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10 Legs in the Kitchen

~ Food. Dogs. Life!

10 Legs in the Kitchen

Monthly Archives: August 2015

dog days, by ginger

30 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by Stacey Bender in Ginger + Buddy

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

from a dog's point of view, Paws Custom Pet Food, whole food for dogs

G and B

We are dogs of leisure, Buddy and I.  We are also dogs of habit.  Habits change, from time-to-time, but behaviors are a constant.  I know this because I have been told that I have selective hearing.  I like to assess the rules before deciding to follow them…or not.  I am my Mother’s daughter that way.

Buddy is (mostly) a rule follower.  He likes to play by the book.  I would rather lick the book, or chew on the corner (just look at Mom’s first food journal) and then do it my way instead.  But he and I get along okay anyways, and sometimes we break the rules together.  He can be easy to persuade.

20130928-170758.jpg
Hmmmmm….

We must have been on really good behavior lately though, because Mom and Dad took us with them to a hotel for a mini-break.  We usually have to travel far to get to one of those places where we sleep somewhere else; like our grandparents’ or aunt/uncles’ but this one wasn’t very far away at all, and it was fancy.

When we pulled up, Buddy and I were thinking we would be sitting in the car for awhile, but instead, we were led inside to a grand lobby with soaring ceilings and stone floors, cool on the paws but not too slippery for clumsy Buddy.  And of course, not before getting to tinkle on a manicured lawn (don’t tell no one that Buddy tinkled on the sidewalk instead).

Up we went in an elevator (which I hate, but that is another long story itself).  Buddy and I were giddy with excitement for whatever the other side of the door would reveal.  It was spectacular!  Plush carpet (again I’m sure so Buddy wouldn’t slip), soft lights and nobody else in sight!  We ran down the hall past our room and Mom had to chase us while Dad used a magic card to open the door.  We ran inside, still tethered together on a single leash, but then Mom did her usual annoying critique.  Was it high enough, cute enough, with the right view, and blah…blah…blah!  She is always questioning things; but I guess, so am I.   Buddy didn’t mind that we were only on the 2nd floor and that the room was much smaller than the one we sleep in at home.

I immediately went into explorer mode and while off-leash, was still tethered to my brother and I drug him around with me.  Yes, this in fact, was an adventure!   A time to get away…if only for a day.   Plus, the best part – two doors opened up revealing a sweeping view to a sea of blue (which at first I thought was the Cote d’Azure, but was actually just a sea of tennis courts).

PS_gb out to blue
Oooooooh la la!

There was a waft of fresh air that required me to plant myself on my fluffy bed in the wake of it all so I could comfortably sleep the afternoon away, breathing in the air and my brother’s scent, long into the evening.

PS_ on beds
Comfy

Yes, our parents left us for something other than us, but we had gotten sleepy by then anyways.  They did come back to wake us and were happy too, plus the evening was late yet still warm.  Mom took us outside by way of the plush hall, scary elevator and spacious room.  My brother and I took longer than we needed to because the night was so perfect and warm.  We love exploring new places, smelling smells that are unfamiliar yet, all at once, exciting!

PS_turn down serviceI even provided the turn-down service!

That night, we behaved.  Our behavior did change!  We slept longer and deeper than normal even tho we had a late nap.  And we didn’t wake up our parents until the light came into our room.  When we made Mom get dressed to walk us, the sun had already risen and the world was gloriously awake!  Mom didn’t agree that this was the perfect time to be awake; it was 5 am.

PS_g in window
Spy girl That is me up there.

When our parents got dressed and left us alone, they wore the same kind of clothes they wear when they leave us on the weekends.  This time though, they appeared again below us.  They began hitting a bright ball back and forth with a netted paddle.  We have seen them do this in the park sometimes but they were always getting mad at us for loudly cheering them on so they stopped taking us.  We decided that this time we might try being silent; sneakily peering from above and chewing our feet instead.  This must have been a good idea because they rewarded us for being good by taking us on another walk and then fed us our favorite home-cooked meal out of our special travel bowls.

buddys fuud

Buddy & Ginger’s Favorite Home Cooked Meal for Pups – by Ginger
Makes 4 pounds (enough to last Buddy 5 days; he is little but sometimes 12 pounds)

This is actually Buddy’s food but I like to eat it too.  I like to eat.  He is on a low protein diet because he is shaky and wobbly and something isn’t right with him but I don’t know what is wrong.  I just know that ever since he started getting poked with a needle every night to let liquid fill up his skin, we both started eating something different than we used to eat and we each have our own flavor.  Mine has more meeat which Buddy would rather eat and his has more vegetables which is more my kind of thing.  I always get to taste his though, especially if he leaves some stuck at the far end where he can’t reach and it is usually really good except when Mom uses zucchinis (the only vegetable I really hate, except celery…well, and cucumbers).  Buddy is weird and like those things.  Then again, he’ll eat fuzz off the floor.

