Gourmet Dog Treats

This week we have been busy baking and making things for our furry and feathered friends. 

We started out by making dog treats for our dog, Maggie, and some of her doggie friends.  I found the recipe here.

What You’ll Need:

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons peanut butter
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup oats

What You’ll Do:

1. Blend the wet ingredients together.  In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients together.
2. Mix them together to form a ball of dough.
3. Roll out and use your favorite cookie cutters.  (We used a small Scottie dog, heart and star.)                         
4. Put them on a non-stick cookie tray or lightly greased tray.
5. Cook 20 minutes at 400 degrees.
6. DO NOT REMOVE FROM THE OVEN!  Turn off the oven and allow the biscuits to cool in the oven until they are hard and crisp.
7. Store in an airtight container.

We wrapped our treats   

and added a dog bone gift tag.

click on the image to download

To go along with our baking we read two of our favorite Christmas books which feature dogs:  Clifford’s Christmas and Carl’s Christmas.

       

~Cindy 

Apple Pie Play Dough

I made some apple pie play dough for the kids to play with this week.  It smells so good!

 

What You Will Need:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon of cream of tarter
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon of allspice
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1/2 cup of apple juice
• red food coloring (add until you get desired color)

What You Will Do:

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a large sauce pan. 
2. Place on medium high heat on the stove
3. Stir frequently until the dough starts pulling away from the sides of the pan.
4. Remove from the stove.
5. Once the dough has cooled enough to handle knead the dough. 
6. Place it in an airtight container.

I love homemade play dough!  It’s so easy to make and you can make so many different scents.  Best of all it keeps the kids occupied!  The kids have been having fun making little miniature apple pies with the play dough. 

~Cindy

Pretzels

Making pretzels with the kids is so much fun!  Emily loves to  measure, mix, and knead. 

Aiden loves to punch the dough ~ his version of kneading. 

This is the first time we have made this pretzel recipe and I will never make another!  They were so YUMMY! 

What You’ll Need:

• 4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup baking soda
• 4 cups hot water
• Optional: 1/4 cup kosher salt
• Optional:  melted butter and cinnamon and sugar

What You’ll Do:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.
4. When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape.  We made most of ours into pretzel sticks.                                        
   Once you have shaped all the dough, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet.  Optional: Sprinkle with kosher salt.      
   Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, until browned.
   Optional:  melt butter and dip pretzels in butter then in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.

The best part ~ taste testing!

~Cindy

Zucchini Pizza Bites

We made some Zucchini Pizza Bites today using our first zucchini from the garden. 

   

What You’ll Need:

• 1 medium zucchini
• pizza sauce
• fresh oregano (or dried)
• shredded mozzarella cheese
• shredded parmesan cheese
• pepperoni
• onions (optional)

What You’ll Do:

1. Preheat broiler; set rack in the middle.
2. Trim ends on zucchini and cut into diagonal slices.
3. Spread a teaspoon of sauce over each zucchini slice and sprinkle on some fresh chopped oregano.   Top each zucchini slice with cheeses.  Add pepperoni and onions, if desired.
4. Broil about 3 minutes or until cheese is melted.

My kids tolerate zucchini, it’s definitely not their favorite.  I on the other hand LOVE zucchini, so guess who planted lots of it in the garden this year? 

The verdict ~ add some sauce, cheese and pepperoni and the kids have decided that they like zucchini after all.  Do you have a favorite zucchini recipe?

~Cindy

Thunder Cake

Emily and I were so excited when it started thundering and lightning today!  Why you ask?  So we could make a Thunder Cake. 

We love books by Patricia Polacco ~ Thunder Cake is one of our new favorites.  In the book Babushka (grandmother) helps her granddaughter overcome her fear of thunderstorms by baking a special cake.   When the thunder booms Babushka tells her granddaughter

“Don’t pay attention to that old thunder, except to see how close the storm is getting.  When you see the lightning, start counting….real slow.  When you hear the thunder, stop counting.  That number is how many miles away the storm is.”

