Pup-sicles

This is a dog (or cat) treat recipe.  Although you could eat it - I guess.

Pup-sicles 

Ice cube tray or silicon candy tray

canned salmon

yogurt (I used Greek style)

or

anything your dog likes to eat - I've used frozen vegetables and kibble.

Press salmon into the bottom of each compartment.  Layer yogurt on top and freeze until solid.  Remove from tray and put in a zip-loc bag.  Keep frozen.

When I want to keep Tibby busy I give her one of these.  They don't last as long as a frozen Kong, but they are pre-made, so I don't have to remember to stuff and freeze her Kong. 

Tibby likes them!

Mini Pita Biscuits

I like the idea of biscuits. 

 The easy to roll out, perfectly round, individual portions - in other words the Perfect Biscuit.  However, I have never discovered this holy grail.  Most recipes leave you with a messy counter, crumbs of flour and butter and are hard to mix together.   If a recipe says anything about 'pea sized' bits of cut in butter, I know I won't have fun making that recipe (even though I will probably suffer through making it).

Yesterday, I was planning on making pizza, so I started to make some dough.  I only had 2 hours to make it from yeast poof to eat, so I decided to make my favorite pita bread recipe for the crust.  Then I thought, "Why can't I make this dough into biscuits?" 

And Behold!  The Mini Pita Biscuit was made!

This dough is really nice and easy to handle.  It is dream dough!  The pita biscuits are crisp on the outside and soft on the inside AND they still taste great the 2nd day.

Mini Pita Biscuits

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp instant (also called: fast acting or bread machine) yeast

2 tsp baking powder (secret ingredient!)

2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 cup water

2 Tbs veg. oil

Combine all the ingredients to form a shaggy dough.  Kneed dough for 5 mins. in an electric mixer or 10 mins by hand, until it's smooth.  Place dough in a lightly greased bowl and let rest in a warm place for 1 hour.

Heat oven to 500F degrees.

  Turn the dough out onto your work surface - kneed gently a couple times- Roll out to about 1/4 inch thick (the thick the dough the higher they will rise in the oven).  Cut into circles with a biscuit cutter or squares with a pizza cutter. 

Place biscuits on lightly greased cookie sheets and bake for 5 mins until golden brown.

Remove from oven and enjoy!

Say What? - Recipe Translation

I was helping my Mom look for a flatbread recipe online.  We wanted an authentic recipe, so we tried searching in Swedish.  Here are some of the funny translations courtesy of Google Translations:

"flatbread has always been important in our family and is among the tastiest I know. Works great for a dip in the pot! "

"Lubricate it with a little margarine"

"Bake one cookie at a time over medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Turn the mid-term."

"1 1 / 2 tablespoons cumin supported "

"remove the bite-sized substances which may rise under a cloth for 30 minutes."

" A very good advice!  If you're new to share rate of 10 times.  If you make a dough of 10 liters degspad should be used baker and have at least one helper who bakes bread. "

"Cottage Cheese Clamp"

" Upload thin loaves and place on the arugula and meat."

Watch Tibby Live!

Tibby has her orientation/interview day at doggie daycare tomorrow.

You can watch her play with other dogs all day long!

I will be there around 7am to drop her off and around 3pm to pick her up, so you might see me too!

Here is the address for the web cam:

Woof dah!

I'm really nervous she will get rejected, but she loves other dogs, so I think she will have fun playing all day long.

It's too bad the daycare is so far away. It will have to be an only once every couple months and for overnight boarding when I go on vacation treat for Tibby. If anyone wants to open a Woof dah! type doggie daycare near me I will be their FIRST customer.

Creepy Moon

Woooooooo creepy mooooooon........

Just wanted to share a few creepy moon pictures!

Gardening Danger

I spent yesterday evening in the ER and then with an opthamologist.

I have a corneal abrasion on my right eye.

Gardening is dangerous! At least for me.

This is the third time I've hurt my right eye while gardening.

Yesterday, I was cleaning out the garden and cutting everything down and the sharp cut end of a grape vine whipped into my eye. It pulled out my contact and cut my cornea from the bottom to the top. It hurt so bad! I thought it would start feeling better, but after three hours I couldn't stand the pain. I couldn't open my right eye at all and my eyes wouldn't stop watering.

In the ER they gave me some anesthetic drops and WoW! I could open my eye! Then they used some fluorescent orange dye and a blue lamp to see the abrasion.

It would have been very interesting, if it had been someone else's eye!

Then they sent me to an opthamologist and he examined my eye again and put a "band-aid" contact on my eye and gave me some antibiotic drops.

With the contact on, protecting it from the air, my eye felt 100% better.

I guess I will be wearing protective glasses from now on when I'm gardening.

It's a dangerous hobby.

The Garden That Was - Summer's End 2010

Above is a pic of a salad I made using Zavory peppers from my garden. They are my favorite pepper. They have the flavor of a habenero, without the heat. They are yummy! Usually they don't make it into the house before I eat them.

The following pics were taken Sept. 7th 2010.
The garden doesn't look anything like this right now.
First of all, the flower beds are gone and in their place I have a huge swath of black mud.
Yay for rain, not.
Second of all, most of the garden was hit with frost a couple days ago, so everything is wilted over and dead.

2010's tomato walls were bigger than ever.
However, next year I will plant fewer plants.
I promise.



Flower beds and Catty and Tibby.

More of the garden.

Next year, I will be taking out the bed with the blue chicken in it.

I think I might move the arch.

Once the morning glory started to grow on it, I couldn't see my pond from the house.

Flower beds. All gone. Goodbye flower beds.

Closer view of the tomato walls.

Back view of the tomato walls.

Middle of the garden. Tomato walls.

It's a jungle!

Side view.

Tibby in the jungle.

Chinese 5 color pepper.

Amphibian Attack

A friend collected some salamanders, frogs and toads from a window well at her house.

We brought them to my garden and put them near the pond.

There were a lot of them!

"What is that?!"

"Can I eat it?"

Wonderful camouflage.

Tibby's Graduation

Tibby graduated from beginning obedience training last night.

I was so excited and nervous. She did really well. I was really proud of her!

We didn't win any ribbons, but I thought she was the best puppy in her class.

Tibby saying "Hi!" to Pearl's mom.

And then "Hi!" to Pearl. She was pretty distracting to the other dogs!
Tibby loves everyone!

Ready? Heel-sit position.

Go! Heel, heel, heel.

Sit.

She loves to work. Even though she doesn't always listen to me.

Distance sit-stay.

Stay.

Down-stay. This was the hardest one for Tibby. She loves to pop up from her down to a sit, because she's figured out that I have to give her another treat to get her to lie back down.

We are going to have to work on that one.

She is too smart!

My Mom and Tibby!