I have always had a healthy diet but believe you me, ever since we switched to this whole, non-process food, I feel like a young pup again and Buddy has gone from crazy not eating at all to inhaling his food and getting it all over and then tries to eat mine.  Sometimes a lady named Shelly makes the food for us and sends it to the house and sometimes Mom makes it herself.  When Mom makes it, she uses 25% protein, then splits the rest with equal parts vegetable/fruit and carbs.  She then adds nutrition and supplements provided by Shelly at Paws Custom Pet Food nearby and when mommy forgets, late at night she can order it on her computer.  Below is our favorite mix from Mommy and I had her type the numbers (although Buddy would prefer there was more meeeet)!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 lb chicken hearts
1/2 lb ground lamb
1/2 lb carrots (peeled and chopped)
1/2 lb sugar snap peas in the shell (stem end removed)
6-8 oz cooked sweet potato
6-8 oz cooked brown rice
6-8 oz cooked garbanzo beans (drained of liquid)
4 oz fresh figs
4 oz fresh blueberries
2 oz cabbage leaves, sliced
2 tsp nutritional supplements from Paws Custom Pet Food (Buddy’s has the added kidney/liver supplements with holistic herbs such as turmeric and milk thistle)

COOK

Mom adds some olive oil to a sauté pan (just a tiny bit) and then cooks the chicken hearts until they are no longer pink inside.  This takes about 10 minutes.  She always eats a few herself so I make sure I stare so she feels the need to share with me too.  When those are done cooking she sets them aside to cool.

Next she cooks the lamb, right in the same pan.  She buys the grass fed lamb that doesn’t get all oily on the bottom of the pan.  When I eat grass I barf, so I’m glad I’m not a lamb.  She doesn’t add any salt or pepper and “tests” so much of it herself that I worry about if any makes it into Buddy’s food.

While that is cooking, she cooks the sweet potato in the oven after stabbing it with a knife (scary).  She says all of the ingredients need to be cool when she mixes them so that it stays fresh longer.

Next, she puts everything into a big bowl on her electric chopper thing and turns it on.  It is so loud and I can’t even hear very well; this is my least favorite part (daddy’s too).

That’s it!  Easy huh?  Make it for your pups!  Now lets eat!

love ginger

A Number’s Game

08 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by Stacey Bender in Ginger + Buddy, the kitchen

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

birthday cake, birthday pups, carrot cake, contemplating life, fig and ricotta cake

this is cover_4075

Little meaning can be put to some things, yet much meaning can be put to many things; take numbers, for example.  We use numbers to measure things, much of the time.  We measure ingredients, various aspects of our pups/kids lives, our personal “status”, and of course… our age.  Much of the time though, those numbers can mean rather little (in the grand scheme of things), unless you want them (or let them), mean everything.

I turn (bleep) this month (tomorrow, actually).  I don’t usually know what age I am turning on the month of my birth (mostly because I think I have already been that age the year before) and doubt that, give one year, or even two, it really means much more than the last.  It is just a number, not a real age; certainly not the age that I feel (well, most days)!  Not the age that I actually am!  In two years time (again) though, I would like to accomplish a task.  This is a task I thought I would accomplish by thirty, and then forty, and, well…it is still a task (and a dream).  I want to write a book.  But I have been writing a book!  For ten… no, fifteen years!!!  Not really writing a book so much as just, writing (and reading, and living, and cooking, and dreaming)!

I have words to say, words to be read, and sentiments to be taken to heart.  I have food to be prepared, shared, and techniques to teach and happiness to be spread.  I have something to give, something to receive, and hopes to fulfill.  Life is busy, and complicated, and full, even when my belly isn’t.  Life is delicious and generous, yet greedy at the same time.  I can be spontaneous today and shut-down the next.  I am joyful and expectant, yet scared to jump into the unknown.  Yet, I’d bet many of you feel the same way?

If there is one thing I have learned in my time here so far, it is this: live, love, and keep being a better person; to yourself, your family/friends, and those that you don’t even know.  Don’t take things that aren’t serious, so seriously.  Trust me, there are plenty of serious things that will be speed bumps along your way.

The three (best) pieces of advise I would give to a “young” person are these:

  1. Always wear sunscreen.  Even if there doesn’t seem to be sun.
  2. Be kind to your feet.  Please.
  3. And eat your vegetables.  Whether you have two legs or four.

Now I’m dating myself, but trust me on these!

and now…let us make cake!

