A winery, burger, and a trip to the emergency vet

Sounds like your typical Saturday, eh?

We decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and head down to Oliver Winery. It's a great local vineyard about an hour south of us. They make some fabulous wines, with my favorites being Oliver Soft Red and Skyy Dog Red. We packed up a picnic and the pup, and left town around noon. Can you tell how excited Eli is?

Once we arrived we realized about 200 other people had the same idea. The tasting areas were so packed, we grabbed the first bottle that sounded good, Oliver Harvest Watermelon and picked out our spot by the pond. We wasted no time setting up the picnic.

YUM!!! We had pasta salad (recipe below), potato salad, fruit salad, hummus, cucumbers, Laughing Cow cheese, crackers, and salami. The picnic was my excuse to make pasta salad, one of my favorite foods. I love it in part because you can make it with whatever you have on hand. Here's today's version:

Pasta Salad

8 oz penne pasta

4 oz sliced baby bella mushrooms

8-10 asparagus stalks, cut into 1.5 inch pieces

1/2 red onion, large dice

10-15 cherry tomatoes, halved

2 garlic cloves

3 tbsp red wine vinegar

3 tbsp + 1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp dijon mustard

1/4 c shredded parmesan

Fresh oregano, basil, and parsley, finely chopped

Salt and pepper

Bring a large pot of water to boil, salt, and add pasta. While pasta is cooking, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tbsp olive oil, mushrooms, asparagus, and red onion. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until veggies are soft and onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Remove heat, add tomatoes. Meanwhile, in the bottom of a large mixing bowl, add red wine vinegar and dijon mustard. Grate garlic cloves into vinegar mixture. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Add herbs (whatever you have on hand is fine). Toss pasta with dressing immediately after cooking. Add veggies. Cool to room temperature, then add cheese (ricotta salada would have been perfect with this, but ours was not looking too good and wound up in the trash). Refrigerate.

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After lunch, we settled into some reading. Andy was finishing up Brave New World and I was just starting Breaking Dawn.

We stayed for a few hours, and by the time we left nearly everyone had met Eli. He was more of a hit than the Soft Red for a quite a few people!

For a late dinner after the fabulous picnic, we decided to have burgers.

I had some simple Omaha Steak burgers defosted, so I decided to dress up the outside with sliced tomato, Gorgonzola cheese, carmelized onions and dijon mustard. With asparagus on the side, it was a perfect summer meal. Or it would have been....until we monentarily turned our backs and Eli scarfed down the asparagus, burger toppings, and half a burger. After first flipping out about the couch and scrubbing it furiously (whoever invented microfiber upholstry is seriously on my list of the Top Ten Coolest People Ever), I realized what was on that burger. Onions....which are toxic to dogs. And all the other things Eli ate, which wouldn't be a problem for most dogs. But Eli is a High Maitenance Dog. He has food allergies, and he reacts to everything but his special d/d dog food. Everything. Including organic, unpeeled, unwashed (by the producer...washed at home for sure) carrots (we tried). So not only would he have a potentially toxic reaction to the onions, he would have an allergic reaction to all the food.

Approximately 5 seconds later we were on the phone with the emergency vet and were told to bring Eli in immediately. The vet did her thing (I'll spare you the details!), and warned us Eli would be lethargic the rest of the night, but should be okay and keep an eye on him (specifically, his gums) for the next 5-6 days. Lethargic my butt....he's currently running in circles around the house, so I'd say he's making a fine recovery.

Whew, what a day! Here's hoping tomorrow is slightly less eventful.