Paws and Pastries

First place!

2010-08-03T08:30:00.013-05:00

Last weekend (July 23-25th) was the Reliant Dog show, and the pups and I were there all 3 days. Duke was doing frisbee demos, Coral was doing Rally, and I was their chauffer and buyer of treats.

Duke was scheduled for one demo on Friday, and two each on Saturday and Sunday. That's 5 demos in 3 days for my lazy beast! The Friday demo went great! He did awesome, and wasn't distracted by the crowds or noise at all. Saturday morning, he landed weird a couple times. We think it was just carpet burn on his precious little toes, because we checked him afterwards, and nothing seemed to be injured. Either way, I pulled him from the afternoon demo just to let him rest. On Sunday, I could tell he was holding back a bit, so I kept the throws REALLY short, and slowed down the pace a bit. His paw may have still been bothering him, or he could have just been tired. The Reliant dog show is crazy, lots of noise and commotion, dogs everywhere, people everywhere, and my pups were there from 8:30 until almost 5 all 3 days. The poor pups were tired!

Coral was entered in Rally Novice on Friday and Sunday. I had actually taken her to Reliant on Wednesday so I could get my crate there, and let Coral check the place out a little. I never take Coral to places as crazy or with as many dogs as Reliant, so I knew she'd be overwhelmed, so I thought I'd give her a chance to see the area before the craziness started. I grabbed my treats, and we practiced right by our ring, and she did great. During the actual competition, treats aren't allowed, but you can train and practice with treats right up until you enter.

On Friday, Rally started at 11:30, but I knew we had 80 dogs in Rally Excellent and Rally Advanced before us, so I knew we wouldn't be going for a while. What I didn't realize, was that "a while" would be 5 hours. I took Coral out of the crate several times throughout the day to practice, and she did great each time. Until it was her time to compete. She was tired by then. And since she hadn't actually been in the ring before, she wanted to sniff and check everything out. For the first few signs, she didn't pay attention to me, and just wanted to sniff everything. I did get her refocused on me, and she did great the rest of the run. We pulled off a 90/100, which was sufficient to qualify for her first leg. (You need a 70/100 to qualify. Once you get 3 legs, you get your Rally Novice title.) Not bad for her first Rally run ever. Especially since I didn't get serious about practicing until 2 weeks before the show.

Coral got a break on Sat, she wasn't entered in the competition, but I brought her to Reliant anyway to practice. Good thing I hadn't entered her! She was SO distracted! And I got frustrated with her, which only made her shut down more. Oy vey.

Sunday was a fresh start. A very stressful fresh start. Duke's second demo and Coral's rally run were going to be almost at the same time. I kept running back and forth between the two areas so check how things were going. I ended up running outside to let the dogs potty, changing clothes really quick, grabbing Coral to practice for a couple minutes before her run, doing Coral's run, running back to the frisbee area to crate her and grab Duke, doing Duke's demo, throwing him back in the crate, and then running back to the Rally area to see how Coral scored. A very out of breath, but excited me was practically flipping cartwheels when I saw that Coral got a 96/100, and that no other dog had even scored a 90! My puppyface got first place! One more leg, and she gets letters after her name, yay Coral! Not a perfect run, and I definitely see where I messed up (I gave her the wrong command to back out of my way on inside turns!) but overall, I'm superhappy with how we did.

Her prize for her awesomeness? A stuffed pink elephant squeaky toy. She was so happy!

And I got her a first place cookie. Since Duke is spoiled too, he got a watermelon cookie.

Oh! And to make things even more exciting, guess who was sitting RIGHT in front of the Rally ring? Coral's foster mom, Cathy! Cathy is all sorts of knowledgeable about Danes, Agility, Rally, and Conformation, so I was all sorts of nervous to have her watching. She teased me about being so loud, but hey, my puppyface was paying attention. I think part of the reason the other dogs didn't so well was because earlier in the day, someone ran a dog in heat, and there were drops of blood in the ring, which really distracted a lot of dogs. Especially male dogs. Especially the intact male dogs. But not my spayed female puppyface with the really loud handler! :)

Agility dog fail.

2010-06-05T17:52:00.002-05:00

My special snowflake...

My puppyface finally got her CGC!

2010-05-28T11:18:00.003-05:00

At 6 years old.

Ok, so maybe this post should really be titled "I finally got off my lazy tush and tested my puppyface for her CGC." But that's entirely too long and unwieldy.

I had actually been working on getting Heidi ready for the CGC, but she was adopted a week before the test, so I figured I'd bring Coral to class and test her. The CGC isn't a terribly difficult test, they just want dogs to be under the owner's control and tolerant of handling. I think it's a good idea for dog owners to work on the CGC, just because it's a basic, attainable goal that will make their own lives easier.

The part of the test that I was worried about was the last part, supervised separation. From the CGC website:

"Test 10: Supervised separation
This test demonstrates that a dog can be left with a trusted person, if necessary, and will maintain training and good manners. Evaluators are encouraged to say something like, "Would you like me to watch your dog?" and then take hold of the dog's leash. The owner will go out of sight for three minutes. The dog does not have to stay in position but should not continually bark, whine, or pace unnecessarily, or show anything stronger than mild agitation or nervousness. Evaluators may talk to the dog but should not engage in excessive talking, petting, or management attempts (e.g, "there, there, it's alright")."

Coral has some mild separation anxiety, and whines when I'm she's away from me. A LOT. When I left the room, she whined briefly, but by the time I came back, she had decided to lay down, with her weight shifted to the side. Which was a HUGE breakthrough for her. Stressed dogs don't lay down.

Coral wasn't perfect, there are definitely things I could still work on with her, and that I do want to work on if I want to do some Obedience or Rally trials, but I'm still incredibly happy with her, and that she's learning to relax without me.

Duke got mail!

2010-05-16T13:54:00.003-05:00

Duke got a package the other day!

Duke has been participating in a Paws for Reading program at a local elementary school, where kids are encouraged to read by reading to therapy dogs. At the end of the year, our Paws coordinator went to the school to pick up our supplies, and found over a hundred thank you cards from the kiddos. She mailed a handful to us, and they were adorable. Some of the kids reminded us of the books they read, some drew pictures of the therapy dogs, some told us about their own pets. How stinking cute are these?!

Bad hair day

2010-05-08T15:23:00.002-05:00

Good hair day

Bad hair day

Wet rat

Really bad hair day

Eight kajillion toys to choose from...

2010-05-02T15:18:00.002-05:00

and this is what she wants to play with.

Those are the remnants of my mango tree, which I thought died from the cold this winter, but it's putting up some new leaves from the base, so it's trying.

Tired Heidi

2010-04-24T16:57:00.004-05:00

Wanna see how a tired Heidi acts? This is after 2 obedience classes, one hour of puppy playschool (free puppy playtime/socialization), an hour of teacup agility, and two hours of random running around and playing.

She did this for about 45 minutes today before she got tired and laid down.

Heidi and her food

2010-04-16T17:23:00.003-05:00

Heidi. With her food. That whole 20 lb bag is for her. And it'll last her 3 months. Little 6.5 lb Heidi, who eats almost 1 cup of food a day. Being BSC burns lots of calories.

Heidi in bluebonnets

2010-04-14T18:33:00.001-05:00

Heidi doing what she does best

2010-04-13T10:39:00.003-05:00

It's not quite the same without audio, you don't get to hear Duke and Heidi going "rawrawrawr" at each other, but cute nonetheless. This is what mornings are like at my house.

Bluebonnet Cruise

2010-04-11T15:26:00.005-05:00

This weekend was the Houston Mustang Club's annual Bluebonnet cruise. 30ish Mustangs met up and took a scenic drive to Brenham. Tim and his dad have recently started working on their '66 Mustang, and this was the first major trip that Tim's driven it. They attempted to go on the last Brenham cruise in the fall, but the Mustang wasn't having it, and overheated. The menfolk replaced the radiator on Friday night, test drove it, and then prayed for the best on Saturday. It was a bit dreary in Saturday morning, with some light rain. On the plus side, that meant we didn't have to worry about the car overheating in the morning. It also meant a smaller turnout on the cruise, since none of the other classic Mustangs came out to play.

Bluebonnets are the Texas state flower, and apparently all the cool kids get pictures taken in them. Along the highway, we saw lots of fields of bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes, so I made Tim stop to take a few pictures of Duke on the way home.

Paws in the Park, Part III - Coral Lure Coursing

2010-03-30T19:12:00.004-05:00

Last year, Coral and I discovered a new (to us) sport called lure coursing. It's typically done by sighthounds, but since Coral has a high prey drive, I thought she'd enjoy it. And did she enjoy it. She sucked at it, but she had a blast. So when I found out they'd have lure coursing at Paws in the Park, I knew I was bringing Coral. This course was set up differently as last time, the path was bordered by 2 foot tall plastic orange fencing. Which does not bode well for my sweet Coral, who doesn't exactly turn well. One of the turns was a sharp 90 degrees. When she got to it, Coral sailed right over the fencing, and then couldn't get back in. We tried a couple more times, but she jumped at the same point every time. And got confused about how to get back in each time (I told you she was dumb).

One of the teenage volunteers offered to try to block her from jumping, but when I said she could try, but Coral can't turn, so 80 lb Coral might slam into her, she opted not to block her. Can't say I blame her.

Amazingly enough though, her best time was about 17 seconds. At the time, the time to beat was 13.5 seconds. My 6 year old lazy lab/dane mix did pretty good, considering she lost time by getting stuck outside of the course each time.

Paws in the Park, Part II - Flyball. ur doing it wrong

2010-03-29T16:33:00.004-05:00

At the park this weekend, there was a flyball group doing a demo. But when I walked by, I thought it was completely unfair that one competitor didn't have to do the jumps! And as I watched, I realized they were even giving that competitor a HUGE head start. And the little black and white border collie still managed to win.

Paws in the Park, Part I - She's pretty. Pretty special.

2010-03-28T22:58:00.004-05:00

This weekend, the pups and I attended a frisbee tournament in Pearland. They had a number of other competitions and demos, including DockDogs, agility, flyball, and Coral's beloved lure coursing. I just brought Coral and Heidi on Saturday, but the whole herd on Sunday. I opened the back of the Jeep, and we kind of camped out there most of the day. Doesn't it look cozy?

At one point, I told Heidi "ok" to come out of her crate, and Coral apparently thought I meant she should hop out of the Jeep. (My fault, I use the same release work for all dogs--from now on, I'm teaching each dog their own release word.) I asked her what she was doing out of the Jeep, and she hopped back in. Into Heidi's crate. Somehow she had enough room to jump in and turn around.

How I know it's feeding time at the zoo

2010-03-22T23:48:00.005-05:00

This is how most of a day in the life of Coral and Duke is spent. It's a rough life, isn't it? And yes, they prefer a mountain of bed, so when they get piled up when I vacuum, sometimes it stays like that for days.

This is in the evenings, when their internal clocks tell them it's feeding time.

Creepy, aren't they? Duke likes to remind me that he hasn't been fed yet, just in case I forgot. He comes and sits right in front of me, and roos at me briefly. Usually I stifle a giggle and ignore him, so he sighs loudly and lays down, defeated. But sometimes he flops his big head in my lap to remind me how cute he is.

Long sit/stays

2010-03-19T14:44:00.004-05:00

I had Miss Heidi doing some long sit/stays earlier today, and was cracking up because she was starting to fall asleep sitting up--slouching, closing her eyes, head bobs, swaying side to side.

So, by request, here is a video of Miss Heidi about 3 minutes into a long sit/stay. Not very exciting because well...she's in a stay, but still funny to me.

We normally want a more active stay, with the pup making eye contact with us, but Heidi had been working on stays for close to 2 hours at the point.

Maybe she is a dog after all...

2010-03-15T16:53:00.004-05:00

After three months, Duke is finally getting used to Heidi. First he would just run away from her. Then he'd give me a sad "make it stop!" face as she bounced around, pawing and licking at his face. And now he's just given up, and started playing.

Happy Pi day!

2010-03-14T10:33:00.003-05:00

And how does one celebrate pi day? With pie, of course!

It's been a busy week, so I wanted a quick and easy recipe, and it really doesn't get much easier than this simple chocolate truffle pie from Paula Deen. I wanted to decorate the pie with nerdy goodness in whipped cream on top, but since I was taking the pie somewhere, and the chocolate filling already mounded pretty high, the whipped cream didn't happen. But that's ok, the pie was ridiculously rich as it was. I was afraid bittersweet chocolate would be too much for me, so I used semisweet instead.

I didn't feel like cranking up the stove, so I heated everything in the microwave. Nuke 2/3 cup cream until it's boiling, add to 6 oz chocolate, let sit 1 minute, then stir, stir, stir. For the whipped chocolate filling, I added the chocolate and cream in a bowl, and microwaved for just 30 seconds. Stir well, then microwaved in 15 second increments. Be careful heating chocolate, so it doesn't scorch.

Next time I make this pie, I'd probably skip the chocolate ganache on the bottom, and just do the whipped chocolate filling and whipped cream. Blasphemy, I know. But seriously, this pie is that rich. The whipped filling is also just heavy cream and chocolate, but since it's whipped, it's deceptively "light."

Truffle Pie
Source: Paula Deen

Ingredients
Truffle Filling:
* 2/3 cup heavy cream
* 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
* 1 (9-inch) prepared graham cracker crust

Whipped Chocolate Filling:
* 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
* 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Whipped Cream Topping:
* 1 cup heavy cream
* 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Garnish:
* 1 1/2 ounces milk chocolate
* 1 1/2 ounces white chocolate
* 1 1/2 ounces semisweet or dark chocolate

Directions
For the truffle filling, in a saucepan, bring 2/3 cup cream to a simmer. Place the 6 ounces chocolate chips in a bowl and pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Let stand for 1 minute, then gently whisk until smooth. Spread truffle filling over the bottom of the prepared piecrust. Freeze for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, for the whipped chocolate filling, in a double boiler or a microwave set on low power, heat the 6 ounces chocolate chips with 1/2 cup of the cream until the chocolate is just melted, stirring often. Let cool to room temperature. In a chilled bowl, beat the chocolate mixture, remaining 1 cup of cream and the vanilla until soft peaks form (tips curl). Spread the whipped chocolate mixture over the truffle filling in the crust. Refrigerate overnight.