20140624-112741.jpg

soRry tO inTerrupt The regularly scheduled rEcipe; this just iN…

PS_B + G_7187

Psssst, buDdY and gInGer here an we wantted to make momMy a cake for her birthDay soo of course the obvious Choice is for us two make Carrot cake.  MoMmy doesnt Really know how too bake so the cake she made iz probably a Tiny healthier then most of uS would preffer.  sO we are Here 2 make sum thing bOth nutritious aNd Delicious.  we hopes sHe will share sum with us even thO we uzed butter and special flower.

we went heer for inspiration since we don’t know how to bake eether but since we can’t follow directions to good, it is a little difrunt.

we urge You to make this, not that Fig thing below, But our great cake:

PS_ginger tongue_4080

CARROT, CAKE by the numbers

loosely adapted from Alton Brown’s carrot cake

INGREDIENTS + steps 1 to 5

Step 1:  grate the Carrots and put in large bowl with the coConut

2 cups grated carrots

1/4 cup shredded coconut

Step 2:  mix the dry ingredients in

dry Ingredients:

2 cups “001” flour (soundz fancy, daDdy sez u can uze 007 to, we dont get it)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 TB cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

sum nutmeg

Step 3: Beat the wet ingredients minus the olive oil.  when creamy, drizzle the olive oil in with the beater going slow

wet ingredients:

3 TB butter

1/2 cup whole cane sugar (looks like a cross between turbino and brown sugar)

2 TB honey, sweety

2 large eggs

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup sour cream

Step 4:  mixx the Dry ingredients into the carrots and coconut

Step 5:  Mix the wet ingredients into the carrots and dry ingredients. Ooo, thats tricky

COOK

Step 6:  Transfer the mix to a buttered And floured cake pan (9” round or square, but no rectangles cuz thats not as Cute an We like cute).

Step 7:  Pree heat the oven to 375 degrees hot and bake for 30 minutes.  reduce the temperature to 300 degrees cooler and continue to cook until the inside of the cake equals 200 degrees (we stuk our paws in and it seemed gud to us after 30 minutes).

Step 8:  LeT cool in the cute Pan and then turn out onto a rack

Step 9: top with whippet cream cheeessse mixed with hunny.  Add Cute decorations – boNuS iF they can Be eated!

Step 10:  leT US eat Cake!!!

G B with slice_4091

daddy_4097

Daddy, don’t blow out mom’s candle (ginGer thinks its fuNNy tho).

20140624-112741.jpg

Now back to the originally scheduled recipe…

PS_I like better

Fig and Ricotta Cake (by the numbers)

When I told Tom what I was making, he said (often when I bake stuff), “You haven’t made that before; make what you know” (as I usually say for when we have company).

To that I replied, “Yes, but only for company.  Most of the time, you should just make it up and have fun”.

Step NUMBER 1:

Gather ingredients.

INGREDIENTS

Dry ingredients:
1 cup sprouted spelt flour
1 cup amaranth flour (feel free to use all purpose flour for a tastier, less healthy cake)
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 TB cinnamon
1 TB whole grain sugar
1 tsp baking powder

Wet ingredients:
2 eggs
Approximately 1 pint (12-15 whole) fresh figs, cleaned, quartered with stems removed and discarded
2 TB raw honey
1 vanilla bean, inside scraped and outer part saved for another use
1 1/2 TB lemon juice (juice from 1-1/2 baby lemons)
14 oz whole milk ricotta (from a 16 oz tub, 2 oz reserved for topping the cooked cake)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup buttermilk

Step NUMBER 2:

Mix the dry ingredients into a bowl.

Step NUMBER 3:

Beat the eggs, figs and honey together until the figs break down but are still showing skin.  It should be holding together but still a little bit liquified.

Step NUMBER 4:

With the mixer on, add the vanilla bean, lemon juice, ricotta, olive oil and beat until nicely blended and slightly creamy.

Step NUMBER 5:

Slowly stir the dry mix into the wet until blended.

Step NUMBER 6:

Pour the whole lot into an oiled cake pan and pop into an oven, preheated to 375 degrees F.

Step NUMBER 7:

Drizzle olive oil over in a circular motion.  Do the same with the honey.  With the back of a spoon, swirl them around the batter.  Pop the pan into the oven and set a timer for 45 minutes.

uncooked

Step NUMBER 8:

Pour yourself a glass of rosé and wait for 30 minutes before checking in on the cake.  During this time, you should be spending quality time with your family…your friends.  Smell the air and rejoice.

Step NUMBER 8:

Check on the cake and you might need about 10-15 minutes more for a toothpick to come up clean.  If it is getting too dark on top, simply cover with foil and continue.  Remove to let cool slightly then turn it out onto a rack.

cake cooked1

Step NUMBER 9:

Cut a slice for you and your friends.  Top with a dollop of ricotta and a drizzle of honey.  Perhaps slices of figs and/or strawberries and blueberries.  Go free-form on this!

B candle

BG candle

Step NUMBER 10:

Eat cake (again?) later that evening… and don’t sweat the small stuff!

Love,
Saucey

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