Doggy treat recipes from Rufus' 3rd birthday

On July 26th Rufus turned 3. I still can't believe it! Of course we had a birthday party :) We technically can celebrate his birthday on both the 25th and 26th because of the time he was born (if you missed that story, check it out here).

This year's theme was Hawaiian island. We had all sorts of leis and luau food for the people including DH's special smoked pulled pork, a tropical chicken salad and pineapple upside down cupcakes for the people. Everyone loved it all. We ended up with 20 people and about 15 dogs. Of course I didn't get any photos of the treats, I barely got to taste any of the food! Will work on that for the next party. Photos from the party will be up soon!

With the price of store bought treats and the questioning of ingredients, I love to bake treats for Rufus at home. We used to have a great doggy bakery in town, where we got his 1st bday cake, but they've since moved. For Ruf's birthday this year, we had a nice array of easy treats. I love easy treat recipes, ones with all natural ingredients that can be found in most pantries. And I wouldn't give my dog anything to eat that I wouldn't eat (or at least try) myself.
I've had a lot of requests for this 1st recipe. It's from a dog cookbook titled 'Cooking the Three Dog Bakery Way' by Mark Beckloff and Dan Dye which was actually a gift from my aunt for Ruf's 2nd birthday.
Here's a photo my MIL took while we were singing Happy Birthday to Ruf with the candle on his pupcake

It says it makes (2) 8 inch cakes, but I made cupcakes (or pupcakes) and it made about 12 total. (I made 2 batches, recipe below is for 12 pupcakes or 2 8 inch cakes)

PAWSHAKE CAKE
(2) cups whole wheat flour
(2) teaspoons baking powder
(1/2) cup honey
(1/3) cup unsalted peanut butter (I used chunky)
(1) large egg
(1) cup skim milk
(1/4) cup chopped unsalted peanuts

Preheat oven to 350 deg F.
Spray baking pans with nonstick vegetable spray and dust with flour (or insert cupcake liners).
Stir together flour and baking powder and set aside.
In large bowl, cream together the honey and peanut butter with an electric mixer or wooden spoon.
Beat in the egg and milk.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until smooth.
Pour the batter in the cake or cup cake pans (about 1/3 way full if making cup cakes).
Sprinkle the top with peanuts.
Bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the top comes out clean.Cook to room temperature.
Store in airtight container for up to 3 days, or wrap well and freeze for up to 2 months (thaw before serving).

Can be frosted with this frosting (we skipped it for the party, may be too messy for 20 or so dogs at once!)
(1) 8 oz. package low-fat cream cheese, softened
(3) tablespoons carob powder (usually found at health food stores)
(1) tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients and beat until smooth.

Another great and easy treat we had was dehydrated sweet potatoes. You can make them in a dehydrator, but I've found it easier to make in the oven. Preheat oven to 250 deg F. Wash and peel sweet potatoes, microwave for a minute or two to soften, slice approx. 1/4-1/3 inch thick slices, arrange single layer on cookie sheet, bake for about 2-3 hours, or a little longer for crunchier treats, checking often to make sure they're not burning.

We also had these two types of treats which came from this website. I loved that I could just throw everything together in my Kitchenaid mixer!

Chunky Peanut Butter Molasses Cookies
4 cups whole wheat flour2 cups oatmeal
½ - ¾ cup chunky peanut butter
2½ cups hot water2 Tbs molasses
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C).
Mix all ingredients together, adding more hot water if dough is too sticky. Knead well. Roll out to ¼" and cut into shapes with cookie cutter (I used a dog bone shaped cutter, may want to roll out a little thicker than 1/4 inch so they bake up a little thicker, some of our thin ones burnt). Bake on greased cookie sheet for 40 minutes (or until lightly browned). Turn off heat and let cool in oven overnight (we skipped this too, baked them the day of the party, they cooled for 6 or so hours on racks).

