Dog Food home-made

Over at Down to Earth, Rhonda makes her own dog biscuits and dog food....We love giving our Rusty and Cindy treats...(You can view some action photos of the girls here) and what better treat than something that's good enough for US humans to eat. Well....you know what I mean......I have made dog biscuits in the past for my two little dogs, and they love them.....But............

Our Cindy (miniature black & white Jack Russell) just had some major dental work done with 13 teeth being removed...(she already had 9 missing).....I've had to rearrange her diet. With our home-made biscuits being far too crunchy now for her now.

The other day, I bought trays of liver and kidneys....and two trays of cheap minced beef. I had beef and pork bones in the freezer to make some serious stock once home. I forgot to buy chicken carcasses....so it's just beef, lamb and pork for this batch.

Once I had a pot of stock brewing, I got on to chopping up veg in the whizzer to add to the dog food....I was also chopping veg for coleslaw and soup for the community garden...so one mess for three different projects. Brilliant!!

To make the veg fine for the dog food, I put it in the whizzer and added some stock from the stove (in batches)....this makes the veg move around the blades easier and get chopped up nice and fine. I also did this to cut up the kidneys and liver. (Thinking that Cindy won't be doing much chewing, I kept everything fine). Each batch then got put into the big boiler pot, along with the two trays of browned off minced beef.

A good heaped cup of rice, as well as small pasta was also added to the meat and veg mixture.....I then added a few heaped dessert spoons of garlic powder (good for keeping fleas at bay) and more dried herbs..(there was lots of herbs in the stock too)....Covered with the stock I made earlier, it was all left to simmer for a few hours. I also thickened it with some gravy powder.

My cooking was cut short with a huge fall in the kitchen,  catching my toe on a milk-crate I had bought into the kitchen to sit on to get down in those deep corner cupboards.....(bugga! those cupboards, bugga! that milk-crate)......Once I was able to get up off the floor, I got DS17 to turn the stove off, while I hobbled off to lie on the bed and he went and got the ice-packs.....All I could keep thinking was...."Hubby is on his way home for the weekend....and I'm going to spend my time in the hospital having x-rays". The ice immediately paid off...because this morning I woke feeling very sore,  but I really don't think I have broken anything. I certainly done some short term damage with my bad leg, as I feel like I'm walking in a moon boot again.....I definitely hurt an area on my leg where there are screws and a plate....with pain in the same area where I broke my leg last year.....don't worry, I will keep an eye on it. 

So....the following morning, I found how thick it had turned out....lovely! For my puppy dogs anyway! It actually smells pretty darn good...and the dogs were circling while I was packing it all up for the freezer. I decided 3/4 cup for each dog, but froze it in double batches.

This pot was full to the top.

19 meals for two little dogs.

After dividing it all up...I got 19 days of food for both dogs. Which is fantastic because I don't plan to give it to them every day...supplementing with other foods or leftovers. And they will still have a bowl of mini dry biscuits to graze on each day.

Do you make your puppy dogs their own food? 

What's your favourite recipe? 

If you have blogged about it....leave a link to the post

I'd love to read about it.

Making Yoghurt in my crock-pot

Even the best cooks can make mistakes, I am not one of the best cooks, but my boys think I am. Yesterday I scorched the milk, and still went ahead and made yoghurt...

Here is what happened....

I had made heaps of yoghurt years ago with mum, she had an easi-yo yoghurt maker......but I had to refer to the Internet for memory joggers first up. 

I poured 2 litres of milk into the crock-pot, and according to a lady on the internet, I was to leave it for 2 to 3 hours on high, or just before it comes to the boil.....so thinking I had plenty of time to attend to other things, I continued on...."What's that funny noise?' I'm saying to myself while looking around the kitchen.....
it was the crock-pot on a full rolling boil.......
I had scorched the milk.
Now do I waste it or continue on to see if I can still make it.?..
you know I am not going to waste it without trying first...
I tasted the milk and it didn't taste burnt, so I kept going.

Washing out the crock-pot after scorching the milk.

Adding the starter culture to the milk.

 Once the crock-pot was cleaned, I poured the milk back in. When it was warm to the touch I added a small tub of natural yoghurt as the starter. 

 And wrapped it up and put it to bed for the rest of the day and night. I was lucky enough that when I bought my crock-pot it came with this beautiful sleeping bag. 

Last night before going to bed, I checked on the milk
It had worked..much to my delight.
It didn't look like much was there though....
but I kept going and decided to strain it overnight....

I knew those ANZ money bags would come in handy one day....I just knew it.

Best to turn the bag inside-out so you don't have to scrape around the seams.

This morning, I checked on the yoghurt...

and it was still draining, but feeling the bag, I decided it was thick enough.

After straining overnight

The crock-pot was used to catch the whey.
I will use some of the whey today
to make scones and a loaf of bread.

Out of the 2 litres of milk and the small tub of natural yoghurt, 

I got 541 grams of yoghurt and about 1 litre of whey. 

This is great, I think Natural yoghurt is a bit pricey in the supermarket. 

Left: Now take some aside to use as the starter culture for the next batch of yoghurt.

Right: Take some and add your home-made jam....(strawberry here) and mix through. 

That was with breakfast!!!

Centre back: Place the rest in the fridge to chill....

