~ Pumpkin Ravioli

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

To-day our culinary senses are focused upon the Pumpkin Ravioli. "Last Morning" as our favorite 5-year-old would say, our Girl made a moderately delicious pumpkin ravioli with homemade egg pasta and filling of only Pumpkin and a particularly expensive sheep cheese. She ate a very large plate of it (4 servings' worth) which was boilt, and I, the Gute, polished off the equivalent amount in the kitchen which was still waiting to be boilt. I didn't mind. It was all fresh and delicious. (The Girl was displeased and today has not fed me full servings due to how my rib cage was stretched to nearly the girth of my brother Elias in my fullness.)

Today, with remaining pasta dough that we reserved, we improve upon Martha Stewart's pumpkin ravioli recipe. We start with canned pumpkin, not fresh, as it is zero degrees and the Frost is on the Pumpkin to say the least.

Guthrie's  Pumpkin Ravioli
14 oz. pumpkin puree
1 tsp. brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup hard cheese, grated. lightly packed (such as Asiago, Parmesan, Romano)
1/2 cup minced nuts (walnuts or almonds)
1 tablespoon minced onion
2 tablespoons coconut (we used organic which is drier)
1 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
salt and pepper

fresh sage leaves (we only had dried)
1/2 cup butter
balsamic vinegar

Mix together first set of ingredients. Lay out a fresh sheet of pasta (4" wide). Drop a tablespoon of filling every 3 inches on the sheet. Moisten area around the filling if sheets have been drying (or purchased at the store. Cover with another sheet of pasta, pressing around the filling. Cut into 3-inch squares with fluted pastry wheel.

Line a baking sheet with parchment and sprinkle with semolina flour. Spread ravioli on sheet and freeze for 30 minutes.

Drop into rapidly boiling water. Cook 3-4 minutes, just til it floats. Drain.

In frying pan, melt butter, add sage and cook one minute over high heat. Remove from heat. Whisk in balsamic vinegar and toss over Ravioli.


Eli's Notes: This ravioli was as much as we had hoped. The coconut and walnuts made it much more interesting and complex than yesterday's pumpkin and cheese alone. The sage butter drizzled over was visually pleasing and flavorful. We used walnut pieces - not as small as minced - and liked the crunchy texture they gave. We dogs shall retire tonight with another winning recipe in our caps. Now we shall work on how to freeze this and give as Christmas presents....

- Pumpkin Date Bread

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We dogs recommend pumpkin for whatever ails you. To-day we are thinking of something that is good for the elders health-wise, but also extremely tasty and this is where we came to make Pumpkin Date Bread this morning. We again started with Betty Crocker, who also needs fiber, and made it our own.

We never use soy or canola oils for this reason: they are genetically modified (unless they are organic).  They are also not a friend of the Artery. Instead, we use grapeseed oil or extra virgin olive oil. Here, we choose walnut oil as as we had bought some on sale and had not tried it yet. Also, finding ourselves sorely out of cloves, we replaced the spices in this recipe with 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice.

Pumpkin Date Bread

1 cup sugar
2/3 cup grapeseed oil
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
15 oz. pumpkin
3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon (generous)
1/2 tsp. cloves (generous)
1 cup chopped dates

Oil bottoms of four or five mini loaf pans. Move oven rack to a position in the bottom 1/3 of the oven so that the loaf-tops will be in the center of the oven.

In large bowl, mix sugar, oil, vanilla, eggs and pumpkin. Mix dry ingredients together and stir in, saving dates for last. Fold in dates and pour into loaf pans. 

If desired, sprinkle tops with a mixture of 1/3 cup walnuts or pecans, 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1 tablespoon oil or butter.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, until toothpick poked in center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan. 


Notes from Guthrie: We dogs feel it is important to make sure your oils and your nuts are not rancid. A dog can tell with just a whiff, but you people will need to take a taste of oil or of nut and make sure there is no bittery or acidic aftertaste on your tongue. If there is, they are no good and can't be salvaged and must be thrown away. Rancid oils will ruin the taste of a thing but are also full of free radicals which cause ill health and cancers. Never eat rancid oils.

- Cream of Asparagus Soup

Fellow Q-linarians,
This is a reprise of a recipe from Sept. 2008 which we came across today and cannot help but make. 
Sincerely, 
King Guthrie 


Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

I, King Guthrie, Gute of Gutes, have made a smooth and warming concoction of asparagus soup for our lunch which Elias, my brother and alpha, calls "Asparagute Soup." We have an amicable relationship.

Here's how I made it before I returned to my chair for my afternoon of sleep - and watching the perimeter for any sign of threat or danger, of course.

Creamy Asparagus Soup
Me's Independent Rating: 3 of 3

Oil (grapeseed or coconut)
1/2 pound white onion
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoons arrowroot or flour
1/2 pound asparagus
4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1 teaspoon dried sage or savory
1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
chives for garnish

Heat up your favorite cast iron (you'll see why later) pan with 1 tablespoon oil. Chop the onion and saute with the garlic about 3 minutes. Add arrowroot or flour and saute 3 more minutes. (We used the leftover flour from the other day's breading of eggplant. We saved it in the freezer since it was seasoned and still worthy. So it had some salt and pepper in its midst, as well as a possible eggplant overtone. ) Gradually pour in the broth. Bring to a boil and add the asparagus, trimmed and all broken into pieces (see "Preparing Asparagus" post), and sage or savory as your herb. Simmer until asparagus is so tender as to fall apart.

