Viva Las Vegas Dog Treats

My dogs are a huge part of my family. There used to be times when my family would spend a good ten to fifteen minutes trying to get the dogs to come sit with us, let alone sit still for the camera. We used to include them in our holiday cards, because they were family. My little fluffy brothers, you know? Once upon a time, we got them those rawhide bones to chew on Christmas Day. They ruined the soft squeaky toys. Or, well, the small one did. Rawhide bones had the guarantee of being IMPOSSIBLE to ruin until they worried it with their teeth enough.

This is Joey, a West Highland Terrier. Definitely not the cleanest. 

This is Chester, a Golden Retriever. He's really light for the breed.

In the past two years or so, I've noticed something. My parents were no longer including our dogs in the Christmas picture or getting them presents. The horror! This past Christmas, I resolved to do something about at least one of them. While getting them in the picture was impossible, I got them Christmas presents. Specifically, I made their presents.

I was browsing the internet one day when I stumbled across Brown-eyed Baker's Gone to the Dogs dog treats. No, it wasn't the fact she had a Golden Retriever that hooked me. Although that may have been a factor. I'm not too sure. But I digress! The reason I picked these treats is Chester. The poor guy is (likely) allergic to meat. The vet didn't actually check him for allergies, but it's a safe bet to say he's allergic to meat because the two times we tried to feed him dog food with meat in it (after we suspected this) he stopped eating. He eats fish instead. Fishes are yummy. In order to make treats both dogs could enjoy, I decided on the above recipe because it used peanut butter! My dogs are suckers for peanut butter.

Healthy Dog Treats

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 cup natural peanut butter
• 1 cup whole milk (Now, there may be a difference for using low-fat and whole milk. I ended up using whole milk because my mom refused to buy a gallon of low-fat specifically for the dogs. It should be fine to substitute the milk. Nothing's happened to my dogs.)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 

2. In a bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. In another bowl, combine the peanut butter and milk.

Dry ingredients.

And wet ingredients!

3. Put the dry mixture into the wet mixture or vice versa. Mix well.

4. Knead dough on lightly floured surface or parchment paper. Knead out dough to about 1/8 of an inch thick and cut out shapes with card suit cookie cutters. Place on a cookie sheet, evenly spaced.

5. Bake for 20 minutes. Take out, let cool, and store in an airtight container. (And don't forget to let your dog have a sneak taste!)

I was in the holiday spirit, so holiday treats are in there too.

My batch came out much larger than the original because I rolled the dough thinner and I used tiny cookie cutters. I know my parents have a habit of separating treats, so the smaller the cookie is, the easier it is to snap the treat in almost equal halves. Plus, my dogs are never given big chunks of treats. Thirdly, I wanted the homemade treats to last longer. I also bagged about six to give to Nate's sister's dogs. According to him, they devoured them. Maybe I should make them some dog treats, too!

My dogs took to the treats like dog-sharks. After I gave them a taste, they went around the island, looking to see if I'd give them more. The personality of my dogs showed pretty clearly. Chester sat close to me, knowing he wouldn't get any more, but hoping that if he was good enough, he'd get another. Joey sniffed around for more and kept looking up at the island.

"Don't. Move." 

Chester noms on his treats nicely.

Joey usually takes them somewhere else to nom on.

Best Banana Bread

I am a huge fan of banana bread. My mom always made the best, and when I went off to college, she sent me the recipe so I could make it. Whenever I buy bananas, I purposely let three ripen so I can use it in the bread. It's my favorite breakfast food.

Banana Bread

Ingredients

• 1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3-4 medium bananas, very ripe and peeled
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Butter (a little)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease the 8-1/2" x 4-1/2" loaf pan with butter.

2. In a medium bowl, using the wooden spoon, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

3. In a large bowl, smash the bananas with the fork. Add the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla and beat with a wooden spoon until well blended.

4. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture. Stir until just blended. 

5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly with a wooden spoon. Put the pan in the oven and bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and set it on a rack to cool for 20 minutes.

6. Gently run a table knife along the inside edge of the pan to loosen the bread from the sides. Using oven mitts, turn the pan on its side and slip the loaf out onto the cooling rack. Let the loaf cool for 15 minutes before serving.

And there you have it! The best banana bread I've ever had! It really is delicious. So soft and light. Drink it with a little milk and it makes the perfect breakfast.

Strawberry Nutella Muffins

A while back, I found the blog Two Peas and Their Pod and went through all the recipes that were on their blog. They have a ton of good ones. You should definitely check them out sometime! I stumbled across these delicious Strawberry Nutella Muffins. I had to make them. I absolutely love strawberry and nutella, so why not combine the two and follow this delicious recipe?

I've made this twice for breakfast. Both times, I skipped the turbinado sugar. The first time, I had no idea what it was. The second time, I figured I didn't need it. According to TPaTP, it gives it some delicious crunch. My muffins tasted just fine without them! You may or may not want to put in a little more sugar to make up for lack of turbinado sugar, or just go and put the turbinado on. Either way, it's delicious!

I also found out my dough was still dry after the amount of milk put in, so I suggest eyeballing it to see if the dough looks dry. If it does, pour in a little more.

Strawberry Nutella Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped fresh strawberries
• Nutella
• Turbinado sugar (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper cups or grease well.

2. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar. 

3. In a small bowl or glass measuring cup, combine the canola oil, egg, milk, and vanilla together. Whisk until well combined.

4. Combine the dry and wet mixtures in the medium bowl. Mix until just moist. Add in the strawberries, being careful not to mush any of them accidentally. 

5. Fill each muffin cup with a spoonful of batter. If it looks like it's lacking, put in a little more. Then add a tablespoon of Nutella on top of each mix. Use the remaining batter to cover up the nutella. (Optional step: Sprinkle each muffin with turbinado sugar.)

6. Bake muffin for 17-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven and let cool.

I didn't wait for them to cool. I bit right into them! They make an excellent breakfast, and could probably make an excellent dessert as well. I have to be making these again sometime soon!

Cake Pops!

Yesterday was Mariko's birthday, and I decided to give cake pops a try. After some extensive research, I decided I knew what to do.

I was so, so wrong.

One out of every three cake pops fell apart. I burned the chocolate in the microwave (I think the microwave is having an identity crisis). And there was just too much cake mix for me to make everything into cake pops.

These came out pretty, though.

I've decided I'm never doing cake pops again unless I've got help, a double boiler, or one of those cake pop makers. I'm admitting defeat with that last admission. I really want to make cake pops by hand, but this just takes too long and it's too messy. It irritated me towards the end. There were four boxes of cake mix Mariko picked out and I only made one and a half. The rest became pre-cake pop cake that I've invited people to eat. Everyone loves those, which is great.

And the cake pops (that came out well) taste good. A friend of Susanna's said they were the best cake pops she's ever had. Surprising, considering I had no idea what I was doing. Still, I'm glad some people like my cake pops. I may try again when I have considerably more patience (and less cake mix).