"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace." - Milan Kundera (b. 1929) Czech author
Did you know that July is national blueberry month? The perfect time to make a blueberry treat for your canine companion. Blueberries are full of nutritional benefits for dogs as well as humans. They are loaded with cancer fighting antioxidants and high in fiber. Blueberries also have brain boosting properties, especially important for senior dogs that may be having memory problems. For national blueberry month I decided to make the dogs very simple blueberry cookies. I used a simple method for making peanut butter and oat cookies as my base for the treats.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grind 2 cups of the oats in the food processor to make a course flour. Pour into a bowl and set aside. Add the remaining cup of oats to to the bowl. Heat the peanut butter in the microwave on a low setting until soft and runny. Add the peanut butter, oil, warm water, and maple syrup or honey to the bowl with the oats and stir will. Fold in the blueberries and the peanut butter treats if using. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Use a spoon to scoop out small pieces of dough and roll into balls. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheet and flatten slightly. You may need two baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes until the bottoms of the cookies are a golden brown. Cool and serve.
The Finished Treats
If you are interested in a blueberry treat for humans I wrote about one on my vintage style blog, The Old Fashioned Way.
Mom and Dad are big fans of the TV show Arrested Development, and where very excited when it resurrected by Netflix for a fourth season. Evidently lots of other people where too. There was even a Bluth Banana stand in Manhattan
with a typical Manhattan line wrapping around the block. Now mom and dad don't particularly like frozen bananas so Arrested Development fans or not they had no desire to wait in that line, but mom thought it would be fun to make us some Bluth inspired frozen banana treats. They where a hit with everyone except Tubby, who takes after mom and dad and does not like bananas, plus they are super easy to make
Bluth Banana Bites for Dogs
2 large bananas cut in 2 inch segments 1 cup carob chips 1 tbsp vegetable oil unsweetened coconut flakes
Like a baking sheet or pan with foil and spray the foil with non stick cooking spray. Melt the carob with the oil in microwave save bowl or measuring cup for about 1 min at 50% power, pausing after thirty seconds to stir, be careful as carob burns easily. Dip the bananas in the carob coating and transfer to the foil lined baking sheet and sprinkle over the coconut. Freeze about 2 hours or until firm. Feed to any dogs in the vicinity before a marathon Arrested Development viewing session.
Our good friend Pip hasn't been feeling too well, and he has decided to go on a Bucket Tour with his friend Puddles. We were lucky he came to visit for a special cooking lesson, after all cooking is kind of our thing. First we took Pip for a walk in our local park. Please, take a rest on a bench Pip, us pugs like to take a break.
Bob would like to show you and Puddles some of the nice Brownstone houses in Down town Jersey City. We warn you, our house is no were near this nice. These brownstones cost lots of doggie bones.
There are some amazing views of the NYC skyline in Jersey City, check them out:
Here we are at our humble home. (Sure its an old picture with our angel sister Dr. Zira but she is always with us in spirit).
Norbert would like to invite you to play in our back lot: warning its concrete but we still have a lot of fun back there.
Or you could hang out on the couch, we have two of them for maximum doggie comfort:
of course you are welcome to the upstairs bed too, we love to sit there with Dad:
If you want something to do we could get you a toy, we have lots to choose from:
While you and Puddles are chillaxing
Mom will start on our Turkey Cheese Burger Meat loaf Muffins, they'll go great with all that junk food and the recipe is super easy (and pretty healthy). Pip's Turkey Cheese Burger Meatloaf Muffins
1/4 cup small diced cheddar cheese or grated cheddar
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and coat a 12 tin muffin pan with non-stick spray (don't forget this stuff like mom often does because your muffins will stick to the pan). Stir together all of the ingredients in a nice big bowl (really its that easy!)
Spoon into a muffin tin and bake for 30 minutes until cooked through. Voila they smell tasty!
No need to get up guys. We will deliver a muffin right to you:
Hope you like them!
We had a great time on your visit and hope you did too.
Bouchon bakery is a fancy pants French patisserie with outposts in Manhattan Las Vegas and Beverly Hills. A thoughtful friend gave mom the Bouchon bakery cookbook for Christmas
Its full of yummy recipes for cake, cookies, and bread.... and it even has a dog treat recipe!
"These look good mom, make 'em!"