With a slotted spoon, transfer asparagus and much of the onion out of the pan and into a blender. Puree with 1/2 cup plain yogurt. Stir the puree back into the remaining broth and season with sea salt and fresh ground pepper. At this point, if you did what I said and used a cast iron pan, you can turn off the heat and let the soup gently rewarm in the heat of the pan while you go out and snip chives from the garden to top it off. You don't want to overheat the yogurt - just warm it to eating temperature.

Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with chives and serve with crackers. We use warm stoneware bowls for a soup like this that is not boiling hot when you put it in the bowl. The stoneware will retain what heat there is in the soup and give you time to leisurely eat it (or wolf it down like us) before it gets too cold.
I, Guthrie, presented this to my girl, Me, and met with her warmest approval.


Tips from Elias: The soup smells utterly salivacious, though I did not cook today.  I was very busy keeping an eye out the window for any foul play as the neighborhood came home from school.


Tips from Guthrie: Always strive to undersalt so that the eater, especially a salt hound, can add some at the table where it will make most impact on the tastebuds. Also, I wouldn't suggest this to just anyone, but say you had cooked asparagus the night before and had the foresight to save the water off said asparagus in the refrigerator. A person could actually use the leftover asparagii  from that meal and the flavorful water in this soup. If you were so inclined. A dog would do it. Dogs don't mind leftovers.

- Cranberry Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We went over to the elders to run in the Wood yesterday and brought some of our Cranberry Orange Streusel Bars only to be rebuffed by the elder woman who said that the cake-like cranberry bars of previous weeks, slathered in cream cheese frosting, were her favorites. We think this morning she will come to her senses and have one of the Streusel bars for breakfast and realize its uncommon, nearly carmely, goodness. But just in case, we are preserving the other recipe here. This one is like cake, the Other One is like cookies. They do not replace each other but happily coexist on a plate of cranberry pleasures.

Sincerely, Eli for Elias and The Gute

Cranberry Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
Me's Independent Rating 3 of 3

1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup sugar
1-1/2c flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups cranberries, chopped
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Cream butter, eggs, vanilla and sugar. Mix in dry ingredients. Fold in cranberries and nuts. Spread in greased 8x12 (or so) pan. Bake 40 min @350 degrees. 

Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup cream cheese (room temp)
1/2 cup butter (room temp)
1 tsp. milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Blend frosting ingredients together. Slather frosting over cooled bars. Desserts with cream cheese frosting should be refrigerated if not eaten within a few hours.

Notes from Guthrie: We make up the frosting and freeze the bars and frosting separately. Thaw both, frost and serve. 

- Molasses Krinkle Dough for Freezing

Dear Fans of Hounds who Cook,

Here we are on 1 December, the launch of the Christmas season and we dogs are cooking. At present we have made a marvelous roll of Molasses Cookies that we have frozen and will bake up later. In this way, we can have a supply of molasses cookies anytime at all throughout the Season.

We started with Betty Crocker and worked our way from there to here:

Molasses Krinkle Dough for Freezing
Me's Independent Rating: 3 of 3

3/4 cup Wisconsin butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
1 egg
2-1/8 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
white sugar for rolling

Mix butter, brown sugar, molasses and egg thoroughly in a large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients except white sugar.

Lay out a 14-inch to 16-inch length of waxed paper. Turn dough out onto waxed paper and work with the paper to form into a log about 12-inches long. Wrap tightly in waxed paper. Then wrap in plastic wrap. Before sealing tight, write a note with cooking instructions for the dough:

Whole Wheat Molasses Krinkles - 350 degrees - 10-12 minutes - Shape dough into 1-1/4-inch balls, roll in white sugar, sprinkle with a few drops of water on the top. Bake until set, not hard. Cool on wire rack.

Tuck the note inside the plastic wrap and seal it up with freezer tape (or we used twist ties at both ends and left it at that).

When you go to make the cookies, put the dough in the fridge overnight to thaw. Or, if you are in an incredible hurry and only want to cook some of them, leave it on the counter a short while and then slice the partially thawed pieces from the ends (which thaws sooner), form and bake. Return partially frozen dough to the freezer.

- Cranberry Orange Streusel Bars

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We have been on sabbatical due to the Rabbit season and our Girl had a prolonged trip to Africa where she ate things like matoki and curries and meat upon skewers. We dogs were on vacation in Minneapolis where we did not have access to a computer but communed with our dog pack instead.

Now as it is Christmastime, we are back in a hound frenzy to make the best of all possible Christmas cookies. I had a morning nap whilst it snowed large flakes and woke up with a great desire for cranberries. We dogs love the cranberry first because it pops between our teeth and second because of its healthful antioxidant properties.

