What I Did on My Summer Vacation by Delia Fields Fischl

Please welcome a special guest to Suddenly Surrounded by Taxidermy, Delia Fields Fischl! 

As dictated to and translated by her Mama.

This summer I spent a lot of time keeping watch over the squirrels and the chipmunks at my house.

Because everyone needs an arch nemesis.

They would hide in Mama's the wood shed.

They would get up under Mama's pickup, Bert.

Sometimes I would spot them from across the yard and stalk them.

But sometimes I didn't even have to go into the yard! This tree is one of their favorites. I could watch it from the deck...

... and I could watch \ it from the ground while Papa and Mama watched me from the deck!

Papa and Mama could also watch me from the deck when I focused my surveillance on the underside of these old planters that they have let go to pot. As it were.

They would also get into the greenhouse at the back of the shop.

Another thing I did was learn to drink out of the faucet on the well head. I used to be very scared of it, but now I make sure that I get to have drinks from it during every morning fetch session! Sometimes I drink from it four times! My parents say that when winter comes I won't be able to drink from it, because it will make a dangerous ice slick on the fetch pitch. That's OK, because I don't get as thirsty during fetch when it's cold out, especially if I can eat snow which I love to do.

 Then on Labor Day I had my fifth birthday! Mama made me two batches of delicious treats with some yummy fresh vegetables, oats, and peanut butter! On Tuesday, Papa took a bunch to his office to share with the other dogs whose parents work there, too.

Squirrels and trees and Ds! Because my name starts with D and I act like I might like to eat a squirrel. Sticks come from trees and I like to chew on those, too! Mama made a video of my parents singing the birthday song to me before feeding me this, but for some reason the Linux laptop is not talking to the Android phone lately and it's too big to email. GAH! MAMA!

Dogtember Birthday: Delia Turns Four!

September 5 comes around and Delia turned four years old! 

September 12 comes around and we celebrate with homemade pupcakes and a song! This silly video is the only photographic proof! 

I used this recipe for the cakes (3 regular size, 48 minis*). For the "frosting" I did a mix of 3 parts cottage cheese, 1 part creamy peanut butter, a tablespoon or so of dehydrated egg whites, applied with a piping bag. The sprinkles are grated carrots. This one had carrot candles, just for the birthday girl!

NOTE: Eric was also singing, but you can't hear him over my wonderful rendition of the classic.

 

*Eric took 34 to work, labeled them clearly as dog treats, set them in the break room, and only one person ate one without reading the note. We shared some others with Handyman Nick's pup.

Dogust Birthday: Betty Turns Five!

Betty turned five years old on Thursday, August 20! Her papa was out of town on beeswax, so she was treated to a solo performance by mama. What a lucky girl!

A friend from a Facebook group shared a recipe for "dog ice cream" so I decided to make pupcicles to celebrate! One of the pupcicles is the base for Betty's peanut-butter-supported carrot "candles."

RECIPE*
Add the following to a blender:

3 ripe bananas

1 cup peanut butter (make sure it does not contain xylitol, which can be deadly to dogs)

Blend until combined and at least mostly smooth. Pour into ice cube trays or moulds. Freeze.

I was lucky to have received this bone-shaped, silicone baking mould for Christmas and it worked great! I also had this silicone mould of sausage shapes because I couldn't resist it when I saw it.

Once the treats are completely frozen you can pop them out of the moulds, put them in a freezer-safe container and then back in the freezer.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BETTY!

Both of the Beastie Grrrlz love these cool treat on these hot Dogust days and I have to say that of all the dog treats I have made, there are the tastiest!

* Here are the changes I made:
I did a 2/3 batch because I had only 2 bananas in the freezer.

I mixed the ingredients in a bowl, using a fork to break up the banana as necessary. We use the blender for bulletproof coffee and I didn't feel like doing all the cleaning it would take to use it for the pupcicles.

Because of that my mix was thicker and I scooped it into the moulds with a spoon.

My 2/3 recipe made 15 bones, 8 sausages, and about a dozen regular ice cubes. I bet the original recipe would fill about 3 standard ice cube trays.

Terrific Twos (please)

Two carrot "candles" mounted in peanut butter to go with the Happy Birthday song!

