- Raw Dog Food Recipe

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

It is a dog day today (that is a good thing). We have been testing and tasting Me's abundant recipe of our new diet and I, Elias, am in heaven. I have licked bowl upon bowl, I have slurped up overflow from the floor, I have eaten fresh chicken with the bone in. If I were to die tonight, I would die a most satisfied dog with only good to say about my Person.

Me has been driven to this raw diet extreme due to the Gute's incessant and nonstop itching. He has scratched his belly bare again. In the past she felt the apple cider vinegar in his diet was keeping the itching to a minimum, but for some reason that's not working anymore. It was especially bad after we came back from the elder's woods and Guthrie was red all over his underside.

Me has decided to come with both barrels at the allergens that afflict my slender brother and this is a victory for dogs everywhere for we are going raw like our forefathers and our cousins the mighty wolf. We are not going to be allowed to catch it (drat!) but it's the next best thing to freshly killt.

Here is her favorite recipe from all of her online searching, which took the whole entire day. So far we love it mightily.

Raw Dog Food
The pup dog's morning meal will be a vegetable-meat mix and the evening meal is meaty bone such as chicken necks and the like. This recipe is based on foodstuffs for 50 pounders, such as we. Just adjust the size of the portions you freeze if you are a heftier (or lightweight) dog.

1. Veggie Meat Mix
1 lb. beef, pork, bison, turkey, chicken, or what have you (only one type per recipe)
2 cups ground vegetables including roots and above-ground growers (NO onions or mushrooms)
2-4 oz. chicken gizzard, heart, liver ground OR liver and heart of the base meat for the mix
1/2 cup raw apple cider vinegar
2-3 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon kelp powder
1/2 cup yogurt
3 eggs and shells
parsley

Grind meat and organs. Grind vegetables, garlic, and whole eggs in a blender with apple cider vinegar (measure vegetables after grinding, not before, so make it a generous 2 cups). Stir into ground meat with kelp, yogurt and parsley (for breath).

Use a canning funnel to scoop 5 oz of vegetable meaty goodness into muffin tins oiled with extra virgin olive oil. Freeze in the muffin tin. Each 5-ouncer is breakfast for one 50 pound dog. We made a triple recipe (because we had already ground that much meat) and it made 26 servings - two weeks of eating for us two pups.

Serve a breakfast muffin with two nice fish oil capsules and one vitamin E capsule for good measure.

2. Din Din
For supper, give your pup chicken or turkey necks, backs, wings or carcasses - only RAW or the bones will be the end of him. For slacker indoor dogs like us, the breakfast muffin should be 20-40 percent of the day's food (we go with 30%) and the meaty bone dinner should be 60-80% (we go with 70%) - you can vary it based on what you have available. So, for us, we need about 11 ounces of meaty bone. Sometimes it's a beef bone with a huge surround of meat on it, but routinely it's necks of birds because the bones are small and fun to chew and nutritious. And, our girl Me can get unlimited chicken necks for 59 cents a pound from the grocery store butcher. That makes our meal cheaper than the nice quality dog kibble she had been feeding us.

Tonight we had wings.

Once a week she promises us we can have fish - with heads and bones and everything. That is going to be a real joy. She is thinking she should put the elderman to work to provide that part of the meal for us.

Notes from Elias: To figure out your pup's proportions - feed him 2% of his body weight each day. Since we are 50 pounds, 2% is 1 pound - so we get 5 oz of vegetable-meat mix in the morning and 11 oz of chicken necks at night.

Notes from Guthrie: As much as Eli doesn't like it, one day a week on this diet a pup should fast. I feel it cleans out my insides nicely and I like have a shapely hound physique. Eli is more into bulking up. Speaking of cleaning out insides, because this is food with good enzymes and natural moisture, it's not going to swell up in our bellies before we can digest it like kibble does - so we will digest it in about four hours instead of 12. We like that efficiency.

People online who have done this diet rave about the good health and fur of their pups and the absence of allergies. We'll let you know how we fare on it. I, the Gute, am hoping to be less itchy, that's all.

- Spa Gifts from the Kitchen

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We dogs are nearly delirious with the scents that abound just now. Our girl Me is mixing up bath and spa concoctions that are so fragrant as to make a dog slip into near delirium. Here are some of the recipes for your own good pleasure. And if you get one of these in the mail, don't tell Me we had foretold the gift.

Love and Adoration,
The Hounds Who Cook

Cooling Foot Gel
(nice for hands too!)

