- A Foreshadowing of "Gifts to Make for Holiday"

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We awoke this morning to a particularly bright and chilly day and know that winter is going to snap at our tender whiskers before the peppers are even grown in the garden. We're going to start to cover everything every night no matter how warm it is. We found some long thin white material that reminds us of interfacing from sewing (did you not know we are also Hounds Who Sew? ) that is for protecting your garden fruits from the nipping of frost.

Anyhow, what is really important is that we are here and now telling you we are not hounds who abide by the parameters put upon us. While humble in form, we have the ancestry of The Wolf, who everyone knows is King of the Wild. (You can guess who started the competing "king of the jungle" nonsense. A cat. Probably a little mite of cat, too. Like our own Beltashazzar who we are fine and willing to share our home and chicken scraps with, but he's surely not descendant of any great beast, as are we dogs. We've never seen a cat even half the size of a dog. Though we have, sadly, seen dogs the size of a cat, which is confusing especially if they're fluffy like a cat not lean-haired like us.)

That said, we, Canis Lupus Familiaris, of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora, we will not be restrained by the common procedure of the blog. This common procedure is that every day, a dog writes something new and every day the new thing becomes preeminent over the last. so that there is a great and weighty archive of all of his dog thoughts in chronological order from most recent to last.

We dogs intend to defy the Common Procedure of the Blog.

You see, this morning The Gute had a good idea about gifts for the holiday season. Me was recently discussing the making of wonderful spa gifts for the holiday season. Gute decided that with Me fully occupied in her taxes and her travel, we dogs should take this on as a blog project. But not one that gets buried in the archive where only a good digger like Guthrie could find it.

So we're going to write a "Gifts to Make for Holiday" post that will include items of both a culinary and a spa aesthetic nature for birthdays, Christmas, housewarmings, bridal what have yous and so on. And it will be a blog that doesn't age but keeps rising to the top everytime we add another Gutiful idea. :-)

Watch for it to come soon. While we hounds deplore a bath, our first gift idea is likely to be our girl Me's favorite vanilla milk bath.

Poised to Serve,
The Usual Hounds

p.s. While the hounds are poised to serve, as pictured above (notice the one in back...), I'd just like to add, as the Cat of the Home, that I could take down either one of them at any time. I'm just a peaceable creature. It doesn't mean I could not wield my strength on an as-needed basis. I just wanted you to know. The Cat is a creature to be reckoned with. You'll be hearing more from me as the less interesting winter months approach. I go by the pen name B. Belize as it's my favorite nickname from my girl, Me.

Banana Spice Cake with Raspberry Filling

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We are beside ourselves with the mere idea of what we are about to make. First of all, we just took a walk to the store, which is only 3 long blocks away, and Guthrie wore his little backpack to carry everything. We needed garlic for the supper our Person, Me, is making. So, while our girl Me is tired from the walk up the hill, we boys are energized and eager for a delicious treat. To this end, we devised a most wonderful plan.

First think of this: spice cake. If you have been reading how good for your health and arteries are cinnamon and nutmeg, you would be excited to have this cake. Add to it a raspberry filling, because you know our elder man has been out picking them. As if that weren't luscious enough, the Gute, who is terribly bothered by gnats and fruit flies, noted the speedily ripening bananas on the kitchen table. Something to slip into the likes of a spice cake adding moistness and flavor and wholesome goodness. We know you are not accustomed to the flavor of bananas with raspberries but we assure you they are nicely complementary and you will wonder why you never thought of it before. Or you may be so undone by the flavorful spices that you forget to notice the banana essence.

Here is our magnanimous recipe, adapted from our favorite epicurious.com in hound fashion. We nutrified it up with whole wheat flour, extra artery-plaque-reducing spices, less fat, and less sugar. Neither flavor nor texture suffered for it, so you will be glad we did. Here's Me's elder man offering you some!

Banana Spice Cake with Raspberry Filling
Part 1: The Cake
1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground mace
1/2 cup sugar or stevia equivalent
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup mashed, ripe banana
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
3 large eggs, separated

Part 2: The Filling
2 cups raspberries
3-6 tablespoons sugar

Part 3: The Frosting
4-ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (we didn't say it was Healthy cake, just healthier...)
5 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
raspberries to garnish

Part 1: Make the Cake
Heat up the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour (or spray) 3 mini loaf pans or an 8-inch square pan.

Sift the first set of 10 ingredients together into a small bowl and set aside. Mix the yogurt and banana together in a small bowl and set aside. Beat the butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add the brown sugar and molasses and beat until well blended. Beat in egg yolks. Add the flour mixture in three parts alternately with the yogurt mixture in two parts.

Beat the egg whites in a medium bowl until stiff and fold into the cake batter in two parts. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake until the top cracks and looks dry and a tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool cake 10 minutes and turn out onto a cooling rack.

Part 2: Make the Filling
Mix berries and sugar together, coarsely mashing the berries. Let stand 20 minutes and up to 1 hour.

Part 3: Make the Frosting
Beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in sugar until smooth, then add sour cream (if desired) and vanilla.

Part 4: Assemble the Cake
For the mini-pan cakes, cut cakes horizontally into 3 equal layers. Place bottom layer, cut side up, on platter. Spread 1/3 cup frosting over each. Spread 1/4 cup filling over frosting on each, leaving a 1/4-inch plain border at edge. Top with second cake layer and 1/3 cup frosting, then remaining filling. Top with third cake layer, cut side down. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Refrigerate until frosting sets, about 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover loosely; keep chilled until 1 hour before serving.) Slice into 1-inch slices and garnish with additional berries.
For the square cake, follow the same procedure using 1/4 of the total frosting between each layer and the remaining half to frost the outside of the cake.