We started with a recipe our Girl read in the Mazda shop whilst they replaced her engine coils. It was a Bobby Flay recipe in Good Housekeeping. We have houndified it and consider it our new favorite recipe for Christmas so far.

Due to the recipe using only the Yolks of the egg (our favorite part), this would be a very good day to make a batch of coconut macaroons as well, as they use only Whites. 

Cranberry Orange Streusel Bars
 Me's Independent Rating: 3 of 3

12 oz cranberries
1-1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
2 clementines (for zest and juice) or an orange
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
2 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup pecan pieces
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Rinse the cranberries and pluck out any withered or blackened ones. Leave them to thaw slightly on paper towel in a single layer on a cookie sheet. With parchment paper, line a 13x9 cookie sheet with sides and let the paper overhang every side.

Mix flour, oats, sugar, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Cut butter into pieces and work into flour with your fingers. Set aside 3/4 cup to 1 cup of the crumbs for topping. Press the rest into the parchment-lined pan. Bake at 350 degrees until light golden - 12 minutes.

Zest the clementines with a microplane grater. (It's the only kind we find that will work on a clementine. Or use an orange with a regular zester.) Get 1 tsp. of zest and 1/3 cup juice from the clementines. Whisk sweetened condensed milk with yolks, vanilla, zest, and juice til well combined.

Sprinkle cranberries over hot crust. Pour orange mixture over cranberries and crust. Sprinkle with pecans. Sprinkle with remaining shortbread crumbs. Bake 30-37 minutes until filling is firm and topping is golden brown.

For powdered sugar option, cool on rack one hour, then lift bars by the parchment paper, sift powdered sugar lightly over bars. Cut and serve.

For icing option, blend powdered sugar with 2 tsp. water and drizzle over hot bars. Return to oven for a few minutes til icing is bubbly. Remove from oven and cool on rack for one hour. Remove from pan using parchment paper edges. Cut and serve.

For freezing option, omit powdered sugar for now. Cool on rack one hour. Wrap and freeze up to 3 months. Use powdered sugar or icing option when thawed.

Notes from Elias: We like to cut the bars up before freezing because the likelihood of wanting one for a small evening snack here or there is very high. Then you don't have to wait for it to thaw, if it's already cut. Or you can wait.

~Strawberry-Banana Cream Pie with Cinnamon Meringue

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We are sorry dogs for not posting any of our good recipes since February. We could hardly believe it when we signed on to see that Blueberry Cobbler (the world's best) was our last electronic culinary exploit. Without further explanation of why dogs who discovered Facebook would dwindle in their blogging disciplines, we will announce our next great triumph: Strawberry-Banana Cream Pie.

You see, the girl and her Elder went over to the river (we could tell as dogs have extraordinary senses of smell and memories for smells and we have camped on that river with Our Girl more than once, so we know she was there) and picked strawberries. A box so long it hardly fits in the refrigerator.

In addition, the girl had received a whole gallon of milk free with other purchase at the store, so we had strawberries and milk aplenty and, then, three organic bananas which were in their absolute prime. From here on it would be downhill for them. What came to our small canine minds was homemade pudding filled up with bananas and strawberries. We found online a clever and delicious recipe for Banana Cream Pie and turned it into this wonder: STRAWberry Banana Cream Pie with CINNamon Meringue. Get out your pudding pot, you most assuredly want to make this recipe.

I, Elias, will do the telling as it is after 10 p.m. and Guthrie prefers to go to bed around the 7s. (7 p.m. to sleep for the night, to wake up at 6 for breakfast, and then 7 a.m. again to sleep off breakfast.)

Strawberry-Banana Cream Pie with Cinnamon Meringue

The Pudding Filling
 3/4 cup Sugar (+ scant stevia for herbal sweetness, or you can do without)
1/2 cup Unbleached Flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 cups whole milk (Guthrie calls it "melk" since we moved to Wisconsin)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (we made our own at Christmas)
1 tablespoon real butter
4 egg yolks
1-2 perfectly ripe bananas
1 pint strawberries, washed and hulled and sliced
1 graham cracker crust pie shell

The Meringue Topping
4 egg whites, at room temperature
5 scant tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 - 1 teaspoon cinnamon


Crafting the Pudding Filling
Combine the sugar, flour, and salt together and set aside.

Break up yolks in a small bowl and set aside. 

Pour the milk into a pot for the stovetop (hereafter called your pudding pot) and scald it over medium high heat. It is scalded when the surface forms a wrinkle - a bit of a skin. You can lift it (the bit of milk skin) off with a fork and let it cool upon a plate before giving it to your pup or, as a last resort, the cat.

Pour a little stream of the hot milk into the egg yolks while you stir the yolks briskly. About 1/3 or 1/2 cup will do. Then pour the egg mixture into the hot milk, stirring briskly again til blended. (This whole exercise is to keep bits of yolk from cooking into lumps as it hits the hot milk.) Now, while over medium heat, blend in the flour mixture little by little.

A whisk is our favorite tool for stirring pudding as its mission is to break up lumps and even out thicknesses. So we whisk nearly constantly while cooking the pudding. When it starts to thicken (it may come to a boil, ours did not, but if it does then turn down the heat), add the tablespoon of butter. (If you don't have butter just skip it, don't substitute margarine, and I don't just say that because we are from Wisconsin.)

