Strawberry-Jam Tea Cakes

Here's what I've learned about the filled and layered section of Martha's cookbook. The cupcakes in it take some work. Granted, I'm only on the second cupcake of the section, but these first two have not been walks in the park. That said, I find them to be more fun because they are a bit of a challenge. I like these strawberry-jam tea cakes in particular because of the little surprise they have inside.

The actual cake part of these cupcakes was very similar to the cake in the boston cream pie cupcakes that I made last week. It may have been identical, but I didn't compare the recipes word for word, so I'm not sure. But, the batter was just as thick and difficult to work with as the last time, and folding in the egg whites made it much easier to work with. Again, just like last time. The only difference was this time, I layered the cupcake batter and filling before the cupcakes went into the oven instead of putting everything together afterward.

When the cupcake batter was done, I put 2 tablespoons of batter into each cupcake pan, then layered 1 tablespoon of strawberry preserves on top of that. The recipe said I could use jam or preserves, I chose preserves just as a personal preference. On top of the layer of preserves, I put 2 more tablespoons of batter. After all the layering was done my only concern was that the cupcakes were too full. They were filled right to the top. I followed the directions as they were written, but I think I could have used a little less batter. Or maybe, my tablespoons were just a little too big. The cupcakes turned out fine in the end, they were just a little larger than they probably should have been, and I only got 14 cupcakes instead of 16.

The other issue I came across was being able to create an indent in the first 2 tablespoons of batter to create a little spot for the preserves to go. The batter was so sticky that I had trouble getting the indentation to stay once I lifted the spoon out of it. The batter just stuck to the spoon. So, when I put the preserves into the layers of batter I pushed it down with the spoon to make the indentation as best as I could.

I baked the cupcakes for 30 total minutes, turning them halfway through the baking time. 30 minutes was enough, but some of the preserves oozed out of the cupcakes and was visible through the sides of some of the cupcakes when I removed them from the pan. The cupcakes came out easily (I had floured and buttered the pans beforehand). I removed them as soon as they came out of the oven and let them cool completely on a wire rack. When the cupcakes were completely cooled I stored them overnight in a plastic container and made the citrus glaze the following day.

The citrus glaze is very easy to make. I've done it before, but last time I made it I used lime, this time the recipe called for oranges. I didn't have to add any extra confectioner's sugar or orange juice for consistency purposes. The amount the recipe called for was perfect. I spooned about a tablespoon of glaze over each of the cupcakes and then let the glaze set for 30 minutes.

I enjoyed the cupcakes, though they were a little thick, as in, it was a lot of cupcake. I think that's partly because I made them too big. Next time I would use less batter, maybe 1 1/2 tablespoons for each layer of batter instead of 2. I also think these cupcakes would be quite good warmed up in the microwave for a couple seconds. I may just have to try that for a not-so-healthy breakfast one day this week.

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

When I think of Boston I think of the Red Sox, the Patriots & Tom Brady (gross), the cold, the city's ridiculously confusing layout (what's wrong with a simple grid?), Kenny Chesney's song "Please Come to Boston" or "Boston" if that's more your style. Any Kenny Chesney suits my fancy just fine. Yum. I also think of Boston Cream Pie, which isn't technically pie. It's more like a cake. Either way, I've never had it. It's always looked quite appealing and delicious, but for whatever reason, I've never actually tried it. Until now, and these boston cream pie cupcakes.

I've been working up the post-holiday energy to make these because they looked like, and turned out to be a lot of work. There were a lot of steps that involved dirtying and then washing a lot of dishes. I hate washing dishes. If I had someone to clean up the mess I make while baking I would bake all the time. But I don't, and therefore I don't always have the energy or desire to clean up my mess.

To make these cupcakes I had roughly a whole day to dedicate to the process and the energy to do it. I worked early in the morning and set to baking just about as soon as I got home. Actually, I started during the 1st intermission of the Flyers-Sabres game, go Sabres! First step was to make the cupcakes, which wasn't difficult, it just involved a lot of steps, and as previously mentioned, a lot of dishes. Luckily it wasn't too much grunt work, I let my stand mixer take care of that for me. Love that thing.