2 tablespoons pure aloe vera gel (no additives)
1/2 tablespoon peppermint extract (or peppermint oil)

Mix well and place into a decorative jar for giving. Rub into feet before putting on socks. Ahh. Smooth the rest onto your hands. Mmm. Healing tingly goodness.

Luscious-for-Your-Skin Milkbath
1/2 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup powdered buttermilk
2 teaspoons dried egg white
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 cup oatmeal
2 tablespoons lavender buds (or other fragrant herb)

Grind oatmeal and lavender buds in blender into fine flour. Mix together with remaining ingredients. Place in decorative jar for giving. Use 1/2 cup per bath.

Soothe-Your-Aching-Muscles Bath Salts
2 cups sea salt
2 cups baking soda
2 cups Epsom salt
1 tablespoon carrier oil (such as almond, sunflower, jojoba, or vitamin E)
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoons almond extract
10 drops bergamot essential oil
5 drops ylang ylang essential oil

Mix salts and soda in a large container. In a small container, such as an old yogurt cup, pour carrier oil and mix in extracts and essential oils. Drizzle mixture over salt mixture. Stir well. Scoop into decorative containers for giving. Add 1 cup salts to water as bath is running - use water as hot as is tolerable. Soak for 20 minutes. The salt and heat will help draw lactic acid from muscles, which causes aching. Drink a tall glass of water after the bath to help muscles continue to purge lactic acid.

- Sweet Potato Pecan Bread

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We have just been barked away from the plenteous bags of groceries brought into the home. (Yes, sometimes she barks, the girl Me.) So we are comforting ourselves at the computer, writing about food instead of tearing open bags of green beans. (I only took one as a taste. - Eli)

This is a great and yummy bread we made today and took over to the elders. It's moist and flavorful with minuscule fat and big healthy sweet potatoes involved. And it uses Me's favorite obscure spice, mace. Here it is, scavanged from about.com's southern food section with hound amendments.

Sweet Potato Pecan Bread

1-1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon mace
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
stevia equivalent for another 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chopped dates
2 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce (we made our own)
4 tablespoons evaporated milk (or regular)
1 cup mashed sweet potatoes (we used them from the can)

Grease a bread pan. Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and spices. Add sugar, stevia, pecans, and raisins or dates. In a separate bowl combine egges, applesauce, milk and sweet potatoes. Stir to blend. Mix into dry ingredients just until moistened. Pour into greased pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 70 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes on wire rack, remove from pan, and finish cooling on rack.

Slice it up and slather with butter without feeling bad since it's nearly fat free to start with.

- African Ginger Beer - a cold and flu comfort drink

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We are incensed with Me who just ate two whole pieces of pizza in front of us, forgetting to share the crusts. Sometimes she will share the crusts. The Gute groaned before her final bite and she didn't even hear him. Can you imagine - us salivating over the fragrant aroma, drool dribbling onto Me's knee, and she flat ignores our need. Hounds believe they are always on the brink of starvation, and we are.

Well, it was a hard moment, but since dogs live in the moment, we are over it now and telling you of a new beverage you are likely to love.

Me has had this recipe since college when she checked out from the library an African Cooking recipe book. It is not only delicious, but wonderful when you are fighting a cold or flu too. In that case, mix the syrup into hot water to soothe the throat, instead of ice water. In the usual case, though, you can serve it as a luscious party drink where you sugar the rims of glasses and pour in 2 tablespoons syrup and 4-6 ounces of ice water (or seltzer water for extra fizz). It's a highly refreshing beverage. Nice served after a meal because the ginger settles the stomach and takes away the feeling of fullness.

African Ginger Beer
Me's independent rating: 3 of 3

1 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice (we use lime)
3/4 cup sugar (we use honey)
3 tablespoons fresh ginger - peeled and minced (or grated to pack a bigger punch)
lemon zest (we use lime)

Use a stainless steel or enamel saucepan (not aluminum - it reacts with the citrus) and combine the ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Cool to lukewarm. Strain syrup through a sieve if desired. (We leave the ginger in as our Me likes the extra bite.) Add syrup to water or seltzer water to desired strength.

Eli's Notes: As aforementioned, we dogs use lime in everything. Hardly bother to buy a lemon once a year. We find the lime to have a more complex and interesting flavor.

Guthrie's Notes: I would still like a little crust of pizza...

- Scientific Chicken Soup

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We found all sorts of research about the effectiveness of chicken noodle soup for the ailing. This is from scientists who know.

Researchers at the University of Nebraska found that homemade chicken soup really does make you feel better when you're sick. It reduces congestion and inflammation by limiting the movement of white blood cells that produce infection-related mucus.