While that's going on, hopefully you've already cleaned your strawberries and sliced them up. Slice your bananas right into the the graham cracker crust in a single layer. Cover with strawberries.

When the pudding has reached pudding consistency, pour it over the fruit in the pie pan.

Note: Our elder woman would say Not to pour hot pudding over the fruit because it cooks it and that is less pleasant. She says let it cool first. However, we let ours cool some first and felt it was an error. That the better Presentation of Pie would be for the yet-runny hot pudding to slather and fill between the fruits in the pan and be in position straightaway to set. If it sets first in the pudding pot and then is poured into in pie, it seems like one increment of smoothness of the pie is lost. So follow our radical example only upon personal reflection of these different outcomes.

Set the pie aside and make the meringue.

Embarking on The Meringue
Measure sugar, cream of tartar, and cinnamon into a small bowl.

Place egg whites in a medium-sized mixing bowl and whip them with an electric mixer. When they are frothy, slowly add the sugar mixture as you continue beating. Watch them thicken up and beat them until you have stiff peaks. This means when a spoon is dipped in to the meringue and pulled out, it leaves a peak like a mountain or an ocean wave. That's perfect.

Dollop meringue onto the pie in spoonfuls, swirling and peaking it to your artistic pleasure. Be sure the meringue is sealed to the crust all the way around. That's best.

Put the pie in a 375 degree oven (on broil if you can, without using a high heat) for about 15 minutes until meringue peaks are only lightly browned.

Remove from oven and serve. Leftovers needs be refrigerated and the bananas will look less appetizing the second day, but will still taste heavenly, so just close your eyes. We pups aren't as concerned with the looks of our food.  I, Elias, will eat nearly anything no matter how unappealing if it tastes good.


Notes from Elias:
Here is the tricky part. We are in a house where our pudding pot and every pot has been burnt more than once. So it is a bonafide art not to burn pudding. We have a second pot at the ready in case the bottom begins to stick in pudding pot #1. We Don't scrape the bottom with the whisk, lest a burnt lump of pudding should be dislodged. Instead, at the first sign of a browned bit surfacing, we Transfer it all to the pudding pot in waiting and thicken it up without further incident, since the new pan has no pudding residue at the bottom to begin to burn.

~Caramel Sauce

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

Our girl made Hot Fudge Sauce this weekend and now is fairly cocky about any type of sugary sauce being a cinch to make. For instance, just now she took out an apple to eat and had a great desire to dip it in caramel sauce. So she made some. Right in the middle of her deadline, with the kitchen all clean as it was, she put three ingredients into a double boiler and just let it double boil to her desired thickness. It was crazy good. Here's how she did it:

Crazy Good Caramel Sauce

1 cup brown sugar (or white)
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup half and half (or cream)

Whisk all together in double boiler. When sugar is dissolved and texture is smooth, cook for five minutes on high, or as long as needed for desired consistency.

~ Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

Prepare yourselves for a taste sensation. This is so good that we made it Friday night and already we are cooking it up again for tomorrow's guests. We have taken to buying whole chickens when they are on sale for less than $1 per pound. Our girl removes the skin, cuts out the breast for her cookery and we dogs and the cat share the legs, wings and back for dinner. It's a very equitable arrangement since we hounds went to an all-raw diet.

We started with a recipe from Epicurious.com and went hound wild from there.

Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Goat Cheese
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon extra vigin olive oil (use the oil from the sundried tomatoes below)
3 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary leaves

2 onions
4 french bread rolls
1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes - drained of their oil
arugula
goat cheese (we used feta)
mayonnaise, if desirous

Put vinegar, olive oil, garlic and rosemary in a casserole pan and marinate the chicken for at least an hour.  Grill the chicken breast til cooked through or cook on the stove top and slice cooked breasts into diagonal strips. Layer cooked chicken with other sandwich ingredients into cut rolls. These were so yummy we'll make them again right away.

- Blueberry Cobbler

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

Tonight we have made a luscious blueberry cobbler and found, as it claimed, that it was the best cobbler on earth. (We cannot speak for cobblers elsewhere.)

We used less sugar and we Still thought it was too sweet but the elder woman loved it just fine. Everyone did.

Here it is with our sugar adjustments and a few other tweaks.
(Originally found at: www.allrecipes.com)

Very Best Blueberry Cobbler

• 2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 - 3 Tablespoons lime juice
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon oil (we used grapeseed)

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup milk
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 Tablespoon cinnamon

1. Lightly grease an 8-inch-square pan. 
2. In a small bowl, mix blueberries with vanilla and lime juice. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of flour. Stir in the oil. Turn out into the prepared pan. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 3/4 cups of flour, baking powder, and 6 tablespoons sugar. Cut in the butter using a fork or pastry blender until buter is in small pieces. Make a well in the center, and quickly stir in the milk, mixing just until moistened. Let sit for 10 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spoon the batter over the blueberries, leaving a few small holes for the berries to peek through. Mix together the cinnamon and 2 Tablespoons sugar and sprinkle over the top.
5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the topping comes out clean. Cool partially and serve warm with ice cream. Keeps refrigerated two.