Savory Peanut Butter Biscuits with Cheese
1 cup flour
½ cup milk
2 Tbs peanut butter
2 Tbs grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp baking powder (I forgot to add this and they came out like discs, but everyone still loved them!)
1 egg white
1 Tbs chicken broth
Directions: Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C). Mix flour and milk until lumpy. Add Peanut butter and chicken broth. Mix parmesan cheese with first four ingredients. Add egg white. Mix well or until it has the consistency of pancake batter. Add baking powder. Pour onto cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick spray, in 3-inch diameter blobs. Cook until golden brown. Serve cool.

More treat recipes to come in future posts. For now, happy baking!

Take your dog to work Day!

Today was 'Take your dog to work day' here in the US (or maybe international?). Rufus loves his daily nap time at home while I'm at work, so he went in with me after work until 5. He naps a little while at work, but always has to be supervising and knowing everything that's going on. Here are a couple examples

First, napping. This is the view I saw if I looked under my desk (I had to crouch under to take this pic)

Next - the supervisor

Business trip

DH is out exploring the world, well the west coast at least. He's been in Colorado Springs, Seattle now and will end up in St. Louis, MO.

This is the view from his hotel room in Colorado Springs. The mountian with the snow is Pike's Peak
This is a view of downtown Seattle from atop the Space Needle - I think he was 520 ft. up here.
It was a beautiful clear day - not to common in Seattle.
Mt. Rainier in the distance covered in snow. It's an active stratovolcano in the Cascade Mtn range.Another shot of the skyline - I love skyline photos.

Next up is St. Louis and the Gateway Arch
As always, more photos are available on my flickr site

Tonight's girls night at my house - chick flicks, playing puppies, popcorn, and homemade pizza!

Ready for the weekend!

My original goal was daily blogs M-Th, but since I haven't really been active since, gosh, March, my new goal is weekly blogs. I think I can handle that. Today's a short one though.

Cubs game tonight! Enjoy some photos from our last game. We won't see fireworks tonight, since that's a Saturday night special. Tonight's promo is Geovany Soto Bobblehead Giveaway (1,000): Presented by Daniel Legal & Fantastic Fridays, Ladies Night & Kids run the bases post game.

Off to the game! Have a great weekend :)

60 years

I know it's been forever since my last post, but today is a special day - it's my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. I talked to my grandma today and she said she picked the right one. Then she always follows that up with 'and they said it wouldn't last'. She's French Canadian and he's Italian. They met on a blind date for New Year's Eve, Dec. 1948. My grandpa was 21 and fresh out of the Navy I think. He was home reconnecting with old friends and a buddy of his and invited him out for the night on a double date.

I'm not too sure if this next story is from their first date, but I think it is - he went to pick my grandma up, he mom answered the door and he saw my grandma in curlers. She said she'd be ready soon and he said he needed to go for a walk for some air. My grandma thought he wouldn't come back. He had grown up with many sisters, so seeing a girl in curlers was not a favorite site. Thankfully, he came back and they had a great time out. They were married 4 months later on April 23, 1949. I'm sure they've had their share of issues over the years, but like my grandma always says, 'it's teamwork' that holds everything together.

I always find it kind of interesting that DH and I met in a similar way. He was fresh out of the Marines, home reconnecting with friends. I was taking a semester off of college and agreed to go out on a blind date (DH still swears he didn't know it was a date). The first real test was that we went out to a steakhouse for dinner. I don't eat steak, but he LOVES it. And we still liked each other after that :) We're on our way to 60 years + together. Hard to believe our 4 year anniversary is coming up in August.

Here are my grandparents enjoying the beach out on 'the boat' on April 4.