For the topping, just before serving, beat 1 cup cream on medium speed of an electric mixer until it begins to thicken. Add confectioners' sugar and whip until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight). Spread the whipped cream over the top of the pie. Using a grater or vegetable peeler, make pieces or shavings of milk chocolate, white chocolate, and semisweet or dark chocolate. Garnish pie with chocolate pieces. Serve immediately.

Beating up pit bulls and walking babies

2010-03-08T20:56:00.002-06:00

We let Heidi play with some puppies this weekend, and of course, she picks the biggest one of the bunch to pick on. She was a bit overwhelmed at first, because she's not used to other dogs acting as crazy as she does--Coral plays nicely, or plays chase, and Duke just runs away from her.

Baby was "walking" a tape measure, which we immediately took away from him because babies+sharp objects aren't the greatest combination. So I traded him the tape measure for Heidi. By the time I grabbed my camera, baby got bored with walking Heidi. But it was really cute while it lasted, I promise.

Fun with a nylabone ring

2010-03-07T15:14:00.005-06:00

It's like the carnival game, except with a dog.

Heidi's a silly monkey. I did not pose the shots...she did this to herself, including getting the ring around her neck to begin with.

Wide Load

2010-02-20T14:31:00.004-06:00

Or "Why my neighbors cross the street when they see me coming."

I thought I'd do something different today. Walk all 3 dogs together. They're short clips, so you shouldn't get too seasick watching them.

Heidi and Duke are really good walkers, Coral's the bad walker of the bunch, but I took her to class this morning, so she was a little tired.

Vote for Duke!

2010-02-18T20:59:00.004-06:00

I entered Duke in the Bissell MVP Pet Photo contest. You do need to register to vote, but it's pretty painless, just name and email. There are prizes for the winners...but the big winners are the pet charities the winners designate. I don't know if registration is still open for this week, but you can still register your pet for the next 5 weeks.

Homemade Samoas Bars

2010-02-11T21:19:00.002-06:00

Girl Scout cookies. Gotta love them. Until you realize you just paid $4 for 5 cookies.

I made these for a potlock, and was told they were better than GS cookies. I used unsweetened coconut, so it was not supersweet like GS cookies, but definitely sweet enough. The original recipe also said to toast the coconut for 20 minutes, turning every 5 minutes. Yeah. Don't do that. At 5 minutes, the coconut wasn't really toasted. At 10 minutes, the coconut was extra crispy. Extra crispy coconut is not good coconut. Just hang out close to the oven while toasting, I think I toasted 7 or 8 minutes total, tossing every couple minutes.

Homemade Samoas Bars
Source: bakingbites.com
Cookie Base:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

First, make the crust.
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking pan, or line with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter, until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Working at a low speed, gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly, like wet sand. The dough does not need to come together. Pour crumbly dough into prepared pan and press into an even layer.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until base is set and edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack before topping.

Topping:
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
12-oz good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
10 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips are ok)

Preheat oven to 300. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (preferably one with sides) and toast 8 minutes, stirring every 3 minutes, until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.
Put dollops of the topping all over the shortbread base. Using the spatula, spread topping into an even layer. Let topping set until cooled.
When cooled, cut into 30 bars with a large knife or a pizza cutter (it’s easy to get it through the topping).

Once bars are cut, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. Dip the base of each bar into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper. Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle bars with chocolate to finish.
Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Makes 30 bar cookies.

Note: You can simply drizzle chocolate on top of the bars before slicing them up if you’re looking for yet an easier way to finish these off. You won’t need quite as much chocolate as noted above, and you won’t quite get the Samoas look, but the results will still be tasty.

PAWS for Reading

2010-02-10T22:31:00.003-06:00

Once a week, Duke goes to school. He's participating in a program called PAWS for reading, where kids are encouraged to read by reading to dogs. The first few times he went, he was a little stressed out because it was a new environment, but he quickly got used to it, and started rolling over for bellyrubs and even using the kiddos as pillows. He was disruptive this week though, because one little boy was reading a book about Egyptians, when Duke decided to crawl right over to him and shove his head in the book. The little boy was a trooper though, and continued to read through his giggles, though he had to move around a little because it's hard to read through Duke's big head.

After the kids read, they get a bookmark and a sticker with a picture of the dog they read to. When they read to another dog, they get another sticker to add to the bookmark.

Our therapy dog group had a potluck dinner this weekend, and we were, of course, talking about our dogs, and all things dog related. Someone mentioned the bookmarks, and Tim was jealous and asked why he didn't have a bookmark. Of course, it was because he hadn't read to Duke yet. You don't get a bookmark until after you read to the dogs. So Tim read his Mustang magazine to Duke today to earn his bookmark.

The cutest little carnivore

2010-02-07T23:16:00.004-06:00

Beef ribs for everyone tonight, including Miss Heidi.

Miss Heidi had a full day today!

First we went to the frisbee club meeting with Duke. Duke and I got one of the member of the year awards. I think that means they figured out we're big suckers and will show up and help as much as we can. Heidi came with us because we were going to a Superbowl party afterwards, and I didn't know how long we'd be gone, and if she could hold it the entire time. On the upside, she met lots of people today at both the frisbee club meeting and at the party.

Duke decided to be annoyingly interested in the food table at the party, so I put the dogs in stays while people were eating. Heidi did amazingly well, considering I haven't done more than a 3 minute long stay with her before. First I had her in a sit/stay, which she broke twice, but that wasn't bad considering it was a new place with lots of people, and she was in the stay for about 15 minutes. Then I put her in a down/stay on her pillow for about half an hour. She broke that once when more people came in, but stayed put the rest of the time. It was so hard for her to be good though, because people were talking to her, and her little curly tail was wagging like crazy.

After people were pretty much done eating though, she made her rounds, going from lap to lap for loving.

When we got home, everyone got beef ribs for dinner. Heidi's molars were starting to get some plaque buildup, and beef ribs are one of the easiest ways to clean teeth.

Poor abused Heidi...

2010-02-03T12:06:00.007-06:00

As if the cone of shame wasn't torture enough, I have to go and post a picture on ihasahotdog.com for everyone to see, comment, and laugh at.

The result?

People came up with a few other doozies, but here are my favs:

The crap my dog puts up with....

2010-01-31T10:00:00.005-06:00

Biggie Z, The Notorious D.O.G is hosting a dog pile competition. The rules are simple, put crap on your dog, take pictures, email it to him. Sounds REAL simple, right? I gathered up some things, and about 20 head pops later, finally got this picture.

Duke is sporting a:
1. remote control on his right paw
2. Nikon lens cap on his left paw
3. nylabone ring precariously balanced between legs
4. blue kong wubba on his neck
5. bright yellow jawz frisbee
6. one of his frisbee competition medals
7. a blue, light blue, and purple fleece tug
8. an orange bumper
9. a squeaky kong toy (tennis ball material)
10. a tuffies ring toy (blue and black, under the bumper and kong toy)
11. his therapy dog vest
12. a dog trick book
13. a bag of Zukes treats
14. a candle
15. a clear, bone shaped award for stupid pet tricks
16. cell phone
18. tennis ball
19. another tennis ball

I had quite an interesting time explaining what I was doing when my husband walked into the room, wondering what I was doing to his poor dog.

Mohawk

2010-01-20T14:21:00.002-06:00

"I know where you sleep"

2010-01-07T15:41:00.008-06:00

Miss Heidi got spayed last week. The poor girl moaned and groaned for two days, but had a miraculous recovery as soon as she saw my neighbor. When Diana walked in, she jumped up and started bouncing around in her crate. No more moaning and groaning after that. Methinks Miss Heidi is a bit of a drama queen.

Unfortunately, she just started licking at her stitches, and licked them open at night. I attempted to bandage them, but she just ripped them off too. So I borrowed a cone of shame from my brother-in-law. It's pug sized, so it's too big for her, but the pictures are hilarious.

I call this one "I hate you."

"I know where you sleep."

"WHY?!"

"My legs don't work with this thing on."

"The internets has enough pictures."

Dogs hate crates...

2009-12-27T08:39:00.004-06:00

Can't you tell? Ignore the pathetic face, she was actually refusing to come out of the crate at the time. She loves her pillow, and often runs into her crate after potty breaks, or after playing to rest.

Silly girl has had a love/hate relationship with her crate. The first day, she wasn't used to a wire crate and flipped out, crying for a long time. Thus, my husband nicknamed her YipYip. After moving her pillow in there and feeding in the crate, it's definitely her second favorite place in the house--curled up in someone's lap being her favorite. Twice though, she's gotten her leg caught in the crate while running in or out, which were followed by brief moments of being afraid of the big mean crate. The last time, the little ham was trying to get sympathy by pathetically holding up her paw. That would have worked much better if she 1. didn't zoom all over the house immediately afterwards with any limping, and 2. didn't alternate her "injured" paw. Faker.

And when she's not in her crate, she likes to burrow.

Eggnog cheesecake

2009-12-26T14:44:00.004-06:00

Happy Holidays!

This year, I was asked to make a cheesecake for Christmas eve. Eggnog cheesecake seemed to be the fad this year, so just once I thought I'd do what all the cool kids were doing. A number of reviewers did say they couldn't really taste the eggnog, so I considered making eggnog so I could double up on the flavoring. But after looking up eggnog recipes, I decided to be lazy--eggnog is really just egg, milk, cream, nutmeg, and brandy/rum. There's not a whole lot of flavor, besides the alcohol, which I wasn't using anyway. Even if you can't taste the eggnog (which we couldn't), it was still a yummy, creamy cheesecake.

Eggnog Cheesecake
Source: allrecipes.com

Ingredients

* 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
* 2 tablespoons white sugar
* 3 tablespoons melted butter
*
* 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
* 1 cup white sugar
* 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 3/4 cup eggnog
* 2 eggs
* 2 tablespoons rum
* 1 pinch ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl combine graham cracker crumbs, 2 tablespoons sugar and butter. Press into the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool.
4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
5. In a food processor combine cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, flour and eggnog; process until smooth. Blend in eggs, rum and nutmeg. Pour mixture into cooled crust.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.
7. Reduce heat to 250 and bake for 45 minutes, or until center of cake is barely firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and immediately loosen cake from rim. Let cake cool completely before removing the rim.

Christmas sables

2009-12-23T13:27:00.005-06:00

I was asked to make Christmas cookies for a luncheon, and as soon as I read Dorie's suggestion of colored sugar for this recipe, I was sold. I didn't actually try a cookie after it completely cooled (as per her tip that they're better then), but the still-warm ugly cookies were mighty tasty. They were pretty popular though, seeing as most everyone who grabbed one said that they were doing so after hearing other people rave about them. In fact, they ate all my cookies, so I didn't get to taste one.

Source: Dorie Greenspan

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt, preferably fine sea salt
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature, plus 1 large egg yolk, for brushing the logs
2 cups all-purpose flour
Decorating (coarse) sugar

Makes about 50 cookies

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed until smooth and very creamy. Add the sugars and salt and beat until well blended, about 1 minute. The mixture should be smooth and velvety, not fluffy and airy. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in 2 of the egg yolks, again beating until the mixture is homogenous.

Turn off the mixer. Pour in the flour, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and the counter from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek -- if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple more times; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough and the dough looks uniformly moist. (If most of the flour is incorporated but you've still got some in the bottom of the bowl, use a rubber spatula to work the rest of the flour into the dough.) The dough will not clean the sides of the bowl, nor will it come together in a ball -- and it shouldn't. You want to work the dough as little as possible. What you're aiming for is a soft, moist, clumpy (rather than smooth) dough. Pinch it, and it will feel a little like Play-Doh.

Scrape the dough out onto a smooth work surface, gather it into a ball and divide it in half. Shape each piece into a smooth log about 9 inches long: it's easiest to work on a piece of plastic wrap and use the plastic to help form the log. Wrap the logs well and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours, preferably longer. (The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.)

GETTING READY TO BAKE: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Remove a log of dough from the refrigerator, unwrap it and place it on a piece of parchment or wax paper. Whisk the remaining egg yolk until it is smooth, and brush some of the yolk all over the sides of the dough -- this is the glue -- then sprinkle the entire surface of the log with decorating sugar.

Trim the ends of the roll if they're ragged, and slice the log into 1/3-inch-thick cookies. (You can make these as thick as 1/2 inch or as thin as -- but no thinner than -- 1/4 inch.) Place the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving an inch of space between them.

Bake one sheet at a time for 17 to 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet at the midway point. When properly baked, the cookies will be light brown on the bottom, lightly golden around the edges and pale on top; they may feel tender when you touch the top gently, and that's fine. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest a minute or two before carefully lifting them onto a rack with a wide metal spatula to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remaining log of dough, making sure the baking sheets are cool before you bake the second batch.

SERVING: Serve these with anything from lemonade to espresso.

STORING: The cookies will keep in a tin at room temperature for about 5 days. If you do not sprinkle the sables with sugar, they can be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 months. Because the sugar will melt in the freezer, the decorated cookies are not suitable for freezing.

Playing Around

LEMON SABLES: Working in a small bowl, using your fingers, rub the grated zest of 1 to 1 1/2 lemons (depending on your taste) into the granulated sugar until the sugar is moist and very aromatic, then add this and the confectioners' sugar to the beaten butter. (Sables can also be made with orange or lime zest; vary the amount of zest as you please.)

PECAN SABLES: Reduce the amount of flour to 1 1/2 cups, and add 1/2 cup very finely ground pecans to the mixture after you have added the sugars. (In place of pecans, you can use ground almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts.) If you'd like, instead of sprinkling the dough logs with sugar, sprinkle them with very finely chopped pecans or a mixture of pecans and sugar.

SPICE SABLES: Whisk 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger and 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg into the flour.

Dorie's tips:
* Use fresh butter that is soft, but not at all greasy -- if your butter is sitting in an oily puddle, it's gone too soft and your sables won't have their characteristic sandiness.
* Don't beat the butter (or the butter, sugar and eggs) so enthusiastically that the mixture is light and fluffy. You don't want to beat air into this dough, because it would cause the cookies to puff as they bake in the oven and sink as they cool on the counter.
* Be soft and gentle when you blend in the flour. This is the make-or-break step in the process. With the word "sandy" singing in your head, add the flour all at once and mix it only until it disappears into the dough. To guard against overmixing, you can mix in the last of the flour by hand.
* Shape the dough as the recipe directs and then make sure to give it a good, long chill; it will improve the flavor of the cookies and help them keep their shape under the oven's heat. Try to refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, but know that longer is better.
* Cool the cookies completely before you serve them. As seductive as the smell of warm butter, sugar and flour is, the cookies taste better when they reach room temperature.