UCSF researchers found that our cravings for comfort food may be our body’s attempt to put a brake on chronic stress. Comfort foods are usually high-energy foods (with sugar and/or fat) like chicken soup, chocolate chip cookies, cheeseburgers or ice cream. Energy-filled foods help us “stay in the game”. In an animal study, the researchers found that “glucocorticoids would both prompt vigilance to threats and send a signal to the brain of a chronically stressed animal to seek high-energy food. If it were successful in finding such food, stress and its attendant feelings would be terminated.”

Research published in the journal Chest (2000) proved in the laboratory that chicken soup has anti-inflammatory properties that help clear the upper respiratory tract, but it’s unclear exactly which of the ingredients are directly responsible. It seems cooking them up together combined to “achieve their beneficial effects”. The researchers used a homemade recipe they dubbed “Grandma’s soup”. They even published the recipe as part of the “Methods” section.

Here it is with our hound print on it:

Scientific Chicken Soup
Me's Independent Rating: 3 of 3

5-6 lb stewing hen or baking chicken
1 package of chicken wings
3 large onions
1 large sweet potato
3 parsnips (we've never had these on hand to try it, but our elder man would like it that way)
2 turnips (same as above, we're not turnip kind of hounds)
11 to 12 large carrots
5 to 6 celery stalks (with leaves)
1 bunch of parsley
salt and pepper to taste.

Rinse off the chicken and cover it with water in a pot. Bring to a boil. Add the chicken wings, onions, sweet potato, parsnips, turnips, and carrots. Boil 30-45 minutes. Remove the chicken and reserve for another purpose. Add the parsley and celery. Cook 30 minutes.

Serve like this - with colorful chunks of vegetables in golden broth, speckled with parsley. Or, for the sick and ailing, just serve the broth. Or, do as the scientists recommend, puree the broth and vegetables at this point and salt and pepper to taste.

Freeze some for the day of the unexpected scratchy throat.

Elias' Notes: We freeze it in pint canning jars with an inch of space at the top - put it in the freezer without a cover. Then when it's frozen, put a cover on tightly. That allows the liquid to expand as it freezes. Thaw in the fridge a day ahead, or simmer the jar in a pan of water to thaw it out.

Guthrie's Notes: We accidentally used turkey meat from the freezer, thinking it was chicken. It worked out fine. (We used up the chicken from whence came the broth when we made fajitas mentioned a few blogs back.)

- Chicken Fajitas Enchiladas

Dear Friends of Hounds Who Cook,

Here is the recipe of the delicious dinner that we cooked up for sister Linda's 49th birthday this week. She still looks 40 to us. We saw the great amount of work this could be so we cooked the chicken the day before. Worked very well that way and the preparations went quickly.

Chicken Enchiladas
Me's independent rating: 2 of 3 (it has potential, I'd try it again with some changes for my taste, though the family loved this creamy version).

1 chicken boiled up in water
1 package of taco seasoning mix
4 oz sliced black olives
7 oz green chiles
1/2 small onion, chopped up
1 cup sour cream
20 6-inch flour tortillas
grated cheddar
arrow root (for thickening)
15 oz tomato sauce
7 oz picante sauce, or salsa
onion powder
garlic powder

Cook up the chicken the day ahead by rinsing it off and covering with water in a stock pot. Bring to boiling and cook 30 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. Reserve the broth in jars in the fridge. Remove chicken from the bone and return bone, skin and cartilage pieces to the pan. Cover with water and bring to a boil and simmer 30 minutes more. Reserve broth in bottles and discard bones and etc.

Shred or chop chicken and reserve about 3 cups for this recipe and set remainer aside for another use (like our Scientific Chicken Soup). Mix with taco mix, black olives, green chiles, and chopped onion. Add a little chicken broth to moisten mixture. Stir in 1/2 cup sour cream, reserving the rest for topping.

Spoon filling onto tortillas, adding grated cheese before rolling up, if desired. Place in 9x13 pan.

Heat 3 cups chicken broth in large frying pan. Thicken with arrowroot. Add tomato sauce and picante sauce. Season with onion powder and garlic powder. Pour over enchiladas in the pan, covering well. Cover with grated cheddar cheese.

Bake at 325 for 45 minutes, uncovered.

Mix 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup water together. Pour over enchiladas. Turn off oven and return pan to oven for 10 minutes to warm.

Eli's Notes: Well, the family loved this recipe, but we would health it up a bit - leaving out the sour cream and serving it, or plain yogurt, as a side for the dish. We also would eliminate green chiles because Me doesn't like them. We also think there's no harm in chopping up some more fresh onion and garlic for the sauce - and starting the sauce first to give it time for flavors to permeate before using.