Tips from Guthrie: This is marvelous. Ask anyone. The raspberry juice seeps into the layer above it creating a tangy taste sensation with every bite. We were speechless with joy. We did not refrigerate the cake as we could not wait to eat it. But we see how that would provide an even better presentation. We also only frosted the top so the sides showed the beautiful white frosting against red berry juice seeping out. If only I could have another slice.

A word about unsalted butter: Have you noticed that finer recipes always call for it? We don't use it on the table, just in culinary exploits, so we keep it in the freezer. When frozen it grates nicely with a cheese grater so there's no waiting for it to thaw before proceeding with your recipe. We surmise that the value of unsalted butter is to have ultimate control over the salt in your baked good. When butter is salted, there's no telling how much or little is in it, so it can change the taste of a treat if you have a palate attuned. So unsalted butter, we think, is a more precise way of cooking. For our sourdough toast in the morning, though, it's salted butter without exception.

Tips from Eli: All I can say is that because of this cake we've been promised more berries. Therefore, we believe ourselves to be the richest hounds in the world. We really didn't taste the banana in this, but the banana moistness was a wonderful addition since we took out the fat (from the cake) with the non-fat yogurt. Now, you may think we are acting like cats (that is to say doubleminded) to take out a bit of fat here and then slather it with butter frosting there. All I can say in response is that we ended up eating a little less fat than we would have, and that's a good thing. Cream cheese and butter frosting is a celebratory food. We believe in it wholeheartedly, but heartily for our hearts and with our hearts agree not to eat it all of the time.

Love and adoration,
The Usual Hounds

- Eggplant Parmesan

Dear Friends of Hounds Who Cook,

(This post is dedicated to our friend Miss Francine, who alerted us to the edibility of the eggplant and was our inspiration for planting any at all.)

Well we learned that these papers (upon papers) that have taken over our person are Taxes. She is re-doing two years of taxes due to the good amount of extra refund she will receive. And it is indeed taxing. Last night we barely stayed an hour at the dog park before she wanted to go home back to her papers. You can imagine how little love and how few treats we are getting at this time. And the home is a disaster of files and printouts and little peels of label backing. The cat loves the skinny little label backs to play with, but there's nothing in it for a dog. So, I, Eli, went out to the garden to see what was what. The neighbor boys tried to catch me, which is ridiculous, I was going right back inside. I picked several lovely eggplants and thought we'd try another eggplant dish: the highly acclaimed Eggplant Parmesan, but baked not fried. Perhaps if we spend our morning at this, we will win the girl, Me, over with our epicurean acumen.

We may as well say that there are two websites in the world that matter, no, three:
1. epicurious.com
2. cooksillustrated.com
3. hounds who cook - the blog

The first site is where we live and breathe, where we learned to cook, and where we linger in the wee hours of the morning when the girl is asleep and no morsels were left on the counter for a hound's midnight snack. Then we surf through epicurious.com and dream of all of the delectables to make tomorrow. (I have to keep Guthrie back from the screen, or he will drool on the keyboard. Here he is pictured last night. See the big mess from taxes?)

The second site is a worthy one even though we object that it never pictures dogs. If you're going to illustrate something, you ought to include a fair representation of dogs. Still, they know how to cook and we like their fancy tips. Like the one today about baking, not frying, the eggplants and using Kosher salt even if you're not Jewish (which Me might be, partially).

The third site is probably your favorite one. Ours too. We are humble hounds but quite proud culinarians. (Guthrie wanted me to write culinicians. Later I'll let him make up a word.)

Here is our garden bounty that I, Eli, harvested this morning. The eggplants might be small for picking. If someone knows about picking eggplant, leave your valuable advice in the comments. We pretty much pick them whenever we want to cook one up. The tomatoes will all be made into luscious sauce for the e'plants (Guthrie's word). The cucumber is a snack for the cook's good pleasure while he's working. Look, just look, at the basil. Can you smell it? (A hound can smell things even across the Internet.)

A word about peeling: Me's elder woman is insistent that The Eggplant should be peeled, so we did it for her because we're sure to share some with her. And Me's elder man is particular that The Tomato should be peeled. He peels them for every occasion, even for BLTs. (Which Me has tried to convince him to never eat anymore due to the B portion. (Bacons).) Dog's don't mind peel of any kind, but for the elders we peeled.

BTW, gentle pups, don't dismay at this long process. You will be well rewarded with your dinner then. Start early so as to allow time for the eggplant to steep in salt - 1 to 3 hours. And make all the other fixings and do your various gratings while you wait.

Here's how we eggplanted today. We adapted this from Cooks Illustrative and made it our dog-own. See if you like it:

Eggplant Parmesan
Me's Independent Rating: 3 of 3

Part One: The Eggplant
2 pounds Eggplant (exactly the amount pictured)
1 tablespoon Kosher salt (this is on purpose)
8 slices of whole wheat bread or buns (stale is fine)
1 cup just-grated Parmesan (2 ounces)
sea salt
pepper
4 eggs
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup whole wheat flour

Part Two: The Luscious Fresh Sauce
6-8 cups chopped fresh tomato (about 3-4 pounds)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced (see the "Chopping Garlic" post)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped

Part Three: The Assemblage
2 cups just-shredded mozzarella (8 ounces)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (1 ounce)
10 fresh basil leaves for garnish

Part One: Preparing of the Eggplant
Cut off each end of the eggplants and peel them, if desired. Cut them crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Toss them with Kosher salt. (Kosher because it won't dissolve as much and the excess can be wiped away before cooking, say our hounds at Cook's Illustrative.) and drain in a colander. Let stand 45 minutes to 3 hours - whatever you have to spare. Several tablespoons of liquid should drain off. Skip to Part Two and make the sauce while you're waiting, and grate the needed cheeses for later in Part One and Part Three.