Heidi's handiwork

2009-12-22T10:35:00.003-06:00

Isn't she talented?

Yeah, she's still a bit of a spazz sometimes. It's so much easier to just pick her up because she calms down really fast then, but I constantly remind myself that that's how you create those obnoxious little purse dogs that people hate. All dogs, even the cute tiny ones, are still dogs, and should be treated as such. They are not baby substitutes nor are they fuzzy little accessories.

In other news, I finally got off my lazy tush and started teaching Heidi sit and down a couple days ago. Sit is easy because that's pretty much her default. She's figured out that sitting calmly and staring with those big eyes is the most effective way to get attention. Down, however, was horrible. I initially lure with a treat, and she started running around and trying all sorts of antics, none of which included laying down. When she finally did lay down, she flopped on her back. I decided that was acceptable for a first attempt, and rewarded her for it. On the second day, I wanted to get her to do a proper down. She got praise for flopping on her back, but no treat. She only got treats when she was still upright. After a long and painful training session (ok, it was really 10 minutes, but it felt like an eternity because she just wasn't getting it), it finally clicked, and she's now doing proper downs fairly consistently.

Almost-Fudge Gateau

2009-12-16T09:12:00.006-06:00

This Christmas, buy the undying love of your friendly neighborhood chocolaholic with this rich chocolate cake. Simple to make, with ingredients that I always have on hand (though, I will say egg whites do not fold into melted chocolate very easily). The ganache was a bit too much for me, but the cake alone was incredible.

This particular Dorie Greenspan book is now on the short list of books I want. I've now made 3 recipes from it, and I've loved all 3. I can't say I'm 3 for 3 for any other cookbook I've tried. I didn't blog about the Coconut Thins, but I did about the French Pear Tart

Almost-Fudge Gateau
Source: Baking: From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients:
For the cake:
5 large eggs
9 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into chunks
2 tbsp. coffee or water
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt

For the glaze:
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tsp. light corn syrup

Directions:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, butter the paper, dust the inside of the pan with flour and tap out the excess. Place the pan on a baking sheet.

Separate the eggs, putting the whites in a mixer bowl or other large bowl and the yolks in a small bowl.

Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and add the chocolate, sugar, butter and coffee. Stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are melted; the sugar may still be grainy - that is fine. Transfer the bowl to the counter and let the mixture sit for 3 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the yolks one by one, then fold in the flour. Working with the whisk attachment of the mixer, beat the egg whites with the pinch of salt until they hold firm but glossy peaks. Using the spatula, stir about one quarter of the beaten whites in to the batter, then gently fold in the rest. Scrape the batter into the pan and jiggle the pan from side to side a couple of times to even the batter.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the cake has risen evenly (it might rise around the edges and you’ll think it’s done, but give it a few minutes more, and the center will puff too) and the top has firmed (it will probably be cracked) and doesn’t shimmy when tapped; a thin knife inserted into the center should come out just slightly streaked with chocolate. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let the cake rest for 5 to 10 minutes.

Run a blunt knife gently around the edges of the cake and remove the sides of the pan. Carefully turn the cake over onto a rack and remove the pan bottom and the parchment paper. Invert the cake onto another rack and cool to room temperature right side up. As the cake cools, it may sink.

To make the glaze, turn the cooled cake onto another rack so you’ll be glazing the flat bottom, and place the rack over a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper to catch any drips.

Put the chocolate in a small heatproof bowl. Melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water or in a microwave oven - the chocolate should be just melted and only warm, not hot. Meanwhile, bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir very gently with a rubber spatula until the mixture is smooth and shiny. Stir in the corn syrup.

Pour the glaze over the cake and smooth the top with a long metal icing spatula. Don’t worry if the glaze drips unevenly down the sides of the cake, it will add to its charm. Allow the glaze to set at room temperature, or slip the cake into the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.

Videos of dogs playing

2009-12-14T12:48:00.004-06:00

Coral and Heidi were playing, but I had to find new batteries for the camera, so I missed the crazy zoomies, but here's the tail end of the play session.

Versus how Coral and Duke play. Bit rougher. You miss the full effect because I don't have sound, but Coral and Duke snarl and growl and sound like they're going to eat each other. That's apparently how they show affection.

New bed for Heidi

2009-12-11T07:33:00.005-06:00

While Heidi seemed perfectly comfortable on the giant dog beds, I thought she needed something more her size.

Then I remembered I had an extra super soft pillow, and decided to give that one to her. I think she likes it.

Elvis impersonation.

Demon puppy!

Apparently Coral thought it was comfortable too.

Playtime!

2009-12-10T08:33:00.005-06:00

"Bop."

"My turn! Bop!"

"Are you SURE that's a dog?"

Miss Heidi, could you relax just a little?

2009-12-09T10:32:00.005-06:00

Heidi had crazy long talons, so I plopped her in my lap for a nail trim. She wiggled a little at first, but by the time I finished, this is what I saw.

She has decided the world is her pillow.

Meet the scrufftastic Miss Heidi!

2009-12-08T13:32:00.012-06:00

Look at this little cutie, she's my new foster. She was found wandering the streets last Friday when it was snowing, so my friend brought her in while she looked for her owner. My friend was calling her Hopper, because she's got a torn paw pad, so she hops on 3 legs sometimes. My neighbor is calling her Heidi because of her long supermodel legs. She's a goofy looking chihuahua/terrier mix (we think), but she's sweet as can be.

When she met my two, Coral was throwing herself on the ground and playbowing, but Heidi wasn't interested. She was, however, interested in Duke, and kept following him around. Duke, on the other hand, wasn't sure about her, and kept running away, with occasional reprieves when Coral ran between them, trying to get Heidi to play.

"What is it?!"

"Eek! Get away!"

"I was just saying hi...."

"Let's play!"

Heidi in her usual state, begging for bellyrubs.

"You can get off the computer now."

"Oops, I falled."

"Who you laughing at?!"

When she is ready for adoption, she'll be available at the Houston Westie Rescue.

AMD inside

2009-10-18T10:03:00.004-05:00

The AMD sticker came of my laptop the other day. This is where I found it.

I don't really believe the processor speed though, unless he's "processing" chicken or beef.

Weekend observations

2009-10-11T21:55:00.003-05:00

1. Coral doesn't actually like football. When the hubby starts watching football, she leaves the room shortly thereafter. If we call her back, she'll hang out for a few minutes, and leave again. Just not a fan. Or maybe, the hubby screams at the tv a little too much, and my incredibly noise-sensitive pup runs away from the madness.

2. Coral's left ear is a centimeter longer than her right ear. I measured. I was sitting behind her and noticed her left ear was longer. I had never noticed that before. So like any other insane individual, I measured her ears. She has a tendency to hold her ears differently (one is out more, or back more than the other), so I just didn't notice.

Is there nothing that Oreos can't improve?

2009-10-07T13:42:00.003-05:00

These guys don't need an introduction. If the name alone doesn't make you run out to buy marshmallows, oreos, and rice crispies, then you might want to check your pulse. Nom, nom!

Cookies and Cream Rice Crispy Treats
Source: Picky Palate

4 Tablespoons Butter
4 Cups mini marshmallows
8 Cups rice crispy cereal
8 oz bag mini Oreo cookies

1/2 Cup chocolate chips, melted

1. Place butter and marshmallows into a large microwavable bowl. Microwave for a few minutes until marshmallows puff up nice and large. Remove and stir in cereal and Oreos. Pour into a large 9×13 inch baking dish. With the back of a large spoon that’s sprayed with cooking spray press and smooth treats. Drizzle melted chocolate over top and let cool. Cut into squares.

Awww...my baby's all grow'd up and ready to go to school!

2009-10-06T13:52:00.003-05:00

Here's Duke, ready for his first day of school.

Duke recently passed his therapy dog test, and we're signed up to volunteer at a local elementary school, where kids are encouraged to read by reading to dogs. He was great with the kids today, but we were in a busy area, so he didn't quite pay as much attention as I would have liked. But the kiddos still loved him. And after they read to the dogs, each kid got a bookmark and a sticker of the dog they read to. Each time they read to another dog, they get a new sticker to add to their bookmark.

Dead Dog Fail

2009-09-09T15:16:00.004-05:00

Duke better not be quitting his day job any time soon, this might be one of the least convincing dead dog performances I've ever seen.

My camera is old, and doesn't do sound, so you're just going to have to pretend that I said "Bang!" as I shot my dog. The only other sound is the steady thumping of his tail.

This is why we sometimes joke that Duke's tail is a completely separate entity that he doesn't seem to have any control of...

Duke is officially....

2009-09-05T13:46:00.004-05:00

a registered Bright and Beautiful Therapy dog! I had already tested Duke through TDI back in July, but one of my concerns was not enough support. TDI is a larger and better recognized organization nationally, but I had difficulty finding local support, and wasn't quite comfortable forging my own path yet. A fellow Frisbee club member mentioned that she did therapy dog work through Bright and Beautiful, and I contacted the group through her. B&B is a smaller organization, but they're incredibly nice and welcoming.

We finally tested Duke through B&B today, and he passed the evaluation. He can be a little shy around new people, but if he's given a proper introduction and allowed to sniff and check people out, he warms up quickly. But I became interested in him becoming a therapy dog because he does well with kids, and there are many opportunities in schools or libraries. I've done a ton of volunteer work since college, and this gives me the chance to combine two of my passions, while showing people what fabulous dogs rescues are.

Black and White Angel Food Cake

2009-08-31T17:27:00.004-05:00

Black and white speckley goodness.

After wandering through Central Market the other day and sampling their angel food cake, I was starting to crave the stuff. When I came home that day, Ina Garten was making a black and white angel food cake, which was obviously a sign that I needed to make it.

I had a birthday coming up, but was told that I was not allowed to make my own birthday cake. Fortunately, we celebrated my birthday with some family friends, one of whom also happened to turn 29 again on the same day, so I made this cake for him. :) This cake might very well be my new favorite. In fact, I might run out to the store tomorrow to get more chocolate to make another. The ganache topping was a bit much for me, it was very in-your-face chocolately. However, the cake itself is incredibly light and just subtly chocolately. I found myself wandering back to the cake to nibble throughout the day.

Black and White Angel Food Cake
Source: Barefoot Contessa

Ingredients
* 2 cups sifted superfine sugar (about 1 pound)
* 1 1/3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
* 1 1/2 cups egg whites at room temperature (10 to 12 eggs)
* 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup coarsely grated semisweet chocolate

For the glaze:
* 1/2 pound semisweet chocolate chips
* 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine 1/2 cup of the sugar with the flour and sift them together 4 times. Set aside.

Place the egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat on high speed until the eggs form medium-firm peaks, about 1 minute. With the mixer on medium speed, add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of sugar by sprinkling it over the beaten egg whites. Beat on high speed for a few minutes until thick and shiny. Add the vanilla and continue to whisk until very thick, about 1 more minute. Scrape the beaten egg whites into a large bowl. Sift 1/4 of the flour mixture over the egg whites and fold it very carefully into the batter with a rubber spatula. Continue adding the flour in 3 equal additions, sifting and folding until it's all incorporated. Fold in the grated chocolate.

Pour the batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan, smooth the top, and bake it for 35 to 45 minutes, until it springs back to the touch. Remove the cake from the oven and invert the pan on a cooling rack. When cool, run a thin, flexible knife around the cake to remove it from the pan.

For the chocolate glaze, place the chocolate chips and the heavy cream in a heat-proof bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until the chocolate melts. Pour the chocolate over the top of the cooled cake to cover the top completely and allow it to drizzle down the sides. If you have chocolate glaze left over, you can serve it on the side with the cake.

6800 calories

2009-08-21T21:30:00.004-05:00

and worth every last calorie. I would advise you not to calculate the calorie content of baked goods, especially cheesecakes. Especially chocolate cheesecakes with Oreo crusts and chocolate truffles. This is not the cheesecake for the fainthearted.

I was lazy and made normal truffle-size truffles. That doesn't quite work that well for this recipe. The cheesecake cracked, and I suspect it was because the melted truffles couldn't support the weight of the cheesecake and it collapsed. Think small truffles. OR, swirl the ganache through the cheesecake filling. I bet that would be yummy and pretty. You should do that, and send me a piece.

Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake
Source: The Cheesecake Bible by George Geary, p 66.

Crust:
1 1/2 cups cookie sandwich crumbs
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter

Filling:
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
8 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

24 oz cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
2 eggs
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract

Crust:
Combine cookie crumbs and melted butter. Press into springform pan and freeze.

Truffles:
In a small saucepan, bring heavy cream to a boil. Pour over chocolate and stir until smooth. Place in freezer to harden.

Filling:
In a mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and sugar on medium-high speed until very smooth, for 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in cocoa powder, flour, sour cream and vanilla. Using a spoon, scrape firm ganache into small pieces and fold into batter by hand. Pour over frozen crust.

Bake in preheated oven (350) until top is light brown and center has a slight jiggle to it, 40-50 minutes. Let cool in pan on wire rack for 2 hours. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 6 hours before decorating and serving.

Apparently I don't give my sweet puppyface enough credit.

2009-08-17T20:16:00.003-05:00

Considering how many times she's run into the house, Coral's not exactly known for her intelligence. But apparently she's not quite as dumb as I thought. Last week, Duke learned a new trick.

Coral fell for it a few times over about 3 days, but then she realized what he was doing. The other day, Duke barked, and started jogging towards the bed (on the way to the door from where he was). Coral started to get up, but decided not to. As Duke passed the bed, he slowed down and looked at her like..."What, not getting up?" Since she didn't get off the bed, he just sat on her instead.

Peach Cake Tatin

2009-08-13T17:21:00.008-05:00

Peaches just jumped into my cart as I was grocery shopping earlier in the week. After staring at them for a few days, I finally decided I should bake with them. After asking around for recipes, I couldn't stop staring at this Peach Cake Tatin.