Now usually mom tries to make pretty healthy recipes for us, but there is no denying it: these cookies are really indulgent. Sometimes you have to live it up. Bouchon Bakery Bones (Slightly Adapted) 1 1lb bacon diced (yes that is a lot of bacon, this makes a lot of cookies) 1 1lb chicken livers (the recipe called for 13 oz but mom decided to use the whole container) 3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp of corn meal 3 cups plus 3 tbsp all purpose flour (We like King Arthur Brand) 1 cup chicken broth or stock Ketchup Glaze 3 tbsp ketchup 1 egg white Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Cook the bacon in the skillet until brown but not really crispy, about five minutes on medium high.
Drain the bacon on paper towels and pour of all but a film of the bacon fat. (Save your bacon fat, its delicious for cooking hash browns. I like Pioneer Woman's recipe). Transfer the drained bacon to the food processor and process quickly with two or three pulses until it is very finely chopped.
In the same skillet in which you cooked the bacon (where the film of bacon fat is waiting) cook the chicken livers over medium high heat for five minutes until they are no longer pink. Stir them around and break them up with the wooden spoon so they get mushy.
Put the chicken livers in the processor with the bacon and mix until you get a pate like paste (at the bakery these cookies are made with foie gras trimmings) Add the corn meal and process again until you get a thick even paste.
Transfer the mixture to a stand mixer and add the flour and mix until totally combined.
Then slowly pour in the chicken broth while continuing to mix
The dough should come together in a ball. (At this point I divided the dough in half as I knew this was going to make a ton of rich cookies. I wrapped one half and put it in the freezer for later use). Take two big sheets of plastic wrap and line a wooden cutting board with one. Take one half of the dough and cover it with the second sheet of the plastic wrap. I just patted the dough until it was about 1/2 inch thick, but you could use a rolling pin.
Use a bone cookie cutter to make the cookies, gather any scraps and re-pat and cut them.
Put the cookies in the oven.
The recipe said to bake for 3 hours at 250 until completely dry but I felt mine where getting to brown so I lowered the temperature to 200 and took them out after 2 and a half hours. Take the cookies out of the oven and whisk together the egg white and ketchup and then brush this glaze over the cookies.
"Are they ready yet?"
Put back in the oven and bake until the glaze is hardened, about 25 minutes. The Finished Product:
Taste testers approved:
Store at room temperature in a covered container. (Mom Note: These cookies are not grain free. We use grain free dog food, but none of the hounds are totally grain intolerant so I do allow some grains in the dog treats. If your dog is grain intolerant substitute Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour for the all purpose flour and the corn meal). Of course mom being a desert-a-holic had to make something for herself and Dad too. So she made chocolate chip cookies and she said they were very good, maybe even better then her old favorite: Cowboy Cookies. Bouchon Bakery Chocolate Chunk Cookies
1 1/2 cups plus 3 tbsp King Arthur brand all purpose flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp kosher salt 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp, packed, dark brown sugar 1 3/4 tsp molasses 1/2 cup plus 1 tsp granulated sugar 6 ounces, chocolate chunks 1/2 cup chocolate chips 1 1/2 sticks of butter at room temperature 1 egg Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Put the brown sugar and granulated sugar in a small bowl and stir in the molasses. Combine the chocolate chunks and the chocolate chips in another small bowl. Beat the butter at medium low speed for about 3 to 4 minutes until very light and creamy. Add the brown sugar mixture and beat again for 3 to 4 minutes until fluffy. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl very well in order ot make sure no unmixed sugar or butter sticks to the bottom. Add the egg and mix on low speed for 15 to 30 seconds (the book emphasizes that it is very important not to over mix the egg). Add the flour mixture in two additions beating at low speed for 15 to 30 seconds each time and scraping the bowl well. Add the chocolates and pulse on low speed ten times. The dough needs to be refrigerated for at least an hour before baking. I wrapped mine in parchment paper in plastic wrap and stored it in the fridge for a day. Preheat then oven to 325 and line a pan with parchment paper. Roll generous scoops of dough into balls and place on the lined pan. Bake 14 minutes, rotating once half way through.
We are feeling a little hippie-ish here at the moment. It could be because we have wearing our tye died tees,
or maybe its because the anniversary of the famous Woodstock Festival is this Wednesday, or maybe its that mom and dad watched the movie Across The Universe this weekend and all that 60's Beatle's music is stuck in our heads.
