Giving Thanks

A Thanksgiving post by The Dog Picker

I've noticed at the dog park lately many dogs have been feigning a humble attitude toward Thanksgiving. Let me just say, a humble attitude is not something I endorse because a table heaped high with food and the gluttonous feast that follows only comes once a year.

I say make the most of this holiday. Here's to glasses filled with wine and plates left unattended.

Oh sure, be thankful for tiny crumbs tossed your way, but let me add whining and a stubborn attitude can take you a lot farther than you might expect.

People say they don't like whiners but why are they continually rewarded?

And while I'm giving thanks, let me add I'm also thankful for the school kids who continue to toss away their lunches. On weekdays the grade school routes are gold mines for hungry hounds. This week was no exception. I found two decent apples in the gutter. Carry your treasures home, then whine and pout. Someone is bound to give in and let you eat the apple. Trust me, whining works.

I'm also thankful for snacks left at eye level on the coffee table. Best advice--pretend to be in a deep sleep, but listen closely for the sound of foot steps leaving the room. People forget plates on tables a lot faster than you might think. Distractions, my friend, are a dog's best friend when it comes to snacks on plates. Celery and almond butter anyone?

I'm also grateful for memory foam, daytime naps and bedtime stories. Notice how I position myself in the middle of the bed? I say let the Golden Retriever be humble, I'll take the bed any day. "Off" is a dirty word in my world.

And coffee breaks? Kudos for Anne Bramley's Lemon Meyer Tea Bread--a treat to revive any napping hound.

And I especially give thanks to the management who brings home great food from the farmers' market every week. Our home is continually filled with the scent of vegetables roasting and desserts baking like this cherry crisp.

One of my favorite dreams is that I'm left alone with the entire dessert. Oh, I think you know how that dream ends--with a smile on my face!

Never lose sight or scent of your dreams.

May your holiday be filled with outrageous treats.

Yours truely--the dog picker.

Homemade Dog Biscuits

I have a confession to make--I eat dog biscuits. Oh not Milk Bones or any of those "gourmet biscuits" that have faux frosting at pet stores, and I'm not one of those freaky people from "My Strange Addiction," but ever since I started experimenting with nongluten flours and making crackers that my friends called "dog biscuits," I've been addicted.

The biscuits started out as crackers, and in the early days I put them in cute little bags as gifts telling people they were crackers. But even my Cooking Assistant has always acted as if they're dog biscuits that were created just for him.

He could hardly contain himself yesterday when I told him I was making Buckwheat Bones, and when I asked if he'd like to take a picture he was beside himself. He started licking the bowl the minute I set it before him.

These are made with buckwheat, yams and peanut butter--no bacon involved because that really drives him crazy. And I wanted to eat these "crackers," so I stuck with the vegan version--peanut butter and yams.

The basic idea for dog biscuits is you create a liquid with the flavors you want, then add it to the flour mixture. I didn't have any stock, so I just added water. Add additional flour until the dough is very stiff.

If you refrigerate the dough, it becomes more rigid, making it easier to roll out. One cool thing about nongluten flours is you can roll and re-roll and the texture never becomes tough.

Another cool thing about making your own dog biscuits is you can use any kind of cookie cutters you want. I once gave a bag of these crackers to a friend because her kids loved the simple flavor of peanut butter and molasses. A big bonus is they aren't too sweet.

Some dogs don't want to share. That would be my Cooking Assistant. He's just waiting for his share.

Here's the recipe:

Buckwheat Bones

(Makes about 60 2- to 3-inch biscuits)

3 cups buckwheat flour

3/4 cup tapioca flour or potato starch

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup mashed sweet potatoes or canned pumpkin

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup blackstrap molasses

Approximately 1 cup water

1/2 cup bacon (optional)

1. Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Place sweet potato, peanut butter, molasses and 1/2 cup water in a blender or food processor. Puree until smooth. Add remaining water; then blend with dry ingredients. Add bacon, if desired.

2. Stir until the mixture becomes a stiff dough. Gather into a ball and place in a plastic bag or covered container in the refrigerator for at least one hour. (You can refrigerate this dough up to one week, if you like.)

3. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a few baking sheets with parchment paper. Divide dough in half. Put half in the refrigerator. Roll the other half out to about 1/4-inch thick. Cut with cookie cutters and place as many as you can on a cooking sheet. It doesn't matter if cookies touch.

4. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Biscuits should be fairly hard when done. For extra-crispy biscuits leave in the cooling oven for an hour.

It feels a little odd to eat a dog bone shaped biscuit, but the crunch and peanut flavor are what I really like.

Go ahead and make them for "your dog" but I totally get it if you sneak a few of these cool biscuits for yourself.

Mair Farm Cat

It's time to give equal treatment to the cat who rules out house. But before you say this isn't a food connection, let me just say that Gino came from Mair Farm-Taki. I got him at the farmers' market. Don't get me wrong, it's not a regular occurance and who would even think you could find a cool cat at the farmers' market?