I decided to peel the peaches first, since the last time I cooked peaches the skin was rubbery and didn't cut well. I blanched them for about 30 seconds in boiling water, then popped them into a ice water bath to cool. I scored a shallow X at the bottom, and the skin peeled right off. I had fairly large peaches and cut each peach into 12 slices. I only used 18 slices for the cake, and nibbled on the rest while baking.

As far as the caramel, I'm a slow learner and got distracted while cooking and started taking pictures of the peaches.

And then noticed the smell of burning. Oops. I did that the last time I made caramel too. You'd think I'd learn. Batch #2 turned out well, and I was fascinated watching it bubble furiously when poured over the peaches.

When I first put the peaches in the pan, I was positive it would overflow and make a giant mess. So I put the pan on a cookie sheet to prevent any spillage in the oven. As usual, when I anticipate problems, they never happen. The cake poofed a little, but didn't spill over. To make up for it though, I made a grand mess inverting the cake onto a plate.

The cake was warm and gooey and rich. The edges had just a little crunch to them, which I loved. The fresh peaches had a slight tartness to them that I really liked with the sweet, dense, caramely cake. It was actually a little too sweet for me, but half of the cake still disappeared in quick order. Between 2 people. Nom, nom!

Peach Cake Tatin

Source: smellslikehome.wordpress.com, adapted from Ina Garten, Barefoot in Paris

* 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing the dish
* 2-3 large fresh peaches, pitted and sliced into approx 1/2″ pieces
* 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
* 2 large eggs, at room temperature
* 1/3 cup sour cream
* 1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest
* 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter a 9-inch glass pie dish and arrange the peaches in the dish.
2. Combine 1 cup of the granulated sugar and 1/3 cup water in a small saucepan and cook over high heat until it turns a warm amber color. Swirl the pan but don’t stir. Pour evenly over the peaches.
3. Meanwhile, cream the 6 tablespoons of butter and the remaining 3/4 cup of granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy. Lower the speed and beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the sour cream, zest, and vanilla and mix until combined. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and, with the mixer on low speed, add it to the butter mixture. Mix only until combined.
4. Pour the cake batter evenly over the peaches and bake for 30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes, then invert the cake onto a flat plate. If a peach sticks, ease it out and replace it in the design on top of the cake. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Duke has a new trick....

2009-08-12T00:01:00.002-05:00

And Coral is less than impressed.

Coral is my alarm barker. I sort of discourage it, but not really because I'm home alone a lot and I don't mind door to door solicitors thinking my dogs are going to eat them.

Anyhow, Duke was sitting next to me when all of a sudden he barked once for no reason. Coral jumps up from her bed to check out what's going on at the door. Meanwhile, Duke calmly walks over to the bed and lays down. I'm pretty sure he just barked to get her up so he could steal the bed.

He did this twice today. But that's ok, Coral proceeded to lay on him, since he was on her bed.

Duke really does play frisbee, I swear!

2009-08-06T20:36:00.012-05:00

In slow motion:

Proof that I'm insane:

Insanity from a different angle:

Reddish Velvet Cupcakes

2009-08-04T22:31:00.004-05:00

Even after my previous red velvet fiasco, I was still curious about the hype. The fiasco cake tasted good, but was just really dry. After comparing it to other recipes, I noticed that most recipes with a similar amount of flour called for 1.5 cups of butter, oil, or shortening. Significantly more than the 0.5 cup in the recipe I tried.

So when I found a food blog that compared different recipes, I bookmarked it for future reference. Her favorite recipe was from Apple a Day, so who was I to argue? I made miniature cupcakes with about a tablespoon of batter in each liner and baked for 12-13 minutes. The cakes were light and fluffy, and the perfect size to pop in your mouth. I cut down the icing recipe because I only wanted to use 8 oz of cream cheese, but it was still more than enough to ice all the cupcakes. Especially since a few got eaten before the icing was made. After icing them, I stored them in the refrigerator, and the cupcakes seemed dry after that. So eat them quickly after baking.

I'm still weirded out about food coloring, but since I was sharing these cupcakes, I wanted them to be at least reddish, so I added a squirt of food coloring. Not a lot, just enough to make it reddish. And if you'd like to know why I don't care for food coloring, especially red food coloring, go here.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Source: Apple a Day, who adapted it from a www.saveur.com

Makes 1 8-inch 3-layer cake

For the cake:
2½ cups cake flour
1½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1½ cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons (1 oz.) red food coloring
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar

For the frosting:
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
12 ounces butter, softened
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1½ cups chopped pecans (optional)

1. For the cake: Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa, and salt into a medium bowl.

3. Beat eggs, oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until well combined. Add dry ingredients and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.

4. Divide batter evenly between 3 greased and floured 8″ round cake pans.

5. Bake cakes, rotating halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, 25-30 minutes. Let cakes cool 5 minutes, then invert each onto a plate, then invert again onto a cooling rack. Let cakes cool completely.

6. For the frosting: Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla together in a large bowl with an electric mixer until combined. Add sugar and beat until frosting is light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes.

4. Put 1 cake layer on a cake plate, level off with a serrated knife, and spread one-quarter of the frosting on top. Set another layer on top, level, and repeat frosting. Set remaining layer on top, level, and frost top and sides with the remaining frosting. Press pecans into the sides of the cake, if desired. **Tip: after leveling cake, turn it upside down to reduce numbers of crumbs. I also did a crumb coat on the outside, let it set for ten minutes, then finished with remaining frosting.

5. Chill for 2 hours to set frosting.

Spectacular Slobber Contest

2009-08-01T00:06:00.001-05:00

Those of you who follow dog blogs probably know Honey. She's a gorgeous freestyling Great Dane from New Zealand. One that's hosting a slobber competition right now. Duke may be small, but he makes up for it in drool. Those of you who've met him know what I'm talking about--the boy is known as "Drools" at my local dog park.

This is the face I see by the time I pull food out of the fridge and put it in front of him. Check out the drool bubbles. Not his finest, sometimes they're perfectly matched, but not bad for an impromptu drool performance.

Then there's this gem from the archives. Where's the drool you ask? Look closely at his face...

Yeah. He slimed himself. He drooled and flung it all over his face when he shook his head.

He's my dog and I love him. Drool and all.

Happy Mutt Day!

2009-07-31T11:53:00.000-05:00

Hug your mutt today. Don't have one? Hug someone else's.

July 31, 2009 is

Mutt's Day

Mutts are often viewed by purebred dog owners and the public as being at a lesser value than purebred dogs. However, mutt dog owners know better than that!

They merit their dog's uniqueness and diversity. They know that their mutt doesn't need to walk around to prove anything to the other dogs or dog owners. And they know that their dog certainly deserves a day of celebration for their mixed breed heritage.

So take your mutt for a walk today, or better yet, if you don't own a mutt dog, today is a perfect opportunity to go adopt one!

Frisbeedogging--Ur doing it wrong

2009-07-28T22:09:00.002-05:00

Mojo and Karma are doing it right though.

Puppy Playtime

2009-07-25T22:31:00.012-05:00

First up, puppy playtime. It's a free class that Holly offers to help socialize puppies.

We put up the puppy playground today, which is basically XS agility equipment, and had lots of fun introducing them to the pups.

Afterwards, we were left with bored, sleep-deprived trainers, and a puppy playground. Hilarity ensued.

And I know, I totally should have known better. Always carefully supervise children when playing with dogs. Kid stole the dog treat I was using to lure Duke through the tunnel. Twice. Poor Duke.

Duke met a cat today

2009-07-23T14:36:00.005-05:00

Three cats actually. I needed to let my brother-in-laws pups out today, but I was returning from a frisbee demo and had Duke with me. Duke's met their dogs before but he's never been that close to a cat. I figured the cats could go out of Duke's reach if he annoyed them, and I'd keep him on leash just in case.

Ember, the calico kitty, greeted us at the door. Duke was curious, but in a "that's a funny looking dog" sort of way, not a "I'm going to eat you now" way. I shooed her away to make sure she didn't explore the great outdoors while Duke and I came in. Bug, the fluffy yellow cat, was laying on a table, and Duke walked right up to her and sniffed hello. Ironic, because Bug would have run away from me if I walked up to her. But no.....strange dog can walk right up and say hi.

I let all the dogs outside to do their business and the ritualistic "omg, there's a new dog amongst us, must.mark.everything!" Wilbur, one of BIL's pugs, was strangely fascinated by Duke and kept following him. Meanwhile, Duke was nervous and kept trying to get away from Wilbur. I laughed at my poor big dog getting chased around by a little pug.

We all came back inside, and Blue, the third cat, was perched and on high alert because this thing was in his house. The thing was still being chased around by Wilbur, so he didn't notice Blue at first. On his ninth lap round the kitchen island, Duke finally noticed Blue. By this point, Blue had lost interest in him, so he was just resting. Duke cautiously approached him from behind, but Blue heard him, looked up and gave Duke the stinkeye. And then Duke turned around and decided to go the other direction.

Right before we left, I went to love on Ember, and Duke started to follow me. Until Ember meowed. Not a "go away" meow...just a "love me, I love to be petted" meow. And Duke the not-so-brave ran away. The boy might be able to get awards for stupid pet tricks, but for bravery in the face of a 10 pound cat...not so much.

Why we use Jawz frisbees, by Duke

2009-07-20T08:31:00.001-05:00

This is what club frisbees look like after two minutes of play. Two minutes.

This is what a Jawz looks like after 8 months of play. They cost $15, versus $1.50 for the club frisbees, but I think we can all agree that it's well worth the cost.

Duke is almost a therapy dog!

2009-07-18T17:16:00.002-05:00

Duke passed the Therapy Dogs International evaluation! He's a vet visit and some paperwork away from providing some puppylove therapy.

Since he already had his Canine Good Citizen, the evaluator just needed to test him on a few things, namely how well he did around other dogs (easy to evaluate when you're at a huge dog show), how he did with wheelchairs and medical equipment (again, easy to evaluate when there's huge crowds), and how well he did "leave-it" around food. Fortunately for me, Duke has figured out that humans are mean and that food we place on the ground isn't necessarily for him. If I put food down on the ground, he usually ignores it. So the evaluator put a piece of pepperoni on the ground and told me to walk as close to it as I could, and I could give a small leash correction or verbal correction, but not to let him have it. Duke practically walked right over the food and didn't even look at it. Yay Duke!

There's another therapy dog group I recently learned about (Bright and Beautiful Therapy dogs) that I'm also considering. However, you can't be members of multiple therapy dog groups at a time, so I do need to choose within the next couple months. I had already made arrangements for Duke to be tested through TDI when I learned about Bright and Beautiful, so I went ahead with the test. Bright and Beautiful seems to be a larger group and more organized in my area, so I am leaning towards it, but right now my options are open.

Dog, how can this possibly be comfortable?

2009-07-07T19:24:00.002-05:00

Creamy Mango Sorbet and Watermelon Sorbet

2009-06-30T20:27:00.005-05:00

The ice cream maker is my friend. It's been hard at work lately. Because I only had heavy whipping cream in the house, this is more of an ice cream than a sorbet. Creamy mangoey goodness. How can you go wrong?

I also made a watermelon sorbet last week which was super yummy and also super easy. Since the watermelon was already so sweet, I halved the sugar. Unfortunately, I think the decreased sugar resulted in a rock-hard sorbet the next day. It was still tasty, mind you, but it didn't make for pretty pictures. Next time I'll eat it faster.

Creamy Mango Sorbet
Source: www.allrecipes.com
INGREDIENTS
2 mangos - peeled, seeded, and cubed
1 cup sugar
1 cup cream
1 cup ice

DIRECTIONS
Place cubed mangos, sugar, cream, and ice into a blender; puree until smooth.
Pour the chilled mixture into the bowl of an ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's directions. Transfer the sorbet to an airtight container and place in the freezer for 3 to 4 hours before serving.

Watermelon Sorbet
Source: www.foodnetwork.com

Ingredients
1 pound, 5 ounces diced watermelon, muskmelon or honeydew
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons vodka
9 ounces sugar, approximately 1 1/4 cups

Directions
Place the melon in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. Add the lemon juice, vodka, and sugar and process for another 30 seconds. Place the mixture into the refrigerator until the mixture reaches 40 degrees F; depending on the temperature of your ingredients and refrigerator, this could take 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Pour the chilled mixture into the bowl of an ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's directions. Transfer the sorbet to an airtight container and place in the freezer for 3 to 4 hours before serving.

FrisbeeDog demo yesterday

2009-06-26T11:10:00.011-05:00

Working with Duke on new tricks and frisbee jumps.....good idea.
Thinking I can show them off at the next frisbee demo....dumb idea. Especially when the demo is outside at noon on a 100 degree day. Duke wasn't interested in playing. His speed decreases exponentially as it gets hotter, and he's not exactly a speed demon to begin with. Duke and I have only been practicing lately after 8 or 9 pm when it cools down a bit. He even has a snazzy new glow-in-the-dark frisbee if it's really dark. I did a couple short throws to warm him up, and he was slow, but fine. Once we started the demo, he caught his frisbee, and just stood there in the shade. He may be smarter than I thought.

One of the new jumps we've been working on is what I affectionately call the throatpunch move. This is what it's supposed to look like when done properly. Dog is in front of the handler, and jumps over them.

However, to teach it, you start off in this rather unattractive position to make sure the dog jumps over you rather than cheating off to the side.

Have I mentioned that Duke tends to jump short? He missed and landed on top of me, hitting me with one paw in the stomach, one on my hip, one right on my throat, and the fourth one right by my ear, pinning me by my hair. It hurt. Tim suggested not practicing this move without adult supervision anymore.

Some of my fav shots from the day:
Chaser takes a photo op.

Lexie is a new puppy to the sport, and is distracted very easily by the clicks from the corner.

Little Zoey is also new to the sport, but had so much fun demo'ing today she's giving her daddy wet willies to thank him.

I'm a dobie, and I has big teefs. (I think this is Jake.)

Jumping's for those little dogs, I'll just stretch.

Taz likes to jump, and likes to go long. Taz does NOT like boring close stuff.

Taz says "MOMMA! What did I just tell you about the boring close stuff?!"

Little sister Dakota has been hanging around Taz too much.