~ Piroshkis

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,
We dogs are happier than usual, having had a near-two-hour walk today down to the river and round about town. We wore our packs to carry things of interest. And when we returned home, even The Gute was beside himself with joy. Gute does not play,  per se, as he is a serious sort of hound. But when he does play, it's very puppy like and typically his bounds are as high as they are long. He bounded about down the hallway chasing toys for a full 8 minutes before resuming his usual immoveably sleepy hound position on the bed.

Meanwhile, I Eli, have been investigating a new culinary tool our girl brought home from the resale store yesterday. (We know when she's there as we each get a small stuffed animal to rip mercilessly apart when she comes home. We think they are free with purchase.)

The tool is a Piroshki maker (or Perogie or Pirozhki) but you can make this recipe easily without our special tool. Our girl used to eat these up from the Russian Teahouse in St. Paul Midway neighborhood and now we dogs can make them for her. (Well, not Guthrie. He won't wake up til 11 p.m., but I Elias will make an attempt.)

I started with a recipe from allrecipes.com and houndified it as usual for extra goodness. 


Russian Pirozhkis
The Dough
2 cups milk, warmed (we used sour milk for extra flavor and added 1/2 tsp. baking soda to balance it out)
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
6 cups all-purpose flour

The Filling
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 medium head cabbage, finely chopped
6 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 pound sausage (we used italian, in spite of it being a russian dish)
salt and pepper to taste

Place 1/2 cup milk in a cup or small bowl. Stir in sugar and sprinkle yeast over the top. Set aside until foamy, about 10 minutes.

Pour the remaining warm milk into a large bowl. Add the melted butter, egg, salt and 1 cup of flour. Stir in the yeast mixture (which should be foamy by now). Mix in flour 1 cup at a time until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and doesn't stick to your hands. Cover the bowl loosely and set in a warm place to rise for about 1 hour. Dough should almost triple in size.

Meanwhile, saute the sausage, breaking it into bits. Set aside.

Melt the remaining butter and saute the cabbage til it has wilted. Mix in the chopped eggs and cooked sausage and season with salt and pepper. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally until cabbage is tender. Set aside.

Place the risen dough onto a floured surface. Divide dough according to method of making the peroshkis. This recipe makes about 30 peroshkis. Using a peroskhi cutter like ours makes 18 at once, so we divide the dough into 4 sections (for 2 top layers and 2 bottom layers of 18 piroshkis each.)  Roll out one section of dough and lay over the piroshki mold. Fill pockets with about 1 tablespoon of filling. Roll another section of dough out and lay over filled pockets. Use rolling pin over the mold to press and cut the piroshkis.

If you are not using a cutter, form dough into a 2-inch diameter roll and cut into 30 one-inch pieces. Flatten the balls by hand until they are 4 to 5 inches across. Place a spoonful of the cabbage filling in the center and fold in half to enclose. Pinch the edges together to seal in the filling.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Place the piroshkis on  baking sheets two inches apart to allow the dough to rise. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

Notes from Elias: We are sure that the bread should be brushed with something before entering the oven. Tonight we are experimenting with what: milk, egg white, egg yolk, olive oil, or ? and will let you know what is best. 10:48 p.m.: Egg Yolk wash, paws down. Works of art.

~ Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Exactly Perfect

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We could hardly believe our own senses today when we experienced the odiferous wonder of garlic and butter roasting in the oven. Our girl was concocting what may soon come to be known the best garlic mashed potatoes known to Man(kind), but until then we will just refer to them as Exactly Perfect. She found chefly secrets online at this locale: (reluctantgourmet.com) and then whupped up this exquisite garlic sauce that can be used in potatoes or a whole variety of foods. You'll see what we mean as you wisely read on. It's all in the technique, which has somehow eluded our cooker until now. These are the principles she learnt: 1) Boil the water first 2) Scald the milk before adding it 3) Add the milk last (after lumps are out of potatoes) 4) Nutmeg removes the "stored" flavor of potatoes. Who knew? 5) It's ok to make mashed potatoes ahead if you keep them hot (a crock pot works!). They don't reheat well after cooling.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Me's Independent Rating: 3 of 3

5 lbs. potatoes
2-1/2 cups milk (more or less)
10 oz. butter
1/2 cup Garlic Sauce (see recipe below)

Kosher salt
Pepper
Nutmeg


Potatoes can be steamed, pressure cooked or boiled. Heat the water in advance in each case. Pare and cut potatoes. (Keep in a bowl of cold water if you prepare them ahead.) Place into (or over) boiling salted water and cook til tender but not falling apart. For a pressure cooker this was about 8 minutes for quartered potatoes. 


Drain potatoes and puree immediately with butter, garlic sauce, and nutmeg until smooth. Don't worry about overbeating at this juncture. 


Meanwhile, heat milk to scalding. When potatoes have no lumps, gradually beat in hot milk to the desired consistency. Do not overbeat. Pepper and salt to taste. Transfer potatoes to a crock pot to keep hot until serving.