When the batter was done I filled the cupcake tins about halfway and baked them for 15 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. In this case the first half of the baking time was 8 minutes, the second was 7. After the cupcakes were done baking I set them on a wire rack to cool and proceeded to watch the rest of the 2nd period of the Sabres game. Hockey is back people.

In the 2nd intermission I started working on the pastry cream (or vanilla cream as Martha calls it, this is a little different than the recipe in her cookbook). This wasn't really difficult either, but again, more dishes. I've never made pastry cream before, but it was quite easy, you just have to babysit it. A lot of stirring, watching, waiting and wondering if you're messing it up. When I thought I had achieved the thickness I was supposed to I strained the cream through a sieve and covered the it with plastic wrap and popped it in the fridge for 2 hours to set. While it set, I watched the Sabres win, watched the beginning of the 49ers-Falcons game and fell asleep for a little while. It happens when you've been up since 3am and worked an 8-hour day. I can't help it.

When I woke up from my little afternoon siesta my husband came home and naturally asked what was for dinner. I told him I would start making dinner after I finished the cupcakes. Domestic goddess, that's me! The last step to the cupcakes was to make the chocolate-ganache glaze, something I have done several times before with other cupcakes in this book. It's not difficult to make, it's just more dishes to dirty and then wash. Before I started chopping the chocolate for the ganache I cut each cupcake in half so it would be ready to be filled and ganached (technical term) once all the components were done.

While I waited for the heavy cream and corn syrup to come to a simmer I started spreading the pastry cream onto the halved cupcakes. I put roughly a tablespoon of cream on each one (I had 16 total cupcakes) and had way more pastry cream than I needed. The recipe said I would get 20 cupcakes, but I think I still would have had extra pastry cream even if I had gotten that many cupcakes. When the ganache was done I spooned about a tablespoon on top of each cupcake and tried to spread it so it would drip down the sides. I also had way more ganache than I needed as well. I suppose I could have added more to the top of each cupcake, but I didn't want the ganache to overpower the rest of the cupcake so I cautioned toward the lighter side.

In hindsight I probably could have added both a little more pastry cream and ganache to each of the cupcakes, but part of me likes to believe that less is more. I didn't want them to be little messes of cupcake, pastry cream and ganache. I thought they turned out to be quite tasty and other than all the work and dishes, I enjoyed my first boston cream pie experience. That said, if I ever want it again, there's a good chance I'll forgo the work and let someone else make it for me.

What's Up, Dr. Seuss?

The holidays are over and I'm still exhausted, you? No matter how much time I have off, this year I was fortunate enough to have 4 days (win!), I'm always tired afterward. I don't know if it's the travel, all the holiday preparations (baking, shopping, etc.) or just that I'm getting older (ah!), but, I'm pooped. I need a vacation. As always this holiday season I was busy baking, but had all of my Christmas baking done about a week before C-Day so I could get all my cookie gifts put together and distributed before the holiday. Normally once I'm done with Christmas baking I'm done for the year. I like to give myself a little baking vacation since getting ready for Christmas is so much work. However, this year, I got a very special baking request that was due two days before Christmas. Although I knew it would be a busy time, I'm not one to turn down a friend, or the opportunity to make a little extra cash. I did do a lot of Christmas shopping this year!

A co-worker of mine asked me to make birthday cakes and cupcakes for his 3 children. They all have birthdays within a week of each other. The kicker is they're all the same week as Christmas give or take a day or two. Pretty amazing planning if you ask me. They were planning a party for December 23 and asked me for three 6-inch cakes and 40 cupcakes with a Dr. Seuss theme. They sent me all the specifics, chocolate cakes with vanilla buttercream, 20 chocolate and 20 red velvet cupcakes, as well as some details of what they were thinking for each cake. Cat in the Hat, Lorax and One Fish, Two Fish. With their suggestions and the help of Google, I mapped out my ideas and was ready to get to work.

