Tasty Tuesday-Cottage Cheese Pancakes

School has started around here and that means mom is back at work, sigh.  We miss her but we are pretty good about staying at home while mom and dad are at work, after all we have a lot of company.   On Monday morning mom made one end of break that she though she would share for Tasty Tuesday.  Its a people treat, but unless you have a canine companion that cannot handle dairy there is no reason you cant share a bit of it with your hound, perhaps as a kibble topper.  And yes, its another pancake recipe, mom really likes pancakes.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes (Yes they sound weird, but they taste good).

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup of cottage cheese

3/4 cup of milk 

zest of 1 lemon

3 large eggs, separated

4 tbsp of sugar, divided

canola oil for frying

Confectioners sugar for serving

Fill a large pot with about 2 inches of water and bring to a simmer.  Place a dinner plate on top of the pot.  Later on you will keep the pancakes warm by placing them on the plate over the pot.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.   

Separate the eggs and set the yolks aside in a small bowl.   Beat the whites in an electric mixer on high until foamy, gradually add 2 tbsp of the sugar and beat until the whites form stiff peaks.  Whisk the remaining 2 tbsp of sugar into the egg yolks, whisk in the lemon zest and the milk.

Add the yolk mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk to combine.  Do not worry about a few lumps its important not to over mix.   

Fold half the egg whites into the batter and then half of the cottage cheese, repeat.   Make sure to fold gently, some streaks of egg white should remain.

Heat a skillet over medium high eat for 3 minutes.  Add a tbsp of canola oil and make sure it coats the skillet.   Fry the pancakes by 1/4 cup fulls for about 2 minutes per side.  Flip the pancakes when large bubbles form on the surface and cook until browned on the other side.  Transfer the cooked pancakes to the plate set over the pot of simmering water to keep warm.

Serve with sifted confectioners sugar.

Note: If you are giving this to dogs, definitely eliminate the sugar.   Either cool a pancake and break into very small pieces as a treat or use some cooled pancake as a kibble topper.

Ooooh they smell tasty!

Hoping some batter will land on the floor

Smiling for pancakes

Yum

Check out some other tasty treats on the Tasty Tuesday blog hop:

Dining with Dogs Take 6-Tubby's Review of Satis

So for labor day weekend, mom and dad wanted to do something special.  Mom starts work teaching on Tuesday, sniff, and Dad's one week summer vacation is over.  So they decided to do something special with their favorite child, i.e. me, (don't tell the mothers).

Ever since Satis 

 


opened in Jersey City mom has wanted to try their brunch.  It's described as a bistro, cafe, and gelateria (fancy name for ice cream shop), so it met my exacting standards and I approve the outing.  

They had a nice comfortable patio with plenty of room for a puggie to be comfortable while their parents dined:

Always remember water for your canine companion

Everything smells good!

You might be admiring my gorgeous bow tie, mom got it for me from Tux and Tule

 on Etsy

Where is that waiter?

Anyway mom had multigrain waffles with blueberry compote and honey Greek yogurt, very yummy, she gave me a taste.  Dad had an omelet with ham and manchego cheese and a side of pommes frittes (fancy word for french fries).   He was a bit of a piggie and didn't give me even one little taste the nerve!  He said it was good though.  Satis doesn't have a liquor license but you can BYOB (that means bring your own bottle, I was afraid it meant bring your own bulldog and that mom and dad would bring Bob instead of me) if you want.   Mom had orange juice and dad had coffee.  The best part of the meal was that the waiter gave me a piece of fancy imported Salami, yum!  All in all I highly recommend Satis (mom and dad liked it too).

Can we come again some time dad?

Simple Project: Easy Knitted Catnip Bear

This blog has been pretty focused on my dogs, but I have 3 wonderful cats too (Baby, Scooter, and Ernie)  and lately I've been wanting to make something special for them.  Obviously cats love yarn 

and since as I mentioned in yesterdays post I have been trying to learn to knit, I thought it would be fun to knit the cats something.

I decided to make the easy to knit teddy bear from Archie and Melissa's wonderful blog Art is Life.   Here are her directions for making the teddy bear: link.

Making this bear was my first time knitting with double pointed needles, and it was a little scary at first.  This you tube tutorial helped me quite a bit 



To make my bear more kitty friendly when I was stuffing it with Poly Fiberfill

 
I added three pinches of Cosmic Catnip.   (Two of my three cats, Ernie and Scooter, are catnip crazy, the third Baby seems unaffected by anything but fresh catnip.)


Here is my finished bear  in a few locales around our house (remember I am a beginner), Melissa's on pug notes are definitely a   more polished.

Anyway Scooter and Ernie definitely enjoyed the Teddy.

I will warn you that if you make this toy for your cat, they will destroy it very quickly so be prepared!

