Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits

 

I made a variation of these dog biscuits last Christmas for a few special dogs in my life.  All the dogs enjoyed them, as well as a couple of my friends who tested them for the pups :) They really are more of a peanut butter banana cracker, so these are approved for dogs and humans!

 

 

This recipe is super simple too, just mash up:

4 eggs

2/3 cup peanut butter

2 bananas

 

Mix in:

2 cups wheat flour

1 cup wheat germ

 

Until you have dough (you can see my pup waiting patiently in the background)

 

Then roll it out on a floured surface and cut your shapes out.  I found a dog bone cookie cutter at a craft store for about $0.75.

 

 

 

 

Put them on an oiled cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 350°F.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let cool and watch your dog devour them!

Chicken Coop Addition and the Adventures of Integrating a New Hen

What a busy month it’s been!  Lots of projects in the garden preparing for winter, and a million things to make for the holiday season!

 

And to add to all the chaos I brought home a young hen to add to our flock.  There were supposed to be 2 little hens, but one was killed by my Dad’s older hens.  So I was really cautious about integrating The Buffster, as we have come to call her.  She is a Buff Orpington, and we kind of just liked that as her name, so Buff for short.  This page is an excellent resource for integrating chickens.  Apparently some people just put the new hens in with their flock when they are sleeping, but my city chickens are pretty tough and much bigger than Buff.  I used the other two options, seperate spaces and caging the bullies.

 

Unfortunately the 2 quail that were living in the garden died a couple months ago, but I was able to use their old cage for Buff.  I set it up next to the chicken coop so all the chickens could see each other and get used to the changes. 

This is how the integration began:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not horrible fighting, but lots of pecking and chasing.  It was mainly the #2 hen, Corn Flake, that would pick on the Buffster.  I seperated her from the others a couple times when she was out of control.  It was strange though, her aggression seemed to bump her up in the chain of command and now she is the Alpha Hen.  We gave them time together almost every day and let them scratch around the backyard where there was plenty of room for Buff to run away if she needed to. 

 

After about a week the older hens didn’t bother her much at all.  So it was time for full integration.   We decided to actually combine the 2 cages.  The original coop needed a bit of reinforcing to begin with.  Once everything was covered in small mesh chicken wire we lined the quail cage up next to the chicken coop with the doorway facing in towards the coop. 

 

We cut a matching doorway out of the side of the chicken coop by cutting a vertical line through the center, then horizontal cuts along the top and bottom of the door.  This allowed us to bend the cut chicken wire into the quail cage to secure the gap between the two cages.  We used gorilla tape around any sharp edges that we couldn’t bend smooth. 

 

 

The overall plan is to add a sunroof to the quail cage section using an old window pane.  We plan to use the top of the main part of the coop to catch rain water, store supplies or turn it into a green roof. 

Even though there was still a little pecking and fighting between hens at this point, we left them alone together to sort out their differences.  And they were fine!  It took another 2 or 3 days until the older chickens let Buff sleep in their house, but now they are one happy flock.

 

Here is one last addition I’ve made to the coop that has made a big difference.  I saw this idea here.  The purpose of the rocks is to keep the chickens from throwing hay and dirt into their water.  Basically I laid a couple logs down in the corner of the coop to close in a square section which I filled with rocks and bricks.  It’s not perfect but much cleaner.

Jim Morrison Wall Art

It’s my amazing sister Holly’s birthday today!  I made her a huge Jim Morrison painting.  It turned out great; I really wanted to keep it for myself!  I think I will just have to do another one for us… maybe with Lux Interior instead?!  I basically just made a huge paper stencil and painting on canvas.

 

I made my own canvas with 24” and 32” stretcher bars and light tan canvas.  You could buy a pre-made canvas too, but it’s usually cheaper to make your own if it’s big painting. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took an image of Jim Morrison that was easy to recognize and decent quality so the basic details would show up in a stencil.  I used Gimp (a free, open source photo editor) to edit my picture.  I changed it to black and white then adjusted the levels, brightness and contrast of the photo until it was straight black and white.  Gimp also has a color option called Posterize (not sure what it’s called in Photoshop); where you can choose to only have 2 colors, black and white, in your image.  With these tools a stencil is easy.

 

Once I had my stencil I made the whole image the same size as my canvas and split it into 8.5” x 11” paper sized sections.  You will have to do some math for this part.  My image was going to need to be printed on 9 pieces of paper.  I made sure to overlap where I cut my image into sections, so that I could easily match the pieces up and wouldn’t miss any part of the image.

 

I printed each section out and then cut the border of the page off.  I assembled the image together and taped the paper with packaging tape on the front and back.  It may be helpful to print the whole image out on a separate piece of paper just so you have a model to look at.

(Also note that I printed my image in colors because I was out of black ink, but I will refer to the colored sections as black and the white as white to make it easier)

 

Now that you have your image, it’s time to make the stencil.  Cut the black spaces out with an X-Acto knife and scissors.  For any floating white spaces (as in not touching other white areas) you will need to keep a little “bridge” of black paper to keep it attached and make placement easy.  It may help to draw the “bridge” before cutting so you don’t make a mistake, as I have done many times with stencils!

 

Once all the black spaces are finally cut, pin the paper onto your canvas.  Take a permanent marker and outline around every line of the stencil. 

 

 

 

 

 

When you finish the overall outline you can go back through where you made the “bridges” and as you’re unpinning, draw in where the floating white pieces begin and end.  I drew a squiggly mark over those spots that would become black to make painting easier.