I used the same trusty chocolate cake recipe I use every time someone asks for chocolate cake. It's my favorite and so far it's been a success. I made the cupcakes first, starting with the red velvet. Since everything else was going to be chocolate, I wanted to get the odd flavor out, out of the way. For the red velvet, I used this recipe from the lovely Paula Deen. I've used this recipe several times before and have always had great results with it. Plus, I love Paula. Who doesn't? I'm talking to you Anthony Bourdain. Once the red velvet batter was ready I baked 12 cupcakes at a time, thankfully I have 2 cupcake pans which made this process go much faster.

While the red velvet cupcakes were baking I started on the chocolate cake batter. I made a double batch of the chocolate cake thinking that at the very least it would get me 20 cupcakes and maybe one 6-inch cake, and it did. If memory serves me correctly, I even had a little batter left over. Once the red velvet cupcakes were done the chocolate cupcakes went into the oven. I did the cupcakes first because they have a shorter baking time than the cakes and this way the batter would sit out for the shortest amount of time possible.

Once the chocolate cupcakes were set I made a single batch of the chocolate cake batter for the remaining two 6-inch cakes. I had more than enough batter overall and ended up getting a couple extra cupcakes that I took into work the next day to get rid of. Each cake took about 50 minutes to bake, so it was a lot of waiting, but it didn't matter. While everything was baking I worked on making the fondant. I made 4 colors (white, yellow, red and orange) and ended up having way more than I needed. But, I'd rather have too much, than not enough. After Day 1 of cake making, I had 3 cakes, 40+ cupcakes, and 4 colors of fondant ready to go for Day 2.

On Day 2 I started working as soon as I got up because I wanted to be done as soon as possible. Day 2 took much longer than I thought it would. I knew it would take awhile, but I didn't think it would take as long as it did. I think I worked from 10a-4p give or take a half an hour. When you add that to the 5 hours of baking and fondant making the day before, it's a lot. Maybe I'm still tired from all of that?

So, Day 2, or decorating day started with making all the frosting. First, I made the cream cheese frosting for the red velvet cupcakes. I only needed one batch of that, and again, it was the odd man out so I wanted to get it out of the way. Everything else was going to be vanilla buttercream. To frost the cupcakes I used my icing gun with a star tip to make them look nice, and I bought a rainbow assortment of sprinkles. I thought bold colors were the most appropriate for Dr. Seuss. I also bought bold colored Wilton wrappers for the cupcakes. I was going for fun and kid friendly.

After the red velvet cupcakes were set I started on the vanilla buttercream frosting. I ended up making 2 double batches (I should mention, I used my stand mixer for everything, other than the fondant, for this entire project) just to make sure I would have enough. I had more than enough. I probably could have gotten away with 1 1/2 batches. Live and learn.

I frosted the cupcakes first employing the same method I did for the red velvet cupcakes. I wanted everything to be consistent. Once the cupcakes were all set and tucked into their respective boxes I went to work on frosting the cakes. I like to put the cakes in the fridge before I frost them because it makes it easier and helps to minimize the crumbs. The crumb layer is already a pain, but I like to make it as painless as possible. After each crumb layer I returned the cakes to the fridge so the icing could firm up a little and make the second layer easier to apply so everything would be smooth. After the icing of the first cake had set, I started working on the fondant for it. Cake number 1 was Cat in the Hat.

This was the hardest design for me to come up with because to me Cat in the Hat is so simple. There's not really much to do with it other than the obvious. I new I wanted to portray the hat somehow, but I also knew I didn't have the skill to make anything look like the cat. Working with only one layer also limited what I could do. They had suggested kites and perhaps adding some blue polka dots so I tried to work in all three of those elements.

Here's what I came up with. While it is plain, I was ultimately pretty happy with it. It wasn't my favorite of the bunch, but I thought it was cute and fit the criteria.

Cake number 2 was The Lorax. They sent me suggestions for colors, green, orange and truffula (I think I spelled that right) trees. I confess, I knew what the Lorax was, but I had to Google truffula trees, I had no idea what they were. It's been more than a couple years since my Dr. Seuss days, and since I don't have any kids yet, I don't feel that I should know what they are. After my Google searching I knew what I wanted to do. This design was actually the easiest for me to come up with, so it would obviously be the one that took the most time to execute. I knew I wanted to do the face of the Lorax on the top and on the sides I would do truffula trees going around.