Anyone in my gift-giving-to circle whose birthday falls in September or October knows that I'm very unreliable at this time of year.  Also if you live far away (which is everyone now) - ahem+.  I am just soooo focused on Halloween that the days fly by and I miss the significant dates.  So, when September 5th arrived it was almost 10a before I remembered it was Delia's 2nd birthday!  And I hadn't made treats!  ACK!  I hustled through my "Making: Beasties" pin board (on pinterest) for the recipe I'd planned to make which I found right away and realized that I didn't have all that I needed for it so I found another for which I had almost all the ingredients already. At least we had a "big" party for her first birthday, right?

She wasn't interested in the carrot "candles" but she was interested in the peanut butter at their bases! She let Betty have the carrots; at least Betty likes carrots.

The recipe came from King Arthur flour, which just happened to be the brand of whole wheat flour I had in the pantry.

Top row, left to right: Two each of gnomes to celebrate all the lawn fauna left here by the former owners that (mostly) Delia has demolished, hydrants to honor her urban roots, and squirrels, because... SQUIRRELS!
Bottom row: bones; the traditional shape of dog treats (there are 6 more of these)

Best of Breed Biscuits (their name, not mine)

2 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour or Premium Whole Wheat Flour (I had Premium)
1 cup rolled oats, regular or quick (I used regular)
1 tablespoon dried parsley or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (didn't have either, so left it out)
1/2 cup Baker's Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk (mine was store brand)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup peanut butter, crunchy or plain (I did half and half creamy and crunchy because I didn't have a whole cup of either)
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon cold water, enough to make a cohesive dough (I used half a cup, but could have added the extra tablespoon)

1) Preheat the oven to 300°F. Lightly grease a couple of baking sheets, or line them with parchment. Grease is the word around here.

2) Mix together the flour, oats, parsley, dried milk, and salt.

3) Add the eggs and peanut butter, stirring to combine; the mixture will be crumbly.

4) Add enough water to bring the dough together; depending on the season, you may need to add a bit more (winter), or a bit less (summer). It seemed like my dough was together, but it wasn't together enough to be rolled 1/4" thick.  Oopsie!

5) To make biscuits using a dog-bone cutter, roll the dough about 1/4" thick, and cut with a 3 1/2" cutter (or the size of your choice). Gather and re-roll the scraps, and continue to cut biscuits until you've used all the dough.

NOTE: I have A LOT of cookie cutters.  Like probably over 165 now that I picked up an alphabet set at the Goodwill.  Yeah.  So, I dug through to find a few that I thought were appropriate to Delia and then I used some of the teeny tiny ones to finish off the dough.  *We generally give smaller, bite-sized treats to the Beastie Grrrlz so that they can have a few without compromising their healthy weights.

6) To make dog "cookies," drop the dough in walnut-sized balls onto the prepared baking sheets. Flatten them to about 1/4".

7) Bake the biscuits for about 40 to 60 minutes, baking the smaller cookies for a shorter amount of time. When finished, the biscuits will be dark golden brown, and will be dry and crisp all the way through. Because mine were thicker, the small biscuits went for about 40 mins and the larger for 55 or so.  Either our oven runs a bit hot or the altitude makes it so that usually the lower number of minutes listed in a recipe is just about right for baking here.

8) Remove the biscuits from the oven, and cool right on the pans. I let the minis cool on the pan, because they'd fall through the cooling rack, but out of habit cooled the big ones on the racks after about 10 mins on the sheet. It worked just fine, but it seems I needlessly gave myself and extra thing to wash. [shakes fist at sky]

Yield: about 42 larger (3 1/2" dog-bone) biscuits, 60 smaller (round) biscuits. I ended up with 17 large treats and probably 70-80 mini treats.

Dozens of tiny triangles and tiny stemless 3-leaf covers (I guess). Once cooled I put this in an "airtight" container in the fridge.  It's going to take awhile to go though all these treats. 

+Today (Sept 6) is my oldest niece, J's, birthday!  And I haven't mailed off her gift, because I suck.  I haven't mailed her brother's gift either, it sits on my desk, his birthday was May.  Ugh.  Next week!  And I'll send her sister's then, too; 6 weeks early.