Anyway, in keeping with the Hippie mood mom decided to make some flower child friendly treats for today's Tasty Tuesday post. The first is a recipe for dog friendly Granola, now mom has never giving us Granola even though she likes to make it for herself and dad and she has posted her recipe on the blog before (recipe link). To make us granola mom adapted a recipe from the super cute dog cookbook Throw Me a Bone. Grrrnola (adapted from Throw Me A Bone by Susan Orlean and Sally Sampson)
1 cup rolled oats 1/4 cup almond slivers (optional) 1/4 cup wheat germ 1/2 cup sunflower seeds 1 cup bran flakes 1 tbsp honey 1 tbsp fish or coconut oil 1/2 cup dried blueberries 1/2 cup dried banana chips 1/2 cup carob chips Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the oats and almond slivers and stirring constantly toast until golden, about five minutes. Lower the heat to low and add the wheat germ, sunflower seeds, and bran flakes and stirring constantly cook for five to ten minutes more until golden. Off the heat stir in the honey and the fish or coconut oil. Cool. Once cool stir in the dried blueberries, banana chips, and carob chips or substitute any dried fruits your dog likes. Serve sparingly (as it is pretty sweet) as a kibble topper with a little yogurt.
Super sweet, just like me!
Norbert licked the bowl clean
Now for the humans....cookies. Our grandma used to make a lot of recipes from of hippie friendly 60s cook books like, Diet for a Small Planet. Mom's favorite treat where these cookies, which come buy their unusual name because they have so many ingredients, you know everything but the Kitchen Sink.
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/3 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup unsweet flaked coconut
1/4 cup milk powder (1/3 cup instant)
¼ c cocoa 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger 2/3 cup raisins 2/3 cup chocolate chips 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped 1/3 cup sunflower seeds 1/4 cup oil or melted butter 1/4 cup molasses 1/4 cup honey 2 eggs, beaten
milk, 1-2 tbsp, if cookie mixture is too dry Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl until well combined.
Mix liquid ingredients in a smaller bowl then pour into the dry mixture and stir well. The batter will be quite thick if it is too dry add a little milk, not more then 1-2 tbsp.
Use a spoon to scoop out about 2 tbsp of dough and form into a ball, flatten a bit, and place on the parchment lined cookie sheets.
Bake at 350 degrees 10-12 minutes.
Tomorrow marks the first day of mom's three week summer staycation. So we will be having a lot of fun hanging out with her and dad and we will be taking a blogger break until September. We hope everyone has a wonderful time for the rest of August and we will be back blogging soon!
If you have been reading this blog and paying attention you would know that at Urban Hounds we are Anglophiles to the core. However, we never like to miss a Holiday and Bastille day was Saturday.....plus Tubby has this shirt that testifies to his gift for l'amour (In case you can't read it, it says: I'm Not French, but I Kiss That Way)
So all in all we had to do something with a French accent. At the last NNJPE pug meetup we attended a clever pug mom made some awesome chicken broth pupsickles that the pugs went nuts for. I decided to use the same contecept to make something more French, Chicken Cordon Bleusickles (though to be honest I'm not sure how French Chicken Cordon Bleu is, it seems fairly American). Anyway this treat couldn't be easier and it could be adapted any of a million ways. Chicken Cordon Bleusickles Low Salt chicken broth, about 1 1/2 cups worth Diced low salt ham (about 1/2 cup) Diced chicken breast (about 1/2 cup) (I used oven roasted deli chicken but you could boil some chicken if you wanted) Chicken Cordon Bleu Dog Biscuits from Bocce's Bakery ten small plastic cups 1) Place the cups in a tupperware, tray or baking pan so they stay steady in the freezer 2) Put a little of the diced ham and chicken at the bottom of each cup
3) Pour in the chicken broth until it comes almost to the top of the cup.
4) Stick a biscuit in each cup and place in the freezer overnight.
Voila!
(Oh and don't worry bulldog Bob got one too, but he ate his so fast I couldn't get a good pic so he is not featured above.) The pups looked so happy with their treats we had to make something French for the peeps too.
Mussels in White Wine
3 lbs mussels 1 cup chopped shallots 6 cloves minced garlic 2 tbsp butter 2 tbsp olive oil 1/2 cup chopped canned tomatoes 1/2 tsp saffron 1/3 cup chopped parsley 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves 1 cup Chardonnay 2 tsp kosher salt 1 tsp pepper
Soak the saffron in 1/4 cup hot tap water for 15 min. Scrub and debeard the mussels and discard any that are open or broken (gently tap any open mussels and if they close they are good).
In a large pot melt the butter and the olive oil over medium heat and add the shallots and saute 5 minutes, then add the garlic and saute three minutes more. Add the tomatoes, saffron and soaking water, parsley, thyme, wine, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and add the mussels. Cook covered for 8 to 10 minutes until mussels are open. Discard any unopened mussels.