Too far Taz, frisbee's behind you!

Little Wendy in her natural state. Crazy about the frisbee and airborne.

Bucky thinks if he looks sad enough, someone will play frisbee with him.

A million zillion more pictures here:
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AYtWzVq0ZtmKh
Just pictures I took, so you're out of luck if you wanna see pictures of Duke giving me the paw.

Dark and White Chocolate Napoleons

2009-06-24T22:59:00.007-05:00

Otherwise known as "How to clog your arteries in three easy steps." It's chocolate mousse sandwiched between layers of chocolate phyllo. The individual parts are tasty on their own, but amazing together. It's not a difficult recipe, but I did manage to make an impressive mess in the kitchen. But I just seem to have a knack for that. That's the real reason I don't take pictures of the actual baking process, I don't want people to know just how big of a mess I make.

I use clarified butter for the phyllo. The recipe calls for just melted unsalted butter, but Alton Brown says it's better to use clarified butter because removing all the water and milk solids is better for the phyllo. And you don't argue with Alton Brown. Just do what the man tells you. I also learned that clarified butter has a much higher smoke point than regular butter...which means you can cook with it more easily than regular butter. Nom, nom!

So I found this video by The Seasoned Cook and opted to slowly melt 2 sticks of butter over low heat, skim off the milk solids, and then ladle off 4 oz of the clarified butter for the recipe. Then I whisked in 1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa power, and I was ready to go. Brush some of the butter on parchment paper, and place a sheet of phyllo on top. Brush with more butter, add another layer of phyllo. Repeat for 4 layers of phyllo. (I was supposed to sprinkle a little sugar on between layers, but I forgot, so I just sprinkled it liberally on both sides of the stacks before baking.) Refrigerate until the butter solidifies (30 minutes) and cut into 2 by 3 inch rectangles with a pizza wheel. Place a silicone baking mat over the phyllo to keep it flat and bake for 10 minutes at 350.

Dark and White Chocolate Napoleons
Source: Chocolate Epiphany by François Payard

Recipe can be found here, on page 30 and 31.

Cookies or cheesecake...

2009-06-18T20:47:00.005-05:00

That is the question. Or is it? Why choose when you could have both? Martha Stewart's cheesecake thumbprints were perfect for using up half a block of cream cheese left over from the Bavarian cheesecake. The only fault of these bite-sized buttery goodies is that they disappeared too quickly. While I would have preferred a higher cheesecake to cookie ratio, it didn't slow me down any. If I made these again, I would probably double the cookie recipe, triple the cheesecake recipe, and make bigger wells that could hold more cheesecake. But I'm not exactly known for my self-control when cheesecake is involved.

Cheesecake Thumbprints
Source: Martha Stewarts Baking Handbook

4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar,
1/4 tsp salt, plus a pinch
2 large egg yolks
1 1/2 tsps sour cream
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups flour

In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat cream cheese on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add 1/4 cup sugar, a pinch of salt and beat until smooth. Add 1 egg yolk, sour cream, vanilla and beat until smooth. Transfer to a small bowl and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350, with rack in the upper and lower thirds. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and remaining 1/4 cup sugar on medium speed until well combined, scraping down the side of the bowel as needed. Add remaining 1/4 tsp salt and egg yolk, beat to combine. With mixer on low speed, gradually add the flour, mixing until combined.

Shape level tablespoons of dough into balls, and place on prepared baking sheets about 1 inch apart. Using the lightly floured end of a think wooden spoon handle (or your thumb), make an indentation in the center of each ball.

Bake 10 minutes; remove from oven and make indentations again. Rotate sheets, return to oven and bake until edges of cookies begin to turn golden, 7-9 minutes more. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Using a small teaspoon, fill the center of each cookies with about 1 teaspoon cream cheese filling, mounding it slightly. Return cookies to the oven, and bake until the filling is firm, 7-8 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Refrigerate in an airtight container, layered between wax or parchment paper, at least 4 hours before serving. (Cookies can be refrigerated overnight.)

Anyone want a fluffybutt mix?

2009-06-14T20:17:00.005-05:00

We think she's a St. Bernard mix, but I personally thinks she's too dainty and ladylike to be a drooly Bernard. Most people think she's a baby because she's got some big paws, but I really think she's a bit older, between a year and two years. We all agree, though, that she is a complete sweetheart. She was dumped at someone's home, but they are unable to keep her, so she's being fostered by my brother-in-law and his wife. According to the couple, she's a counter surfer, but she was at my house with meat, cookies, and dog biscuits on the counter, and not once did she even look like she was going to try anything. She sniffed the trash a couple times, but stopped with a quick verbal correction. She appears to be housebroken, is very sweet and friendly with other dogs. While she played well with my pups, she doesn't appear to be too active. She's a complete lovebug, and loves to be petted. She doesn't appear to know any commands, but she is mellow, well mannered, doesn't jump, and will probably be pretty easy to train

Duke's new crate

2009-06-12T22:41:00.004-05:00

With all the demos and activities the Houston Canine Frisbee Club does, I decided it was time to get a travel crate. After learning that the largest plastic crate is incredibly bulky and very heavy (45 pounds), I realized that I need a soft-sided crate. Fortunately for me, www.dog.com had a very conveniently timed sale on crates. I got this one in XL for $35. It only weighs about 10 pounds and has a handy bag to lug it around in. It just arrived today, and Coral loves it. Duke is a little leery of it, but Coral keeps darting in there.

Happy Anniversary to us!

2009-06-11T13:57:00.005-05:00

Four crazy years ago, Tim and I got hitched. It was a crazy time because we bought a house, got hitched, and adopted a dog all in a month. It was a good time though, because we were surrounded by supportive friends and family. And good cake. To this day, the only thing people remember about our wedding is the wedding cake. It was that good.

Our wedding cake was a Bavarian cheesecake, with a layer of cheesecake sandwiched between two layers of sponge cake. Except for the reception venue (which included rental, full bar, and dinner), and the photographer, the cake was one of our biggest expenses, costing more than my TWO dresses plus alterations. But when we were sampling cakes, I took one bite and proclaimed it was the greatest thing ever invented, and insisted I was having this cake at my wedding.

So when I found this recipe, of course I had to try it. I can't find baker's cheese, so I just used 12 ounces of cream cheese instead. After letting the cake harden in the fridge overnight, I made a quick whipped cream icing and slapped it on. It wasn't pretty, but it's whipped cream, it doesn't have to be.

Making the cake was a bit chaotic. Reminds me that I still would like an extra bowl for my mixer (this one), hint, hint. Beating egg whites by hand for the cake was still not fun. Then I had to beat the whipped cream, transfer to another bowl, wash the bowl, and make the rest of the filling. Course, the cream cheese that I just bought earlier in the day was bad, so I had to make a run to the grocery store just for cream cheese. After assembling the cake, I decided I wanted to cover it with whipped cream, but didn't have enough, so I had to run to the store again. Then I was looking up how much sugar to add, and realized that whipped cream doesn't stay whipped for long, and that ideally, I'd add a little unflavored gelatin to help it hold it's shape. But I didn't want to run to the store a third time for this cake, so I'm just freezing the cake, and we'll thaw slices as we eat them. We had so much leftover wedding cake that we were eating it for months, and I actually preferred it slightly frozen.

This recipe is a reasonable facsimile of our wedding cake, but not quite as good. Because of the whipped cream in the filling, it was quite airy. And I could definitely tell a texture difference between this no-bake cheesecake with gelatin and a standard baked cheesecake. Not all of the filling fit in the springform pan, so I ate some of the filling before it chilled, and I really liked it then; I just didn't care for the texture of the chilled filling. But I'm sure it will just be liquidy goo without the gelatin. Maybe halving the gelatin would give me the result I'm looking for.

Oh, and because I have an extreme aversion to raw eggs, I used pasteurized eggs. The yolks were a brighter yellow than regular eggs, and the yolks broke very easily, so I had a hard time separating them. But, since I have 10 pasteurized eggs left, I see mousse in my future. I've been dying to make it, but I fear raw eggage.

Bavarian Cheesecake
source: http://allears.net/din/rec_bc.htm

INGREDIENTS
6 ounces Cream Cheese
6 ounces Baker's Cheese
2 Egg Yolks
4 ounces Granulated Sugar
8 ounces Sour Cream
1 ounce Lemon Juice
12 ounces Heavy Cream
1/2 ounce Gelatin
2 ounces Water
Vanilla Sponge Cake -- recipe follows

VANILLA SPONGE CAKE

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup Sugar (granulated)
4 Egg yolks
1 teaspoon. Vanilla Extract
3/4 cup Flour (all-purpose)
3/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
4 Egg Whites

METHOD
1. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. In a mixer, add the egg yolks and sugar beat until light and creamy. Add the vanilla extract.

4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the egg mixture. Beat until smooth.

5. Whip the egg whites until stiff, but not dry. Gently fold this into the cake batter.

6. Place into two separate greased and lined 8-inch round cake pans. Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes.

ASSEMBLING CAKE

METHOD
1. Whip heavy cream until soft peaks. Set aside.

2. Mix together in a mixing bowl the cream cheese, baker's cheese, egg yolks, and granulated sugar until smooth. Then add the sour cream and mix until smooth.

3. Gently add the whipped mixture to the cheese mixture being careful not to over whip.

4. Dissolve the gelatin in the water over a double boiler until the mixture is clear. Be careful not to whip the gelatin so it does not get air bubbles in it.

5. Add the gelatin mixture into the cheese mixture and fold quickly. When adding the gelatin mixture to the cheese mixture set the mixer on medium speed, and add it from the edge of the bowl, being careful not to get the gelatin on the whip or the side of the bowl so as to prevent lumping.

6. Using a springform pan, place one of the vanilla sponge cakes smooth side down. Immediately pour the cheese mixture on the cake, and smooth out surface. Then place the other cake on top with the smooth side out. Let set overnight.

7. Remove the cake from the springform pan. Sprinkle the top of the cake with powdered sugar. This cake can be served with any of your favorite fresh fruit sauce(s).

Lime Meltaway Cookies

2009-06-08T22:16:00.004-05:00

I've never particularly been a Martha Stewart fan. I always found her slightly creepy with all her cooking and arts and craftiness. That, and the whole insider trading thing didn't help things either. But recently I find myself flipping through more and more of her books. Because while she's an icon that no normal woman could ever live up to, the woman can cook. And they're normal, easy to follow recipes.

These cookies are good as is, but I'm a child of the Sour Patch Kid and sour Tearjerker candy generation, so I like a little more bite in my sour goodies. I would probably throw in the zest of a third lime next time. Two limes is limey, but not overly tart.

Lime Meltaways
Source: www.marthastewart.com

Ingredients
Makes about 10 dozen
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
Grated zest of 2 limes
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream butter and 1/3 cup sugar until fluffy. Add lime zest, juice, and vanilla; beat until fluffy.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt. Add to butter mixture, and beat on low speed until combined.
Between two 8-by-12-inch pieces of parchment paper, roll dough into two 1 1/4-inch-diameter logs. Chill at least 1 hour.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Place remaining 2/3 cup sugar in a resealable plastic bag. Remove parchment from logs; slice dough into 1/8-inch-thick rounds. Place rounds on baking sheets, spaced 1 inch apart.
Bake cookies until barely golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool slightly, 8 to 10 minutes. While still warm, place cookies in the sugar-filled bag; toss to coat. Bake or freeze remaining dough. Store baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Giggling Treat Ball

2009-06-05T15:23:00.006-05:00

Forgive the silly blogger who didn't realize how dark the videos were. If I were smart, I would have opened the windows.

And unfortunately, my circa 2003 camera doesn't do sound (I need a new one, hint, hint), the giggling treat ball makes funny noises when it's rolled around. The pups started bouncing all over the place as soon as I opened the box, and they went to town once I put a handful of treats in it.

Party at my place!

2009-06-03T16:43:00.006-05:00

These are the occupants of my house right now:
me
Coral
Duke
Wilbur (dog)
Pixie (dog)
Dolly (dog)
Phantom (dog)
Bug (cat)
Blue (cat)
Ember (cat)
Sunshine (bird)
Grandma (bird)
Izzy (bird)

Duke's not sure what to make of the herd of pugs in his living room.

If you want more pictures, go here.

Are we a slightly spoiled creature of habit, Miss Coral?

2009-05-31T22:29:00.003-05:00

Whenever I leave the house, I go through pretty much the same routine. Walk to the front door to make sure it's locked. Grab shoes if the ones I want to wear happen to be by the front door. Walk to the back door to lock that one. Grab either a biscuit or a kong full of frozen goodies and hand one to each dog in their crate. Shut the crates, put on shoes, grab purse, and say goodbye to the pups (who are completely ignoring me at this point if they're working on their frozen kongs).

I was rushing earlier today, so the pups were zooming around me, but by the time I grabbed my shoes by the front door, she knew what was coming next, and Coral was impatiently waiting in her crate for her goodie. Gotta make you wonder if they're just waiting for me to leave so they can get a treat.

In other news, Coral now has a carpeted crate. Yeah, we're not spoiled at all. When we first got her, she would shred any bedding we put in her crate, so she just didn't get any bedding. Lately, I've been putting a pre-shredded old blanket in her crate when I leave, and she's actually left it alone. Sort of. She still kicks it around and throws it everywhere, but this is a big improvement for her. My in-laws had a roll of carpet they had ripped out of one of their rooms, so I grabbed it so I could carpet Coral's crate. We'll see how long it lasts. I'm hoping she can't really pull it up and tear it apart or kick it around.

Doggie DDR

2009-05-24T10:15:00.010-05:00

If you enjoy videos of silly pets, www.pettube.com is a good way to kill some time. Or you could upload videos of your own silly pets. I'm partial to the dancing dane.

If, however, you're not looking for dancing danes, and you're really looking for a cool collapsible crate for the car like I was, this is the pet tube you're looking for.

ETA: More cute ones:
Pup-o-dile rock
Dog + booties = entertainment
Dog fetches beer and recycles
Life's rough with a yogurt cup on your head
Air hockey, rottie style
Puppy attacks dandelion
How to break in a mattress

Intense Chocolate Shock Cookies

2009-05-23T14:11:00.007-05:00

If you're going to bake chocolate cookies, you may as well bake CHOCOLATE cookies. How can you go wrong with a recipe that's primarily chocolate with just enough other stuff to call it a cookie? This cookies will buy you the undying love of any true chocolaholic.

