Now open for Dog Biscuit Business!

Sleeping Dog Bakery - now open for Dog Biscuit Business!!! :-)

My friend Steph and I are both interested in feeding our dogs the best food we can. Gracie, Steph's dog, is a rescue mutt of mixed origins - perhaps border collie and papillon? She is on all-natural Kibble and sometimes enjoys both Kefir and eggs as part of her diet.
Kane is on an all-natural raw diet. I feed him things like chicken backs, leg quarters, chicken necks, turkey necks, turkey wings, ground beef and sometimes we get lucky when my friend Maggie supplies us with rabbit. The amount he gets is based on his current weight and how much physical exercise we are doing at the moment. More about Kane's diet in the future perhaps, or on his Schutzhund Adventures blog.


We looked up a few recipes online and in a book I have and settled on a salmon "cookie" recipe and a baked liver treat. Both dogs WOULD NOT leave the kitchen while we were baking. They were smelling something good, and they were going to make sure they did not miss the taste-testing that could potentially happen.

The salmon treat recipe was made with canned salmon, whole eggs, parsley, sesame seeds, flax seeds, and potato flour. Recipe can be found here.


It was quite easy, and only took some time because I wanted to make pretty cookies using cookie-cutters. :-) Hey, dogs need pretty food too!!! :-)
We used doggie bones, hearts, stars and palmetto trees (for South Carolina.)

The second treat we made was done with chicken livers, molasses and parsley. It truly stunk up the kitchen, which means the doggies LOVED it! :-) The end result was a dried liver treat kind of thing.

Grace and Kane - eagerly awaiting the taste test.

We were really excited that they liked the treats. Both dogs are known to spit out purchased so-called "Gourmet" dog treats and it feels good to know what goes into the treat I give my dog.

What's your dog's favorite treat?

Simple Country Bread

Simple French country bread. But country is country, right? :-) I suppose I should have taken a picture with some lavender next to it....
(Makes 1 LARGE loaf or 2 small ones, I doubled the recipe for my giant loaves above)

3 tsp instant dry yeast (this is equal to 0.9 oz fresh yeast (you lucky dog if you have it!) or 3 3/4 tsp active dry yeast)
2 heaping teaspoons of salt
1 tablespoon honey
2 1/4 cup water
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2.5 - 3 cups all purpose white flour
Another 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour for kneading and putting on top of bread before baking.

Combine the water and honey in a bowl and add the yeast.
Mix the salt in a little of the WW flour (to not kill the yeast), add it and all the WW flour and the AP flour. Mix until you have an even, pretty loose and sticky dough.
You can use a mixer or do it by hand with a wood spatula.
Put a towel over your bowl, place in a warm area, and let it rise for an hour.

Pour the dough out on a well-floured table. Add another 1/2 cup or so of AP flour into the dough and knead it for 5 minutes. You need plenty of flour on your hands! At this point your dough should be nice and non-sticky.
Shape the dough into a large round (or make 2 small ones if you'd rather have that). Move the loaf onto a baking sheet (non-stick or covered with parchment paper.) I have 2 Brotforms (Breadform in German) that I got for my birthday last year and they are great. They are hand-woven cane bread rising baskets from Germany and give your bread that rustic look. I love mine. I dust the Brotform with flour before I put the dough in there which adds to the rustic look.
Let the bread go through the final proofing for another 20 minutes while your oven heats to 475 F.

Bake your bread in the middle of your oven for 15 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 400 C and bake until done, usually another 40 minutes or so. Let your bread cool, preferrably on a cooling rack.
You can spray some water into your oven before your put the bread in as well - that gives you a crustier crust. :-)

This bread is delicious with stews, soups and it makes a great picnic/hiking bread.

Aaaahhhh....simple things are good.

This recipe is slightly modified from one of my favorite Swedish cookbooks called "Love, Thyme and Olives" - well, it's written by 2 Swedish women, but the food is all mediterranean. :-)

Oatmeal Alternative

I admit it. I've tried to love oatmeal, but it's no use. I can't do it. I've tried with brown sugar. I've tried with maple syrup (but the idea here is to have a HEALTHY breakfast!) I've tried with blueberries. It's no use.

Weeeelll....I take that back. I did try it with canned pumpkin, butterscotch chips, toffee chips and dark chocolate chips.....and it was ok. I even had it twice that way. I found that delish recipe here. But then again, who wouldn't eat something that tastes like a pumpkin, butterscotch, toffee and chocolate pie. For breakfast!!!

So, I decided to share what I love to eat for breakfast. It's healthy, but in a different way from oatmeal. Plus I make it myself. Sort of.