I'm not sure I'll see kittens at this market again, but this is what happened:

Our oldest female basset hound and our 19-year-old cat had passed within two weeks of each other. It was sad and our second oldest hound Zeke was depressed. If you've ever seen a depressed basset hound, it could break your heart. Their faces get very long and their eyes droop and look as if they're holding back a thousand tears. Zeke was just flopped on the sofa when I left for the market.

I arrived before the opening bell and started walking down the row of farm vendors. When I came to Mair Farm-Taki, Katsumi had a small pen with baby kittens. Every kitten looked different, but there was one in the middle of the crowd who looked exactly like our old cat Gina. I picked the kitten up, then put it down and walked away at first. (Don't ever pick up a kitten because you might just come home with it.) I kept thinking about that kitten as I walked.

I thought about Zeke, too.

This is Zeke with Gina when Zeke was younger. He won the most kissable dog nose contest on a radio station with this picture that was taken when Zeke was young. This reproduction appeared later in a basset hound calender. See how Gino looks like Gina?

I wondered if the little grey tabby could cheer up Zeke. It sounds crazy, but it worked. Little Gino curled right up with Zeke and actually cheered Zeke until Zeke too passed away about a year later.

Finn and Gino have a different relationship. Finn plays with Gino, and Gino seems so wild I call him a 5th generation barn cat. Sometimes we can hear him walking around on our roof. But Finn is clumsy and sometimes too rough.

Gino cops an attitude and sits in Finn's favorite chair. I love his attitude.

When I started taking pictures of Gino, guess who copped an attitude?

Gino taunts Finn by taking his chair and Gino intimidates Chloe by taking her bed while she's in it. Gino eats slowly in front of Finn, and Finn never tires of trying to figure out a way to get Gino's food.

Maybe the gears move a little slower in basset hounds' minds, but these hounds are focused. Giving Gino the stink eye isn't a strategy that works either.

Finn knows my number. I had a treat for him and Chloe that I bought at Myken's on Whidbey Island yesterday. Finn was more than willing to strike a pose. That's the thing about dogs, they quickly forget who really rules the house.

$100 a Week for two--buying summer fruit

Summer has finally arrived, and it's getting sketchy with my food budget. Last summer I easily spent $160 a week with all the fruits and quirky vegetable finds, like the leek tips I brought home yesterday. It's definitely harder to stick to $100 a week for two, but I anticipated the deluge of summer fruits early when I thought about each season, and during summer we stock the freezer for winter.

Here's how I'm hoping most everything I want will fit in:

Every bit of change I had since January filled two dream boxes for summer fruit. I hope quarters are abundant, and I'm not sure it will take me through apple season, but I've pretty much got summer fruit all paid for in advance. The organic versions are expensive and I already got my peach and nectarine CSA from Rama Farm and I suspect that will have to be above and beyone my $100 a week allowance, if I do it again this year.

The scent of local organic strawberries from Rent's Due Ranch is worth the price. The berries from our yard are never as good. Even my Cooking Assistant is happy.

I was trying for one of those William Wegman poses, but basset hounds don't listen as well as weimaraners. Check out this video of Wegman's dogs going over a spelling lesson.

Finn doesn't usually have a clue when I talk about anything, and if he does, he barely shows it. Basset hounds see the world through their nose. The only way Finn would pose with a strawberry on his head is because I have one in front of him.

He really wanted that berry.

Rewards for the persistent dogs in life who know what they want.

Favorite Links

I thought I'd round out this week with some of my favorite things that have really excited me this year.

This blog intersects with my three loves, food, photography and my two basset hounds, so here are a few of my links that I've returned to more than once:

Food Connections

• Spinach Soup with Cashew Cream--this soup was crazy good. Of the 22 soups from "The Soup Project" that I've made, this one by far has the most possibilities for spin off recipes. What can I say? I love cashew cream!

• Quinoa Fritters--this recipe that I pilfered from The South American Table by Maria Baez Kijac has saved me many times when dinner time approaches and I have nothing in mind. Okay, it's not the healthiest recipe because the fritters are fried, but the flavor and texture will leave you wanting more.

• Make an Artist Date in Your Garden--this concept has changed my life. The artist date concept came from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, and the idea is to make an artist date with yourself once a week. It can be anywhere--walk on the beach, check out an antique store, go to an art museum, watch a parade--but you must immerse yourself in the moment like an artist. This is a way to fuel creativity and I find it helps a lot in the kitchen, the garden and with photography. If you don't have a garden or it's raining like it is here, check out this fabulous garden blog.