Intense Chocolate Shock Cookies
Original source unknown, but revived by baking blonde

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
4 TBS butter, cut into chunks
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a microwave save bowl combine the chopped chocolate and butter. Heat in microwave stirring every 20 seconds. Heat until almost melted, stirring until smooth and melted. Do NOT overheat chocolate mixture.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy (about 2-4 minutes).
Reduce speed to low and slowly add the melted chocolate mixture. Beat to combine. Add the flour mixture until and mix until just combined.
Gently fold in chocolate chips.
Allow dough to firm up for 10 minutes before baking.
Drop dough by tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet. Bake 10-13 minutes or until tops are shiny, center is soft but edges are set. Do NOT overbake. Allow to cool on sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to rack to cool completely.

Agility dog fail.

2009-05-20T17:42:00.003-05:00

Duke, you run THROUGH the tunnel, not nap in it.

Almond Crescent Cookies

2009-05-20T17:21:00.004-05:00

The best part of making cookies is experimenting with new recipes. Well...the second best. The best part is eating them. Preferably fresh from the oven.

These were simple to make up, and were a nice sandy texture from the ground almonds.

Almond Crescent Cookies
adapted from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook by www.ishotthechef.com

1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 c sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
1 c finely ground almonds
2 1/4 c all purpose flour
confectioners sugar for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.

2. In the bowl of your electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract, almond extract and the ground almonds and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Slowly mix in the flour until incorporated, but try not to overmix.

3. Make a ball with about 1-2 tbsp of the dough and roll into ovals and then form into crescents. Place onto the parchment lined sheets, leaving several inches between for expansion.

114. Bake for 12-15 minutes until very lightly browned. Cool cookies on the sheet for 1 minute and then remove to a rack to cool completely. When cooled, sprinkle liberally with confectioners sugar.

Makes about 4 dozen small or 2 dozen larger cookies.

Vote for Maty!

2009-05-12T15:50:00.002-05:00

MATY needs YOUR VOTE for the role of a 3-legged dog in an independent film.

VOTE FOR MATY on link below for the role of 'Scrap' in the movie "Lucky & Rich" by Geoff Talbot.
Vote here

To view Maty and the other 3-legged contenders click on the link "Help find Scrap - America" on the right side tabs. There's a video of Maty placing 2nd at her last frisbee competition in Seattle on the "video" page.

Thanks, and help spread the word!
Lynne, Troy & Maty

Maty video

Biscotti for everyone!

2009-05-06T22:57:00.006-05:00

Homemade biscotti was quite a learning experience. I learned how to make biscotti. I learned I'm still not a huge fan of biscotti, even when it's homemade. I learned what the maximum capacity of my KitchenAid mixer is. I learned what an unhappy KitchenAid mixer sounds like. Since I'm too lazy to type up the entire recipe, I'll just show you pictures of my two happy taste-testers.

Duke is in this month's Houston Pet Talk!

2009-05-03T19:30:00.003-05:00

doing what he does best...

Houston Pet Talk

Right column, third down.

:)

It's not winning any beauty pagents...

2009-04-28T18:04:00.003-05:00

But it's a darn tasty bread. Shiner's a pretty strong beer, so you could definitely taste it, but it wasn't so strong that non-beer drinkers like myself wouldn't enjoy it. Without a doubt though, the best part is the buttery, crunchy crust. A normal person would run away at the thought of pouring an entire stick of butter into the loaf pan, as any sane individual should. I, of course, was undaunted. Instead, I'm thinking about trying a mini-loafpan next time, so I can increase the surface area, and thus the buttery goodness. Maybe I'll make it with rye or whole wheat flour next time. The whole grains cancel out the butter, right?

Beer Bread
Source: The Pastry Queen, by Rebecca Rather

Ingredients:
* 3 cups all purpose flour
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 3 tablespoons sugar
* 1 (12 ounce) bottle good-quality beer or ale (Shiner Bock)
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan with butter or cooking spray. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Pour in the beer and stir until just incorporated. (The dough will be sticky and heavy). Pour half the melted butter into the bottom of the prepared loaf pan. Spoon in the bread dough and pour the remaining half of the butter on top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until the bumpy top is golden brown. Remove from the pan and serve immediately.

Rally Obedience Class

2009-04-26T18:46:00.005-05:00

Poor Miss Coral. Duke does more tricks, and is better behaved in public, so he's the one who always gets to go out and about. However, the reason he's better is because I used him as my demo dog when I was helping a friend at her dog training facility. Prior to that, Coral was the good dog, but Duke improved rapidly when I started working with him more. Coral got the short end of the stick, which is why I need to start working with her again.

So when Holly said she was offering a Rally-O class, I signed Coral up. She knows basic obedience, she just needs to learn to calm down when we're out and about, and this sounded like a lot more fun than a general obedience class.

Because we're more interested in having fun than serious competition, Holly decided to go with UKC Rally Rules. Since it's a short class (4 weeks), Holly went ahead and started with some of the harder exercises first, so the pups would have more time to get them right. Unfortunately, I had not practiced heel with Coral previously, so she was a little behind. She did fine regardless, but she and I are going to practice heel a lot this week.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Breakfast Buns

2009-04-21T13:06:00.005-05:00

Few things are better than warm, fresh baked muffins. These best-sellers at the Magnolia Bakery in NYC's Greenwich Village certainly don't disappoint.

If you don't have really big muffin pans, it makes 12 regular sized muffins (I put about a teaspoon of preserves on each one). I attempted to use liners in an effort to be lazy and have easier cleanup. Yeah, don't bother. They puffed up and spilled the raspberry preserves everywhere so I still have a big mess to clean up. Besides, you miss out on more of the crunchy goodness if you use liners. I wouldn't use them next time I make these.

Magnolia's Raspberry Cream Cheese Breakfast Buns
Source: More From Magnolia
Makes 9 buns

BUN:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound (one 8-ounce package) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

TOPPING:
1/2 cup raspberry preserves
Garnish
Confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and lightly flour 9 large muffin cups.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, butter, and sugar until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs and beat well. Add the dry ingredients in two parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling them about two-thirds full. Drop 3 small dollops (about a teaspoonful each) of raspberry preserves onto the top of each bun and, using the tip of a sharp knife, swirl the preserves into the batter, forming a decorative pattern. Bake for 25–30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the bun comes out clean.

Allow the buns to cool for about 30 minutes before sprinkling with confectioners’ sugar and serving.

ETA: These are best warm and fresh from the oven. They're still tasty the next day, but they're better fresh.

Lure Coursing is FUN!

2009-04-20T11:52:00.004-05:00

A local agility club/Dock Diving group had a fun day on Sunday, and one new event they brought was lure coursing. It's actually not a "new" thing, it's been around since the 30s, but since I don't have sighthounds, I've never heard of it. From the link above, this is the short definition of lure coursing: "Lure Coursing is a humane sport which attempts to imitate the coursing of the rabbit or hare by sighthounds but without the hare. The sighthounds chase an artificial lure, usually a white kitchen garbage bag, sometimes tanned rabbit skins, or fake fur strips."

This is what it looks like when done correctly. That, however, was not what it looked like when my pups were playing. It took Coral a couple tries *cough*seven*cough*, but she finally got the hang of it.

Round 1: Coral took off after the lure, rounded the far corner, but didn't turn sharply enough. Then she just ran for a few more feet for the pure joy of running, and then make a quick turn and ran back to me at the start.

Round 2: Same as round 1.

Round 3: I guessed that when she stopped running, Coral thought she was too far away from me, so she kept running back to me. So I decided to start her off, then run inside the course with her so I wouldn't be too far away. The guy running the course ran the lure the opposite direction this time, and the lure went around a sharp corner, and Coral lost it, so went into her default and ran back to me.

Round 4: Coral ran about a third of the course, lure got too far ahead, and she gave up and ran back to me.

Round 5: She rounded the sharp corner again, apparently saw something shiny in the distance, and got distracted and chased after it. Then ran back to me, and I got her refocused on the lure.

Round 6: Tripped over the rope and pulled the lure off the course and had to restart.

Round 7: Made it around the WHOLE course chasing after the lure!

I NEVER said she ran it well, I just said she had fun.

Duke ran it twice after Coral's first two tries. He did exactly the same thing she did, but I thought his gait was a bit off the second time, so I was afraid he hurt himself again, so he didn't get to play again. Sad, because he's the one that likes to chase and that can actually take tight corners. Less prey drive than Coral though, so I wasn't sure if either would really take to it.

My tartpan runneth over

2009-04-19T04:27:00.009-05:00

While browsing food blogs a few months ago, I ran across a group of bloggers called "Tuesdays with Dorie." It's a group of bakers who take turns picking a recipe every week, and on every Tuesday, they blog about making the recipe. The recipes are chose from Dorie Greenspan's book, "Baking: From my home to yours." In order to join, they only ask two things: That you purchase the book so you can participate, and that you participate at least two weeks a month.

While I was interested in joining, I decided to pass for now because:
1. Did not have the book.
2. Didn't think I'd consistently bake and post on Tuesdays.
3. Don't have a whole lot of baking paraphernalia.

Back in January, I saw this post on Dorie's blog. I thought it was really cool that she was supportive of the group, and I figured she knew what she was talking about when she says this is one of her favorite recipes. When an amazing baker tells you what their favorite recipe is, it's probably a pretty darn good recipe to try. This isn't a recipe that would normally catch my eye, but Dorie's description of it certainly caught my attention.

Unfortunately, I don't own a tartpan. It was on my to-buy list, but since I don't like shopping...one hasn't wandered home with me yet. However, a month ago I was "helping" my mother-in-law in the kitchen and stumbled across a set of small tartpans, and warned her then that I would be borrowing them in the near future. I finally snagged them, and I can't believe I waited this long to try the recipe. I had skimmed through it several times, but honestly didn't realize how easy it was. The almond cream mixed up quickly in the food processor, and then refrigerated. The crust was mixed up in the food processor and then frozen for a bit. Then when I came home later that night, I popped the crusts in the oven to pre-bake, sliced up the canned pears and set them on paper towels to dry. After letting the crusts cool for 15 minutes, I added the almond cream and pears and popped in the oven for 50 minutes. That was it. And I had a very yummy and impressive dessert for my efforts. The crust was cookie-like, the cream was tasty, and the browned parts were caramelized. I dug in about 15 minutes after pulling it from the oven, so it was still all nice and warm. Nom, nom!

FRENCH PEAR TART

Adapted from "Baking: From my home to yours"

Makes 6 servings

For the pears:
6 canned pear halves
OR 3 medium pears, firm but ripe
1 lemon
4 cups water, optional
1 1/4 cups sugar, optional

For the almond cream:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup ground blanched almonds
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 large egg
2 teaspoons dark rum or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 partially-baked 9-inch tart shell, made with Sweet Tart Dough (see below), at room temperature

Confectioners' sugar for dusting, or apple jelly for glazing

Getting ready: If you are using canned pears, you have nothing to do now. If you are using fresh pears but do not wish to poach them, you have nothing to do now. If you are using fresh pears and want to poach them, peel them and leave them whole. Bring the 4 cups water, the 1 1/4 cups sugar and the juice of the lemon to a boil in a saucepan just large enough to hold the pears. Add the pears to the boiling syrup, lower the heat so the syrup simmers and gently poach the pears until they are tender when pierced with a knife, about 15 minutes. Cool the pears to room temperature in the syrup.

To make the almond cream: Put the butter and sugar in the workbowl of a food processor and process until the mixture is smooth and satiny. Add the ground almonds and continue to process until well blended. Add the flour and cornstarch, process, and then add the egg. Process for about 15 seconds more, or until the almond cream is homogeneous. Add the rum or vanilla and process just to blend. If you prefer, you can make the cream in a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a bowl with a rubber spatula. In either case, the ingredients are added in the same order. Scrape the almond cream into a container and either use it immediately or refrigerate it until firm, about 2 hours.

Getting ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Have a lined baking sheet at the ready. If you are using fresh (unpoached) pears, peel them now. If you are using poached or unpoached pears, cut them in half from blossom to stem and core them; rub the unpoached pears with lemon juice. Whatever pears you have, make sure to pat them dry - really dry - so that their liquid won't keep the almond cream from baking.

Fill the baked crust with the almond cream, spreading it even with an offset metal icing spatula. Thinly slice each pear half crosswise, lift each half on a spatula, press down on the pear to fan it slightly and place it, wide-end toward the edge of the crust, over the almond cream. The halves will form spokes.

Put the crust on the lined baking sheet, slide the sheet into the oven and bake the tart 50 to 60 minutes, or until the almond cream puffs up around the pears and browns. Transfer the tart to a rack to cool to just warm or to room temperature before unmolding.

Right before serving, dust the tart with confectioners' sugar. If you prefer, prepare a glaze by bringing about 1/4 cup apple jelly and1/2 teaspoon water to the boil. Brush the glaze over the surface of the tart.

Serving: This tart goes very well with aromatic tea.

Storing: If it's convenient for you, you can make the almond cream up to 2 days ahead and keep it closely covered in the refrigerator, or you can wrap it airtight and freeze it for up to 2 months; defrost before using. You can also poach the pears up to 1 day ahead. However, once you've baked the tart, you should be prepared to enjoy it that same day.

Playing around: The almond cream is a great companion for a variety of fruits. It's as good with summer fruits, like apricots or peaches, as it is with autumn's apples.

SWEET TART DOUGH Adapted from BAKING FROM MY HOME TO YOURS

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (4 1/2 ounces) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk

To make the dough: Put the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in the workbowl of a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is cut in coarsely - you'll have pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pea-size pieces and that's just fine. Stir the egg, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses - about 10 seconds each - until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before your reaches this clumpy stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change - heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface.

Very lightly and sparingly - make that very, very lightly and sparingly - knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

If you want to press the dough into a tart pan, now is the time to do it.

If you want to chill the dough and roll it out later (doable, but fussier than pressing), gather the dough into a ball (you might have to use a little more pressure than you used to mix in dry bits, because you do want the ball to be just this side of cohesive), flatten it into a disk, wrap it well and chill it for at least 2 hours or for up to 1 day.

