Treats to Share with Mr. Dog

I am sure you have noticed it - the showing of pictures, the discussion of minor habits, the constant retelling for funny (and not so funny) stories and of course, the inevitable attribution of human moods, feelings and intentions. Yes, people with pets have this specific kind of obnoxiousness and I am certainly very much guilty too. Now that I have admitted that I can indulge in a whole post dedicated to my dog, complete with pictures and all.

Atlez, my dog, turned 4 years old this past week and like any self-respecting dog parent (yes, parent, not owner) I organized a week-long celebration, complete with cake (carrot cake from Three Dog Bakery), two visits to the dog park, fancy food, manicure, and today  - a hike with a friend's dog and home-made dog biscuits for a snack. I am sure the whole shabang did not register with him in the least  and that all my care was wiped clean from his memory by the bath I just gave him, but it was nice to do it all the same. 

I have been meaning to make some treats for him for the longest time, ever since I actually ate one of the dog treats I bought for him and found out why he refused the eat them. They taste like cardboard, that's why. To the best of my knowledge he doesn't like to eat cardboard. He likes cheese, and lamb, and beef, and chicken, but above all cheese. Meeee toooo. So I made him biscuit that we can share. They are technically dog biscuits but nothing in them is dog-specific and I have been nibbling on them as much as he has. They are tasty. We both think so. 

Cheesy Dog Biscuits

1/2 lb. cheese, grated

1 egg

1/4 C butter, soft

1/4 C corn meal

1/3 C oatmeal

1/2 C hot water

1/2 cube chicken bouillon

~ 3 C flour
a bit of salt

The flour can be all purpose or whole wheat. I used unbleached all purpose. I used mozzarella cheese, because I know that Atlez likes it, but any other cheese can be substituted. The mozzarella yielded a very mild cheese taste. I think cheddar would be better.

Dissolve the bouillon in the hot water and set aside. In a bowl beat butter until creamy, add the cheese, egg, corn meal, oatmeal and the bouillon, while beating. Then start adding the flour. Add just enough flour to make soft dough, still a bit sticky but not wet sticky. Separate the dough in 2-3-4 balls. Knead each ball with a bit of flour and roll out to 1/4 inch thickness and cut with a knife or cookie cutters. I like the heart-shapes because they can be easily broken in two. Ummm... this was really not a statement about broken hearts.... Bake at 375F until rosy, 25-30 minutes. Cool. Share.

For more dog treat recipes check out the following links:
Gourmet Sleuth
Bullwrinkle
Cheese Dog Treats

Birthday Brownies

For some reason or another I have always had home-made birthday cakes. I remember the checkered cake I always begged my Mom for when I was little, and the sponge cakes my Grandma used to make, decorated with red and yellow raspberries like strings of Christmas lights in June. But at the point when one pack of candles is no longer enough to mark my age, birthday cakes have lost their charm and birthday celebrations have become more like an avoidance there of. Instead of a celebration, I try to do something fun and memorable. I had planned to run a marathon this year but with the stress of the last three months my training fell off track big time. BIG time! In place of marathoning, I managed to convince several of my friends to go chasing bears (literately and figuratively) in the Sierra Nevadas over a 36-mile hike. And to fuel the hike I lugged a pack of brownies in place of a cake. Yeah!

You might hate me for saying this, but in my opinion as far as deserts go brownies are usually just too much - too sweet, too choclatey, too sticky. But these ones I like. They have more of a cake consistency and don't feel like a cubic inch of a heart attack. I would like to make them with chopped dark chocolate instead of chocolate chips next time. And unless it is agains your religious convictions, do add the walnuts! The recipe is from King Arthur (and can be found on the back of their flour packs). Yep, that's right, King Arthur made brownies.

