use real butter

Recipe: cranberry nut dessert

Just a reminder that Menu for Hope IV is underway as I type! Be sure to visit the full list of prizes being offered over at Chez Pim. If that’s too confusing for you, visit the various regional hosts at the end of Pim’s post – the prizes are being offered from all over the globe! Hurry up! Go! Bid! Do you really want someone else walking off with YOUR prize?!? Well then, get on it! [after you read the rest of my post] :)

Are you freaking out right about now? Maybe now? Maybe – NOW? It’s a big time of year for baking and cooking and feasting and festivities – no matter what the festivities may be. I typically find myself making all manner of sweets and baked goods to share with friends, neighbors, our slow but friendly small town post office, the Subaru dealer, Kaweah’s favorite kennel… When I add up the list though, there just isn’t the time to mass produce super fancy time-intensive confections for everyone. That’s why I love the goto recipes, the ones that are easy to make and delicious to boot.

Recipe: chocolate chip banana bread

I am not a banana enthusiast. If all of the fruits were lined up on stage for me to select one-by-one for eating, the banana would definitely be among the last remaining few, looking awkward and feeling self-conscious… I tend to prefer fruits that are juicy and refreshing. The banana makes me thirsty and drowsy. But I do know what is good for me and bananas are certainly that. I periodically buy some, hoping that the guilt of watching them rot will be enough incentive to chop one up to eat with some yogurt.

Recipe: peanut butter dog treats

I’m sorry, were you expecting something to eat? Errr, it’s not terribly tasty but… my best girl loves them. I’ll be honest though, she loves anything. She’ll eat rocks and sticks if you let her. I don’t let her.

Kaweah, has made a few guest appearances on this blog in the past. She’s my furry and somewhat faithful companion. Her faithfulness increases with the amount of food I am preparing. There are two behaviors she exhibits that amaze me (there are a lot of behaviors that make me nuts). Normally, she won’t let us pet her unless she’s lying on the bed with us. She’ll even duck away when you try to pet her – unless there is food – see a pattern? But the couple of times I have received devastating news, she was there and she knew. She leaned against me and let me cry into her scruff. Best.Dog.Ever.

The other behavior is *knowing* when I’m baking something for her to eat. Like I said over Thanksgiving, I bake and cook all the time while she snores her brains out nearby. As soon as I make anything intended for the dog, she’s right there – like Chucky from those horror movies.

I found this recipe on this website with a nice selection of dog treat recipes. It’s not as hard or brittle as I was hoping. Maybe I just need to bake them longer. They taste dull and flavorless, but we all know labs could care less about taste – the act of scarfing down food is their raison d’être!