Dog Treats: Chicken & Cheddar

My daughter adopted Weetzie from a rescue over the weekend. Yesterday while I was dog sitting I made Weetzie and Squirrelly some dog treats. They were huge fans staying in the kitchen with me from start to finish. Well, I can't say they stayed there just for these treats because that's usually where they are whenever anybody is in the kitchen. They loved the cooled, fresh baked treats!

The egg for this recipe came from the local Nunley Farm over by Cottonwood High School off 900 East.

Dog Treats: Chicken & Cheddar
1 C rolled oats
1/3 C Earth Balance
1 C chicken broth (boiling)
3/4 C cornmeal
2 t white sugar
2 t chicken boullion granules
1/2 C milk
1 C shredded cheddar cheese
1 egg
3 C whole wheat pastry flour

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Combine the oats, Earth Balance and hot chicken broth in a mixing bowl and allow to sit 10 minutes. Grease two cookie sheets. Add cornmeal, sugar, bouillon, milk, cheese and egg to the bowl and stir to combine. Next stir in the flour and combine with wet ingredients to form the dough. Turnout onto a counter and knead in additional flour to make a non-sticky dough. Roll out dough to 1/2 inch thick. Cut cookies and place onto cookie sheets. I crowded them a bit. They fit onto 2 jelly roll pans and overflowed onto a half sheet. Bake at 325 for 45 minutes. I left these out to cool and then let them dry a little more, bagging them up in the evening.

Original Recipe Source: Dog Treats I by DoughMamma on AllRecipes

Smokehouse Flavored Roasted Nuts

Cookbook Bites: Smokehouse Flavored Roasted Nuts

The other day I was on the elliptical at the gym watching Ina Garten roasting nuts with chipotle and rosemary. She was making roasted nuts for entertaining, but I was already connecting the dots thinking they'd make a good portable snack.

Neighborhood tree beginning to change colors before the leaves fall.

As I reviewed the recipe I found that I didn't know what chipotle was, which it turned out is smoke-dried jalapeño. The recipe also calls for smoked paprika, which is pretty amazing, so I decided to go all in with the smokehouse flavor and added liquid smoke.

The fresh rosemary was the scent I remember from the Herbal Essence shampoo from the 70's. (They said there were 17 herbal essences in the shampoo, and as it turns out, as per Truth in Aging: Did Vintage Shampoos Have the Right Idea?, some other unwanted ingredients like the carcinogen Tetrasodium EDTA. So it seems there's a solid reason as to why it's not on the market anymore. Bummer!)

Mixed nuts, Splenda brown sugar, rosemary

Smokehouse Flavored Roasted Nuts

2 1/2  C mixed nuts
1 C pecans
1/2 C almonds
1/2 C cashews
1/4 C brown sugar (Splenda brown sugar worked fine)
2 T fresh rosemary minced

1 1/2 T fresh squeezed orange juice

1 T vegetable oil
2 T butter
1/8 t liquid smoke

1/4 t chipotle powder

1/4 t smoked paprika
Sprinkle with kosher salt
Pam spray

Spray or oil your baking sheet. Set oven to 350. In a bowl add the nuts, brown sugar and rosemary. Stir to combine. In a separate small bowl add orange juice, oil, melted butter, liquid smoke, chipotle powder, smoked paprika and stir. Pour liquid over the nuts and stir to distribute. Pour the nuts out onto the pan and spread out into a thin layer. Roast the nuts for 20-25 minutes. Stir every 10 minutes. Pull from the oven and sprinkle with salt while warm.

They're very good and are a little understated, but flavorful. A nice change from the over-flavored seasoned nuts at the grocery store.

Recipe Sources/Inspiration:
Jamie Oliver: Festive Honey Roasted Nuts
Ina Garten: Chipotle and Rosemary Roasted Nuts
Sunset November 1997