Garlic Sauce  

1 pound (?!) garlic
1/2 lb butter, unsalted
1/4 lbs onion
1/4 tablespoon white pepper
1 tablespoon Kosher salt

Peel garlic and place in oven proof bowl. Cover with butter and onion, pepper and salt. Seal with aluminum foil and bake at  375F for one hour. The garlic will be very tender and lightly browned. Puree. Use for Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Garlic Sauces, Pastas with or without Cream, with Mayonnaise on Sandwiches (Roasted Garlic Aiioli). Keep refrigerated to store. 

 
Notes from Guthrie: Lick the bowl immediately before the residue turns to a hard glue that will take a lot more licking to get off.

- Pumpkin Soup

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

Here we are, pups after Halloween with so many jack-o-lanterns. We baked them up (they were only outside for the evening glowing with candlelight) and froze the puree in pint bags. We noted which ones came from darker dense pumpkin (cooking pumpkins) and the lighter watery pumpkin (carving pumpkins) so when we go to cook with it we can adapt the pumpkin accordingly. (We will drain the light stuff some more and not expect the deepest pumpkin flavor that the darker flesh will yield.)

We searched our favorite epicurious.com and found this Delicious recipe for pumpkin soup. We ate it with whole wheat french bread slathered in Butter.

Spicy Pumpkin Soup

• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup chopped carrot
• 3/4 cup chopped celery
• 3/4 cup chopped ripe banana
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 whole clove
• 5 cups low-salt chicken broth
• 2 cups canned pure pumpkin
• 3/4 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk*
• 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried sage leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon yellow curry powder

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add carrot and next 6 ingredients and sauté until vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Transfer mixture to processor and blend until smooth. Return mixture to pot. Add broth and all remaining ingredients except cilantro. Boil soup over medium-high heat 15 minutes to blend flavors. Cool slightly. Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Return soup to pot. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly, then cover and refrigerate.)

Bring soup to simmer. Divide among 8 bowls. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

*We used dried coconut cream powder and diluted it twice as much for the coconut milk. 

- Pumpkin Cookies

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

It's a real halloweeny day with winds and leaves flying and a kind of irrevocable chill where it's not too cold yet, but you know there's  no more Reprieve coming. Such as an Indian Summer day where a dog could lie in the sun in the grass and wonder about rabbits. No more of those days.

Our girl was carving pumpkins for the trick or treaters who will come tonight. She saved the seeds for us - froze them raw and will dole them out in our food (ground up) as the months go by. They are full of nutrients. So we came to have a source of Pumpkin. Some of the jack-o-lanterns had light colored and somewhat lightweight insides. Others, though, had a dense, dark orange meat with more sliminess to it and we knew that was the good cookin kind.

We have had in mind The Pumpkin Cookie for some days, so now we find ourselves with pumpkin to make them and all that we need. Here's the recipe we found which we have altered to our hound tastes. The original is at recipezaar.com.

Eli's Pumpkin Cookies for Reformation Day (also Halloween)
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup fresh pumpkin puree, drained (or use canned)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or use white)
1 teaspoon  baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon mace
 
Penuche Glaze
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar

Cream butter and the sugars together until light and fluffy. Blend in pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract.
In separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Mix flour mixture into butter-sugar mixture.

Drop tablespoonfuls 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until golden around the edges. Transfer cookies to racks. Let cool completely for a least one half hour, then drizzle with glaze.

For Glaze: In a medium saucepan, heat butter and brown sugar over medium heat until bubbly. Cook, stirring constantly, for one minute or until slightly thickened. Beat in the milk. Blend in confectioner's sugar until the glaze is smooth and spreadable. Drizzle over cookies. Glaze will harden quickly - keep the saucepan warm to prevent it from hardening.

Notes from Elias: This is really my recipe as I am the dog who eats the most pumpkin. Pumpkin is good for dogs. We baked up our pumpkin (instead of boiling, which just adds more moisture, we presume), took off the peel (which we dogs ate right up), and ran it through a food mill to puree it. Then we let it sit in a sieve to drain extra juice (which we dogs also ate right up). Canned pumpkin might make a denser cookie, but not, we believe, a better cookie. 

Healing Chicken Soup Reprise

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We dogs were most surprised when we ran out the door this morning and found...snow. It is only October and we think we will break the all time record for snow on Oct. 12. The record is from 1909 or so - 1.7 inches.

So, as is obvious, what with early snow, it was a day for chicken soup making. We are  bringing back our favorite recipe from last year with some updates for 2009. You can read the original to find out how this is a soup scientifically proven to help you heal. (Or, read the Actual Study.)

This will help you heal faster if you're sick and boost your immune system if you're feeling fine, to keep you feeling fine.

We found a big 10 pound pack of chicken quarters on sale and it turned out that all of the packs of parsnips and turnips and the like were double what we needed - so we doubled the recipe and used all 10 pounds of bird. We also had just harvested the celery and parsley from our garden (before the snow) so we used homegrown. Mmm. Fresh. Our batch made about 8 quarts of soup for freezing.