To make a press-in crust: Butter the tart pan and press the dough evenly along the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Don't be stingy - you want a crust with a little heft because you want to be able to both taste and feel it. Also, don't be too heavy-handed - you want to press the crust in so that the pieces cling to one another and knit together when baked, but you don't want to press so hard that the crust loses its crumbly shortbreadish texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

To make a rolled-out crust: This dough is very soft - a combination of a substantial amount of butter and the use of confectioners' sugar - so I find it is easier to roll it between wax paper or plastic wrap or, easiest of all, in a roll-out-your-dough slipcover. If you use the slipcover, flour it lightly. Roll the dough out evenly, turning the dough over frequently and lifting the wax paper or plastic wrap often, so that it doesn't roll into the dough and form creases. If you've got time, slide the rolled out dough into the fridge to rest and firm for about 20 minutes before fitting the dough into the buttered tart pan. Trim the excess dough even with the edge of the pan. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

To partially bake the crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil tightly against the crust. Bake the crust 25 minutes, then carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. Bake for another 3 to 5 minutes, then transfer the crust to a cooling rack; keep it in its pan.

***I used 4 5-inch tartpans. I filled them to the top with the almond cream, not realizing how much it puffed up, so one of the tarts spilled over. My tartpans were also teflon coated and dark, so my crusts ended up very brown. Not burnt, but not as pretty as I'd like. I would probably drop the oven temp 25 degrees next time if I use the same tartpans. Also, one 5-inch tart is a bit much for a single person. It was really good, and I finished it, but it was more than I needed. Especially since I think the tart would go really well with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Smaller tart pans would probably be wise if you wanted individual servings and don't want to weigh 500 pounds. Remember, there's 2 sticks of butter in this recipe...so there's half a stick of butter in each of those 5-inch tarts I made.

When making the crust, I tried pressing the dough in since I thought that would be easiest. I didn't care for the mottled appearance, so I ended up rolling out the dough instead. Sort of. I don't like my rolling pin, it's big and bulky and heavy, so I rolled the dough into a circle, then just flattened it. Once it was big enough, I peeled it off the wax paper and popped it into the pan. MUCH easier this way.

How fun would this be?!

2009-04-09T21:18:00.002-05:00

Wouldn't this be fun to do?

I'm going to start working on teaching Duke stuff to do this. If you're in the Houston area, Holly and Courtney at Pupscouts are trying to get a group together. It'll be fun!

Chocolate Wafer Cookies

2009-04-07T09:38:00.000-05:00

When I saw these pictures last year, I was ready to make an Icebox Cake. However, I didn't want to order the cookies online, nor could I find them locally. So I drooled and moved on. When I saw that Smitten Kitchen had a recipe for the cookies, I was THERE.

What I don't recommend though, is making the cookies in a small blender/food processor. I tried that. It wasn't pretty. The little food processor wasn't big enough for the batter. My kitchen will probably smell good forever though, because of the cocoa/flour powder flying all over the kitchen that I'll never be able to completely clean up. If, however, you're trying to make as big of a mess as you possibly can, then this is the way to do it. In the comments section, Deb of Smitten Kitchen suggested making the cookies in a mixer if you don't have a food processor, you just have to soften the butter a little more. I wish I had read that BEFORE making the cookies.

As soon as I ate one of these, I knew I was in trouble. Within minutes, my first tray of 12 were gone. And I only shared 2 with Tim. They had a deep chocolate flavor, they were rich and buttery like shortbread, and they were slightly caramelized. The first batch was slightly bitter because I overbaked it (I sliced them about 1/8 inch, and baked 13 minutes), but that obviously didn't slow me down any. This morning, I only baked them 10-11 minutes, and they were perfect. I ate the first tray, and used the second tray for pictures.

I still want to make the icebox cake at some point, but it will have to wait. The casualty rate on these cookies is too high, and I've already eaten too many cookies to make a cake. I think I'm going to have to make a double batch in order to have enough cookies to make the cake.

***The notes in the recipe are Deb's. Most of my cookies never inflated and deflated (thus my overbaking them), but baking 10 minutes worked well for me.

Chocolate Wafers
Adapted from Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert

Makes 50 to 60 1 3/4-inch wafers.

1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (2.4 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder (see Note)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
3 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Combine the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of food processor and pulse several times to mix thoroughly. Cut the butter into about 12 chunks and add them to the bowl. Pulse several times. Combine the milk and vanilla in a small cup. With the processor running, add the milk mixture and continue to process until the mixture clumps around the blade or the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a large bowl or a cutting board and knead a few times to make sure it is evenly blended.

Form the dough into a log about 14 inches long and 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Wrap the log in wax paper or foil and refrigerate until firm, at least one hour, or until needed.

Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut the log of dough into slices a scant 1/4-inch thick (I went thinner, closer to 1/8 of inch. If you’re trying to emulate the store-bought wafers, slice as thin as you can, and watch the baking time carefully, as it might be less.) and place them one inch apart on the lined sheets (cookies will spread). Bake, rotating the baking sheet from top to bottom and back to front about halfway through baking, for a total of 12 to 15 minutes. The cookies will puff up and deflate; they are done about 1 1/2 minutes after they deflate.

Cool the cookies on the baking sheets on racks, or slide the parchment onto racks to cool completely. These cookies may be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks or be frozen for up to two months.

Note: These cookies should crisp as they cool. If they don’t, you’re not baking them long enough, says Medrich — in which case, return them to the oven to reheat and bake a little longer, then cool again.

Did you know....

2009-04-06T12:06:00.004-05:00

that you CAN balance a treat on a pug's squishy nose? It just requires a smaller treat.

The Amazing DukeDuke!

2009-04-04T07:10:00.001-05:00

My mom decided that everyone needs to see Duke perform his stupid pet tricks. So I present......the amazing DukeDuke! Don't mind his "Is it time to eat yet, huh, huh, huh?!" dance as I'm trying to get him to weave between my legs. That's just what he does when it's feeding time at the zoo.

My very scary houseguest

2009-04-03T13:26:00.007-05:00

I'm dogsitting for my brother-in-law, and Coral and Duke are scared of their dog. If Dolly is sitting next to me, they won't approach me. If they do come close, they approach from the other side. If they're heading in one direction, and Dolly heads towards the same place, Coral and Duke turn around and go somewhere else. She's really quite scary. Scroll down to see a picture of this ferocious dog.

Scary, isn't she? My dogs are such weenies.

Bad blogger! No cookie for me

2009-04-03T12:55:00.011-05:00

I really have still been baking lately, I promise! Things have been hectic, and I just haven't updated the blog.

I was asked to make a cheesecake for my brother-in-law and his fiancee's couple's shower last month, and decided to go with the Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake. I've made it before, but Tim took it to work, and I didn't get to taste it. Rumor has it that it was a tasty cheesecake, and this didn't seem like the proper occasion to use the audience as guinea pigs, so this was the one.

I was leery about the bittersweet chocolate ganache, because I'm not a huge fan of bittersweet, but it does go with the cheesecake really well. And next time, I would probably make the crust without sugar. Oreos are plenty sweet enough, they don't need more sugar.

Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake
Source: brownies, crust and cheeescake adapted from Smitten Kitchen, ganache from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients:
For the brownies:
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
¾ cup butter
1 ¾ cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. salt
1 cup flour

For the crust:
1 ½ cups finely ground chocolate cookies
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 tsp. salt

For the cheesecake:
3 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
4 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup sugar

For the ganache:
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup plus 1 tbsp. heavy cream
2 tbsp. butter, cut into two pieces

Directions:
To make the brownies, preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 9×13” baking pan with foil, leaving the ends of the foil overhanging the sides of the pan. Grease the foil and set aside.
Microwave chocolate and butter in a large microwave-safe bowl on high for 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until the butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add salt and flour; mix well. Spread into prepared pan.
Bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with fudgy crumbs (do not overbake). Cool in pan on wire rack. Remove brownies from pan, using foil handles. Cool brownies, then cut into ¾ - 1” squares for use in the cheesecake. Set aside 2 cups for the recipe, and will have many extra brownies left over.

To prepare the crust, combine all crust ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir until well combined. Press onto the bottom and one inch up the side of a 9-inch springform pan. Fill right away or chill for up to 2 hours.

For the cheesecake, preheat the oven to 350°. Beat the cream cheese and sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating on low speed, scraping down the bowl between additions. Add vanilla and beat until well combined.

Fold in brownie cubes very gently and pour mixture into cookie crumb crust. Bake in the middle of the oven for 45 minutes or until cake is set 3 inches from edge but center is still slightly wobbly when pan is gently shaken. Allow to cool completely.

To make the ganache, put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to a boil, the pour half of the cream over the chocolate and let sit for 30 seconds. Working with a whisk or rubber spatula, gently stir the chocolate and cream together in small circles, starting at the center of the bowl and working your way out in increasingly larger concentric circles. Pour in the remainder of the cream and blend it into the chocolate, using the same circular motions. When the ganache is smooth and shiny, stir in the butter piece by piece. Don’t stir the ganache any more than you must to blend the ingredients – the less you work it, the darker, smoother and shinier it will be. Let sit until it thickens to desired consistency. Then pour on top of cooled cheesecake and spread evenly. Chill to set.

Duke's first frisbee competition!

2009-04-01T07:39:00.008-05:00

Our frisbee club hosted a USDDN competition this past weekend. There were 4 categories: novice toss and fetch, super open toss and fetch, open freestyle, and super open freestyle. The super open categories were for those competing for a spot at World's. Novice and open were for us kids (or dogs) who didn't know what they were doing. Freestyle is the really neat competition, where people have a routine and they do all sorts of tricks and stunts. Toss and fetch is just that, human stands behind a line, throws a frisbee, and dog retrieves it. Points are based on how far away the dog catches the frisbee.

Noone was signing up for the novice toss and fetch, so Duke's chances were looking pretty good. At the last minute, about 5 more people signed up in novice. Chances...not so good.

In the first round, Duke did great, caught almost all the frisbees. According to the announcer, my strategy was to throw lots of shorter tosses that are easier for the pup to catch. Longer catches give more points, so most people throw as far as they can. Little did the crowd realize....I was throwing as far as my little chicken arms could throw. You also get an extra half point if the pup makes the catch with all 4 paws off the ground, or within a smaller column in the middle of the field. Duke got one of the extra half points on all of his catches. Yay Duke.

Then came round two. Where I sucked a big one and couldn't throw. When the frisbee goes sailing straight down, there's only so much poor Duke could do.

Duke still got third, and I'm happy, even though we got beaten by a 10 year old and her 9 month old dog. First place was a ringer though. She could throw, and her dog could catch. ;)

One person who flew in to compete was Matt DiAno, the reigning World champ for the past 3 years. We've got a pretty small club, and our club loves him, so I got dragged over to meet him a couple times. Then he saw me throw, and realized I needed all the help I could get. Unfortunately, even he couldn't help my throw. Sad, but true.

We had a professional photographer out there, and here are some pictures he took of Duke. Don't mind the silly asian in the background looking confused. On that throw, I had sent Duke behind me, and as he ran out, he jumped up and headbutted the frisbee as I was throwing it. I was asking him what he was doing. As usual, he just ignored me.

Professional pictures

If you've got time to kill, here's a link to the pictures I took. Beware though, there's about 200 of them.

These are some of my favs:

The last picture is Matt DiAno and his beautiful and amazing Maggie.

Aren't we talented?

2009-03-31T21:52:00.005-05:00

So my brother-in-law got married this past Saturday. Good times were had by all. The wedding was lovely; there were some minor snafus, but at the end of the day, bride and groom were hitched, and everyone was smiling.

They met at a dance studio, so many of the guests were very good dancers. In fact, they were asked several times if they hired professional dancers for atmosphere. And the DJ even called the owner to come over to watch. We were just that cool. My mom got a couple videos, so here's a short clip of Tim and I dancing.

Jump, Duke, Jump!

2009-03-24T19:35:00.004-05:00

More pics of the other high flying dogs here.

Sunblock is your friend

2009-03-23T10:37:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for playing frisbee with your dog in the park. We had a great turnout, and the dogs had lots of fun. (Pictures forthcoming. I have the pictures that I took, but I'm waiting to see if people send pictures of Duke playing. I'm nowhere near talented enough to take pics while playing frisbee with Duke.)

I did get a bit too much sun yesterday though. It wasn't too sunny early in the morning, so I forgot to put on sunblock when I got there. A couple hours later, it was quite toasty and I finally put on some sunblock. I know I need to take better care of my skin, so I came home and started looking up sunblock, and found this little site. Did you know that if you're using sunblock over your entire body (like when you're swimming), you should be using 2 ounces at a time? Less than that, and you're not really getting the SPF protection on the bottle. So next time you go out, slather on the sunblock, otherwise it's not working as well as you think it is.

And to make this paws related, they also have sunblock for dogs, recommended for dogs with thin coats or thin skin. Dogs need sun protection too!

Come see Duke make a fool out of me!

2009-03-18T11:31:00.002-05:00

The Houston Humane Society is having a K9 Fun Run and Walk this weekend.

Sunday, March 22, 2009
Sam Houston Park
1100 Bagby
Houston, TX 77002
Noon - 4:00 pm

1 Mile Run, 1 Mile Jog or 1 Mile Walk
For more information contact funrun@houstonhumane.org or call 713-433-6421 extension 307.

Duke and I will be there with the Frisbeedog Club. There are two demos, one from 10:00-10:45, and another from 12:15-12:45.

No pain, no gain?

2009-03-08T21:42:00.007-05:00

Today was our monthly Houston Frisbeedog meeting, and we learned:

1. How to teach Duke to jump over my leg to catch a frisbee. Kneel down so I'm on my right foot and left knee. Another person was standing just in front of me touching my right knee to keep Duke from going around, and then used the frisbee to lure Duke to jump over my right leg. Duke already knows a command to jump over my leg, so it was just putting the frisbee and jumping over together. That didn't go so well at first. He'd jump over my leg, headbutting the frisbee. He didn't quite understand that he was supposed to take the frisbee out of my hand. After a few tries, I tossed the frisbee, and he jumped over and grabbed the frisbee like he was supposed to. Unfortunately, I got kicked or smacked around by his tail several times in the process.