It took forever, but this was the cake I was the most proud of and was the most work. I think if I were to do this one again I would add some outlines, but truth be told, I was already tired and I still had one cake left to go.

Cake number 3 was One Fish, Two Fish. One Fish, Two Fish I am familiar with and didn't need to do any Google search to know what I was dealing with, but I did just for research purposes. I also came up with the design I wanted for this one pretty quickly as well. I also took the time to print out shapes of the fish so I could cut them out of fondant and put then on the cake. That little dream didn't come true. After several failed attempts to "trace" and cut the fish out of fondant, I gave up. I either don't have the right tools, or this is just something that can't be done. For a few minutes I panicked because I didn't know what I was going to do. I couldn't have a One Fish, Two Fish cake with no fish. That wasn't going to work. I also knew that I wasn't going to be successful at cutting out the fish and if they didn't look like the actual fish the cake was going to look stupid. Then a little light bulb went off and I thought, why not just "glue" the fish I cut out onto the cake? Sure, it's not cake, but, it will look much better than anything I'm going to be able to figure out. And, just to clear things up, my glue, was frosting.

Honestly, I loved it. I felt a little bit like a cheated because it wasn't all edible, but at the same time, I couldn't argue with how great it looked and I knew that no matter what I tried to do, it wasn't going to look nearly as good as anything else I was going to come up with. And, overall, the client and the kids were happy, which is all that really matters.

As always, there is a lesson I take away from each of my experiences in baking for a "client" and in this case it was that no matter how much I plan out my designs and what I want to do, there is always going to be something that isn't going to work as I envisioned it would. But, don't panic, just take a breath, use your brain and try to come up with a solution. I was truly in a panic about One Fish, Two Fish. On the brink of considering a small cry in frustration fest, but I got it together and figured out something that would work. Go me, and may your 2013 bring you moments of enlightenment as well.

Guten Tag!

That's hello or good day in German for those who aren't as well versed as I. Why am I writing German greetings you might ask? Well, there's one probably not-so-obvious-to-you answer. Because I recently took a little trip over the great big Atlantic Ocean to the country where some of my ancestors are from. You guessed it, Germany. Don't worry, I'm still baking, in fact I've been baking quite frequently as of late, I baked 2 pies for Thanksgiving (apple and coconut creme) and Christmas baking is in full swing. Therefore, cupcake baking is currently on hold. I just haven't taken any pictures of anything (except for my Germany birthday treat you'll be seeing soon) and haven't had much time for posting. It's been a busy couple weeks.

So Germany you say? It was a work trip, and that's just about all I did. Work and try to sleep. The time difference was not my friend (Germany is 6 hours ahead of east coast time). For those who are unaware, I work in production at ESPN and for Veteran's Day this year we broadcast portions of SportsCenter from Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Maybe you watched? My mom and dad did, they're so proud. We were there to support our troops and also cover the college basketball game that was going to be played in one of the hangers on base, Michigan State and Connecticut.

What's Germany like? Well, I really couldn't tell you because I didn't see much of it. There were 2 shuttle rides to and from the airport in Frankfurt, but I slept during those. Once I realized the German countryside looks a lot like the Connecticut countryside I decided sleep was more important. As I mentioned we worked from Ramstein Air Base which is also where we stayed. There's a hotel on the base for civilians, military and military families which was my home for about 5 days. The base was very much like America, and had I not known I was in Germany, I wouldn't have known I was in Germany, other than the surplus of BMWs and Mercedes that drove around the base. If you go to Germany and rent a car, it will be a Mercedes. Promise.