Next squeeze the e'plants between clean kitchen towels, (the cotton flour sack kind, not the nappy kind) which have been folded twice into 4 layers of cloth each. Lay the e'plant slices in a single layer on one folded towel, cover with the other, and have your brother press on each one. For dogs, we can do 4 at a time. A person may like to try pressing over them repeatedly with a rolling pin. Wipe off any obvious salt.

Heat up the oven and two baking sheets ahead to 425F.

Grate the bread with a large-holed cheese grater, or pulse in a food processor for about 5 cups of fine crumbs. Mix together crumbs, 1 cup Parmesan, 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Set aside.

Combine flour and 1 teaspoon pepper in a bag and shake. Set aside.

Beat eggs. Set aside.

Line up these three set-asides on the counter top and work with 7 or so e'plant slices at a time as follows:
- Shake in flour to coat. Jiggle off excess.
- Dip in egg, letting excess drip off.
- Coat with crumbs
- Set aside on a rack

Remove hot baking sheets from the oven and coat each one with 3 Tablespoons oil. Arrange e'plants in a single layer on each pan. Bake 8 minutes for small slices (3-inch diameter) or 10 minutes for larger slices (4-5 inch diameter) then switch and rotate pans. Bake 8-10 more minutes and turn over eggplants. Bake 8-10 more minutes til browned and crisp.

Part Two: Preparing of the Luscious Fresh Sauce
Puree about two-thirds of the chopped tomatoes until almost smooth. Heat olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes in large cast iron (if you're Guthrie) pan. Stir just until fragrant and garlic is golden, don't burn the fragile garlics. Stir in pureed tomato and remaining chopped tomato. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until slightly thickened and reduced. About 30 minutes. Stir in chopped basil and season to taste with sea salt and pepper.

Part Three: The Grand Assemblage - a Standard Method
Standard procedure now would have you alternate layers of tomato sauce, eggplant slices and cheese, like a lasagne type of layering, ending with cheese on top. Do that if you like, leaving the Parmesan and part of the mozzarella for the top. Bake 13-15 minutes until bubbling and browned. Cool 10 minutes and garnish with basil leaves. However, we hounds devised a preferred method for the Grand Assemblage:

Part Three: The Grand Assemblage - the Hounds-Who-Cook Preferred Method
We hounds believe that the liklihood of the e'plants soggying up is just too high with the standard method. (Whatever you do, don't port it across town to your elders' house. It's sure to have sogged up by then.) We think this is the most delicious way to serve these exquisite elements:

Prepare to broil each serving separately in ovenproof bowls. Ladle 1/2 - 3/4 cup tomato sauce into the bowl, cover with eggplant slices, layering them over each other so each is only partially in the sauce. Sprinkle with mozarella and parmesan and put briefly under the broiler just to melt the cheese. Serve post haste while the eggplant is crispy and succulent. If the company has not arrived, eat without them. Tell them an excellent eggplant parmesan waits for neither human nor hound.

Tips from Guthrie: (a) We think we picked the eggplants a bit too skinny which meant more work salting, squishing, breading and cooking them. If only someone had told us when you can pick them. (b) We worked all day, snout to the ground, as they say, slaving on this and made the dire mistake of Not eating it immediately. Guess who's idea that was? Not a hound's, I can tell you that. The girl insisted we take the supper to the elder's house.

Well, anyone knows something crispy becomes soft when covered, even a hound. We don't know what we were collectively thinking. All of that effort to acheive the perfect crispness - only to lose it all with the covering of the pan for 30 minutes. The flavors were still unmatched. Utterly unmatched, but the crispness was sacrificed in the transporting. The elder man liked it anyway because he loves all things with tomato sauce, as do we. The elder woman thought such small eggplants should have been cooked a bit less to still be moist and meaty. We could have done without the mozzarella and just kept it Parmesan all the way, too was my feeling.

Tips from Elias: Any cheese is good cheese - keep the mozarella in. Soft or crisp, since when does a hound need crisp? It was an entirely worthy meal and I don't know why our person, Me, keeps telling me "Snout out" of the bag. It's what she says when I am nosing where I'm not allowed. I'd be happy to eat the remains of the meal that we brought back, but it's "snout out" so I'm retiring to the living room where the Gute is snoring and moaning like a true hound and the cat has taken my chair. I believe I'll just tell him, "Snout out."

- Chopping Garlic

Dear Friends of Hounds Who Cook,

We have a dear relation who grew up in the land of Vietnam and she is the one who taught our girl, "Me" the best of all possible ways to mince up garlic for cooking. Here is Thi Thi's (Tina) expert method:

Mincing Garlic
1. Pull the desired garlic cloves off of the head. 2. With skin intact, lay the cloves on their sides on a cutting board. (We use a wooden one.) 3. Using the flat side of a large butcher knife, press firmly on each clove to crush it. 4. Remove the peel, which has likely come off in a shell from the crushing. 5. Slice off the root end of the clove and discard (or put in your "stock bag*," if you have one) 6. Now dice up the crushed garlic heads. Since they are already crushed, which releases the flavor, we and Tina believe that they don't need to be minced as finely as you might do otherwise.

Mmm. A hound can hardly bear the aroma.