This is a blog hop so please check out the posts below:

Simple Projects-Easy Infinity Scarf..and Shutterfly Book Promotion from Pet Bloggers United

Over the last few months, I (urban hounds mom) have been attempting to learn how to knit, and with mixed results.   I first started learning in February and I took a few classes at the now defunct Stockinette cafe in Jersey City.  The classes helped some, but much more helpful where the youtube videos I watched.   I also found the book The Chicks With Sticks Guide to Knitting very helpful, it was definitely the best of the learn to knit books I looked at and is truly tailored for the beginner (i.e. someone like myself who had never before held knitting needles).  It has a lot of really pretty projects in it too, things people would actually like to wear. 

 Reasoning that I cant be the only person who wants to learn to knit, and that if a pattern is simple enough for me to follow then anyone can follow it, I have decided to post some of the projects I have made on here.  My ultimate goal is to be able to make dog sweaters, and a sweater for myself as well, but that may be a year or so off.   I have definite sweater fear.

One of the first things I knitted somewhat successfully was a simple infinity scarf, or cowl.  Here is the picture:

It is very quick to make, and basically impossible to screw up, as its basically just a tube of knitting.   I definitely made a few mistakes along the way, but you can't really notice when its on.  Definitely a great beginner project:

Materials:

• 16 inch size 8 circular knitting needles
• About 200 yards of sport weight or light worsted weight yarn, I used LB Collection Cotton Bamboo Yarn in Hibiscus (if you are near NYC the lion brand yarn studio is a great store and less expensive then most of the yarn shops in the area.)
• Stitch marker ring 

Pattern:

I didn't use a specific pattern for this.   Instead I looked at a bunch of patterns online and came up with this:

• Make a slip knot (slip knot tutorial) Note: I usually always make a longer tail then 12 inches, more like 20)

• Cast on 80 stitches, if this doesn't seem like enough stitches add 10 or twenty more (cast on tutorial) Note: I was scared of circular needles at first but you cast on the same as you would with straight needles, just hold one side circular needle as if it was a straight needle and let the needle on the other end dangle out of the way)
• Position the stitches evenly around the circular needles, making sure that its not twisted, you should be able to trace your finger around the circular needles on your stitches like a train car on a railroad track.
• Join in the round (tutorial)
• Place a stitch marker like she does in the video
• The pattern I used was knit one (K1), Purl 1 (P1) all the way around.  You could also do all knit stitches.  
• Knit Stitch Tutorial
• Purl Stitch Tutorial
• Once your work measures about 12 inches you are ready to bind off. Bind Off Tutorial. 

You've got an infinity scarf/ cowl!  Wear it with pride.


On another note we were looking at the PBU Pet Bloggers United Site





and we saw that Oscar had posted about this awesome promotion  from Shutterfly.  If you have a blog you have a chance to win a free photo book, we made one of Bob when he was a puppy.  We also use shutterfly every year to make our Holiday Cards.  Here is last years:

Product Review-Calming Collars

Of course anyone who meets him knows Bob is utterly adorable. Unfortunately he also has some issues, he has mild fears of strange objects (a plastic blowing in the street can make him nervous, and he hates the noise passing buses.) He can also get very excited and lunge when we encounter strange dogs on walks.   We have used treats and clicker training to teach Bob the look at me cue (say his name and have him look at us) and he is doing much better, but  he still has his moments.   When I saw Calming Collars mentioned in this article from the dog aware website I decided to give them a try.  Bob's issues, thank goodness, are no wear near bad enough to warrant medication so the collar seemed like a nice easy thing to try.  I e-mailed the company and described Bob's issues and they were very nice to get back to me right away.  They said Bob would be a good candidate for a collar and I ordered one.


Once nice thing about the collars is they come in very cute fabrics.  (I wanted to take a close up picture of Bob's collar, but unfortunately he rolled in mud the first day we had it and I couldn't wash it to clean it.  You can't really get the collars wet.)   The collars are filled with a calming blend of herbs.  One combination Calm Me Down, the one I got for Bob, helps with anxiety and the other Good To Go, is for dogs who suffer from motion sickness.    The company also makes cooling collars for hot days.

Our collar arrived quickly and Bob didn't mind wearing it at all.  He only wears it on walks and the rest of the time we store it in a plastic bag to preserve the sent of the herbs, it smells really strong!   On the days Bob has worn it there have been no incidents with lunging, but I am still very careful and alert.  He does seem less fearful of objects and was not so freaked by passing buses.   Last night, Bob wore the collar to our local Pet Smart and very nicely greeted a bulldog, Rocco, he met there.  He was on perfect behavior for the whole trip.

Here is a picture of Bob in his collar (I previously posted this picture, but as I mentioned he rolled in the dirt and I didn't want a picture of dingy dirty collar on here. 

Tubby & Ping-An Almost Wordless Wednesday Blast from the Past

This picture is about two years old.   It was taken in Princeton NJ, where we went with our pug group NNJPE, on a dog friendly tour of Princeton (Princeton is one of the few colleges that allows non-service dogs on campus). We finished the tour with lunch at a restaurant that was nice enough to give us carrots for the dogs.