The food was very American as well. There was a mall attached to the hotel (that I couldn't shop in, it was only for military and their families) that had a food court (where I was allowed to purchase things, things being food items only) that included fine dining establishments like Subway, Taco Bell and Baskin Robbins to name a few. There was also a Macaroni Grill, Chili's and Burger King on base. If I had to compare it to something, I would liken it to a college campus with it's own mini airport and giant airplanes. From what I remember of what I learned while there, Ramstein mostly has C-130s which are enormous airplanes, like a cargo plane. They're the types of planes you can drive vehicles into, massive and really cool to see. I didn't get to ride in one, but it was just cool to walk to the production truck in the morning and see them all sitting on the tarmac.

As I mentioned we were there to honor our troops for Veteran's Day, we were also there to cover a basketball game. One of the first places I went when I got on base was to the hanger where the court was being built. It wasn't to see the court, it was to try to get my base pass so no one tried to throw me out, but it was cool to see part of the process of building a basketball court in a hanger. The first time I saw it there was just one set of bleachers put up. The morning of the game I stopped in the hanger again to check out the finished product, it was pretty amazing.

I had a little time so I wandered around a bit to check everything out since I knew it was unlikely I'd get back into the hanger once the game started since I'd be working. I like to have swag to remember the remotes I've done, and the military was nice enough to give us all very nice jackets to keep from our visit, but what I really wanted was one of the chairs the players would later be sitting in during the game.

I thought these were pretty awesome, and if I could have figured out how to get one on the airplane home without getting caught or fired I would have done it. But, since I couldn't, I settled for a nice fleece jacket. It was really nice, the best swag I've gotten out of all the remotes I've done (10 if we're counting).

My view during the week wasn't quite as exciting as being in a hanger. The set for SportsCenter was inside a different hanger than the game (sorry, I didn't take any pictures of it), but since I'm not nearly important enough to put on TV, I get to sit in a chilly production truck, packed like a sardine.

A mini control room on wheels and pretty close quarters as you can see (I was the middle seat with the 2 computers). But, it's all part of the traveling experience, and though it's exhausting, stressful and a lot of work, it is a great experience. One I usually only appreciate after I'm home. This trip was no different, except that I appreciated it more than I normally would because of who we were there for. You stop complaining when you're in the company of the military because you realize that you're lucky just to be in Germany to make television. It's a tiny matter compared to the bigger picture of what they're doing and the sacrifices they're making everyday. I can suck up 5 days with minimal sleep because at the end of those 5 days, I get to go home to my house and my husband.

When the week was over I had a couple reasons to celebrate. It was a successful trip, I was getting to go home, and it was my birthday. On my birthday I woke up in Germany and went to bed in Connecticut, it was a very long day of travel, but I started it off like any good birthday should begin. With a German treat, and the only German cuisine I actually ate while in Germany.

It was delicious, and capped off a truly amazing experience and opportunity. Happy Birthday to me.

Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! That's right, ice cream! Doesn't it make for a lovely garnish? I think so too. I like to copy the garnishes that Martha uses in the pictures in the cookbook and for these flourless chocolate cupcakes, ice cream was that garnish. I can get on board with that.

I won't say there were a lot of different steps to these cupcakes, there were only about 3, but each one was a different process that required dirtying another dish, which made for a lot of cleanup that I didn't so much enjoy. But, some good things require more work. While there were several steps, none of them were difficult. Melting the butter and chocolate was easy. That's never where I worry or get hung up that I might be messing something up. It's whipping the egg whites that concerns me and this time around was no different.

I used my stand mixer to handle the egg whites because it's much more efficient and I can do other things while they're whipping, like tend to the melting butter and chocolate for instance. I let the egg whites whip until I thought they were the right consistency, truthfully, I never know. I just do what I think is right and hope for the best. This time around I don't think I did it right because of how the cupcakes turned out. I'm not sure if I over-whipped the egg whites, or didn't whip them enough, but when the cupcakes were done the centers never really collapsed like they looked in Martha's pictures, they just kind of caved in. I suppose it could have also been the baking time (25 total minutes with a turn halfway through), maybe they needed to bake longer, or maybe I didn't bake them long enough. I don't plan on making them again anytime soon (it's almost time to start Christmas baking), but if I do I'll try to do some investigative work and see if they turn out any differently the second time around.