With this recipe, you end up with extra cooked vegetables for another use and extra chicken for another use...but include the full quantity for the broth to fill out the flavor and make it extra healthy. Some people discard the extra veggies. You could mash them for a yummy side dish, or feed them to your pups if you leave out the onions.

Here's how we did it:

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

10 lbs. of chicken
6 cloves of garlic (or more - it's all we had)
1 small pumpkin (or 2 sweet potatoes) (= 1 lb)
20 oz. parsnips (its the size of our bag...use whatever you have, a pound or so)
20 oz. turnips (ditto)
1 lb. carrots
3 lbs of onions
1 bunch celery (with leaves)
2 bunches of parsley
1/2 ounce Hiziki (or other sea vegetable...this is like seaweed or kelp)
1 Tablespoon salt
1 Tablespoon pepper

Soak the chicken in salt water 20 minutes and pat dry. Or skip the salt water and just rinse the chicken. Place in a big electric roaster. Cover the chicken with cold water. Bring to a boil. Meanwhile peel the pumpkin, parsnips, turnips, carrots, and onions. Leave them whole or in large pieces. Add to the chicken and boil 30-45 minutes, just until chicken is cooked.

Remove the chicken and large vegetables from the roaster and set aside. Skim fat from the broth, or pour in batches through  gravy separator to remove the fat. Add the celery, parsley, hiziki and salt and pepper to the broth in the roaster. Dice about half of the vegetables and add to the roaster. Save the remaining vegetables for another use. Simmer soup 30 minutes.

Remove chicken meat from about half of the chicken. Save the remaining chicken for another use. Dice chicken meat and add to soup. Season with additional salt or pepper to taste. Heat through and serve.

Notes from Elias: For the sick and ailing, strain all of the veggies out and serve plain broth. Puree the veggies for a delicious side dish for later. Use the remaining chicken for chicken enchiladas!

Notes from Gute: We dogs love this day because we are allowed a lot of scraps and licking of pans when it's all over. 

Post Script: Now, only 3 days later, all 8 quarts are gone. We fed soup to loggers clearing brush in the back yard, sent some home with two sick people, and had a little ourselves...

- Amish Friendship Sourdough Pancakes

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

Erstwhile gifted to us was a ziplock baggie of Amish friendship bread with a recipe attached. Every day you squish the bag or add flour, according to the regimen listed. On a certain day, you split off 4 quantities of it in new bags and give to friends with the recipe and use the remainder to make a great volume of Amish Friendship Bread yourself - 2 loaves.

This can continue endlessly until you run out of friends and the whole city has been supplied with this growing store of starter,  and your brother Eli is packing a loaf around his middle.

We dogs decided that if it's a starter kept at room temp where flour is added periodically to "feed" it, then it's sourdough, Amish or not. We were, of course, correct, as dogs have a nose for this kind of thing. So to bring a little variety into this situation, we used the starter for Sourdough Pancakes.

We took this recipe from the Sunset Book of Breads, circa 1977, when our girl was still just a pup herself, cooking up what-have-you in the country home of her childhood. We adapted the recipe for hound purposes, otherwise it would be violatorious of copyright and such:

Amish Hound Cakes
(also known as Amish Friendship Sourdough Pancakes)

1/2 cup sourdough starter (aka Amish Friendship Bread batter)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or white)
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or white)
1 cup sour milk (or buttermilk) (or fresh milk with 1 tsp lemon added to curdle)
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt


Mix starter, flours, and sour milk in a bowl and let sit at room temp 45 min. (or refrigerate overnight).


Beat together eggs, milk and oil. Stir in to flour mixture. Combine sugar, soda and salt and stir in to batter. Let stand 5 minutes. 


Cook on an oiled griddle on medium high heat til pleasantly browned. Serve to friends with real butter and maple syrup. 

Notes from Guthrie: Sourdough cakes tend to be tangier in flavor and but thinner in texture than your usually fluffy breakfast cakes.

Notes from Elias:  We should just do dog recipes from now on since we can't even eat this one. Canines and baking soda don't mix. Keep this on your human plate not in the doggie dish.

~ Peach Pie Filling to Freeze

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We hounds have been immensely pleased at all of the peach parts we've been partaking of as our girl readies them for various sundry purposes. Tonight she found a recipe to freeze up pie filling in advance so that in the winter we will have fresh peach pie at the most uncanny time.

Here it is. We'll let you know how it works out.

Peach Pie Filling

• 2 1/2 cups sliced peaches
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 Tb. cornstarch
• 1-1/2 tsp.  Tapioca flour (or 1 Tb. minute tapioca)
  
• 1 tsp. nutmeg

Toss all together and freeze in an aluminum pie tin. When frozen, release from the pie mold and place in a ziploc freezer bag.

To bake the pie, drop frozen filling into a prepared pie crust. Cover with top crust or lattice crust. Brush with milk or egg white and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes on the bottom rack of the oven. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees, and bake 30-35 minutes longer.