Weekend recap 1

Friday DH and I stayed in and relaxed. We had Tijuana Flats for dinner, stopped by Andy's for the newest beer release and rented Transporter 3 from Redbox. Most times I prefer Tijuana Flats over Moe's, mostly due to their seasoned chicken and hot sauce selection, even though Moe's is more convenient to our house. I had a chicken quesadilla and DH had a beef hard taco and a steak soft taco. Of course we also had queso and churros. I love their churros! I love their variety of hot sauces, usually more than 10 on the bar, and they change them out frequently. They also sell a million types of hot sauces in case you fall in love with one. Against Andy's suggestion, we tried out the new Sam Adams this weekend. Don't get me wrong, Andy has great taste and has never steered us wrong, and he loves Sam Adams, but he does not like fruited beers (exception, orange slice in his Blue Moon). Sam Adams Blackberry Witbier was voted the 2008 Samuel Adams Beer Lover's Choice winner and was just released January 2009. It was just ok, not too fruity, but bold like most Sam Adams. It actually smelled better than it tasted. A traditional witbier with orange peel and coriander, with an added hint of blackberry. We also tried Shock Top. We usually like to go with micro-breweries, but I've wanted to try Shock Top for a while. Glad I got over that one. It's ok, pretty thick for a light beer, but tasted similar to Michelob's other offerings. Not too good.We've ended our Blockbuster through the mail subscription. It was about $16/month and we would only watch a movie or 2 on the weekend. Now that Blockbuster has changed it's rental rates to $2/day and Redbox has come to our area, we just didn't see where we got $16 worth of movies per month. We rented from Redbox and it was easy, and just $1.07! It would be a little more convenient if the Redbox kiosk was somewhere other than Walmart, maybe McDonalds or Walgreens as in other cities (the photo above is from a McDonalds), but can't beat $1/night for a new movie!
Transporter 3 was ok - typical Jasan Statham, action packed. Saturday night we rented the newest James Bond (#22!), Quantum of Solace. I still don't know what that title had to do with the movie. They said Quantam 1x, referring to some organization, but I don't understand fully what it was. Oh well. That was a typical James Bond/Daniel Craig movie, but too choppy on the editing for the action sequences.

Saturday was cleanup at G-mom and Poppop's. We cleaned their bathrooms and cleaned out the furniture in 2 of the upstairs apartments to get it ready to get estimates for repair and reno work. The weather cooperated and it was a nice day. This guy below greeted my dad and I when we left around 3pm.

Robellini plant bed

Here's what I started with Saturday morning, a clean slate. DH was called into work, so I went out to the nursery

And picked up a few plants - here's a large agapanthus (lily of the nile), 2 smaller agapanthus, and 3 aztec grass to start. Oh, and there's 2 small golden dew in the back. They're ok in shade and get pretty big, so I didn't want them to hide the others in the front.
Then I went to Lowes and Home Depot. Lowe's had flax lily and society garlic 3 for $10 - a 1 gal flax lily was $7 at our local nursery and society garlic was about $4 there too. So, I picked up 3 flax lily and 2 society garlic. I also wanted some form of yucca that could take the sun for the right corner. I found this at Target for $10 - good deal! It's a 3 cane yucca, resistant to 0 deg F, likes full sun and can do good on frequent waterings.
So far, this is what we've got - I counted, I planted about 21 plants this weekend! We went with yucca cane on the right corner, agapanthus, aztec grass, society garlic, flax lily, golden dew and canna - but many many of each.

Last addition to come soon will be a Mandevilla (formerly Dipladenia). There are many different colors - white ‘Summer Snow’, yellow, pink, red. For now, I'm set on 'Sun Parasol Crimson' aka Red Riding Hood, because I've heard that is most resistant to bugs. I'm going to try to train to climb the small part of the fence shown at the left, it's about 6ft high and 3 ft wide before the swing gate. It's a flowering vine, sometimes called Brazilian Jasmine that is great trellised in containers or in hanging baskets. This will be the only plant out front that's not rated to withstand freezing weather.

But I also like the other colors. The pink may go better with our lavander azaleas. We'll see.