Although they didn't look like Martha's pictures, they did taste delicious! Especially with the ice cream. She knows a good garnish. The texture was very light and smooth. It kind of reminded me of a mousse. The texture was less cakey than a souffle and the center was set so it wasn't like a lava cake. In short they were tasty, and I ate more of them than I originally intended. It's a good thing I ran out of ice cream (my hubby helped with that) or I would have eaten even more. When I'm not pressuring myself by shedding for a wedding I let myself get away with a lot more bad eating. It's time to right this ship, though I'm not sure doing it before the holidays is a good idea.

Pistachio-Raspberry Tea Cakes

We are rapidly approaching the end of the simple and sweet section of the cookbook. I couldn't believe it myself until I looked ahead a few pages and saw that I only have 2 to go after these pistachio-raspberry tea cakes. It's exciting to finish a section, I feel like I'm really making progress and accomplishing something. No, it's certainly nothing as noble as curing a disease or saving the environment, but a goal is a goal... at least I have one.

I will confess that I wasn't excited about making these cupcakes. As mentioned several times before I'm not a big fan of pistachios and I don't hate raspberries, but I don't love them either. I prefer them in a pureed or syrup form. Like a garnish on a dessert, or perhaps in yogurt. I also figured that not many people would be interested in eating them, including myself, so they would be hard to get rid of.

The first thing I did to start making these cupcakes was to shell (I couldn't find pistachios that had already been shelled) and chop the pistachios. I had bought a small container of pistachios that I thought would be enough for the recipe, which was a little over a cup. I got about 3/4 cup of shelled pistachios. Not enough. I thought I might have an already opened bag of pistachios in the cupboard from a recent attempt at healthy snacking (I just can't do pistachios, I really tried, I swear) but I searched through the cupboard and couldn't find it. However a day later when I was back in that same cupboard looking for something else I found them... on the bottom shelf, right in front of my face. Clearly a future as a detective is not in the cards for me. Since I couldn't find anymore pistachios in the cupboard when I looked for them the first time I decided that I would just cut the recipe in half. Something I've thought of doing before when I had a recipe I wasn't excited about, but this was the first time I actually did it. I had enough pistachios to give me a 1/2 cup for the recipe and enough left over to use for the garnish. It would also be less work and I would have less to eat/get rid of. Everybody wins.

Happy with my decision to cut the recipe in half I proceeded. This recipe was the first I've used that calls for everything to be put together in a food processor. I almost didn't use it since I was afraid that it wouldn't work and blend everything well enough. But, part of this process is trying something new so I forged ahead. I ground the pistachios with the sugar and salt. I did a couple doses since after the first one there were still a couple of larger pieces of pistachio left. I wanted everything to be as fine as possible. I followed the same process for the remaining ingredients and turned out getting a normal looking batter. Though once everything was combined I did use a spoon to make sure everything was really combined since some of the liquid was at the bottom of the food processor and not completely mixed. Truthfully I think cutting the recipe in half was a stroke of luck (and maybe brilliance) since I'm not sure making a full batch would have fit in my food processor.

I filled the liners (which had to be sprayed with cooking spray first, something I've never had to do before) 3/4 full. This gave me 6 cupcakes... perfect! I was so excited to only have 6 cupcakes. I baked the cupcakes for 28 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. They may have turned out a little browner than I normally like. But they were by no means too done or burnt. They also looked quite beautiful. The colors were really nice. I can't say the same for the taste.

The batter was pretty good, but I really didn't enjoy the end product. I'm not sure if it was the combination of the pistachios and the raspberries, perhaps it was the consistency. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something wasn't quite right. I only ended up eating the portion of the cupcake that I took apart to take the photos. I even tried to go back a few days later when I was craving something sweet to give them another try and I only took a bite. They just weren't for me. I ended up throwing them away. I knew there was no way Bobby was going to eat them, fruit and nuts together, the cupcakes didn't stand a chance with him. I didn't think anyone at work would be interested in them either, especially since they were a couple days old at that point. I only like to provide baked goods when they're as fresh as possible. If I don't want to eat them, I can't expect other people to be interested.