Tropical Treats: Fresh Coconut Cake and Fresh Coconut Cookies for Critters a Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop Post

What with Hurricane Irene passing by here (we certainly hope all of our blog friends are ok) and flooding our basement, and seeing this delicious looking recipe onLulu and Wally's blog last Tuesday I got thinking tropical, and specifically coconut. So I decided to celebrate the end of summer by making fresh coconut cake and fresh coconut cookies for the dogs.  The recipe for the cake is very similar to one on epicurious. I used two  coconuts to make the cake and the cookies and I had a little coconut left over.

not a good picture, but a tasty cake

Fresh Coconut Cake  

Cake

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, King Arthur brand is the best
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temp
• 1 tbsp coconut rum liquor (you could easily leave this out or replace with coconut extract but Ive had the rum for years since someone gave it to me and figured it was time to use it).
• 4 lrg eggs at room temp
• 3/4 cup of whole milk
• 1 1/2 cups of fresh coconut chunks
• zest of 1 lime

Dealing with a fresh coconut can be tricky, here is a good video from e.how that tells you how to do it.   Set aside the coconut water after draining it from the coconut for use in the cookies.   

You could grate the coconut fresh with a box grater once you have peeled the coconut, but I think its easier to grind it in the food processor.   Just put chunks of the coconut flesh in the processor and pulse for one second intervals until you have small chunks no bigger then your pinkie nail.  Set the coconut aside.

Once you have prepared the coconut preheat the oven to 350 and line a 9 inch cake  pan with parchment paper.  Butter and flour the paper and the sides of the pan to prevent the cake sitting.  Set the prepared pan aside.

Sift the flour and baking powder together in a small bowl and set aside.

Beat the butter in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle atatchment on high speed for one minute, then add the sugar and beat for 3 minutes.   Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with  a rubber spatula.  

Add the flour and the milk in two additions beating until just blended after each addition and scraping the sides of the bowl with spatula to make sure everything is incorporated.

Add the 1 1/2 cups of  coconut and the lime zest and fold into the batter with the rubber spatula. 

Pour the  batter into the cake pan and smooth the top.  Bake for one hour until golden and the cake tester comes out clean.

Cool the cake in the pan for ten minutes and then transfer to a cake rack to cool completely.

Cream cheese or Mascarpone Frosting

• 8 oz of cream cheese or 1 cup of Mascarpone cheese at room temp
• 4 tbsp of butter 
• 3 tbsp of heavy cream (only if using cream cheese)
• 1 tbsp coconut liquor or 1 tsp coconut extract (optional)
• zest of 1 lime
• 3-4 cups of powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup of coconut chunks

Beat the cheese, butter, and heavy cream (if using) in the mixer on high speed until light and creamy, about three minutes.

Add the coconut liquor and lime zest and beat to combine.

Gradually add the powdered sugar until you get the consistency and sweetness you desire.

Spread the frosting on the cooled cake and sprinkle the coconut chunks on top.

 Store in the refrigerator.

Now if you made the cake you will have coconut left over and lots of coconut water, if your a dog blogger you will also have some hungry hounds.  So the obvious choice is to make a dog friendly coconut treat.  Coconut has lots of benefits for dogs.   

Coconut oil has been shown to lower cholesterol, improve digestion, reduce the risk of cancer, promote normal thyroid function, and reduce arthritis.  If you subscribe to the Whole Dog Journal's website  (a great magazine by the way) you can read their article on the subject.  You can buy coconut oil and coconut chips for dogs from Olive Green Dog.  Fresh coconut is also chock full of vitamins and protein and coconut water promotes kidney health (good for our Dr. Zira who has mild kidney disease.)

Fresh Coconut Cookies for Critters

 3 cups whole wheat flour 

1 1/4 cups coconut water (if you don't have enough water from your coconuts you can add some regular water to equal this amount)

1 cup of coconut chips 

2 tbsp coconut oil (or vegetable oil)

Preheat oven to 350 and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Pour all the ingredients into a large bowl and stir together well.  You should have a slightly sticky dough.   Roll heaping tablespoons of the dough into balls and place 1 inch a part on line cookie sheets, flatten the dough balls gently with your fingers.  Bake cookies for 20 minutes until golden brown.

Note: If you want to make the cookies without using the coconut, you could get unsweetened coconut chips and some coconut water, such as Vita Coco and use those.

Ping approves of the batter

Cookies Please!

Norbert (no damage done), but I decided everyone needed some cool down time.  Since then we've been using the cookies during quick training sessions and they remain a big hit with everyone. One cookie sprinkled over his Wellness Core kibble got super picky Norbert to eat every kernel in bis bowl.  

Check the link below to see more great recipes on the Tasty Tuesday blog hop hosted by Kolchak puggle