Training my dog to be a ninja has been a long and less than rewarding road. But since there was some interest, we will review what I have learned along the way.
First, start young. Crazy Cocker Spaniel started at age 5. This was a poor choice. Since I figure it will be about a 10 year process, she will be 15 by the time her training is complete (that is if she is an average student…sadly I feel she is below average…but I love her all the same). Considering the fact that most cockers have a life span of 12-14 years I am sure you can do that math and see the dilemma.
Second. Go ahead and tell your pet you are training them to be a ninja. This way they know that other than just sleeping, peeing, pooping, eating, sniffing and scratching that they will also be training to be a ninja. Helps set the tone of the day. The mental aspect of a ninja is very important. CCS has great mental concentration, unless of course something comes along, like the UPS man, food, the need to pee. Okay, so maybe the concentration part needs work.
One area we did not have to work on was sneaking around. Years of searching for food have perfected her technique. 
Third. Attire. Most people think of ninjas in all black. But in my house the carpet, and much of the furniture is beige. Since the dog is beige we kept her as is. Feel free to dress your animal to match your house. Unless of course you have horizontal stripes, as no one looks good in those.
Forth. Weapons. There are a whole lot of ninja weapons, I mean just think how many those turtles had. Speaking of those turtles, I think that the fact that CCS is also not a mutant hurts her ability as well. Back to weapons. We went with Chinese throwing stars, which I don’t even think are really ninja a weapons but they are shiny and we like shiny things. Now, like a smart person, we started with paper throwing stars. Go find yourself a 12 year old kid. Give him $5 and some paper and let him have at it. You will go through many. I like to place them between the paws. Then tickle the dog and make her itch. This causes the release of the star. Only problem (yes there are a lot of problems) is that she seems to only throw down. So you will have to somehow figure out how to get the victim to lay down. Whatever you do, don’t tell the victim that you plan on killing him with a Chinese throwing star as this will greatly decreases your chance of them actually laying down. Either that or you pet will get very good at hurting people’s feet. Which probably works out better in the long run. I mean, if people get in trouble for having pit bulls and other breeds perhaps training your dog to kill with throwing stars could get you into more trouble.
Plus, ninjas aren’t really suppose to kill, they are suppose to escape. Which leads us to number five. Escape. This is what we will call a “needs improvement” area for CCS. We test her out by covering her with a blanket and time her to see how long it takes for her to get out. Um, yeah. She usually just gives up and lays in the blanket all covered up. Even when we help and show her a way she is a tad slow. Sigh. We are not giving up but we are looking for other avenues for her. We still have presidential hopes for her in 2012 but we are also considering focusing on what she does well. Sleeping and laying down. So we figure she should have her own website (no, not really doing it) called Lazy Dog. It will be pictures of all the places and ways she sleeps.
So as you can clearly see this wouldn’t make for much of a page on my new 5 part blog (not!). As my dog is clearly a crappy ninja and I am clearly a crappy ninja instructor.

(Notice how hard she is concentrating that she doesn’t even see the toy…skills! Also note all the beige.)

After a long day of trying to get my dog to find her way out of a paper sack, one needs a stiff drink. I don’t mean alcohol. I mean a milkshake. Not just any milkshake either. A cheesecake milkshake. And not cheesecake flavored, we are talking pieces of cheesecake thrown in there. Yum. The recipe didn’t indicate whether you were to use cheesecake with crust or without. So I made a cheesecake without. I don’t think it matters all that much. They are also vague about the size (4 to 6 ounces) of the cheesecake piece that you use. I mean my size of a cheesecake slice and the average person is very different. I have portion size issues.
It’s pretty simple really. Cheesecake, ice cream and a little milk. I threw in a little raspberry sauce to cut the richness.
And once again, for those counting, this milkshake is approximately 503 Weight Watchers points.

Cheesecake Milkshake

2 wedges (4 to 6 ounces each), plain cheesecake, store bought or homemade (I just made a crustless one)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 to 2 pints premium vanilla ice cream
½ cup whole milk

Combine milk, cheesecake, vanilla, 1 pint of ice cream in a blender and puree until thick and smooth. If the mixture is too thin add more ice cream a little bit at a time and blend. This milkshake should be thick enough to eat with a spoon if you like. Pour into two glasses.

