Ice Cream!!!

     Last year, when I was trying to start a dog treat company, I was often awake at 2 am to bake during the coolest part of the day.  This includes the 2 weeks of 100+ degree days when the "cool time" was 85.
     As a result, I figured out how to make puppy ice cream!  Ok, all honesty I call it ice cream, but it's more like frozen yogurt with peanut butter tossed in.  Besides popping it into ice cream cups, it can also be put into kongs or tuxes and frozen.

1 large (quart sized) container of plain yogurt
3 cups smooth creamy peanut butter
Optional:
     Unsweetened apple sauce
     Canned pumpkin (not the one labeled for pumpkin pie)
     Strawberry/original cream cheese.

I'm lucky enough to have a stand mixer.  I tend to drop the yogurt in and let it smooth out with the mixer on low for a moment before I add in the peanut butter.  You can, of course, add in more or less peanut butter as above.  Let the mixer work on medium for a few moments blending the yogurt and peanut butter together.  Then add in any of the optional ingredients.  You want to add these in slowly about a half cup at a time.  The apple sauce and the canned pumpkin will thin the mix while the cream cheese will thicken it.

I use a cookie scoop when it's done being mixed to put it into ice cream cups that can be purchased at Michaels (the craft store) for about a buck or 2.  

Cookies!

     Today is one of the few cool days of summer we've had in a very long time.  Because it won't get above 80 here today, I'm going to chance turning on the oven and heating up the house some.  When I bake dog cookies, I usually do a bunch of batches at a time to minimize the amount of time the oven needs to be turned on.

I should technically preset the oven to 325, but in the summer, I tend to only turn it on once I've got all of my baking sheets filled with cookies.

My basic cookie recipee is:
1 cup flour
about 1/2 cup smooth creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup apple sauce.

I start by mixing the peanut butter into the flour until all of the peanut butter is broken into small sections.  Then I add in the apple sauce, but I only add in half at a time, wait for it to blend through, and then add in the rest slowly while mixing it (you may not use all of the 1/2 cup of apple sauce, so slowly add it in)
If you added in the entire half cup, and it seems a bit soupy/soggy add in a table spoon of flour at a time.  Mix together until it's the consistency of a sugar cookie.

Speaking of sugar cookies, you'll need to roll it out like a sugar cookie.  Don't forget to put flour down on the counter top and flour the rolling pin.  I've also got these cool bands I bought at my local kitchen supply store.  They go over the end of the rolling pin to help you stay consistent in how you roll out the dough.  If you want to add in color to the cookies, I've managed this before by mixing in pumpkin instead of apple sauce.  I've also done it with strawberry apple sauce instead of regular.

Once the dough is flat, just cut it with cookie cutters the way you'd cut a sugar cookie.

I tend to bake the cookies on one side and place the tray on the bottom rack for 7 minutes, I then pull them out, flip the cookies over, and place them on the top rack for 7 minutes.

Busy Weekend

     This is one of those rare weekends when one of us is out of town and one of us is home.  This weekend it was Hubbs turn to go out of town and hang out with his buddy's and my turn to chill at home.  Since it was just Annie, Paul, and me, I decided to make sure we had a fun filled weekend.

Paul likes to eat the decorative grass at the dog mall.

    We started Friday afternoon and evening with a trip to the dog mall where we walked 2 laps around the place (so about 2 miles).  They've got a promotion going on right now where you let guest services know how many laps you walk with your dog each time you're at the mall.  At the end of the summer season (October 31st in this case), they tally up the laps and award you prizes for how many laps you walked.  Last year we got a poop bag dispenser.  Even though we have 2 of them already, it's one of those things I somehow forget about once a year.  (The last time I was outside our vets office and was able to ask for a bag).  Because of my forgetfulness, having 3 of them comes in handy.
     This was followed by a rare night when Annie and Paul didn't have to just sleep in their room, but got to sleep in bed with me.  (I put a gate up in the hallway so they can only go into the bathroom (they never willingly go there), their room, or our room.)  Annie was the only one who took me up on that offer, so she got extra snuggle time with me all night.
     Saturday morning started at 4 with a shower and what I thought would be a dog walk.  Annie, however, decided the route I wanted to walk wasn't good enough and refused to walk.  I learned a few years ago with Anne that if I start jogging, she'll jog with me.  So the 2 mile walk turned into a 2 mile run followed by a 2nd shower (yea humidity) and a quick packing job to get to the market on time.  I started selling dog cookies down there.  Being a vendor at the market is completely different from being a patron at the market.  If I'm a patron, it's a 1 to 1 ratio of dog to person so that everything is manageable and I'm not wondering how to get a tree into a car (Paul peed on a tree for sale last year at the market, so I was left with the challenge of getting a maple tree, 2 dogs, and me into a honda civic coupe.)  Luckily, our farmers market allows dogs (not every market in every state does, so check out your local one for all of their rules before you take your pup with you).  As a vendor, I try to leave Annie and Paul at home so I'm not totally focused on them and their behavior while trying to talk to people.
     About noonish I came home and crashed out for a few hours and then woke up to run up to Carytown with Annie and Paul.  Carytown is a pretty hip section of town with lots of little independent shops (as opposed to the big box stores of the dog mall).  Unfortunately, I slept longer than I wanted to so by the time we got up there we literally ran Carytown in an attempt to get to the stores I wanted to get to.  However, I did discover that if you show up at the end of the day, after all of the bread is made, you can take your dogs into Montana Gold Bread Bakery.  I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and one of the biggest things I miss is all of the bakeries.  So whenever we go up to Carytown, I still get a bit overly excited over the 2.5 real bakeries in the area.
     Sunday morning, I was expecting Anne to be stubborn again for the morning walk, and she did start out that way.  She firmly pulled and leaned away from our "normal" walking area.  I started the jogging method to get her to go with Paul and me and not be so stubborn.  But about a block into our walk, this backfired on me.  I'm still not sure what Annie did exactly, but she suddenly started limping.  She wasn't crying or walking completely off of the paw, but she was kind of picking it up a bit oddly.  The walk ended there.  I stopped and picked her 70 pound body up and told Paul to "go home."  Paul and I walked the block home and stood in the yard for a few moments so that they'd both have the chance to do their business.  Annie got picked up again and brought inside (so she didn't have to walk up the stairs at the front of our house).  She's been limping today, but she's trying to put weight onto the paw (and even standing with all 4 paws on the ground when she sees a squirrel out the window.  So I'm pretty sure it's not a break.  She's let me squeeze it, and move her whole leg, shoulder, ankle, and paw around (and thought I was playing a fun game with her by the looks of it).  Our plans for a 2nd trip to the dog mall had just gone out the window, but after all of the running around this weekend, it was nice to just relax and sleep Sunday.