*This strategy meant A LOT more time went into making these than if I'd just made them all bone-, squirrel-, hydrant- or gnome-shaped.  If I'd been able to roll the dough to 1/4" I'd probably still be cutting and baking those suckers.

Somebody Turned Three Years Old

August 20, 2013: Betty is THREE!  That's supposed to be a milestone for many types of dogs; a time when they mellow and mature and chill the heck out.  We'll see.  For now we're encouraging her to act like a polite young lady. Again, we'll see.

I used three (3) puppy-sized, bone-shaped biscuits for candles which she "blew out" one at a time. We cut the cake about 40-60 to share with her sister.

While we didn't throw a party or wear tutus, I did still make special birthday treats: PUPCAKES!  The recipe made two (2) dozen (12) mini cupcakes and once regular sized, which we presented her when we sang happy birthday.

We had fun plans to walk down to the creek for a wade where I imagined getting well-lit, adorable pictures of the birthday girl, but it was just way to smokey from the Lolo Fires* to spend much time at all outside.

I used this recipe that I found on allrecipes.com via pinterest:

1 egg
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup cooking oil (I substituted unsweetened apple sauce)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup honey (optional and I left it out)
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350F (I did 325 since I was doing cupcakes instead of a cake). Grease 6-cup ring mold (or grease or put papers in your cupcake tin)

2. Combine egg, peanut butter, oil/apple sauce, vanilla, and honey (if using) in a large bowl, blend well.

3. Stir in the carrots and mix thoroughly.

4. In a separate bowl, sift flour and baking soda together then fold into the carrot mixture. (I did all of this in the KitchenAid mixer)

5. Spoon into cake mold or cupcake tins.

6. Bake in preheated oven for 40 mins (I did about 20 for the mini cupcakes and 25 for the regular-sized one).  The directions didn't suggest it, but I used the old toothpick test to see if they were done.  Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then move to rack until completely cool.

I read a few different dog cake frosting recipes online and then just made one up.  It's about a cup of low-fat cottage cheese and a somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 cup of creamy peanut butter; I had some extra that I mixed into their meals for a few days.  First, I smashed the curds with a wooden spoon against the sides of a bowl, then I stirred in the peanut butter.  It worked pretty well in the pastry bag, but it wasn't as smooth as regular people cake frosting. I was pleased with how it held its shape.

Finally, I topped then with puppy-sized, bone-shaped dog treats from the store. Put them in an airtight storage container and then into the fridge.

NOTE: This is more like dough than batter and I wish I'd pressed it into the cupcake papers a bit to make it both more cupcake shaped and perhaps to get the papers to stick to it just a little. Most of them ended up sitting in the papers more like I'd added them afterwards.

This is the plate I took to the neighbor dogs.  These are those on which papers were the tidiest. 

All the ingredients are human grade and maybe if I'd used the honey they'd have been passable human food, but I think the best way to describe the taste is "good for you."  By which I mean bland and with a slightly grainy texture.  The Beastie Grrrlz love them, though!  And I took some to one of our neighbors and her dogs seemed to love them, too.  In fact, their HUMONGOUS Great Dane/Mastiff/Scared-y Cat Mix got closer to me than ever before and even gave me a lick (well after I gave her a treat).

Now I have to figure out what to make for Delia's 2nd birthday in just a couple of weeks!


*

View from the front deck this mornng: no sky, no valley, slight smokey smell in the air. House is closed up with all of us in it to minimize the throat, lung, sinus and eye irritations.

Checking Off Bucket List III

Auntie Lisa's wonderful shot of the birthday girl!

Last year we had a birthday party for Betty for her first birthday where she and played with dog family and we visited with people family and friends.  This year was Delia's turn, even though it was just one week before the big move.

Big sister Betty and birthday girl Delia looking expectantly at Grandma Pat. (photo by Lisa Leggett)

This year we held it at the dog park where the girls play every day around 4p so that Delia could play with her friends and mama and papa wouldn't have to make the house or yard presentable to guests and safe for rowdy dogs amongst all the packing.

Party Central with a donation bucket for Delia's shelter of origin, dog and people treats, favors and water for people.  Water for dogs was in a bowl on the ground. 