Here's how I make Kefir from milk and a box of culture that I picked up at the local Earth Fare store. Once you have a batch of Kefir, you don't really need the culture again. You can just keep a little of your old Kefir and use it to make the new batch.

Water boils at 100 C. Milk boils when you turn your back.

1. Pour a gallon of milk into a pot and slowly bring to a boil. It helps to have a thermometer here...(which I do not because I bought a cheapo one at that W place, and it broke....) If you do not have a thermometer, please watch the pot closely. Burned Kefir is not nearly as good as the non-burnt version.

2. Once your milk has been brought to a boil, take it off the burner ( don't let the milk boil for more than a few seconds.....it WILL burn!).

My kefir taking a cold bath

3. Prepare a bowl in an icewater bath. This usually involves placing a bowl in the kitchen sink and filling the sink with ice and water. Pour the milk into the bowl and let it cool to room temperature. The little bacteria guys (and gals!) in the Kefir do not like it hot - they like warm room temperatures.


4. Once the milk has cooled, it's time to add the Kefir grains. Take out about a cup of the milk and add the grains to it. I like using a small whisk to make sure it all dissolves well. Then add the cup of milk + grains back into the big pot of milk and stir.
5. Add plastic wrap to your bowl and let stand at room temp for 24 hours.



6. At the end of 24 hours, you should have a nice jello-like Kefir in your bowl. 7. I pour mine back into the (now cleaned) milk jug and label the cap with a big "K" (because, let me tell you, some people are not happy about pouring Kefir into their coffee or tea when they were expecting milk!) This is how I enjoy my Kefir breakfast. With freshly ground flaxseed, 1/4 cup Kashi 7 whole grain cereal and a heaping spoonful of whatever jam I have on hand - in this case, strawberry. Kefir does have a bit of a sour taste to it, which is why I prefer to add some sweet jam or fruit to mine.

Kefir is a probiotic and contains many of the good bacteria such as lactobacillus. You can read more about the health benefits of Kefir here:
Wikipedia: Kefir
Lifeway Kefir (a brand of Kefir - you can find this in some grocery stores)

So - what's for breakfast at your place?

Poetic about "saft"

Saft is the Swedish word for "juice". Back home we have many varieties of saft, such as orange, raspberry, strawberry, pear (my favorite!), cherry (so not my favorite!), black currant, red currant, lingonberry, blueberry, rowenberry and I'm sure many more.
Rowenberry saft is what my great grandmother, Ida, used to make. There are stories still being told about her in the old neighborhood about how she would cart a big ladder down to the playground and pick the rowenberries from the trees in order to make saft. What a sight that must have been!
My paternal grandmother, Lillemor, (hej farmor!) makes use of the red and black currant bushes that grow at their home. She sometimes even mixes in raspberries depending on what that particular year's crop was like.

Having a glass of saft in the summertime at my grandparents place is one of my favorite things. Not to mention the fun games you can play with saft, ice-cubes and straws. :-) All of us "kids" (me, my brother and cousins) would each get 2 straws, and then my grandfather said "Go!" (well actually he said "Nu!") and we all positioned our straws against the icecube and (for lack of better description) sucked until we had made it through the ice-cube to the other side. The winner had to bring up his straw with a dangling ice-cube to prove that he/she was first. Yes, we still compete whenever we have the chance to get together... Last summer I decided that it was high time that I learned to make it on my own.

My mom conventiently told me that she happened to have a never-used "Saft-Maja" that I could probably use. Well, turns out Saft-Maja is the Swedish brand name of a steamer.
Many minutes went into pondering what kind of Saft to make. In the end, it was easy. I forgot to mention rhubarb saft up top. Rhubarb is one of my favorite fruits (is it a fruit?). Too bad they don't grow very well down where I live, but once we get some better soil, we may try it anyway. The local farm stand down the road (the Bush n'Vine, yes, really, that is their name.....can you believe it? In SC nonetheless!!!!) is a Strawberry grower, 1 gallon buckets for very cheap. And very yummy. So I decided to make strawberry rhubarb saft. Strawberry Rhubarb pie is after all fiances favorite kind, and we do like to keep him happy.

The recipe I used:

1 litre strawberries
500 grams rhubarb - rinsed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
4-6 dl of sugar (less if you are freezing the saft)

All of these are layered in the top part of the steamer while the water is boiling at the bottom. Here's a picture:


Then you take clean, sterilized bottles (I sterilize mine in the oven and boil the caps in water on the stove) and open the rubber hose to let the saft run out into your bottle. I read a good tip somewhere to place your bottle in a pitcher with a handle so that you don't have to burn your hands on the bottle or spill hot saft anywhere on you or anywhere in your kitchen. Quite handy!