*A stock bag is an old plastic bag our girl, Me, leaves in the freezer door at all times. In it she puts the inedible-yet-flavorful vegetable and fruit parts that the average chopper would discard. Read up on how to make vegetable stock from these yummies in the Vegetable Broth - Something from Nothing post.

- The Independent Ratings Key

You'll notice all of the recipes have Me's Independent Rating. This is how she gauges a recipe's worthiness.

Independent Ratings Key:
1 of 3 = mediocre, don't save the recipe, don't try it again
2 of 3 = has good potential but not extraordinary, give it one more chance before discarding
3 of 3 = best of all possible recipes for this item, save it in your treasured Best of All Possible Recipes box

**Note, anyone's Best of All Possible Recipes box would have only One recipe for any one item. Otherwise it would Not be the Best of All Possible Recipes for that aforementioned item. So if you find a 3 of 3 recipe, it must oust any previous recipe of its kind in the Best of All Possible Recipes box. 3s carry a very significant epicurian responsibility.

- Tandoori Chicken Breast for Sandwiches

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

Just now we wrote a blog about the most marvelous chicken pita sandwiches and we are so deliriously satisfied as to need naps immediately. But first, if you want to go all out, this is the chicken recipe to use for said sandwiches. Your tastebugs will be all aflutter.

Tandoori Chicken Breast for Sandwiches
Me's Independent Rating: 3 of 3

6 boneless, skinless half chicken breasts
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 cup plain yogurt - include the whey
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger (peeled)
2 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon turmeric (for your good health)

In a bowl or plastic bag, sprinkle chicken with lime. Peel the ginger and use a cheese grater to grate it. A large-holed grater will give you shreds that are nice for the ginger lover to bite into. A smaller-holed grated will give you mush and separate the fibers from the flesh, which is good for flavor, but a bit more work getting out of the grater. And there won't be as many surprise bites of ginger's hotness for the eaters.

To prepare the garlic, set a clove on its side, and crush it with the flat side of a butcher knife. This makes the peel separate, so you can easily remove it, and releases the luscious aroma and flavor of the bulb. Shave off the dry root end from each clove and remove any sprout as well. While bright and yummy when making broth or something strained, the sprouts are hard on the average stomach for eating outright. After you've crushed your cloves, line them up and mince away with a sharp knife.

Mix the yogurt, ginger, garlic, and spices together. Pour this marinade over the chicken breasts and turn or shake to coat them. Refrigerate 3-8 hours - the longer the better. We've done it for a whole day before.

Lift chicken out of the marinade, leaving the yogurt clinging on. Grill or broil the chicken until just cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. Cover and let stand at room temperature til you assemble your sandwich or eat it this way because you can't wait.

Original Source: epicurious.com, the homeplace of hounds who cook

Tips from Guthrie: When a recipe calls for lemon, don't do it. Just use lime. There's something about lime. When our girl Me was in Mexico, a chef who was cooking for her said the word in Spanish for Lemon or Lime is the same. But they are from a different tree, she said. Limes are the premium fruit because they have finer flavor, he said. Lemons are lesser, for when you have to get by. She smiled at this but started her own taste test and was fully won over to the side of The Lime. We dogs follow in her venerable footsteps, so our recipes call for lime.

Tips from Eli: Whatever. It's not like hounds would eat citrus fruits.

- Tandoori Chicken Pitas

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We have eaten the most excellent lunch and can't wait to share it with you. It all came about because our Person has been in a most frenetic state about papers. She's been sifting through papers and making more papers and pouring over papers. We've been left utterly to our own devices. So, after a nice sleep in the sun this morning, out on the grass, we came inside with quite a houndish appetite.

We had been thinking for days about the marvelous tandoori sandwiches that our girl Me has been making since before we pups had even been born and Guthrie was all ready to launch full on into our usual recipe. Then, I , Eli, out of sheer expedience to eat before my blood sugar dropped one more bit, made a magnanimous suggestion to my brother, The Gute, and he received it well and we were swallowing our sandwiches whole inside of 15 minutes. Read on, hungry fans, read on.

Tandoori Chicken Pitas
Me's Independent Rating: 3 of 3

4 cooked chicken thighs or 1 whole breast (or see Tandoori Chicken for Sandwiches post)
3-4 whole-wheat pitas
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons raw cider vinegar (for your good health)
3 tablespoons chopped onion (not for pups)
1 cup packed fresh mint leaves (or a tablespoon dried)
1 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves (or a tablespoon dried)
minced hot pepper, if you must (not for pups)

We started with moist and meaty cooked thighs that our Person had cooked and frozen previously. She had thawed them the day before in anticipation that dogs would be fending for themselves today.

Take all the luscious tender meat off the bone, saving the cartilage nubbins for the dogs (but toss the cooked bones, which splinter in our innards.). Shred the chicken a bit so it's small pieces. Set aside to come to room temperature.

Pluck the leaves of the herbs to the needed quantity and use a little salad spinner to wash them. Chop in a food processor, or Magic Bullet, if you bought one in a weak moment of late-night TV. (We like ours since pups don't have excellent dexterity with knives.) Mix the mayonnaise and vinegar until smooth. Add the onion, herbs, and pepper if desired. Add salt to taste. (Or wait to salt it until the sandwiches are assembled so the salt is foremost on the sandwich when the tongue hits it. These little nuances matter.)

Cut each pita in two and toast lightly in the oven or a few at a time in the toaster. Fill each half of a pita with about 1/4 cup chicken and 1 (very) generous tablespoon of herbed mayonnaise. Eat immediately - before you even sit down, if possible.

Serves 4 people or 1-2 hounds.

Tips from Eli: You could heat the chicken up but we prefer the sensory contrast of a toasty hot pita and room temperature chicken. We find the chicken most flavorful at that temp.