2. Some crazy throw between the legs. I should have realized bad things were to come when the first step to doing this trick was to bend over. Bend over at the waist with bent knees, hands at 12 and 6 on the frisbee, and then swing arms through legs while spinning the disc. I swung with a little more enthusiasm than necessary, and my arm hit my inner leg with more than enough force to leave a bruise. Practice repeatedly until legs and arms are numb. Sigh sadly because the frisbee always landed 5 feet (or less) away.

3. Another crazy throw where you bounce the frisbee off the ground. Because the Jawz frisbee is so much heavier than the normal club frisbees, I needed to throw the frisbee HARD in order to get it to bounce. The most I got it to bounce was an inch. Darn my weenie chicken arms.

4. Throwing the frisbee between my legs. Right step, left step, then a right lunge while reaching my right hand behind my right knee and releasing the frisbee. As you can probably tell from my misadventures in throw #2, I am not very well coordinated. And very quickly had a sore wrist from wildly flinging my wrist into the back of my knee. While painful, this was actually pretty easy to catch onto.

5. An upsidedown throw. Start by holding the frisbee pretty much vertical (hand at 6 o'clock), and a quick wrist flick with a little angle, and my frisbee wobbled off upside down. This one was suprisingly hard on my weak little wrist, but that might also be because it had just taken a beating from the last throw.

Also worked on throwing the frisbee so that it arched right over Duke, to get him to do a little flippy thing. But I didn't include it on the list because it didn't cause bodily injury to me.

Chocolate Lava BROWNIES

2009-03-05T19:28:00.006-06:00

What could be better than a warm, soft molten lava cake? A warm molten lava BROWNIE! I had a couple leftover truffle centers from the lava cake last month, and I needed to bake brownies for my brownie mosaic cheesecake tomorrow. The brownie recipe makes way more than necessary for the cheesecake, so I figured I'd use some of the batter and the truffle centers for a ridiculously rich and decadent dessert tonight. Mix up the batter, pour into the ramekins, pop in a truffle center, and pop in the oven. I ended up baking the ramekins about 40-45 minutes before inverting them on a plate and dusting with powdered sugar. I poured the remainder of the brownie batter into an 8 by 8 inch pan and baked as per the recipe below.

The verdict? Amazingly good, but I used 7 oz ramekins, and neither Tim or I could finish our brownie. And we both agreed that ice cream would go wonderfully with the brownie. One 7 oz ramekin + 1 scoop ice cream = more than enough for two people.

Brownies
Adapted by smitten kitchen

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
¾ cup butter
1 ¾ cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. salt
1 cup flour

Directions:
To make the brownies, preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 9×13” baking pan with foil, leaving the ends of the foil overhanging the sides of the pan. Grease the foil and set aside.
Microwave chocolate and butter in a large microwave-safe bowl on high for 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until the butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add salt and flour; mix well. Spread into prepared pan.

Caramel is evil

2009-02-25T19:17:00.004-06:00

I was flipping through The Essence of Chocolate, and I see what appears to be a fairly simple recipe using ingredients I already have. There's only 5 ingredients, nothing seems overly complicated, what could go wrong? Nothing. On my third batch of caramel. On the bright side, sugar is cheap and plentiful. In one batch, i just dumped the sugar and water in the pot and put it on the burner. With so little water, I figured the sugar wouldn't dissolve, and I'd mix it in as it heated. I ended up with some dark caramel, with some completely undissolved sugar floating on top. Fail. On another batch, I did the unthinkable...I swirled too much, lots of sugar crystals formed on the sides, and I tried to scrape them off and mix them in. Fail. I ended up with an insane number of sugar crystals in the pot. Fortunately, the stars aligned for me on the third batch. Add water to sugar, mix thoroughly, put on burner, and ever so gently swirl occasionally. Exactly what the recipe said to do.

After finally getting the caramel made properly, I added the cocoa, and then the warm cream. Warm, not hot. Which immediately resulted in the caramel completely seizing. As the recipe states though, it did redissolve easily after heating it again.

The end result, a rich, chocolately, mousse-like dessert. Nom, nom! The caramel flavor wasn't very pronounced, but I probably could have cooked it a little longer. I probably pulled it off the burner a little earlier than necessary, in my desire to not screw it up a third time.

Cocoa Caramel Panna Cotta
by John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg
contributed by Michael Chiarello
from The Essence of Chocolate

Serves 8

Ingredients
2 1/2 teaspoons gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup superfine sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups heavy cream, warmed

1. Arrange eight 4-ounce molds in a baking dish, for easy transfer in and out of the refrigerator.

2. Combine the gelatin and 2 tablespoons of the cold water in a small bowl. Set aside to soften.

3. Combine the sugar and the remaining 2 tablespoons water in a medium saucepan, bring to a simmer over medium heat, and cook, without stirring, for 5 to 6 minutes, swirling the saucepan occasionally to cook the caramel evenly. Test the color of the caramel by drizzling a few drops onto a white plate. If sugar crystals form on the sides of the pan, brush with a wet pastry brush. When the color is medium to dark amber, remove the pan from the heat.

4. Stir the cocoa into the caramel until it has dissolved. Carefully pour in the cream. Some of the caramel may seize, but it will dissolve again as it is heated. Stir, being sure to incorporate any bits of caramel that may be clinging to the bottom of the pan, until all of the caramel has dissolved. Remove from the heat, and stir in the gelatin until dissolved. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a large liquid measuring cup or a bowl with a spout, and strain the caramel mixture.

5. Divide the mixture evenly among the molds. Refrigerate until completely chilled and set, at least 4 hours or, preferably, overnight.

6. To unmold the panna cotta, fill a bowl with very hot tap water. Dip a mold into the water, then lift from the water, dry the bottom with a towel, and invert onto a serving plate. If it does not slide out, re-dip in the water. Continue with the remaining panna cotta. Be sure to replace the hot water in the bowl as it cools.

7. Serve plain, or with custard sauce or a bowl of cherries or figs.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez

2009-02-21T14:20:00.007-06:00

The Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans are currently in full swing, with Fat Tuesday coming up in a few days. Everyone is familiar with the brightly colored brioche style king cake, but when I was in New Orleans, I discovered a French-style king cake that I absolutely fell in love with. It is simply an almond paste filled puff pastry, but it was light and decadent without being overly sweet. I have yet to see it outside of New Orleans, so I have been forced to bake one myself. It is technically supposed to be eaten on the Epiphany, January 6th. However, we'll overlook that for now.

While the recipe is long, it's really not that complicated, though making pastry cream was an interesting experience. I had never made pastry cream before, and didn't know what to expect. As soon as it started to thicken up, I pulled it of the heat, and it continued to thicken, and I was very worried about how I was going to force this thick mixture through a sieve. After making an impressive mess in the kitchen, I forced most of it through the sieve. The remainder went directly into my tummy. :)

I halved the pastry cream recipe, and made that yesterday. Today I made the almond paste and assembled the galette. Now, if anyone has any advice on how to deconstruct puff pastry, that would be greatly appreciated. After admiring my beautiful puffy creation, the puff pastry fell apart as I tried to cut it.

Galette des Rois
Originally by Stéphane Vandermeersch and adapted in Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan at Serious Eats
- makes 8 servings -

Ingredients
14 ounces all-butter puff pastry, homemade or store bought, chilled and ready to roll
3/4 cup almond cream (recipe below)
1/4 cup pastry cream (recipe below)
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 large egg
1 trinket (see above)

Procedure
1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and keep them close at hand. Divide the pastry in half and work with one half at a time; keep the other half in the refrigerator.
2. Working on a floured surface, roll one piece of the puff pastry into a circle that is about 1/8-inch thick. Using a pan lid or the bottom of a tart pan, cut a circle that is about 9 inches in diameter. Transfer the circle to a lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Roll the second piece of pastry out in the same manner, but this time cut out a circle that is about 9 1/2 inches in diameter. Place this circle on the other baking sheet, cover and refrigerate as well.
3. Whisk the almond cream, pastry cream, and rum together in a bowl, stirring just to blend the two creams, not to whip air into them. In a small bowl, beat the egg just to break it up.
4. Remove the smaller circle of pastry from the refrigerator and paint the outer 1 inch border with a light coating of beaten egg. Spoon the almond-pastry cream mixture onto the pastry and spread it smooth across the circle, stopping when you reach the egg-painted border. Put the trinket anywhere on top of the cream and press it gently into the cream. Cover the cream-coated circle with the top (larger) round of puff pastry, pressing it firmly around the border to glue the two pieces together. You have some choices here, you can press the edges together with the tines of a fork to both decorate and seal them, or you can use a small sharp paring knife to create a scallop pattern all around the border. Whatever you do, the important thing is to make certain that the edges are sealed.
5. Brush the entire top of the galette with the beaten egg, then, using the tip of a paring knife, decorate the top by drawing curved lines from the center of the galette to the edges. The lines will resemble backward C’s or quotation marks. Don’t worry about the design—even if you make straight lines radiating from the center out, your galette will be attractive. The only important thing here is not to pierce the dough. Cut a small circle of dough, a steam vent, out of the center of the galette, slide the galette into the refrigerator, and chill it for at least 30 minutes while you preheat the oven. (The galette can be covered and kept in the refrigerator for a day or wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 1 month.)
6. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 475°F. (If you are using storebought puff pastry, follow the temperature instructions on the package.)
7. Slip the galette into the oven and immediately lower the temperature to 400°F. Bake the galette for 40 minutes, until it is beautifully puffed and deeply golden brown. If, after 20 minutes, the galette is browning too quickly, cover it loosely with a foil tent. Remove the galette from the oven, place the baking sheet on a cooling rack, and allow the galette to cool for 10 minutes before serving. Many consider the galette at its best when it is served hot or warm, but it is still delicious at room temperature.

Keeping: Although the constructed galette can be chilled for a day or frozen for up to a month, once it is baked it should be served that day.

The Almond Cream
- makes about 1 1/4 cups -

Ingredients
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
3/4 cup ground blanched almonds
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 large egg, at room temperature

Procedure
Working in a food processor, put the butter and confectioners’ sugar in the workbowl. Process until the mixture is smooth and satiny. Add the ground almonds and continue to process until well blended. Add the flour and cornstarch, process, then add the egg. Process for about 15 seconds more, or until the almond cream is homogeneous. Scrape the almond cream into a container and either use immediately or refrigerate until firm. (Keeping: The almond cream can be packed airtight and kept in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 1 month. Defrost, still wrapped, overnight in the refrigerator, then beat it with a spatula or spoon to bring back its original consistency.)

The Pastry Cream
- makes about 2 cups -

Ingredients
2 cups whole milk
1 plump, moist vanilla been, split and scraped
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted
3 1/2 tablespoons (1 3/4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened and cut into 3 pats

OR

1 cup whole milk
1/2 tbsp vanilla bean paste
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1/6 cup cornstarch, sifted
1 3/4 tablespoons (0.875 ounces) unsalted butter, softened and cut into 3 pats

Procedure
1. Bring the milk and vanilla bean (pulp and pod) to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cover the pan, turn off the heat, and allow the milk to infuse for at least 10 minutes or for up to 1 hour.
2. If the milk has cooled, it will need to be reheated now.
3. Whisk the yolks, sugar, and cornstarch together in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan. Whisking constantly, drizzle one-quarter of the hot milk over the yolks. When the yolks are warm, whisk the remainder of the milk into the yolks in a steadier stream; remove and discard the pod (or save it to make vanilla sugar).
4. Put the pan over medium heat and, whisking vigorously, bring the mixture to the boil. Keep at the boil—still whisking energetically—for 1 to 2 minutes before pulling the pan from the heat and pressing the cream through a sieve into the small bowl. Let the cream sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in the butter. Cover the cream with a piece of plastic wrap—press the wrap against the cream—and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. You can speed up the chill by putting the bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and cold water. (Keeping: Covered tightly with plastic wrap, pastry cream can be refrigerated for 2 days. To smooth the chilled cream, whisk it for a few seconds.)

Chocolate Epiphany

2009-02-20T15:32:00.006-06:00

As soon as I saw this book on the shelf, I knew it was coming home with me. Fortunately, I was at the library, so it didn't set me back $35, but it also means I have to give it up in two weeks. :( This book is the stuff chocolate covered dreams are made of. With recipes like Triple Chocolate Financiers, Ganache-Meringue Kisses, Chocolate Churros, Trio of Chocolate Mousse Cake, Gateau de Crepes with Green Tea Cream, how could you not love this book? In his Dark and White Chocolate Napoleon, he uses chocolate covered phyllo dough between layers of chocolate mousse.

While many of the recipes are complicated and read like novels, there are a handful of recipes for the novice baker such as myself. And really, the pictures are so yummy I would still attempt the more complicated recipes.

I made pastry cream earlier today for a Galette des Rois for tomorrow which required just egg yolks, so I decided to make a quick and easy cookie recipe from Chocolate Epiphany to use the egg whites. The cookies have a shiny, crisp exterior, and a soft, warm, chewy center. They do spread, so I could only bake a handful of cookies at a time. And even with a silicon baking mat, they do stick.

Unfortunately, Tim left the camera at work, so no pictures for you. You'll just have to make them yourself if you want to see.

Flourless Chocolate-Walnut Cookies
Source: François Payard

2 3/4 cups walnut halves
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Spread the walnut halves on a large-rimmed baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 9 minutes, until they are golden and fragrant. (1) Let cool slightly, then transfer the walnut halves to a work surface and coarsely chop them. Position two racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and lower temperature to 320. Line two large-rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. (2) In a large bowl, whisk (or combine in an electric mixer on low speed) the confectioners’ sugar with the cocoa powder and salt followed by the chopped walnuts. While whisking (or once you change the speed to medium), add the egg whites and vanilla extract and beat just until the batter is moistened (do not overbeat or it will stiffen). (3) Spoon the batter onto the baking sheets in 12 evenly spaced mounds, and bake for 14 to 16 minutes, until the tops are glossy and lightly cracked; shift the pans from front to back and top to bottom halfway through to ensure even baking. Slide the parchment paper (with the cookies) onto 2 wire racks. Let cookies cool completely, and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Puppy cuteness!

2009-02-18T21:51:00.006-06:00

Who needs words when you have 5 week old puppy cuteness? This is my brother-in-law's newest foster pup.