Best Brownies Ever

1/2 C unsalted butter
1 C sugar
2 large eggs
1/2+ C Dutch-process cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp instant coffee powder (optional)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 C all-purpose flour
1 C chocolate chips
1/2 C walnut pieces

Preheat oven to 350 F and lightly grease an 8x8 inch pan. Place butter in microwave safe bowl and melt in the microwave (watch it - 20 seconds are usually enough). Add the sugar, stir and return to microwave for for another 20 seconds, stir and keep heating and stirring until the mixture is hot and glossy but not bubbling. In another bowl mix the next six ingredients (eggs through cocoa) and add the hot butter while stirring. Add the flour and stir till smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips and the walnuts. Pour in the pan and bake for ~30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let them cool well before cutting. If you can.

Backpacking Food

I am heading off to yet another awesome backpacking adventure next weekend and I am too excited to think about anything else. But before I go, I must solve The Big Question - what are we going to eat for 4 days in the wilderness with no gas stations and vending machines. Even for me it is stretch to spend 4 days of strenuous hiking on bagels and cream cheese. The alternative is the store bought "just add water" meals sold at outdoors stores for ~$5 a meal which is a bit steep for a bag of ramen with some spices. On our last backpacking adventure two months ago, I was introduced to the miracle of freezer bag cooking - home-made "just add water" meals that are delicious, nutritious and easy to prepare for a crowd. We made them for dinner, family-style, all in one pot and everyone (but lazy, post-thesis me) cooked a meal for the whole group. It was fantastic - an amazing warm meal every evening! We had a burrito night, a couscous night and a linguine in cream sauce night. Yum! So for next weekend I readily agreed with James's suggestion that we cook dinners the same way and decided to use the occasion to test and cross-compare some freezer bag recipes. All recipes below are from the Trail Cooking website. More recipes can be found at One Pan Wonders, the Backpacker magazine and on some other websites (search for freezer bag cooking).


Orange Rice with Salmon (for 1 person)
1 C instant rice
1⁄3 C chopped toasted pecans
2 Tbs dried parsley
2 Tbs diced dried onion
1 Tbs dried orange peel
1 1/2 tsp bouillon
1 tsp orange drink mix (such as crystal light or tang)
3 oz pink salmon/tuna (1 bag)
salt
(1 C water)
Weight: 10.5 oz Cooking time: boil water + 5 minutes Calories: 530 Kcal Protein: 22 g Fat: 30 g Carbs: 46 g Price: ~$4.00

Preparation: Mix all ingredients but the fish in a bag. At camp, bring water to boil, mix with the dry ingredients and let it seep for 5 minutes. Stir in the fish. Enjoy!

Review: I was very excited about this and it turned out fairly tasty if a bit strange. The original recipe asked for 1 1/2 C of rice - this makes way too much food for one person so I scaled it back. I am not sure about the orange drink mix - I used Kool-aid and it sucked (too sour). I'd suggest just skipping it altogether. Quite a mix of flavors, maybe a bit too much.


Thai Style Peanut Noodles (for 1 person)

3 oz package ramen noodles
1⁄4 C chunky peanut butter
1 1⁄2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp diced dried onion
1⁄2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp vinegar
salt
(1 1/2 C water)
Weight: 5.5 oz Cooking time: boil water + 3 minutes Calories: 760Kcal Protein: ~21g Fat: ~20g Carbs: ~60g Price: $1.50 (generously)

Preparation: Break ramen into smaller pieces (to save space) and pack in a ziplock bag. Mix all other ingredients in a small plastic jar. At camp bring water to boil. Add ramen and let it steep for 3 minutes. Pour some of the ramen water in the sauce jar (less than 1/4 C) and shake until it turns into a thick sauce. Dispose of the rest of the ramen water. Stir the noodles with the sauce.

Review: Veeeeery peanuty! Oh my! The original recipe asked for too much water in the sauce and too much vinegar so I've changed these. Using chunky peanut butter is fantastic (I used salted). One can add more peanuts if desired. I would like to add some dried vegetables if I make it, maybe a handful of dried carrots.

Swiss Broccoli Mac and Cheese (for 1 person, generously)

1 1/2 Tbs flour
1⁄4 C dry milk
1 tsp dry mustard powder
2 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried garlic
1⁄8 tsp ground black pepper
4 oz uncooked small shell pasta
1⁄4 C diced dried broccoli
2.5 oz shredded swiss cheese
salt
(2 C water)
Weight: 8.5 oz Cooking time: boil water + 5-10 minutes (depending on pasta) Calories: 760Kcal Protein: 45g Fat: 20 g Carbs: 90g Price: $2.25

Preparation: Pack pasta in one bag, cheese in a second bag, all other dry ingredients in a third. At camp, bring water to boil and boil the pasta till ready. Without pouring the water out, stir in all the other ingredients until the cheese is melted. Reserve some cheese and parsley to sprinkle on top if desired.

Review: This was awesome! Well, when is mac and cheese not awesome... Total comfort food, rich and delicious. I used Swiss Cheese from New Zealand, found at TJs and tiny alphabet pasta which cooked in under 5 minutes.

Which am I going to cook after all? The Orange-Salmon-Rice is at the bottom in the weigh-price-calories ratio - it is heavy, expensive and low in calories. The race is between the Mac'n'cheese and the peanut noodles. Not rally sure. The peanut noodles are cheap and light. The Mac'n'cheese is a bit on the heavy side but equally delicious. Mmmmm, though choice. Any votes?

PS. Why is this called "freezer bag cooking" if these meals can be much more comfortably cooked in the pot where you boiled the water?

Great minds think a hike

A bit cheesy,but I like it - the title comes from a bumper sticker for a local outdoors store. It is March in southern Arizona. This is the time when the rest of the Northern hemisphere is barely starting to thaw, tulips and hyacinths are popping their heads, trees are blooming and people are happy to see the Sun for the first time this year. In Arizona however, this is the time to pull out the sunscreen, hats and shorts, and head for a hike before it gets too hot to be outside.

I had not gone hiking in a loooong time and was wondering what food to bring. Apple slices, cheese, treats for the dog... granola bars? Then it dawned on me that it couldn't be that hard to make some granola bars and stuff them will all the goodness I want. I used Heidi Swanson's recipe to get the basic proportions and here is what I came up with:

Homemade Granola Bars

1 Tsp coconut oil (or butter)
1 C chopped pecans
1 C dried cranberries
2/3 C unsweetened coconut
2 Tbs flax seeds
1 1/2 C rolled oats
1 1/2 C unsweetened crispy rice cereal
1 C brown rice syrup
1/4 C brown sugar
1/2 Tsp salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Notes on ingredients: You can substitute the 2 C pecans+cranberries with anything that suits your fancy. Just nuts or just dried fruit will work well too. The coconut is very subtle so don't worry too much about the flavor clash. I used a generic crispy rice cereal, but next time I may try this with the Kashi 7 grain cereal or a crispy brown rice cereal. I used brown rice syrup because I wanted to try it - it has very strong caramel/molasses flavor and the consistency of honey. I bet honey can be substituted for the syrup just fine.

Heat the oven to 350F and toast the nuts and coconut for 5-7 minutes until the coconut is golden brown, stirring a couple of times along the way. Mix the oats, nuts, fruit, and cereal in a big bowl and toss together. In a small pan, combine the brown rice syrup, sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Bring to low boil over medium heat, and let it bubble ~4 minutes until it thickens a bit, stirring constantly. Pour the syrup over the dry mixture and stir until thoroughly covered. Spread in a greased (with coconut oil or butter, or covered with parchment paper) pan and press well - a 9x13 pan gives decent thickness bars. Refridgerate for a few hours and then cut into whatever shapes and sizes you like. The brown rice syrup is liquid at room temperature so the bars will start to fall apart if it's too hot, though this doesn't make them less tasty. Wrap them individually in small pieces of parchment paper to avoid them sticking together (sticky wrap doesn't work).

The recipe made so many bars we had enough of two hikes two weekends in a row! The result was ~15 miles of hiking, suntan, lots of wildflowers seen, three tired hikers and one exhausted dog. Amen.

Life is Beautiful: Cascabel

When my friend Monica first invited me to go to Cascabel for a night of camping at her friend Chet's property and attending the local mesquite milling festival, I probably made a face and offered some lame excuse about being busy but promised to try to make it if at all possible thinking there would be no way that would happen. But when she e-mailed the reminder a week before the even I gave myself a stern look in the mirror and said: "You love camping. It is probably a beautiful place. How much work would you get done on a Friday night. Plus, Monica mentioned mesquite pancakes for breakfast. You would love it. Go." And so I did. And I loved it.

Cascabel is a small town situated on the banks of the San Pedro river, east of Tucson, AZ and about 24 miles north of the town of Benson. I didn't know anything about it when we left Tucson but by the end of the trip I was happier for knowing such a place existed in the Universe. In the words of Mary Taylor who has written a brief history of the area "Cascabel is a place and a community. The place is an area about 40 miles long and ten miles wide along the San PedroRiver, beginning about 8 miles north of Benson. There is no post office, no school, no service station, no quick mart and just the beginning of a general store. There is only one road in, through and out of the area with some ranch access roads. The Community is mostly made up of special, different“characters,” independent, but cooperative when needed. "

Having left Tucson after sunset in a caravan of nine cars we arrived in Cascabel well after dark and soon joined the crowd huddled around the fire. Dinner time! I honestly didn't see what everyone else had for dinner but my friends and I, all being amateur gourmands, brought some seriously tasty stuff! I threw several potatoes stuffed with butter, thyme and garlic and wrapped in aluminum foil in the coals in my first adult attempt at real baked potatoes. While I was waiting for the potatoes, Monica treated me to a generous serving of pasta salad with sun-dried tomatoes and smoked gouda, James shared some cheese tortellini with home-made pesto and pine nuts, and Jon grilled a dozen skewers with elk meat over the camp fire. Smores followed dinner; the tin box full of chocolate chip cookies which I passed around came back almost empty; Monica was taking orders for hot chocolate with mint schnapps. We sang and laughed, and looked at the almost full Moon, warming our hands, and feet by the fire late into the night.








Roasted marshmallows. Chet and Monica. Fire. Jon singing.













The morning came earlier than expected, and after the soft lights and deep shadows of the night before, now everything seemed almost too sharp, the sunlight brighter than usual, the air crisper, the edges sharper. I climbed the hill above our camp ground and the horizon opened - rolling hills, towering Saguaros and low shrubs, and only a gravelly road winding into the distance, the pristine beauty of the Sonoran desert. Breakfast was served at the Community Center where the smell of pancakes and waffles filled the air in the spacious hall and the line was winding to the door. Almost all ingredients of this delicious breakfast were local - from the flour for the pancakes to the prickly pear syrup on every table. So, so tasty, I went for a second waffle. As the mesquite bean milling began and clouds of flour swirled in the wind, we headed out back home.








Making pancakes. Breakfast. Milling mesquite. Locally grown.













What struck me most about Cascabel and its people was the deep dedication to living sustainably. The eggs and milk came from chicken and goats in town, there was talk about the community garden, all produce was grown there, by these people. Knowing where the food came from, talking to the people who invested their effort and time in bringing it to the table, listening to them talk about it, made me have so much more respect and appreciation for the breakfast on my plate, and gratefulness to these wonderful folks. Chet was explaining about how cows in the town are being herded on foot and led to different grounds to avoid overgrazing of the fragile desert flora. Pearl stopped by our table while refilling the prickly pear syrup bottles and gave us tips on harvesting the prickly pear fruit. People were sharing the long wooden tables for breakfast and everyone was pitching in with something - cleaning the tables, washing the dishes, shelling corn or picking through the mesquite pods.

Indeed, life is beautiful, especially when mesquite waffles are a part of it.

Daniel's Mesquite Waffles

1 C whole wheat flour
3/4 C mesquite flour
3 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 1/4 C milk
1/2 C oil

Separate he eggs. Stir together the dry ingredients. Combine egg yolks, milk and oil, and stir with the dry ingredients. Beat the egg whites until fluffy and fold them with the rest of the ingredients. Do not over-mix. Follow the instructions of your waffle-iron to make the waffles. Makes about 8 waffles.