Tips from Guthrie: On happenstance, we had fresh mint from the farmer's market, and this is what we always think of making when we have it. If you are relegated to only dried herbs, we are sorry about that and advise you to make the mayonnaise ahead of time so the herbs have time to wake up and permeate the mayo before you eat. Leave all things at room temperature - meat and mayo - for the tastiest experience. Also, the cat will eat any very small odd looking pieces of chicken meat that would be unappetizing to a person - such as veins. Dogs will too, but we know even a cat needs to eat.

Postscript: We wanted to include a picture of this most satisfying lunch, but ate everything so all we can do is include a snapshot of how pleased we are. You can be this pleased too, if only you eat a tandoori chicken pita.

- Cleaning an Ancient Bottle

It's a crisp Wisconsin morning and we had to wake our person up ourselves as she was snuggled down in the covers as though she would never get up. The cat tried to get her up by nosing her face with his small wet snout. She cried out and pushed him away. Her flailed arm remained hung off the bed and so I, Eli, set my whole snout right in her open hand and just rested it there. It made her laugh out loud, and so it was that she finally arose at 6:18 this morning. Both of us dogs got our heads ruffled lovingly at the top of the bed as we wagged. She can tell us apart by feel. She says Guthrie's ears are more velvety than mine, which is fine because that sounds kind of girly and I am a he-hound.

She is stumbling around in the home trying to decide how the day will go from here. Luckily we all got fed right away. I, Eli, am still waiting for her to open the door to the little room where the cat eats so I can clean up in there. Cats are surprisingly lax about the morsels and lickings they leave behind in their cat bowl. I take it upon myself to keep the home clean.

Meanwhile, our Person, "Me," cleaned a very old bottle. It's an ancient milk bottle which Me's elder man brought her. The elder man is her dad. Me was searching for an apple-cider making jug and the elder man has a treasure trove of items on his land. He found this ancient bottle for her there. Since she does not know the history of what said bottle held (she hopes it was not old spark plugs or even coins which are also filthy), and it's too big to sanitize in the dishwasher, she devised a way to clean the dirt from the far recesses of the inside and sanitize it too.

We think the bottle-cleaning technique is worthy of recipe space. Note that vinegar is has excellent anti-bacterial properties. Our Person cleans the whole house spotless with a tablespoon of vinegar in a bucket of warm water and maybe also a smidge of soap.

Cleaning an Ancient Bottle
We had our bottle soaking for a day with soapy water in it, partly due to neglect but also to loosen particles.

1. Fill the bottle about 1/3 with soapy water and swirl and swish as you can. Poke a dishcloth in through the top and let it fall to the bottom. Swirl and swish that around the sides.

2. In this manner, wash as well as can be with dish soap and water inside and out. Empty out the water.

3. Sprinkle a good deal of baking soda (maybe 1/2 cup for a gallon bottle like ours) in the mouth of the wet bottle so much as to cover the bottom. Twirl around to get any soda powder possible on the sides too.

4. Pour in 1 cup or so of white vinegar. This is the exciting step as the vinegar bubbles wildly and moves around the scratchy soda particles which scrub off dirt in the recesses of the bottle.

5. Swirl and swirl around again. After the vinegar is bubbled out, we add more. Partly just because it's fun but also because we aren't sure every dirt spec was gotten. You can see the dingy color of the vinegar when the bubbling subsides and know that it has cleaned up dirt for you.

6. Rinse it all out at the sink. Then take the bottle out back to the hose with a sprayer on the end of it. Rinse out the bottle again with the sprayer nozzle right in the mouth of the bottle for maximum water pressure - see how much soap residue, and such, bubbles up with the violent spray action of the hose?

That's all it took for our bottle. Now it's whistle-clean and a little squeaky on the glass too. This is the esteemed bottle we will use to make our very own apple cider vinegar. Watch for that exciting post in days to come.

- Guthrie's Whole Wheat Scones

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

I the Gute was sleeping in the chair just now and dreamed of the most wonderful aroma filling the home. I envisioned hearty, dark and crumbly scones slathered with butter and apple jelly we just made weeks before. I thought they would be perfect for a breakfast or a special tea in the afternoon. You know how I enjoy my tea. The girl, Me, is making eggplant casserole for lunch just now so I can't bake as of yet, only recreate the scents in my hound imagination. Here is the recipe for you to make just in time for 4:00 tea.

Guthrie's Whole Wheat Scones

2-1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons butter
2 eggs beaten
1/3 cup whipping cream
2 teaspoons sugar

Combine flour, baking powder, 2 Tablespoons sugar, and salt. With a food processor or pastry cutter, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles crumbs. Stir in the egg and cream to make a stiff dough.

Knead with your paw in the bowl until the dough sticks together. Pat into a ball and cut into 8 wedges. Arrange on an ungreased baking sheet 1 inch apart. Brush the tops with a little more cream and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden. Serve warm with butter and jelly. Let the pup lick up the crumbs.

Tips from Guthrie: Don't overcook a whole wheat scone. You want it crumbly yet moist. Overcooking will be crumbly and dry and no amount of butter on it will remedy that.

Tips from Eli: It pays for the washing machine repair man to be late. A lot of cooking has gone on in the house while we waited for him. I personally enjoyed a snack several times out of the compost pot in the kitchen.

