Many of you have asked me to post a picture of me and my dog, whom I named this blog after.  If you own a pet and have tried to take a good picture of him/her, you know how difficult a task like that can be.  But in an effort to retain the few readers I have, I decided to coax my mom and my dog to get on board with the job.

The photo shoot was pretty tiresome.  Phoebe was getting grumpy and my cheeks were really sore.  An hour and 40 clicks later, we finally got Phoebe and me to look at the camera at the same time.  It’s not the best picture, but I think it’s the best we can do for now.  You can be the judge by checking out the photo on the about page.

I rewarded Phoebe for her patience with sliced apples, baby carrots and dog biscuits. As for my mom, I promised her that I’d bake her this walnut date bread, which combines two of her favorite ingredients.

Quick breads like zucchini bread, banana loaf and this walnut date bread are the easiest of breads.  The dough (if you can even call it that) doesn’t need time to rise or be kneaded.  This bread has just enough sweetness from the dates.  The walnuts add warmth and a bit of crunch.  You can serve this bread with cream cheese, but it’s great as is.  It keeps for a good week if you wrap it well in plastic.

This recipe came from the very last issue of Gourmet, which recently folded after entertaining and educating foodies for more than 60 years.  I looked forward to finding the magazine in my mailbox every month.  I read every page, tore out recipes that looked good and tested them in my kitchen.  I am not sure what I will do with all that time I used to spend with Gourmet.  Perhaps I can work on taking more photos of Phoebe?