Putting Up The Peach

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

It's an exciting night in Eau Claire, Wisc. We have 18 pounds of peaches, countless bushels of apples, 4 pints of raspberries and 3 pounds of blueberries. We are putting up, as they say. Putting up preserves. With so much bounty, it's hard to know where to start. We found recipes for canning peaches AND making jelly from peach pits and peels, so that's where we're starting. We have apple pectin jelly made the other day and are going to use that to stiffen up the peach juice for jelly.

First we are sterilizing jars. They've already been washed, so we'll just put them through the dishwasher (no soap) so they're hot when we put in the peaches.

Next we'll skin the peaches, saving pits and skin for a "peach pit jelly" recipe we found. Who knew?!

Boil a pan of water. Whilst you're at it, clip on your jelly thermometer and make sure that when the water it boiling, it reads 212 degrees. If not, note the discrepancy and make sure you adjust your jelly boiling temp later. Our thermometer reads 220. No wonder we made some stiff jelly yesterday. We will deduct 8 degrees from the temp we cook to henceforth.

There are Several Ways to can peaches, and here are a few. We are doing some of each and will report back with the results in the pup notes at the end.

COLD PACK PEACHES

Preparing Peaches
0. Prepare a peach holding tank of: 2 qt filtered water, 1 Tb vinegar, 1 Tb salt
1. Wash peaches and rinse well.
2. Dunk and roll a peach in boiling water. Take it out after you count to about 20 and slip the skin off into the skin-saving pile. (You can let it cool so as not to burn your paws.)
3. Drop the whole peach into the prepared holding tank
4. Cut the peaches in half and remove the pit. Scrape out the fibrous pit clingers on the peach half - they may turn brown in the jar. We cut the peaches into wedges since ours did not readily release from the pit. Leave them in the holding tank.

Prepare the Syrup
2-1/4 cups sugar (we used 1 c. sugar and (4) 1/32 tsp stevia)
5-1/2 cups of water.

Heat on the stove to dissolve the sugar and keep it hot. This recipe covered our 4 pints plus one near-quart jar, with a few tablespoons leftover.

Pack the Peaches
Drain the peaches and pack them into hot jars cavity side down in overlapping layers. Leave about a ½” head room and ladle hot syrup over the peaches. Leave about ¼” head room left.
Remove air bubbles using a knife. Cover the jars with rings and lids kept in boiling water.

Process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes. Set jars on a cooling rack with cloth underneath to catch water drips - leave space between jars so air can circulate.

Notes from Guthrie: This is called cold pack because the peaches aren't cooked, but between skining them in boiling water and pouring hot syrup over, and then the canning bath, they are actually cooked. We read that these won't keep their beauty as much as hot pack peaches. Before we try hot pack, we're going to retry this one without the boiling water to peel. We found it made the peeled peaches a little mushy on the outside and hard to cut into wedges without ruining their form.

HOT PACK PEACHES

Use the same procedure as above, but instead of packing peaches in jars, add peaches to syrup in the pan and bring to a boil. Then pack into jars. Cover. And process in the canner.

-French Dressing

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We are stirring up some staples tonight for a weekload of company coming. This French Dressing was found at bigoven.com, a site we have never been to before. We've adjusted it according to our tender palates, especially nixing the sugar and using stevia in its stead.

French Dressing

1 1/3 cup sugar/stevia equivalent
4 teaspoon paprika
2/3 cup catsup
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion
1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Blend all ingredients except the oil in a food processor until smooth. While food processor is running on slow speed drizzle in oil until blended. Refrigerate for 2 or 3 hours to let flavors blend.

Guthrie's Note: We didn't add salt or pepper to ours, but did add a cup of tomato juice we had to use up. This made the flavor less intense so we added a big tablespoon of tomato paste to balance it out. We also used stevia rather than sugar and it was capital.

Eli's Note: I concur with my younger brother.

-Black Bean Enchilada Bake

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

While we hounds are daily carnivores, we understand the human's fragile psyche and need to vary its diet to non-meat items. Some people, such as our soon-coming visitor, eat no meat at all. We will be interested to see if she is has a tendancy to prowl and amble. This is what happens to us when we have a severe shortage of meats. In any case, we've prepared an absolutely tasty meal which will agree with her palate.

Black Bean Enchilada Bake

* 2 cups chopped onion
* 1 1/2 cups chopped red pepper
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 3/4 cup salsa
* 2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 2 15.8 ounce cans black beans, drained
* 12 6-inch corn tortillas
* 2 cups cheese shredded (we used cheddar/Monteray Jack)
* 24 ounces stewed tomatoes
* 1/2 cup sour cream (optional)
* 1/2 cup sliced black olives (optional)

Saute in their own juices for three minutes: onion pepper, garlic, salsa, cumin, black beans and tomatoes. Arrange 6 tortillas over the bottom of a 9" x 13" baking dish, overlapping. Spread half of bean mixture over tortillas and sprinkle with half of the cheese. Repeat with remaining tortillas, bean mixture, and cheese.

Cover dish with foil and bake 15 minutes. Carefully remove foil and serve warm.

Garnish with sour cream and olives.

Notes from Eli:When baked and frozen and reheated, the corn tortillas became corn mush, so be prepared for that if you must freeze.