Of course, I started planning in March and started making decorations in April.  Which is a good thing since in May we decided to move to Montana.  Ahem.  I started with this bunting inspired by something I saw on pinterest (of course).

The "Delia Head Bunting" photographed by Auntie Lisa!

My inspiration was Delia herself; when she yawns her long, skinny tongue unfurls like a party blowout so I really had no choice but to make Delia-face blowouts!  The hardest part was finding tongue-pink blowouts that weren't printed with princess crowns or licensed characters.

Bowl full of Delia-head blowouts

Like any kid's birthday party, my fur kids' parties have to have favors for the guests to take home and since all dog parents know that dogs are gross and all my friends have to have a sense of humor, I used a dog treat recipe to make a real-food version of that gross-dog favorite: Kitty Roca.  YUM!

Looks like that canine favorite, cat poop, but it tastes & smells like... well, not cat poop.

People guests got decorated shortbread cookies.

And best of all, Family Dogs New Life Shelter (where we found Delia) received lots of donations!  Because Delia has everything she needs and sometimes people feel compelled to bring gifts, we suggested donations for the shelter dogs who are waiting for a home. Delia delivered them herself like a big girl!  We also donated the left-over people and dog treats to the volunteers and staff of the shelter and its current residents.

Used one of the merchandise display buckets from Bubble Off Plumb to collect donations.  I love how I can use magnets to attach signs!

Checking Off Bucket List II

Delia took to the sand just like it was the grass at the park! She and Betty chased tennis balls with more than the usual gusto.

 
One thing about never have lived outside the Willamette Valley is never having lived more than a couple of hours from the Pacific Ocean.  I don't go all that often, but there is something comforting about knowing I can get off the continent pretty quickly if for some reason I need to.  Zombies don't swim, after all.  We'd known that we "should" hit the beach before leaving, but we just haven't gotten around to it so we crammed it in just a couple of weeks before heading inland.  It will Delia's first time and today is also her first birthday.

Delia seemed to like the feel of warm sand on her belly and her face.

It was beautiful at Manzanita, but windy on the beach so after about 25 minutes of fetching we gathered our things and went in search of lunch.  At first we were thinking burgers, but then we saw seafood on the menu and each realized that it was a must to eat fish on our last beach visit while living in a state with an oceanic coastline.  After lunch, we came back for more dog-fun!

Betty did not stop zooming around from the time we hit the sand to the time we left.  "Kick it again, Papa!"

It was even windier when we returned and there must have been a dozen or more kite boarders in sight.  Betty was pretty curious about those on the beach, but mostly she wanted to fetch into the incoming tide.  See all that sand on the dogs in these photos?  We brushed ALL of it off and yet ALL of it is in the car and some of it is on their couch. Hey Science!  Explain that! Sigh.

Soooo ti-ohed. 

If only Betty were able to sleep all the way home and every other time we're in the car for longer than 30 minutes.  Instead she gets carsick which makes Delia not want to be in the back seat with her, which makes Betty want to be in the front seat with the rest of the family.  We came prepared, though, and I had an entire large-sized load of dog laundry to do when we arrived home.  Poor puppers.  We hope to get some sedatives for her for the Big Drive in a few weeks.

Checking Off Bucket List I

Betty and her double-layer rawhide doughnut "cake" with baby carrot candles attached with almond butter.

Before we leave, I want to see my people, eat at my favorite places, get supplies from local shops and chain stores that aren't (yet) in the Missoula area and, maybe most importantly, do as many of the activities I'd have done if we weren't moving as I can.    Last year we had a 1st birthday party for Betty and we'll be doing the same for Delia in a few weeks, but yesterday was Betty's 2nd birthday and I made sure we celebrated it.

We sang happy birthday while Betty and Delia patiently sat waiting, then dished up a rawhide doughnut to each.  For our daily afternoon parkies, Betty got decked out in her party tutu and wore it all over the park while chasing her ball and her friends and while hassling a teenager there to practice his soccer goals.

The girls also got an extra, hour-long parkies while the buyers of The ManFlesh's house had inspections and such: we had some sleepy pups last night!