This lot will be used as plain yoghurt.....and sour cream

hmmm I think fig and ginger yoghurt is looking good for tomorrow...

the possibilities are endless!!!

It is the perfect consistency for sour cream.

See, it is worth it to keep on going....you just never know, even the worst blunders can turn into something great.

Have you ever salvaged what you are cooking and followed through with the recipe?

Did it work? Did it blunder? 

I would love to hear about it. 

2 markets today

Today after dropping my DS16 off at Tafe, we planned a trip to Kiama, to the local Farmer's Market....we had never been down there, so we though we would go for a drive and check it out....There were lots of fresh fruit and vegetables to be bought....and of a high quality too.

 

DH kept looking out to sea, checking out the ocean....In the distance you could see a light craft bobbing up and down. This tells me it's starting to get a bit rough out there...We are getting itchy feet and need to get back on the water soon. I love going fishing.....

 

As we had many jobs to complete today, we decided to go back home to get stuck in, so if the weather is nice, we may go fishing tomorrow. On the way back home, noticing it was still early, we decided to go to Warrawong markets as well. Lucky we did, because on the way out, I found this huge batch of green tomatoes....That was all the stallholder had left. I asked, "How much?" and he replied "Ten dollars a box.", I said back to him, "How about $15 for the two?" and that's how I got them home...I am yet to weigh them, but they are pretty heavy... I haven't done Green Tomato Pickles for a few years now, so it will be good to have them in the stockpile. Look for the post in a couple of days..

I won't get time to cook these up over the weekend, but I will do them during the week some time.

 

 

Things that need to get done this weekend.......

 

• Repair the front gate.
• Make 2 batches of home brew
• Pack away dehydrated mushrooms
• Cut up animal fat and start rendering
• Check that I have all engredients to make soap from animal fat
• Make soap
• Make Laundry Powder
• Make mushroom soup and freeze in batches 
• Batch of Pumpkin scones
• Batch of Pumpkin Wholemeal muffins
• Make 2 loaves of bread.

 I also found this cane basket, that needed rescueing.....It is in a state of repair, but I like the idea of it having been around the block a few times.....it has a history, and now it is going to have a history with me as well.

 



STEAMED DATE N NUT LOAF - bulk recipe for the freezer

Steamed Fruit and Nut Roll or Steamed Xmas Pudding - Bulk Recipe -  Baking     

For step by step photo's...click here

Depending on the time of year and the climate I .......
SERVE SLICED COLD WITH BUTTER OR MARGERINE
SERVE SLICED HOT WITH CREAM, ICECREAM OR CUSTARD

There are no eggs and no butter. An excellent source of fibre so try not to eat the whole thing.

for a printable copy ......... http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=71459074

I don’t enjoy the traditional fruitcake mainly because of fruit peel and raisin stems but I can choose what goes in these. They are VERY MOIST and VERY POPULAR.

I make these at Xmas and wrap them in glad wrap, freeze them, Tie a ribbon around and hand them out to friends and family to take home and enjoy.

NOTE: My boiler fits 8 tins in it. If I could find a bigger boiler it would make the recipe work well because of the division of one mixture into 3 equal tins. I could use 3 mixtures into 9 cans if my boiler was a bit bigger.

I got my tins from buying cans of pineapple juice and apricot nectar and keeping the tins it comes in. (Apricot chicken was on the menu that night...lol)
(As long as the tins are long and skinny... any should do.) Remember to fully dry them when finished and pack in press seal bags to prevent rust.

My nan used to make these for the red-cross stall, and they were always the first to go, she used to just use mixed fruit.

Its handy to know you always have something on hand for unexpected visitors...they defrost rather quickly....or if a neighbour is having a hectic time for whatever reason, you could always give them one to say your thinking of them..

STEAMED FRUIT LOAF - THE RECIPE

I always triple the recipe. In 3 separate bowls do each recipe. Three batches fill all the tins in the boiler. I have to divide the triple recipe into 8 tins not 9 because of the size of my boiler.

1.         In 3 separate bowls put………..

2 cups all bran (home brand is fine)

Soak in 2 cups milk

2 dessert spoons golden syrup. 

Soak for at least 2 hours or overnight

2.         While the mixture is soaking I then prepare the other ingredients for later use….

Into 3 separate medium freezer bags just to save washing more dishes……..

Add and mix the following into each freezer bag…….

1 cup sugar

2 cups plain flour

2 level tspns bi carb soda

1 tspn mixed spice

2 cups of dried fruit or nuts or both (as long as its 2 cups chopped).

1 tspn ground ginger

I love using apricots, dried apple, dates, cranberries, sultanas, macadamia nuts, walnuts, almonds. I don’t recommend dried banana chips. I also inspect and remove any dried stems left on the sultanas and raisins.

3.         Now take one dry mix and add it to one soaked mix and mix until all is combined.

Spray the tins and the foil lid.

Divide the mixture into the 3 tins (see note)

4.         Repeat step 3 until all 3 mixtures are used and placed in tins.

5.         Cover with double foil and string. I tie string around the top of the tin then across the top to create a handle for removing them from the hot boiler later.

6.         Cook in boiler using enough water to half cover the tins. Cover and boil slowly for 1 ½ hours. When cooked take out of boiler and remove cake from tin, place on another rack to cool. Cut into slices and enjoy.

NOTE - I sometimes make 2 batches in one day so I end up with 16 rolls.

you will make these again.