Guthrie's Notes: All of this and we still had broth - and meat - leftover for chicken soup. That's the recipe to try. It's the best of all possible chicken soups. We call it scientific because they used it in a study that did indeed assure that chicken soup helps sick people heal faster.

- When dogs swallow glass...

Dear Friends of Hounds Who Cook,

We dogs made an extraordinary meal that pleased the palates of our relations, so we're writing it out in the next blog for you. Our girl Me would have made changes - and did in the second batch, which is outlined in Elias' notes. This all happened on the day that Eli ate the candy thermometer. I the Gute know better than to eat Glass, but Elias could not resist the candy coating stuck to the outside. He crunched it up and swallowed a little and then thought better of it, or that's when Me came in from shoveling, I'm not sure. She was so taken aback that Elias did not even get punished, as he is supposed to for stealing from the counter. She just gasped and picked up the little pieces from the carpet and the kitchen floor and gasped again. So we each got a can of pumpkin to eat and then had to throw it all up. The pumpkin was to make a funny gelatinousness in our bellies to coat our throats so the glass would not cut us on the way back up. We don't know if it worked. She is Observing us for a day or so more to see. I, for one, did not eat any glass, but she doesn't know that. The problem with Eli is that he is all alpha dog where he thinks and knows that our pack world revolves around him. Which means he doesn't always learn. He just thinks he can do what he wants. I hope she doesn't leave another thermometer out...I don't like throwing up.

Love for now from the Gute.

- Making Vanilla Extract

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

Today we have been on a culinary mission to make vanilla extract. First we ordered a pound of vanilla beans online for about $20. And so far we've used half of them and made four pints of vanilla, so it turns out to be an excellent gift idea for blessing your epicurean friends. The problem is you would have had to start it in November to have it ready in time for Christmas. No matter. We are giving ours as gifts with the "ready date" clearly marked.

In addition to buying the vanilla beans (they say grade B is best for extract - it's most flavorful) we also purchased a liter of vodka. This was not to get us through the tedious bean splitting process, it's actually the liquid into which the beans infuse. And we don't know anything about vodka, being dogs, so we got a mid-priced brand.

We are assured online that once you have made your own vanilla you won't want to use even the most exotic commercial brand again. We are hoping it is true and we are giddy with delight to share our process because the vanilla fragrance has filled our senses and we can't think of anything else for probably a whole day.

Making Vanilla Extract
Me's Independent Rating: not yet rated

1/2 pound vanilla beans, Grade B
1 liter vodka

With a sharp knife, slit the vanilla beans lengthwise. With a table knife, gently scrape out the beans inside. We used 2 ounces of beans per cup of vodka, which will make very strong ultra-awesome fragrant and scintillating vanilla for cooking. The online recipes call for at least one ounce per cup. Commercial recipes use about 3/4 ounce. So what you are buying there is vanilla flavored liquor, we're thinking.

Use dark glass bottles or jars to keep the light out of the concoction, and sterilize the bottles and caps before using.

Cut scraped beans into lengths about 1/3 to 1/2 the height of the bottle. Put both the seeds and the scraped bean pieces into the jars. Fill with vodka. Cap tightly and shake.

This week shake the bottles once a day. Week 2 through 4, shake the bottles a few times a week. Week 5 you have vanilla extract to use and enjoy in baked goods. (If you use this in uncooked food, like frosting, you will taste the alcohol - commercial brands use additives to cut the alcohol flavor.)

Since the vanilla is unfiltered, it may add specks to your baked good. Yum. For more specks, shake the bottle before measuring. For no specks, filter the vanilla.

Filtered Vanilla
Filtering is not necessary, but if you don't want specks in your delicacies or want to make double use of the beans, you can filter the vanilla. Word on the web is that after six months the flavor is extracted from the beans and leaving them in the bottle won't enhance flavor any more. So we think that's a good time to filter it.

To filter, pour vanilla through a coffee-filter-lined funnel into another sterilized bottle. Use the filtered pieces to make vanilla sugar.

Vanilla Sugar
Let vanilla pieces filtered from the extract dry several days. Then transfer to a clean jar. Cover with sugar. Set aside for a few days. Shake to break up any lumps. Use in place of sugar in any recipe, especially sprinkling on baked goods.

Tips from Elias: Even after you remove the beans, word is that the vanilla continues to improve with age. Keep it in a dark cupboard and stored in dark glass (or a paper bag if necessary) while it's steeping / infusing / extracting.

Tips from Guthrie: You can also use the vanilla pieces in our delicious recipe for Lavender Sugar. Check that out.