- Autumn Apple Chicken

Dearly Beloved Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

I, Eli, was reminiscing the other day about the most wonderful chicken we made once for guests. This is the perfect time of year for it, since it's all about apple. We were canning apple jelly at the time and the Gute was expiring in the heat and humidity of the kitchen so we put one batch of juice from the apples into the fridge to make something of it later. Guthrie is energetic about new scents and smells but not good with tedious repetition, which jelly making can be, what with all of the boiling and straining and boiling again. That extra juice, however, came in very handy in this tasty apple chicken. Gute commandeered the kitchen that day. For dogs we outdo ourselves on the garlic and skip the onion since it disrupt our neurology. Here's his recipe for feeding persons:

Guthrie's Autumn Apple Chicken
Me's independent rating: 3 of 3

4 boneless chicken breasts (I, Guthrie, debone them myself for a snack for later)
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil (for your good health)
1 sliced up onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed (dogs use more)
2 apples, thinly sliced (peels and all)
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 cup unsweetened apple juice
2 teaspoons arrowroot
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar (we use raw, but I suppose since you're cooking it it's no matter...)

Saute the apple slices, onion, garlic, and thyme in (only) 2 teaspoons of the olive oil in a cast iron pan, if you have one, for about 4 minutes. Then set aside. Add 2 more teaspoons olive oil to the pan and brown the chicken breast 2-3 minutes per side until they are golden. Mix (only) 1 tablespoon of the apple juice with the arrowroot in a little cup and set aside. Add the remaining apple juice and the vinegar to the chicken and cover and simmer until just cooked through. Check after 6 minutes. Remove the chicken, leaving the juice in the pan, and set aside, covered. Stir the arrowroot mixture into the juices in the pan and cook over high heat, scraping up the browned bits until the juice is thickened - about two minutes. (This is where a cast iron pan is the best of all possible pans.) Return the apple - onion mixture to the sauce in the pan and heat it through. Season with salt and pepper and serve up with the chicken breast.

Serves 4 persons or 1 hound. (Leave off the onion for the hound.)

Tips from Guthrie: Get a cast iron pan. There's nothing better than cast iron for cooking meats on the stovetop. This browning of meat sauce and scraping up the bits as it thickens in particular is well suited to cast iron. You will notice arrowroot in this recipe. Some folk would use cornstarch or flour, but we love arrowroot. We don't use corn in any form in the home (except the Person, Me, occassionally splurges on a buttery corn on the cob meal) because it's a likely allergen for many eaters. This might be because so much is genetically modified that you can't get non-GMO corn in most products, or it might be because corn is just a tickly topic and a lot of people and hounds alike get allergic to it. We dogs don't judge. We also don't eat corn. The thought makes my fur itch.

Tips from Eli: If you're not going to just eat the chicken raw, this is a good way to eat it.

Sometime this week we have been promised a trip to an apple orchard where we will procure unpasturized apple juice which we will then make into our own raw apple cider vinegar. Guthrie wants to take a swig of the pre-vinegar stage, which is hard cider (he calls it moonshine due to our southern roots), which he thinks would help his itchy skin a lot more than the vinegar stage, which he has to eat now. We will of course reveal our special hound process for making our own apple cider vinegar as soon as can be reasonably expected.

- Gâteau Framboise (Raspberry Cake)

Greetings Friends,

I see my pups have started a blog. I thought I'd chime in too. Tonight they went running at my parents' place where five acres of woods and a meandering creek remind them why they are glad to be dogs. Meanwhile, we people had dinner and a light and pleasant dessert. It was cheating - not from scratch - but yummy just the same. I had an angel food cake from the store and my dad (who the pups call the elder man) had a pint or more of fresh-picked raspberries. I cooked up some vanilla pudding and here's how a most delectable treat came together.

Gâteau Framboise (Raspberry Cake)

1 angel food cake
4 cups of vanilla pudding (just cooked and still warm)
1 pint of raspberries
sugar (optional)

Crush the raspberries with sugar, if desired, or use whole if they have nice presentation. Cut the angel food cake into generous slices - 5 inches thick. Then cut in half to 2-1/2 inches thick. Pour warm pudding over one slice of cake, top with another. Pour pudding over the second slice and top with raspberries. A sprig of mint or other green would be lovely to add.

For my dad's second piece, we put the raspberry sauce in the bowl first, topped it with cake followed by pudding and it was prettier even than the first combo.

Later I'll include my favorite homemade pudding recipe.

Off to sleep like the hounds who went before me.

love and the usual adoration,
Susan (the Person, also known as "Me")

- Banana Bread We Finally Made - Improved!

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We finally made the banana bread. I, Guthrie, had left the bananas out to steep in the kitchen air and they were lusciously soupy with dark dark liquid. Possibly even a little fermented since they'd been 2 days uncovered, closed up in the microwave (to keep fruit flies away and to not tempt dogs looking for a midnight snack while the Person sleeps). Our girl called Me had hauled out the whole wheat flour so we knew she was looking for something healthier than the original recipe of banana bread and we obliged. Eli was not a-party to this as he was watching the garage sale across the street, which was hopping at 8 a.m. I doubled the recipe because sometimes when you're making minute changes, it's easier to double it than to be so precise as the single recipe would require (especially in using stevia, which you do in very teensy measurements).

Here's a good reason to pull out your electric knife when there's no turkey to carve. This bread is yummy in a big slab cut with a regular knife (especially when just out of the oven) but so very nice when cut in slender slices and slathered with butter. Mmm.

Just to confirm that this is a palatable option, we called Me's mother who is of a certain number of years and doesn't like recipes messed with. She said, "Well, the taste was very good though it was a rather thick bread." We hadn't gotten out the electric knife yet, you see, to cut them thin as a cat's toe when we sent it home to her. So she was hacking at it with a regular serrated knife and it falls apart easily that way so she was forced to eat a thick hearty piece. With that resounding testimonial:

Guthrie's Healthier Banana Bread (revised 2008, Eau Claire, Wis.)
Me's Independent Rating: nearly 3 of 3

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup apple sauce (unsweetened, made myself from our own apple tree a few weeks back)
1 cup (scant) sugar
smidgen of stevia, equivalent to 1 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 (generous) cups mashed, (very) ripe banana
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour*
6 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cup chopped nuts

Cream the butter, apple sauce, and sugar together. Beat the eggs slightly, and blend in. Stir in the soupy banana and lime. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl. Stir in just til mixed. Add nuts.

Douse two loaf pans with cooking spray and dust with flour. Pour the batter in and bake at 375F for about an hour. We hope you can smell when it is done. Dogs can.

Tips from Guthrie: We always bake in glass loaf pans since we don't like the noxious odor of teflon (maybe you can't smell it, but it's scientifically true; any hound can smell it) and the stainless steel mini bread pans are so hard to clean. You can lick them all day long and still have cooked on particles in the corners. When you bake in glass, lower the temperature 25 degrees or your outsides will cook before your insides.

Tips from Eli: The bread is best with butter. Everything is.

- Banana Bread We Wish We'd Made

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We are trapped in the yard indefinitely due to this advent of a garage sale. First of all, garage sales force you to get up early, as though you were a cat, and then they keep you trapped in the out of doors when you might rather be curled in a chair by the window. We did not realize that we would be implicated in this affair when she started rummaging through the house for rummage. But we were set out by the tree in the front yard as the welcomers. Hmph. We meant to get up early enough to make banana bread before going out. We thought we'd sell some at the sale as well as have a treat midday. Instead, we slept. We missed all of the early morning shoppers and did not get our tails out to the yard until nearly 9. Here's the bread we would have made, had we the time. It's especially Guthrie's favorite (back before he was on a grain-free diet due to his itching skin) because he loves Banana.

Susan's Own Marvelous Banana Bread (circa 1984, Euless, Texas)
1/2 cup butter
1 cup (scant) sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed, ripe banana
1 teaspoon lime juice (or lemon)
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped nuts

Cream the butter and sugar together. Beat the eggs slightly, and blend in. Stir in the banana and lime. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl. Stir in just til mixed. Add nuts.

Douse a loaf pan with cooking spray and dust with flour. Pour the batter in and bake at 375F for about an hour. We hope you can smell when it is done. Dogs can.

Tips from Guthrie: Like so many things, the darker and smellier the bananas (but not so as to mold), the more flavorful the bread. We skin the overripe bananas a day ahead and leave them in the fridge to darken.

Tips from Eli: If you were our Person, you would use part or all whole wheat flour in this. It's a good place to sneak it in.

This bread is delicious for teatime while you watch for foxes.

- Midnight Spinach Pizza

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

It is I, Guthrie, the Gute. After a good nap this afternoon and evening, I awoke to realize my Person had eaten nearly nothing all day, working as she was on her computer and intermittently piling up goods for the garage sale tomorrow. So I saw the half-left can of tomato paste (after Eli's Sweet French Dressing) and thought I'd make a pizza. We had a Rustic brand crust, which we suspect is whole wheat, so it's a cinch to make a delectable and quick pizza for tonight or to warm up tomorrow at noon (when there's a lull in the scavangers).

Midnight Spinach Pizza
Me's Independent Rating: 3 of 3*

12-inch whole wheat pizza crust
3 oz. tomato paste (mighty healthy for Persons and hounds alike)
1-2 Tablespoons herbs: parsley, basil, etc.
sea salt to taste
2 cloves garlic
1/4 white onion
1-2 cups spinach leaves
6-8 oz. mozarella cheese (1-1/2 to 2 cups shredded)
1-2 oz. Parmesan or other hard cheese (1/4-1/2 cup shredded)

Preheat the oven to 450F and hope it is a cool night. Put the pizza stone right in now, if you're using one. Wait for the pizza itself if you are using only a flimsy pan.

You'll note how general the quantities are. It's because you can use up whatever you have. With a spatula, spread a thin layer of tomato paste atop the crust. Sprinkle liberally with basil, parsley, sea salt, and what have you. (Pepper, oregano...) Mince two cloves of garlic and sprinkle over crust. Chop a modicum of onion and distibute evenly over the crust as well. Cover with several layers of spinach leaves. Press down to be able to really pile it on. Cover with a great amount of mozarella (grated - it's a pup pun!), and top off with finely and freshly grated parmesan or hard cheese.

Use a pizza stone or pan and slide the laden crust into the hot, hot oven. Bake for 12 minutes, check, and cook 2 more minutes at a time until cheese is melted and beginning to brown.

Mmm. Keep away from canines since we can't have onions at all. (But we do love the smell of them on your breath.) I took the plate back to my chair to lick up all the stray cheese shreds.

Tips from Guthrie: Personally, I would forego the onion and replace it with something meaty in order to make a palatable pup dish. But this is what my Person had on hand for evening culinary pursuits.

Tips from Eli: A dog enjoys any recipe involving the grating of cheeses. There's so much tasty clean-up from the floor.