Source:  Adapted from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor

“Hey, you should do that” was what I was told. They were in reference to the Pioneer Woman’s website. I just laughed hysterical at them (if you have never seen it you really should).
First off I told them she has like 5 sections to her website. I don’t know 5 things. I was trying to think of 5 sections I could even have. Baking/Cooking. Okay, I already do that.
Photography. I just fumble my way through that so I wouldn’t really be of help to anyone else. Plus I don’t have neat stuff like Photoshop or anything. So scratch that.
They are remodeling a beautiful lodge that is pretty much to die for. I live in a 1 year old home that doesn’t need renovating and I don’t even have pictures on the walls (exception of 2 rooms), nor do we have any walls painted. So scratch that.
She has a confessions section where she shares her life. I already kind of do that in my posts. So if I had a separate page for that my primary page would suck even more. Plus her confessionals are interesting. If I had to confess stuff it would be boring crap like, I didn’t get out of my pajamas until 3pm today. Or I hid the last cookie from my husband. Or the ultra controversial, I was too lazy today to separate out the laundry and just did whites and colors together (ala college days). Yes, people would be flocking to read that.
Her husband has an interesting career. I mean he is a cowboy. A cowboy. And she used to be a city girl. I was a suburb girl. I am a suburb girl. Whoo. My husband is a computer programmer (which is interesting to him, but they don’t make calenders of computer programmers with their shirts off). She takes cool pictures of her husband in his chaps roping cows and stuff. I could post photos of my husband from different angles of him on the computer. He’s not wearing chaps but t-shirts from some geek conference he went to. So scratch that.
She has huge give aways. I mean she just gave away a laptop. She gives away Kitchen Aids. She gives away Photoshop. Hmm, I’ve got some used Kleenex I could send your way. See, again, not offering much of what the people want.
I guess I could have a section on training your dog to be a ninja, though that is going poorly. Though after seeing Kung Fu Panda I have renewed hope. I could have a section for confused bunnies who have identity crisis’s. Or how to train your bunny to clean it’s own cage. That is also going poorly. I could have a section on how to spend money you don’t have. .  And then I can offer tips on how to gain weight.
So basically, I am sticking with what I know and not branching out. Much to my friends dismay I will not be the next PW empire. Sorry C.  I will just stick with things like these sugar coated brownies that require a pound of butter (take that new years resolutioners)! Now I will confess that I only made a half batch of these as I did not need 22 brownie sundaes for 2 people, might have wanted 22, but didn’t need. This recipe halves nicely so there is no problems there.
The sauce that comes with it calls for ½ cup of whiskey. Oh my. I so did not use that much, I used 1 TBSP (which if you are making the whole recipe you would use 2 TBSP). With just the small amount I used you can taste the whiskey so I can’t even imagine what ½ cup tastes like. Holy knock me out Batman. It also called for walnuts but I only had pecans. I think any nut would be fine.
These taste pretty much how they look. Soft warm brownie that has a crispy sugar crust, topped with vanilla ice cream (I was lazy and just bought some vanilla bean at the store) and then topped with gooey caramel and pecans. And yes, my husband ate these. I knew he would, that is why we had them for New Year’s Eve.
For those of you counting I believe this is 412 Weight Watcher points..for 3 bites.

 Sugar Crusted Brownie Sundaes with Whiskey-Pecan Caramel Sauce

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, plus extra for the muffin tins
2 cups sugar, plus extra for the muffin tins
12 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped finely
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
6 large eggs
2 TBSP vanilla extract
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

About 1 ½ quarts vanilla ice cream
Whiskey Pecan Caramel Sauce (recipe follows)

Brush all but two of the cups of two standard 12-cup muffin tins with melted butter. Spoon about 1 TBSP of sugar into greased cups and shake and tap around to cover the bottom and the sides of the cups completely with a thick coat of sugar. Tap out any excess sugar.
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350F.
Combine the butter and chocolates in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Remove from the microwave and stir until completely melted. If the chocolate is not completely melted, continue to microwave for 30 second intervals and stir smooth.
In a large bowl, gently whisk together the eggs, 2 cups sugar, and vanilla just until combined. Stir in the chocolate mixture just until combined. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt over the chocolate mixture and fold in just until combined.
Spoon about ¼ cup of the batter into each of the prepared cups. (If you run out of batter before you fill all the cups, make sure to wipe out the butter and sugar of any empty cups before baking the brownies, as otherwise they will melt and burn and, in general, make a huge mess.)
Bake until the tops of the brownies are firm and a toothpick inserted in the center of a brownie cup comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it, 20-25 minutes. Be careful not to over bake. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.
When pans are cool enough to handle, run a thing, sharp knife around the edge of the one brownie, then carefully tip it out and catch in your hand. Place the brownie on the wire rack to finish cooling. Continue releasing the brownies, on at a time, form the pans.
Serve slightly warm with ice cream and Whiskey Pecan Caramel Sauce.

Whiskey-Pecan Caramel Sauce

2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup of water minus 2 TBSP
2 TBSP whiskey (the original recipe calls for ½ cup of whiskey but that is too much whiskey flavor for me!)
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 cups heavy cream
½ tsp salt
1 TBSP vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans (or any nut of your choice)

Combine the sugar, water, whiskey, and lemon juice in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Cook, gently swirling the pan occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and start to turn color. Increase the heat to thigh and boil until th syrup turns a deep amber color, 4 to 5 minutes. Watch carefully, as it can burn quickly.
Immediately remove the pan from the heat and pour int the cream and salt. Use a long-handled wooden spoon to carefully stir in the cream, as caramel has a tendency to hiss and splash as the cold cream hits it. Place the pan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the caramel thickens, 5 to 7 minutes. The mixture should be the consistency of very thick cream. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and pecans.
Let boiling sauce cool until it is just warm before serving. To store, cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week. To reheat the sauce, microwave, uncovered, for about 1 minutes on high. Stir until smooth.

Source: Adapted from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor