Christmas Sausage Cookies (for Dogs)

Once upon a time, not too long ago, I was on my way out the door of my apartment, when I saw two young kids with a puppy.  It turns out they’d found her abandoned in the park across the street.  She gave me one look with her German Shepard black lined eyes and I, of course immediately fell in love. We called animal care and control, filed a report, searched craiglist and the neighborhood for signs that she’d run away or gotten lost but as it turned out she was abandoned.  Its pretty sad when you think about the strays and abandoned animals who need good loving homes.  My cat is also a stray from the park who I found late one night crying outside my apartment.  I like to think I didn’t find them, Minnie my cat and Billie, my dog, but that they found me.

So this week as a nice favor to my lovely boyfriend, a constant supporter to all my cake endeavours and all eccentric endeavours not cake related of course, I’ve got Billie with me in the city where we found her last summer.  She visits often on weekends but typically lives upstate with my boyfriend who also couldn’t bare to bring her to a shelter after we found her.  Having a dog is hard, early walks, giving up lunch breaks to take her out– in the rain, the snow, the biting cold, but one look at her Maybelline eyes and you can’t resist, so I’m happy to have another roommate this week, though my cat is not sooo pleased.

So heres a little holiday treat for puppy girls like Billie.  Ever go into a store that carries a full variety of Bob’s Red Mill products and wonder Who in the World could possible use all that flour?

I’ve been perplexed by this question and this: what in the world is Spelt Flour anyway?  It turns out you’ll need a little variety in your ground grain reperatoire with these puppy treats. My dog makes me incredibly happy, even though she is still a puppy and has her moments of absolute zaney off the wall bonkers craziness, shes a sweetie. And thankfully she is not totally food obsessed. She does her fair share of begging, and she does love treats, especially these.  I think I have 2 buried in my couch currently– she likes to save her treats for later.

From Baking for Your Dog by Ingeborg Pils

9 oz whole grain Rye flour

3 1/2 oz rolled oats

1 oz lard

3 1/2 oz sausage meat

6 fluid oz water

Mix ingredients to form a dough.  I added some bacon left over from breakfast the day before, I also opted to use the bacon grease left from breakfast instead of throwing it away.  I should also mention that I didn’t use all the water, it just made he dough too gummy, so I suggest 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest in the refridgerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven for 320 degrees.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

On a floured surface roll our to 1/2 ” thickness cut out shapes with cookie cutters (dog bones came with the recipe book).  I cut mine a bit thinner, closer to 1/4 of an inch.  I used the rye flour to flour the surface, it adds a bit of texture.  Make  Place on cookie sheet and bake for 40 minutes.  Turn off oven and let dry within oven. Cookies will brown slightly on the bottom.  I flipped the cookies after cooking and then allowed them to dry.

These cookies are good because the aren’t super greasy, though they have a meaty flavor.  Billie loves bacon and sausage, however she likes to bury her treats when she gets them, making for some greasy pillows and cushions if I don’t watch her. These cookies are somewhat dry so if your dog is like Billie, you have little worry about. Store in cookie tin. Treat will keep for 2 weeks.

1 comment December 14, 2010

A year in Review…

Wow its been awhile since I’ve posted!  I guess it doesn’t help to mention I had a great piping techinque to show for Mother’s Day (the basketweave) or that I wanted to pay tribute to my dad with his favorite cake for Fathers Day (yellow cake with chocolate frosting)  or that I had about 100 great things to say about strawberries, and had plans to do a whole piece about canning (May and June is starwberry picking season).  Well if you want to see some of the projects that have kept me from posting look in the galleries, as I’ve finally been able to update with some recent photos.

As August comes to an end and my thoughts instinctually turn to sharpened pencils and cozy fall clothes and new starts I realize that this blog is just about 1 year old, give or take a couple of days.  And I got to thinking about what I’ve accomplished, learned, and experienced in the last 365 and 1  quater days…

So here are some highlights: after starting this blog I …

1. Got this blog a spiffy new look. Which was not easy in terms of going back and forth with a designer.  But that designer turned into a good friend, who turned into a fabulous boyfriend, and the web design aint so shabby either.

2. Visited Florida, California, Texas, Rhode Island, and Vermont , some places I’ve been before, some not, all the same some good R and R.

3. Went to a couple of great live hockey games, including a Ranger Game on Valentines Day –I had great seats, even got to sneak some friends down from the bleeders to sit right in front of us. Saw Sean Avery get a great penalty shot, and me and my crew were on the Jumbo Tron.  This was all topped off by the rangers winning the game!!

4. I paid off my car…then I totalled my car, then I got a new car. Paid off the last of my credit cards! And put some cash in savings!

5. Taught over 500 people the fundamentals of cake decorating.  I’ve opened a second store as a Wilton Instructor.  Did some great private work working with large and small groups.  And I have some future demonstrations up my sleeve.

6. I’ve gotten over 20, 000 views on my Youtube channel and yes I will reshoot that annoying video where I say “uhm” apprx 65 times according to one veiwer.  In fact I plan to reshoot “how to make buttercream”, as well as add a video on “how to make italian meringue buttercream”, complete with better angles.

7. I  turned down a couple of jobs decorating including one position at a very famous bakery…with none other than the Cake Boss…sometimes opportunities just aren’t a fit. Began work in a new local bakery close by with lots of great people who allow me to experiment and let my imagination take me where ever it will!

8. Beefed up my portfolio.

9. Saw the yeah yeah yeahs in concert, began learning to sew, Hosted Thanksgiving, got braces 😦 , had a yard sale,  threw a dance party, began collaborating on an illustration project, finally finished all the Harry Potter books, learned some songs on the piano, and Began doing some research for a host of other cake eccentric projects I’ve got cooking (pun intended)…

10. And finally I adopted an adorable german shepard pup named Billie. (like Billie Holiday– shes a girl. See above.)

In the last couple of months my schedule has been bogged down with weddings, summer get-togethers, birthday parties and bridal showers and lots and lots of work. Balancing 3 jobs, private cake projects, and a new dog aint a piece of cake.  But right now I’m looking forward to the things I plan to fill my fall schedule with:

Sewing projects– some I plan to debut here on the Cake Eccentric

Some Continuing Ed classes at a local college– possibly including American Sign Language II– I love ASL

More Teaching!! I took off the month of August after limiting the amount I was teaching this summer.  I’ll be back starting this September with Flowers and Cake Design as well as 2 project classes: Tall Cakes– this is a one time 3 hours class for adults who have completed all the Wilton courses and are hoping for a little additonal training in tiered cakes.  I’m also hoping to add a fun kids class with a back to school theme. Click Current Class Schedule for the official dates and times.

So for a recipe…August is prime picking season for raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries.  Hit up those farmers market stands before it gets too cool.  My favorite farm stand is locate smack dab on the border for New York and Vermont.  PattiesPatch.com. The smell of fresh, fruits and vegetables is absolutely intoxicating as you walk through the open air shopping.  I’m also a total sucker for the fresh baked pies.  Though kind of pricey they are totally delicious. Fruit of the Forest is my favorite light and mildly sweet, and traditional and hearty. The perfect dessert to usher us from Summer to Fall.

This recipe is from Desserts: A Collection of over 100 Essential Recipes by Parragon Publishing.

Filling:

1 1/2 c blueberries

1 1/2c raspberries

1 1/2c blackberries

2/3 c sugar

Combine and simmer in a sauce pan over low heat for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Dough:

1 1/2c flour

generous 1/4 ground hazelnuts also called hazelnut meal

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter cut into pieces plus more for greasing the pie dish

2/3 c sugar

4 tb milk

finely grated rind of one lemon

1 egg yolk beaten

Sift flour, then add hazelnuts.  Crumble butter in with your fingers or pastry mixer until mixture looks like bread crumbs. Add sugar and mix.  Then add 3 tb milk, egg yolk, grated lemon rind.  Once dough is uniform knead briefly on a lightly floured surface.  Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll 2/3 dough and drape over grease 8″ pie dish.  Trim extra dough over edges.  Fill with berry mixture. Lightly dampen dough edge with water.  Roll remaining dough and place over pie pinching edge.  Make 2 slits in center of pie.  optional: use any ramaining dough to decorate pie top.  Roll and use decorative cookie cutter to create design.  Brush with remaining tablespoon of milk and bake at 375 for 40 minutes.

Serve with whipped cream or my favorite ice cream.

**The Fruit of the Forest at Patties Patch contain peaches and strawberries as well so feel free to go nuts.

1 comment September 1, 2010

Puppy Cupcakes

I thought I’d close out this week with a fun little project out of the book Hello Cupcake! I also happen to be leading this project for kids tomorrow morning, so yes, it’s a little shameless self promotion.  Its also a great little finale to birthday week for my friend Chrissy, because if you know Chrissy you know her dog Seamus, a gigantic Weimaraner/ Lab/ Great Dane.

The fun thing about these cupcakes is that you not only use frosting, but you have a great excuse to get some cookies and candy–as if you needed an excuse.  Mini M&M’s, Tootsie Rolls, Jelly Beans (though I really hate that licorice flavor YUCK!), Famous  Chocolate Waffers, Airheads, Marshmellows…really you can use anything.  This project is actually a great way to get rid of all the Halloween Candy nobody really eats–Tootsie Rolls anybody?  If you don’t have all these on hand you can certainly improvise.  Frosting can step in, and should you have Fondant and not candy you can use that too.

Each cupcake (there are 10 different dogs in the book) starts out with a nice layer of frosting (you should have light and dark shades of grey, black, and brown–chocolate).  Add a few mini marshmellows to make a snout, and decorate with icing piped through pastry bags or –as the Hello Cupcake! suggests just use a ziplock bag.   Candy is in place for all the facial features.  Mini M&M’s for eyes, Big M&M’s for noses– if you are not into black jelly beans either, Fruit roll-ups or Airhead or pink Starbursts for Tongues—totally necessary for puppies, and flattened Tootsie Rolls for ears on some pups, Cookies for ears on others.

This is my puppy cupcake version of Seamus.   If you are looking for a litle inspiration Hello Cupcake! is great! It approaches decorating from a simplistic level.  You don’t need to get couplers and piping tips at specialty stores—though obvious I love all these things.  Super creative projects, made with everyday foods and tools all found in a grocery store.

Here’s to the weekend!

1 comment August 15, 2009