Here are my finished bottles:

Aren't they pretty? All in a row....

I kept these in a cool spot and we finished them within 2 months. This year I will probably try to can them in hot boiling water to get them to last us longer.

Got a steamer? If you do, I'd love some more ideas on what to do with it!

Seeds, seeds, and more seeds!

Seed ordering time is so exciting, isn't it? It's almost like (what I would imagine) a shoe addiction is like. So many colors, shapes, sizes....which ones will work with this soil or that soil. Will it withstand the middle of the summer SC heat and humidity? Sigh.....if I could only practice restraint when it comes to seed ordering...
The good news is that our garden is expanding. We are adding 8-9 feet (which means redoing the fence, but that's ok....what's digging three more postholes and undigging 1 post, right dearest fiance? :-)) We are also adding a raised bed for strawberries (yum!) and then my fiance's latest project. I proudly give you:

THE LAKESIDE VEGETABLE GARDEN
(appropriate fanfare music should now be going off in your head)

146 ft by 39 feet. This is where the majority of the corn, beans and potatoes will go. We are considering getting water from the lake (after doing some research on legality and also the water quality) or using some other kind of contraption for irrigation(read: whatever Mr. Engineer comes up with). If it works out, we're going to have to open up a farm stand at the local farmers market I think. The good news is that the soil down there is so much better than what we have in the other garden-spot, probably due to it's proximity to the lake, and the fact that that area has probably flooded in the past. Hopefully it won't flood anytime soon! :-)

So, back to my lack of, um, restraint when it comes to seed ordering. Don't think I am alone in all this, I read all the time on everyone's blogs about seed catalogue addiction and ordering 100 kinds of pumpkin seeds.... So, here's the damage that was done this year in preparation for the summer 2009 garden. But just imagine all the glorious sprouting and growing that will be going on and how wonderful it will taste! :-)

Pineapple Tomato Seeds (Thanks WVFarmgirl for the recommendation!)
Grape Tomato Seeds
Amish Past Tomatoes, transplants
German Pink Tomatoes, transplants
Orange Bell Pepper, transplants
Wenk's Yellow Hot Peppers, transplants
Slo-Bolt LETTUCE, Thai Oakleaf LETTUCE, Capitan LETTUCE
Long Standing Bloomsdale SPINACH
Lucullus SWISS CHARD and Rainbow (Five Color Silverbeet) SWISS CHARD
Arugula GREENS
Carolina Wonder BELL PEPPER PEPPER
Provider SNAP BEAN (BUSH), Violet's Multicolored Butterbeans LIMA BEAN
Borage, Dill, Basil, Bergamot, Catnip
Minnesota Midget Melons
2 kinds of cucumbers
Peas
3 kinds of corn
5 kinds of potatoes, including fingerlings
Chantenay Carrots
Chioggia Beets and Detroit Red Beets
Brussel Sprouts
Assorted hot peppers: Ancho Chile, Habaneros etc.
Strawberries - 10 plants
Alyssum for companion planting

How are your plans for a summer garden coming along?

Linsotto

Linsotto is a swedish term for risotto, but made with lentils. Lentil in swedish is "lins." Therefore - Linsotto! I got the basis of this recipe from a Christmas gift recipe book (Thanks, Heike!) by Sanna Ehdin, but as always I make my own small changes.
Sanna Ehdin is a Swedish nutritionist, speaker and specialist and has written many books about self-healing and the capacity for inner success, and I've only just gotten started in reading more from her. One of her latest books is about cooking and eating REAL FOOD. Not processed, "light" or "diet" versions or ready-made that the mainstream grocery stores are offering, but food cooked with raw ingredients, using the oils, herbs and spices that are good for you and helps your body fight off disease. Right now, I'm trying to loose some weight, and I've been looking for a way to really change what I eat day to day, and not really diet, but find food that makes me feel good on all levels - including growing it myself or picking it because the color or shape appeals to me, spending time on cooking the food and then enjoying it with someone special.

I digress. :-) Here's the recipe for linsotto:

2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons shredded fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon coconut oil
4 dl (1 3/4 cup) red lentils
8 dl (3 1/2 cups) vegetable bouillon or vegetable broth (you can substitute with chicken broth as well, I did)
1 large chopped tomato
5-6 sliced fresh mushrooms (I used button because that's what I had at home, but I'm sure you can use what you have or like the best)
Shredded Parmesan Cheese (I used about 1/2 cup)
Coriander (or thyme, or basil......), preferrably fresh, but dry is fine too.

