Dog Biscuits

Ahhh, Christmas break. Time to enjoy sleeping in late, working on random projects, cleaning the house, and making dog biscuits. Dog biscuits? Yes, dog biscuits!

As many of my friends know, I have been the proud owner of a brindle/female greyhound since August. Her name is Eve, and despite her bodacious body (she's a runner you know), I like to refer to her as "ma petite grosse!" Meaning, in English, "my little fatty." It's a humorous nick-name because those of us who know her realize that despite her slamming greyhound figure, she is indeed a bit of a pig.

This year, in lieu of making regular batches of sugar cookies, breads, and candies for my family and friends, I decided to make dog biscuits. Almost everyone I know has a dog, and it seems a little crazy that such sweet animals would miss out on the holiday goodies we indulge our waistlines in. Thus, below are two recipes I baked today for my friend's and my pet: one is a meat-based biscuit made with real turkey, cheese, sage, and wheat, and the other is a sweeter biscuit made with almond butter.

Turkey Biscuits

The below recipe comes from BullWrinkle.  Unfortunately, after following the directions to a T, I realized that something was missing from the below ingredients list (water anyone?!).  Clearly, you cannot have a biscuit without water to activate the yeast.  Silly BullWrinkle.  Anyway, I've adjusted this recipe with the addition of 1/2 cup water, 2 more tablespoons oil, and sage instead of parsley.  The end result is aromatic (the kitchen smelled so good!) and a huge hit with the canine community.

Ingredients:

*2 cups cooked turkey -- cut up
*1/2 cup water
*2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
*4 teaspoons grated cheese
*1 tablespoon sage
*2 eggs, whisked separately
*2 cups whole wheat flour
*2 tablespoons brewer's yeast
*4 tablespoons vegetable oil

1.) Combine turkey, garlic, cheese, and sage.  Mix well. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and pour over turkey mixture.

2.) Add the flour, yeast, water and oil. Stir until thoroughly mixed and all ingredients are coated.  Mixture should look lumpy and be somewhat sticky in its dough form.

3.) Roll dough in the shape of balls (if dough is not sticky enough to form balls, then it probably needs more flour or water), and drop onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Cook in a 350F oven for about 20 minutes, or until brown and firm. These biscuits will not grow any larger in the oven from the original ball-shapes.  I have a feeling that if I experimenting with this recipe long enough and let the dough rise, we might have a fluffier biscuit.  However, this result would not be a traditional dog biscuit, but something more human-like in nature!

4.) Store in a refrigerator away from the eyes and nose of prying greyhound, and feed to pet when appropriate (i.e., "Good job! You just potty-trained correctly!").

Peanut Butter Cookie Biscuits

Since one batch of biscuits just isn't enough, I had to make the below recipe for peanut-butter biscuits for Eve.  The recipe is courtesy of The Poop Pantry, and has a few minor adjustments in the ingredients list as well.  Mostly, I changed the key ingredient, peanut butter, to what I had in my own pantry, almond butter.

Ingredients:

*1 cup water
*1 cup quick-cooking oats
*1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
*1/2 cup cornmeal

*1 egg
*1 tbsp. sugar
*1 tsp. salt
*1/2 cup milk
*1/3 cup peanut, or almond butter
*2-3 cups whole wheat flour (my recipe only needed 2, so shoot for 2 cups and if it needs more, add flour in small amounts towards 3 cups.  Be careful not to over-flour! You don't want this too be too dry!)

Glaze:
*1 large egg
*2 tbsp. milk

1.) Boil water in a saucepan. Add oats and butter. Let oats soak for ten minutes. Stir in the cornmeal, sugar, salt, milk, peanut butter, and egg. Mix thoroughly. Add the flour, one cup at a time (you may not need the entire amount) until a stiff dough forms. 

2.)Knead dough on floured surface until smooth, about 3 minutes. Roll to 1/2" thickness. Place on a greased cookie sheet.

 



3.) GLAZE: Whisk egg and add milk.  Mix well. Brush glaze on dough with a pastry brush. 

4.) Bake biscuits in a pre-heated 325F oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool completely. (NOTE: Unlike the turkey biscuits recipe above, these peanut butter biscuits do not need to be refrigerated.  However, I do suggest keeping them in an air-tight container like we do most foods.).

Turkey Casserole (aka, "Turkey Tetrazini!")

"Turkey Tetrazini!" I can hear it now--Joel McHale from The Soup's soundbite taken from some trashy reality TV show where a woman called out "her man" for eating some other woman's Turkey Tetrazini.

Yes, this is the food that crazy break-up tales are made of, or in my world, leftover turkey from Thanksgiving turns into.

Tonight, I made said dish for Joe and my friend Kris.  Kris's lovely wife, Ellen, made me promise her on the phone today (and about a week ago) that I would make sure to feed her hardworking husband while she was out of town for a few days.  Apparently--and honestly, I'm not surprised--, every day Kris comes home to piping hot dinner by his fantastic wife.  With Ellen away, Kris needed something to satiate his caloric needs post-class and work that wasn't spoiled cottage cheese (don't ask!).  Turkey Tetrazini it is! Although I promise Ellen, there's no reality TV man-stealing going on here! Just yummy American casseroles with leftover turkey.

Turkey Tetrazini

Ingredients:

* 1 box of macaroni pasta
* 1 yellow onion
* 6-8 garlic cloves, pressed
* fresh cracked pepper (to taste)
* Tony's Chachere's (to taste)
* 3 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 can cream of mushroom soup (the large kind, like 3 sizes too big)
* 1 cup peas
* bread crumbs for crust (optional)

1.) Preheat oven at 350 F. Boil a pot of pasta over high heat and cook pasta until done. Remember, the Italians believe that good pasta water should taste like sea-water, so don't be ashamed to salt that pasta water. Strain when finished.