Alzheimer’s

My grandma's been exhibiting signs of Alzheimer’s for the past few years. For about the past year, she's been forgetting more and more. It seems to be all short term memory loss. Everything from years ago is still there, and it just seems like yesterday to her. She still knows all of us, but occasionally forgets some big recent events, like my wedding nearly 4 years ago at her house, or that one of my cousins is in Japan, and has been overseas for a couple years now. It's sad, but she's still her cheerful self, so we can be thankful for that.
It makes me laugh when she denies something happened, or doesn't believe us when we tell her. For instance, she'll eat a banana and then a few minutes later go to eat another, and we'll tell her she just had one and most times, if she's forgot, she'll say Noooooo. And it's funny - we ask, "why would we lie to you about eating a banana?! It's ok!" She and my grandpa are still living in their house for the time being. My dad and aunt make food trays (fresh) for them and do their laundry, but try to let them be on their own as much as they can - they've always been very a independent couple.
Sunday was my grandpa's 82nd birthday, so I went over to hang out with them. I brought groceries over (plenty of bananas) and a sugar-free pumpkin pie for the birthday cake. My grandma made the comment that we have to be sure to bring the bananas when they leave to go home. I asked her where she was now, and she said not home. I had her look out to the ocean and told her this was her home, and it had been her home since they moved in almost 50 years ago (their 60th wedding anniversary is next month!). She acted like she remembered, but I don't know for how long. I miss her. She's still here, and she's still happy, but it's so different.
Monday my grandpa called us at work to say he didn't know where my grandma was. He took a nap around 1pm, awoke about an hour later and she wasn't there. We figured she had gone for a walk on the beach, but nearly 3 hours had passed. We finally called the police, told her about her alzheimers and they sent a patrol out to find her. She was on the beach, about 3 miles south of home, just walking like normal. She had a plastic shovel for sand in her pocket, no doubt something she found on the beach and wanted to bring home so the 'kids' could play with it. They used to have nice families come down for the summers and she loved playing with their kids in the sand. Kids haven't been down for over 5 years now, they've all grown up or have changed vacation spots to somewhere more kid friendly. Anyway, the officer asked if she was Cecile, and she said yes, they brought her home. She said she was on her way back, but the officers said she was walking in the wrong direction. Of course she was friendly with the officers, inviting them to come stay with her at the beach. A few minutes later, she forgot she had been brought home. She said she walked home after a nice walk on the beach.

We've got to get some type of ID for her. The medical bracelets are big and bulky, and there's no question she'd take it off. I checked the local pharmacies, that's the only type they have. The local hospital isn't allowed to give out their ID wristbands, but we may have found some online. It's the plastic type that you can have info printed on and it's hard to take off.

I was glad to hear the President talk about funding research for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's in last night's address - 2 diseases that affect my grandparents. Every 70 seconds, someone in the United States develops Alzheimer's disease, according to a report Tuesday from the Alzheimer's Association that estimates 5.1 million Americans over 65 now have the disease and says the number is creeping higher year after year, according to the Chicago Sun Times. Scientists are still trying to determine what causes it, but they do know it is characterized by a build-up of proteins in the brain. Scientists are still studying how plaques and tangles are related to Alzheimer’s disease. One theory is that they block nerve cells’ ability to communicate with each other, making it difficult for the cells to survive.

Evidence is also mounting for the promotion of exercise and a healthy diet to reduce Alzheimer’s risk. Avoiding tobacco, limiting alcohol consumption, staying socially active, and engaging in intellectually stimulating activities have also been shown to have a protective effect against Alzheimer’s disease.

Cherish every minute you have with your loved ones.

Dentist :(

It was an eventful weekend, but I'll fill you in on that tomorrow.

Today I took my mom to the dentist to get a tooth pulled - not a pleasant experience. Take care of your teeth people! 5 needles going into your gums is not a fun thing. Do you think the experience would be any better if your dentist looked like this?

And this looks like a fun toy if you want your kid to be a dentist...the dentist my mom goes to is holistic and uses ceramic or porcelain to fill instead of mercury-contained fillings. Good idea I think, blends in more and is more natural for your body.