1. Sautee the garlic, ginger and cumin in the coconut oil over medium heat
2. Add the lentils (dry) and saute for another minute or so
3. Keep the heat on medium-low and add 1/2 cup of the bouillon or broth at a time. Let the lentils soak up each 1/2 cup liquid before you add the next.
4. At the end your lentils should be nice and soft and a little creamy
5. Add in the chopped tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese. Stir and Enjoy!

I can see LOTS of variations on this as well - maybe some black beans, avocado with the tomatoes. Maybe olives and feta cheese.

If you make it, let me know what variation you used!

Sorry - no picture this time! I'll update the post the next time I make this. :-)

Looking Back: My 2008 Summer Garden

Summer's Bountiful Harvest

I love looking back at my summer garden pictures. It was so green, so full of life and it was so much fun! Here's a summary of my 2008 Summer Garden.

My then-BF (now-Fiance!) thought we should have a vegetable garden and I enthusiastically agreed. I had just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (which, by the way, just called out to me from the bookstore, in a section I never ever really walk by and that day I just felt like I had to. What a book!), and I was more than ready to quit the processed food-buying cycle and live off my own land and all that good stuff. We agreed that is was going to be organic for sure, and we should plant as many heirloom varieties as possible, staying with varieties that would do well in our area (zone 7, hot & humid with clay dirt).

Sean digging post-holes. That's my neighbor's garden spot behind ours - competition! :-)

We started by finding the right spot, borrowing and renting a tiller, Sean did his best to dig down into the lovely red, clay dirt with all those nice white rocks (we have quite the pile!). Because of the abundance of deer in our neighborhood, we decided to put in a fence as well, something more permanent than netting. Sean labored for a whole weekend and the result was gorgeous. We found the white garden gate on clearance down at the home improvement store and Sean "rabbit-proofed" it with netting.

A fence also helps keep Kane out of the garden. "Throw me the ball, Mom!"

Our finished planted garden.

We also decided to do companion planting, planting corn, beans and cucumbers together. Potatoes and bush beans loved each other along with marigolds. Herbs, peas, lettuce and aragula hung out in one section while the tomatoes and peppers had some company in catnip and basil.

Sean, the engineer, was a proponent of row planting (straight, mind you!) while I managed to save the herb section for a more creative willy-nilly type of planting.

We got a lot of seeds from Seed Saver's Exchange and from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, but also ordered tomato transplants and potatoes from Seed Saver's Exchange. Our first venture into seed starting indoors didn't go that well, but we tried again and got the hang of it. Some things we just ended up seeding straight in the garden. They seemed to like that better.

Our garden in the early growth stage.

The aragula turned out really well and the zinnias helped keep the bugs away.
I made an awesome Aragula Pesto from Farmgirl Susan's blog.
See link in my favorite blogs section.

We were very proud of our potato crop of red potatoes.
They lasted into the Christmas holidays!

Next year we're going bigger and more variety with the potatoes. Stay tuned!

The giant German Pink tomato. They were SO incredibly good.
Sliced with fresh mozzarella cheese, some basil leaves, balsamic vinegar,
salt and pepper......

So what did not work so good? Well, the carrots only grew to be about 1 inch long. They were good, but tiny. :-) The corn crop was not great. We only ended up with a dozen or so good ears, the rest were dry. But we heard that many local corn growers had the same problem. Many of the tomatoes developed blossom end rot. Feeding them fish emulsion and kelp helped some. Our neighbors completely gave up on their tomatoes. The lettuce was too hot and did not develop. The peppers did the same (to Sean's disappointment), but we will definitely try peppers again this year and work more on improving soil conditions. The broccoli grew but did not develop heads.

Here are some good books I have and some good links for research if you're a southern vegetable gardener like me. I'd love to hear from you, please share your experiences in gardening!

Home and Garden Info Center at Clemson University - lots of great info on how to grow things in the area where I live (South Carolina)
Organic Plant Healthcare - Billy Styles and his associates in Matthews, NC provide organic based products for soil, grass and turf improvement. We used their Urban Soil Conditioner when we tilled and then the Garden and Flower blend while planting.


Great Garden Companions by Sally Jean Cunningham
The new Seed-Starters Handbook by Nancy Bubel
The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control by Barbara Ellis and Fern Marshall Bradley

We now also have our own composting pile enclosure and mom and I both have compost containers on our kitchen counters (complete with carbon filters!) to capture food scraps, tea leaves and coffee grounds. This is very exciting and I really hope we get good use out of this in the coming years. It feels so much better to not just throw it down the drain (and into my septic tank!).

Happy Gardening!