Skunked (Pupper le Pew)

This is Rollins. Our 2-year-old Yellow Lab. He is very handsome, and he knows it.

This is a skunk. Not mine and certainly not handsome.

A couple weeks ago on a mild September evening after the sun had set, these 2 met. And because of that chance meeting we have the story of the night Rollins was sprayed by a skunk.

It was roughly 9pm, give or take a few minutes. I was in the kitchen and my husband (Bobby) was in the bedroom. Rollins was also in the bedroom and started growling and barking out the window. He does this on occasion and whenever we look out the window we never see anything, and never quite know what he's barking at.

(Please note the image below is not even remotely to scale or at all accurate in terms of what our house actually looks like, but it gives you an idea of where things are.)

We decided to let him out, so Bobby put his collar on him and Rollins sprinted out the back door clearly keen on getting whatever creature was lurking in the darkness. I had tried to ask Bobby to check around the side of the house (where the skunk is on the drawing above) to make sure there wasn't anything there before Rollins went out. It's hard to see around the side of the house, especially at night and I was worried about him chasing whatever creature was there into the street. But Rollins was not to be stopped, he was on a mission.

Since Rollins literally took off off the deck I ran outside as well to make sure he wasn't going to run into the street. When he's chasing something, he has no concept of where he is. He is a retriever after all. Because it was dark I couldn't see what was on the side of the house. But by all the barking and growling Rollins was doing it was clear that he had found something. Bobby was in the yard going after Rollins to get him to come back onto the deck. Rollins is actually a pretty well behaved dog and listens most of the time, so back to the deck he came and stood with me while Bobby assessed the situation.

I asked him if he could see anything and he said, "I think it was a skunk." And instantly I'm thinking, "Oh, (expletive), I hope he didn't get sprayed." He was standing right next to me and I didn't smell a thing, I thought we were in the clear. Then I bent down and took a whiff. Yep, it was a skunk, and Rollins got sprayed. Skunk 1, Rollins 0. It was late, it was dark, everything was closed, what do we do? Google of course. Google always has the answer.

I stood on the deck with Rollins to keep the smell out of the house while Bobby Googled on his phone and ran down the options. I remember tomato juice being a remedy when I was a kid. I knew we didn't have any tomato juice so I was hoping there were other options. There were. We decided based on what we had on hand that giving him a bath with his own shampoo was the best option.

Before bathing him we checked his eyes and ears and they appeared to be fine. Apparently skunk spray is actually an oil, and it can burn the eyes and cause blindness. Rollins was good. Google also said to wipe down the sprayed animal, Rollins in this case, with paper towels to try to get some of the oil off before it soaked into his skin. We did that and then into the tub he went.

Rollins loves the water. He's a big fan of the pool and loves the hose, but he hates being in the bathtub. I wish I had taken a picture of how pitiful he looked while standing in the tub soaking wet. He was not a happy camper. We (Bobby) ended up giving him 2 consecutive baths with his regular dog shampoo and it did the trick. However, there was no remedy for the skunk smell that permeated the house. The smell was everywhere. Because the bedroom windows were open, and the incident occurred outside the bedroom windows, the smell had worked its way into the house. It was awful. We turned on all the fans, lit all the candles we had and opened all the windows. In the morning it was much better.

As for Rollins, he didn't smell the next day, but if he gets wet, even now that it's a couple weeks later, you can still smell a little bit of the skunk on him. But only if you're close to him. We read on Google that the smell can stay on animals that have been sprayed up to 2 years, so the sooner the situation is address the better. Since he was wearing his collar when he was sprayed that also stunk of skunk. We left it outside on the deck for a few days and airing it out completely got rid of the skunk smell. The towels we used to dry him off, and the clothes we were wearing while we bathed him were all also rid of the skunk smell after they had been washed.

We haven't seen the skunk since, but then again, I never saw it to begin with. I will say, I now do a quick check of the yard before I let him out at night, just to make sure I can't see, or smell anything. And now, when Rollins barks out into the darkness at what I think is nothing, I do a quick scan to see if there's anything there. Just in case.