*Independent Ratings Key:
1 of 3 = mediocre, don't save the recipe, don't try it again
2 of 3 = has good potential but not extraordinary, give it one more chance before discarding
3 of 3 = best of all possible recipes for this item, save it in your treasured Best of All Possible Recipes box

- Sweet French Dressing

Dear Fans of Dogs Who Cook,

I, Eli, had to whip up something for conciliatory purposes this afternoon, so I made my Person, who calls herself "Me", a flavorful French dressing for her greens that she was to eat before going out to mow the lawn. (The garage sale was postponed til tomorrow due to her unreadiness and other obligations.) You may wonder why conciliatory cooking was necessary. Let's just say I helped myself to the loaf of Apple Tumble Bread prematurely yesterday and she was not gracious about it. She had had her slice and wantonly left the rest of the loaf there. It's lucky I didn't get hurt on the long serrated knife she carelessly left next to it. I think she should have worried a little more about that and a little less about the smaller offense. (I ate it without chewing, in hound fashion, and am still feeling the gastronomic distress. I admit it wasn't a great idea, but I'm not really wired to take a dainty bite and leave the rest for Gute or another.)

So, I made her a luscious french dressing to grace her greens and blue cheese crumbles and I'm pretty sure we're settled up now. Here was my ingenious method.

Sweet Eli's French Dressing
Me's Independent Rating: 3 of 3*

Mix together equal parts of the following:
Tomato paste
Honey (raw for your good health)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
50/50 split of water and apple cider vinegar (raw for your good health)

Blend in onion powder or flakes, sea salt, and paprika. Whisk til your paw is tired and the mixture is gelatinous like dressing. And, viola, it is.

If this is perplexing anyone (like a cat, for instance), I mean to say (by equal parts) that if you have 1/4 cup tomato paste, then add to it 1/4 cup honey (raw for your health), 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, and 1/8 cup apple cider vinegar (raw for your health) plus 1/8 cup water (see how that is 1/4 cup combined?). I did it this way for simplicity (and because Guthrie's usually the measurer and he's snoring in the chair by the window) and so you can remember it sometime when you're out of town and need to make it at your aunt's house. Or niece's.

Eli's Note: Some would have a special technique of whooping the olive oil with the vinegar til gelatinous and whisking in the honey/tomato paste/water gradually in a small trickle. That is more chef-like, but I did not take that approach. I am merely a hound, not a man.

Guthrie's Note: I am a little tired of the whole raw apple cider vinegar matter, as it is put on my food every day to glisten up my coat and keep me from rashes, to which I am prone. So I just slept through the whole affair. I noticed our girl enjoyed it, though. I may lick the dish when she goes out to mow the lawn. (Here is an unrelated picture of us with a small person named Wellsley. We were camping. I'm on the left; she is in the middle.)

*Independent Ratings Key:
1 of 3 = mediocre, don't save the recipe, don't try it again
2 of 3 = has good potential but not extraordinary, give it one more chance before discarding
3 of 3 = best of all possible recipes for this item, save it in your treasured Best of All Possible Recipes box**

**Note, anyone's Best of All Possible Recipes box would have only One recipe for any one item. Otherwise it would Not be the Best of All Possible Recipes for that aforementioned item. So if you find a 3 of 3 recipe, it must oust any previous recipe of its kind in the Best of All Possible Recipes box. 3s carry a very significant epicurian responsibility.

- Apple Tumble Bread and Garage Sales

Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

Tonight we are starting our blog while our Person is going about gathering items for a garage sale slated for tomorrow. We are not interested in garage sales unless they are someone else's (because of the smells - garage sales are great for smells). This is also why we hounds love to cook. We like smells. Right now there are a few sources of apples smelling up the kitchen. They are soft-ish apples with thin yet leathery skin that comes off in your teeth separately when you try to eat it. We don't know what kind they are. We are thinking they would be better baked up than eaten raw and Guthrie especially disdains fruit flies, which are circling the house determining their way in. Guthrie is very particular about gnats and the like. I, Eli, don't like them much either, but I don't have any kind of fixation on them like he does. Guthrie is a dog who consumes himself with fly, bug, and gnat chasing. We live in Wisconsin, so we also call them no-see-ums. (On Guthrie's special natural anti-bug spray, sold in Wisconsin, it lists "no-see-ums" as one of the pests. Who knew. We are orginally North Carolina hounds and only moved here one year ago.)

So our first recipe is something apple. We tried Grandma Madeline's Swiss Apple Pie - a sort of custard pie situation - and we won't be repeating that. Not a success. There's something she knew that we don't about making Swiss Apple Pie.

Tonight we have apple bread in mind. We need a lot of fiber - not so much us as the People we cook for - so we thought apple bread was nice place to hide it. We're starting with a recipe from the WorldWideWag (what dogs call it) and varying it as dogs do.

Eli and Guthrie's Apple Tumble Bread
(because the apples tumble through the batter in chunks. I, Eli, made that up.)

2 cups whole wheaty flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
1 cup (scant) unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups peeled and chopped apples
chopped walnuts

Oven: 325F (no need to preheat)
Pan: 8 x 4-inch loaf pan slathered with cooking spray.

First, chop up your apples. You don't want to do that after the batter is stirred up and waiting because the baking soda and baking powder will start to rise and you'll stir it down again by adding apples too late. Get Guthrie to chop them ahead if you have to.

Then, stir together flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Stir together molasses, applesauce and vanilla and stir into dry ingredients until just moistened. Fold in apples and nuts. Spread batter into prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes or until knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Tips from Guthrie: You, the baker, can substitute apple sauce for the oil in any dense quick bread or cake (like carrot cake). It's fat free then and no one's the wiser. (This is me catching an apple peel curl as it lofted from the countertop. Click to see the action detail of the shot.)

Tips from Elias: Our person, "Me," likes gingerbread with applesauce and this is a little bit of a twist on the same combo. Molassesy like gingerbread and appley like...applesauce. (This is me catching an apple chunk on the fly, and me putting the bread in the oven - which we don't clean too often.)