2.) Chop onion, and saute over heat with several tablespoons olive oil, garlic, and a few cracks of fresh pepper and Tony Chachere's.

3.) Add cream of mushroom soup, macaroni, and integrate.

4.) Add to casserole dish and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Cook for 20-30 minutes, and serve to friends. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Recipe Preview

For Thanksgiving, I'm doing all of the staples: turkey (fried!), mashed potatoes, sweet potato soufflé, biscuits, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, apple pie, pumpkin pie, etc.

You get the picture, yes?

In the following week, I will (hopefully) be posting a listing for all of the above items. Until then, I thought I'd share the original recipes with you below. As always, I will be making my own changes to the following recipes.

Turkey (Fried) courtesy of Alton Brown
Mashed Potatoes courtesy of Elise Bauer on Simply Recipes
Sweet Potato Soufflé courtesy of Enita Estroff
Cranberry Sauce courtesy of Elise Bauer on Simply Recipes
Green Bean Casserole courtesy of Paula Deen
Pumpkin Pie courtesy of Elise Bauer on Simply Recipes
Apple Pie courtesy of Elise Bauer on Simply Recipes

Meatloaf

Tonight, I'm making my friend Joe's favorite food--MEATLOAF. Joe has spent the entire day "playing army" whilst doing a field training exercise known as "FTX" in the rain and chilly weather. Needless to say, when Joe told me he was coming back, I thought, "What better comfort food is there to serve a hard working army man?" After much meditation, I heard the gods say, "MEATLOAF."

So, here is the best recipe for the best meatloaf I've ever made. I've tried tons--many from the Food Network (of which cooks, I won't mention here) and many that have been given to me from family and friends. Thus, when I came across the below entry, I was intrigued--spicy pork sausage and ground chuck versus regular old 3 pounds of beef? FASCINATING! This combination is both flavorful and not too far from your original beef-based meatloaf recipe.

For tonight's recipe, I have used 1.5 pounds of spicy turkey meat (of which you can substitute spicy pork), and 3/4 of a pound of ground chuck.

Finally, the original recipe calls for 1/3 cup of fresh chopped parsley. Unfortunately, I always forget to buy this item when making meatloaf. Fortunately, the output is still flavorful and delicious. Thanks again, as always to Elise Bauer and her meatloaf recipe on Simply Recipes. Have I mentioned that I'm possibly Elise's biggest fan?

Also, two very useful notes from my friend Joe: one, when we were sauteing the vegetables, Joe asked if we had put any butter in our vegetables.  Actually, I had.  The recipe below calls for 2 tablespoons of butter when sauteing the vegetables, but after 5-7 minutes, the vegetables needed more lubrication and were starting to blacken, not brown (this occurred possibly because I was using a gas stove, which, in all cases, is always hotter than an electric stove).  Finally, once we started combining these sauteed vegetables with the other ingredients, Joe had the brilliant idea of using a potato masher.  This addition was really useful--the mixture was consistently combined (which you will see in the photos below).

Classic Meatloaf Recipe

Elise notes that many meatloaf recipes call for ground veal or pork in addition to ground beef.  Elise continues that "You might want to experiment with a third each of beef, pork, and veal."  However, I would like to note that ground turkey is an equally good option here, so please try the above combinations with turkey.  You won't be disappointed.  Furthermore, if you don't have access to spicy ground pork or Italian sausage (which, for those of us who shop at Walmart, it is indeed hard to fine), add "a pinch of fennel seeds and a half teaspoon of hot sauce to regular ground pork."


Preparation time: 20-30 minutes to prep, 1 hour to cook (possibly 50 minutes in a gas stove)
Ingredients

* 1 cup of finely chopped onion
* 1 celery rib, chopped fine
* 1 Tbsp minced garlic (or, 5 small-medium size cloves)
* 1 carrot, chopped fine
* 1/2 cup of finely chopped scallions (can substitute onion)
* 2 Tbsp unsalted butter (you may need more when using the butter to saute the vegetables)
* 2 teaspoon salt (use 1 1/2 teaspoons if using Italian sausage)
* 1 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
* 2 tsp Worscestershire sauce
* 2/3 cup ketchup
* 1 1/2 pounds of ground chuck
* 3/4 pound of spicy ground pork sausage or Italian sausage (a mix of sweet and hot if you are using links); again, ground turkey, or regular pork sausage works well here (just add the above spices to get the same effect)
* 1 cup fresh bread crumbs
* 2 large eggs, beaten slightly
* 1/3 cup minced fresh parsley leaves (optional)

Method

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2 In a large heavy skillet saute onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and scallions/onions in 2 tablespoons of butter (you may need to add more halfway through), over medium heat, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Cover (or not) the skillet and stir occassionally until the carrots are tender, about 5 more minutes. Stir in salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and 1/3 a cup of ketchup. Cook for 1 more minute, or until carrots are tender.


3 In a large bowl, combine the meats, eggs, vegetables, bread crumbs, and parsley using either your hand, or a potato masher. Form into a loaf and put into a rectangular baking pan with 2-inch high sides; a traditional loaf pan works well for this process. Cover the loaf with remaining ketchup & spread with a culinary brush.


4 Bake the meatloaf in the oven for 1 hour, or 50 minutes in a gas stove.

Serves 4 to 6, with plenty for leftovers for meatloaf sandwiches.