Babushka and her granddaughter count how long they have until the storm arrives and hurry to gather the supplies needed to make a Thunder Cake.

Ever since Emily and I read this book we have been patiently waiting for a thunderstorm.  Today as it thundered and lightning we counted how close the storm was and hurried to make our cake.

Babushka’s Thunder Cake

Cream together one at a time:
1 cup shortening
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs, separated ( Blend yolks in. Beat whites until they are stiff, then fold in.)

1 cup cold water
1/3 cup pureed tomatoes (yes, you read that right!)

Sift together:
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup dry cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease two 8 1/2-inch round pans.  Mix dry mixture into creamy mixture.  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.  Frost with chocolate frosting and top with strawberries.

  

The cake turned out a little lopsided but it wasn’t anything some extra frosting couldn’t hide.

Chocolate cake and chocolate frosting ~ delicious!  I didn’t tell Daddy that it had tomatoes in it and he didn’t seem to notice anything strange.  I guess since I knew they were in there I thought I could taste them. 

Emily and I had fun making the cake and a special memory!

~Cindy

Queen Cakes

Let them eat cake!   

-Marie-Antoinette

Emily and I have been reading about Marie-Antoinette, queen of France during the French Revolution.  Maria-Antoinette was an arrogant queen, and when she heard that there was no bread for the poor citizens of Paris, she replied “Qu-ils mangent les brioches!” (“Let them eat cake”).  After her death, citizens of Paris created Queen Cakes in her memory.

We found the recipe for Queen Cakes in Konos Volume I. 

I gathered the ingredients and let Emily weight, measure, mix and pour.

 

We used a scale to measure the flour and sugar (a great math lesson).  We also used cake pans instead of making individual cakes. 

What You’ll  Need:

1 lb. flour

1/2 lb. butter (Since this for school, I ignored the large quantity of butter required!  : )

1/2 lb. sugar

3 eggs

1/2 cup baking powder

A few tablespoons of grated lemon rind in cream

What You’ll Do:

Sift baking soda with flour in a bowl.  In another bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Beat until creamy (we beat by hand, after all they didn’t have mixers then.)  Add eggs one at a time.  Add flour and moisten with cream until consistency of cake batter.  Put in small buttered tins (or cupcake tins) and bake 15 –30 minutes at 350. 

Makes 2 – 3 dozen small cakes.

Optional:  We mixed together lemon juice, lemon zest, powdered sugar, and milk to make a glaze that we drizzled over the cake.

 

-Cindy

 

Yummy Lemon-Blueberry Scones

 

These are hands down the best and easiest scones ever!

What You’ll Need:

2 cups of all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar plus 1 teaspoon

1 teaspoon  baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen

1 generous teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1/2 dried blueberries (I used fresh)

1/2 cup sour cream

1 large egg

Optional Glaze:  Powder sugar, lemon zest and milk

What You Do:

1.  Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and    preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.  In a medium bowl, mix flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Grate butter into flour mixture on the large holes of a box grater;  use your fingers to work in butter (mixture should resemble coarse meal) then stir in the dried blueberries.

3.  In a small bowl, whisk sour cream and egg and lemon zest until smooth.

4.  Using a fork, stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large dough clumps form.  Use your hands to press the dough against the bowl into a ball.  (The dough will be sticky in places, and there may not seem to be enough liquid at first, but as you press, the dough will come together.)

5.  Place on a lightly floured surface and pat into a 7- to 8-inch circle about 3/4-inch thick.  Sprinkle with remaining 1 tsp. of sugar.  Use a sharp knife to cut into 8 triangles; place on a cookie sheet (preferably lined with parchment paper), about 1 inch apart.  Bake until golden, about 15 to 17 minutes. 

6.  Mix together powdered sugar, small amount of milk and lemon zest and drizzle over the top of the scones. 

7.  Enjoy!

I love to fix these when Emily and I have tea, but we often have them for breakfast.

Cindy