 

Now just color it in!  I used black silk screen ink with paint brushes, and then added a second coat of paint with a sponge for a smooth finish.  You could use acrylic paint too, but I wanted it to be flat and smooth like a giant silk screen.  I heat set the ink with an iron, although I’m not sure if it was necessary, but maybe it will help keep it from fading.

 

Such a large gift required a lot of wrapping paper, so I taped old phone book pages together and tucked the edges under the stretcher bars.  I even found her name in the listings and drew a heart around it as a gift tag.

 

 

 

Drying Peppers

This year I grew a bunch of peppers I’d never grown before.   I usually just make hot sauces or use fresh peppers in my cooking.  For hot sauces I will freeze peppers as they ripen until I have enough for a decent amount of sauce.  But to fully utilize my Alma Paprika and Joe’s Long Cayenne Peppers I needed to dry them.  I learned that not all peppers dry the same, so I used two different methods. 

 

I also dried some of my Thai Hot Peppers, because they are small and perfect for throwing into soups, pastas, curries, etc.  So for the Thai Hot and Joe’s Long Cayenne Peppers, I simply strung the peppers through their stems on cording.  I used sewing thread for the small peppers and yarn/hemp for the larger peppers.  You can tie a bead or large knot on the bottom of the string to keep the peppers from sliding off as they shrivel up.

 

 

I let the smaller peppers touch each other, but for the cayenne peppers I tied a knot every 3 inches or so after each stem to keep them dry and separated. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hang the strung peppers in a sunny window.  I just put a couple nails at the top of my window sill and hung the peppers from there.  You can hang them outside, but if it rains and the peppers get moist they will rot or mold.  At first I put the nails on the outside of the window sill, but I kept forgetting to bring the peppers in now that it’s finally raining again!

 

 

 

I had trouble with my paprika peppers; my first harvest rotted when I tried to hang them.   I’ve been dehydrating the rest in my oven.  I slice the peppers and spread them onto a baking sheet.

 

 

 

 

 

Then bake them on the lowest setting for several hours until all the moisture cooks out. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ground them up in a blender and made Paprika!  It smells and tastes amazing, I’m going to use it in a potato salad for this weekend.

 

I’m still waiting for the cayenne peppers to dry completely so I can grind them up too; I can’t wait because I love cayenne powder.  One of my favorites is to add it to Alfredo sauce for spicy Alfredo!  I throw a little cayenne in everything to add some spice!

Rice + Water + Blender = Rice Milk!

I never realized how easy rice milk is!  We were buying a carton a week almost, but not anymore.   Brown rice works best since it has the most nutrients, but you can use any rice you like.

 

First cook a cup of rice.  Follow the directions on the bag, the brown rice I used took 2 ½ cups of water for 1 cup of uncooked rice. 

 

Once your rice is cooked and cooled slightly, blend it with enough water to get the blender moving freely (I usually use an equal ratio of water to rice).  You want to chop up the rice as fine as possible, so add as much water as is necessary.

 

 

 

 

 

When your rice mixture is a nice smooth consistency strain it into a clean bowl.  You may have to stir the little rice chunks around so the whole mixture can pass through the strainer.  Continue to strain the mixture 3 or 4 more times, cleaning your strainer and bowls in between.  (I haven’t figured out anything useful to do with the waste rice other than giving it to the chickens or compost, but it seems like it could be a good hot cereal).

 

 

Put your milk in some kind of air tight container, like an old juice or soda bottle.  Gradually add more water until you get it the consistency you desire.  I like my rice milk pretty thin so I added about 3 more cups of water. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can also add flavoring to the milk; such as sweetener, maple syrup, vanilla, cocoa powder, fruit, etc.  The possibilities are endless, but trust me you will not be wasting money on rice milk ever again after trying this.  Just remember to shake the milk before pouring and you can always add more water if it starts to thicken.

Saving Tomato Seeds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saving tomatoes seeds is easy.  In the past I have just scooped out seed and let them dry and had no major problems.  However the seeds stick together and can easily mold.  So this method below involves fermenting and guarantees that your seeds will be clean and disease free.

 

I like to start saving seeds right after I pick the tomatoes and I’m about to cook with them.  Cut the tomato in half and simply scoop out the seeds into a cup labeled with the tomato variety. 

 

Fill the seed cup half way full of water and wrap plastic over the top. I reused a plastic bag from plastic plates or cups. Poke holes in the plastic for air flow and sit the cup on a windowsill.

 

 

 

Stir the seeds a couple times over the next 3 days. You will see a layer of scum on top of the water and your seed will be on the bottom. Scrape the scum off and strain your seeds out. I used my plastic wrap to strain the seeds then let them air dry on top.

 

 

 

 

 

Once they are completely dried put them in a paper packet and don’t forget to label with the tomato variety and date (we’ve made a few mistakes not labeling correctly!).

Vegan Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookie Bars

These cookies are simple and tasty.  I make this cookie dough recipe just to eat the cookie dough.  I had planned to add it to some almond milk ice cream, but we ate all the ice cream too quickly!  So I came up with this.

 

First I oiled my mini loaf pan (You could also use a cupcake pan or a large pan and cut the bars into pieces).  I layered the bottom with pretzel pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used a cookie recipe from How It All Vegan.  First mix:

1 ¾ flour

¾ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

¾ cups sugar

 

Then add:

½ cup oil

½ tsp vanilla

½ cup rice milk

1 cup chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate chunks)

 

Stir it all together and spoon the mixture over the pretzels.  Push the dough into the pretzels so they stick together.  Then bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until golden brown.  Pop them out of your pan and allow to cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not bad for vegan cookies, but next time I will add a layer of chocolate chips and maybe put more pretzels on the top!  And they taste great dipped in coffee or rice milk.