• 2/3 cup organic cane sugar [I used partly coconut sugar and a scant 2/3 cup]
• 1 large organic egg at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons organic vanilla extract (or make your own)
• 2/3 cup sourdough starter (or discard)
• 2 3/4 cup organic flour
• 1 teaspoon organic baking powder
• 1 teaspoon organic baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon grey salt
• 1 1/2 cups organic unsweetened chocolate chips
• flaky sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions

In a saucepan, melt the 1 cup of butter over medium-low heat. Increase to medium and cook, stirring constantly. The butter will sizzle and pop. Once it starts to turn golden brown, remove it from the heat. Pour the butter into a heatproof bowl to cool, then mix together the sugars, 1 egg and 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla. Finally, add the sourdough starter and mix well.

In a separate bowl mix together the remaining ingredients: 2 3/4 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Slowly add these to the wet ingredients until thoroughly mixed. Fold in the 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips. Cover the bowl and refrigerate, ideally overnight (to let the sourdough do its thing) but as little as 30 minutes. [I made one pan after an hour of chilling and then left the remaining dough in the fridge overnight. 🙃 The best of both worlds.]

When you and the dough are ready to start baking, preheat your oven to 350º and scoop the chilled dough onto a baking sheet. (You can line it with parchment paper if you like) For 1 1/2 Tablespoon sized scoops, they should be 2 inches apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Edges will be golden brown, center will be soft, but they will continue cooking after you take them out. Sprinkle them with flaky sea salt, cool and try not to eat the whole pan!

For me, the best part of baking *any* chocolate chip cookies is (A) the cookie dough and (2) the freshly baked cookies right out of the oven. After they cool, I can take them or leave them. Is anyone else like that?

A Sourdough Kick

Happy March 28 to you!

Beginning in mid-April I am hoping to really amp up my sourdough fun. Sourdough is simple and extremely good for you. In fact, I have heard that people with gluten sensitivity can eat sourdough baked products and it is not a problem. However, I am not giving any medical advice. 🙃

Photo by Rene Strgar on Pexels.com

If you do a search in my blog, you can see some of the things I have made (and still make) over the years. Here are some of them:

• sourdough butter-horn rolls (delicious and oh. so. light and airy)
• sourdough pancakes (these don’t use any flour, just the sourdough starter)
• sourdough rye bread (my absolute favorite)
• sourdough cinnamon rolls

Recently two different people mentioned that they had made sourdough bagels and how delicious they were. So here is the sourdough bagel recipe I am going to try.

I also want to make sourdough pizza. If you have a good sourdough pizza recipe, please post it in the comments!

I found a youtube video about how to use sourdough without having to feed it… so I am really looking forward to trying that as well!

Sourdough Without Feeding

So much excitement!

If you haven’t made sourdough before, I have a really simple method that uses only flour and water and takes less than a week to get going.

Click here to see my simple Sourdough Starter Recipe

I don’t do a discard. I am not sure what the purpose of that is, but I just use everything and haven’t had any issues over the many years I have been sourdoughing. (is that even a word?)

What are your favorite sourdough recipes? Share in the comments below.

Lose Weight AND Sleep Better???

Years ago I posted in this blog about honey, my favorite sweetener, and the many reasons I like it so much.

Recently I visited the link I referenced in that post and found that they recommend honey to not only help with sleep, but also with weight loss. WHAT?

I will be trying this!

Here is a short video about why it works

And this is the website with more information and other benefits of including pure, raw honey in your diet.

https://www.benefits-of-honey.com/hibernation-diet/#google_vignette

I love that this is something our Creator made for us and that Scripture talks about it too! 💖

The House 8 Months Later

I thought you might want to see what our little cottage looks like, so here are a few snapshots taken over the last 8 months. It is still a work in progress, but we are really enjoying our hygge home!

Front Deck

Living Room

Kitchen

Bathroom