Food blogs

I'm over the edge lately when it comes to food blogs. I've been looking at as many as I can and it feels like every stay-at-home-mom and home cook has started a food blog. Here's a tip for you if you're thinking of starting one, please don't start out with "I have four lovely children" (or two or three). Please look at many blogs first and see if you have anything new to add besides your own recipes, we're knee deep in recipes, I never thought it could get deeper but it does. Every time I turn around someone mentions a food blog they've started. I find myself smirking, thinking, really, another one? And yet here I sit writing about food. You can find many food bloggers at blog hops--the biggest trend blogging this year.

Blog hops are like putting your name in a fishbowl for a prize. If you put your name in enough bowls, you'll pick up followers. Here's how you do it: get the Mr. Linky tool and hook up. When I checked out the people who participated it seems like a workable strategy, especially for the host who gets all the incoming links but are these these people all really followers? On the creepy side, the crowed ocean of what-I-cooked-for-diner-is just a hint that we've become way too obsessed over our daily menu choices. The good and the bad blogs, I check them all. Check out this one with the carved shark over blue jello cubes. What do you think? Creepy, quirky or boring there isn't enough time in the day for all food blogs in this country. Enough rambling.

Here are my favorite food blogs (no Mr. Linky tools here):

• 101 Cookbooks--I love Heidi's vegetarian recipes and her photos can be quite inspiring.

• Smitten Kitchen--I'm a new follower for this one, and it's not vegetarian but her photos, story and recipes are worth taking a look at.

• Orangette--not vegetarian either but seriously who doesn't love Molly Wizenberg's Orangette?

Food Photography

Good food photography is intriguing, inviting and harder than it looks to get the right angle and right lighting using the right lens. One way to improve it study popular food blogs where lots of comments are generated about the photos. Another way is to find tips on line. Here are some of my favorite links to better food photography

Tips to improve food styling

Angles for food photography

The Pioneer Woman's tips for better food photography--I like her focus. Pioneer woman's recipes with close up photos comes about as close as you can get to food porn. Check out this rhubarb dessert and see how she gets hundreds of comments without any blog hopping parties.

Photography

Compositon, lighting, lenses and filters--Since I took pictures for my book, I've been interested in honing my skills. I check out photography websites and blogs and here are two of my favorites.

• Danielle Leavelle--check out where the shadows fall and the colors in the photos

• Dean Riggott-- amazing farm photography for landscape photos

This is Whispering Winds Farm (not my best moment in the farm photo category), but it's yet another shameless attempt to mention that Farm-to-Fork dinner I'll be attending on July 16th. Check it out, it's so affordable for a dinner on the farm. Plus we're giving out door prizes, so get your tickets!

Basset hounds and dogs

If you haven't seen Cooking with Dog and you like dogs, you simply must see it. The talking poodle is totally my favorite. Also, when I realized Pioneer Woman has two basset hounds, I now check her posts about for news about Charlie and Walter. Anyone with one or two dogs on their blog gets my attention. Here are my favorite links for those of you with four footed assistants.

• 50 basset hounds running

• Pioneer Woman (Charlie)

• Tall Clover--Tom a farmer-blogger on Vashon Island and has two bulldogs who are hilarious.

I need to ramp-it-up, get a few basset action photos, but every time I take out the camera Finn poses.

Don't try this one without serious supervision.

Rumbling on the tracks? I think Finn and sister Chloe are keepers.

Coco's Party: Cooking Assistant in Training

Without my trusty Cooking Assistant to snap photos of last week, I talked my daughter into posing her cute dog Coco. We got out this party hat and Coco posed like she was born into the profession.

How about corn on the cob? Who said dogs don't like it?

Jennifer adopted Coco last fall when a pet adoption agency came to Pet Smart in Phoenix. Coco is a young very friendly pit bull that was picked up as a stray. After Coco had puppies Coco was fixed and put up for adoption. Such expressive eyes and she was a perfect poser.

Once Coco realized how much we rewarded posing and waiting, she was eager to pose.

But tell a dog no and ask her to stare at food at the same time and the shoot doesn't always go as planned.

Luckily Coco only had a few licks of the frosting and didn't eat the cake. I think my Cooking Assistant might have been jealous if he knew I'd been posing with another dog.

Coco samples the prop.

The Soup Project: Long Life Miso Noodle Soup

Last Thursday Badger our oldest dog died. It was sad, but she was 14 1/2, and according to this website that's 104 in dog years! Basset hounds typically live to 12 and I've had two make it to 13 but 14 1/2 is amazing.

I had Badger ever since she was a puppy. She was the runt of her litter and no one else really wanted her. "Oh she'll get big, you'll see," a friend told me, but Badger never weighed more than 42 pounds as an adult. Her size and personality--a follower by nature--made her the underdog.
I gained new respect and insight for the underdog because of Badger. Whenever the other dogs squabbled over a toy, crouton or carrot on the floor, Badger quickly swooped in and carried off the treasure, and left them squabbling over nothing. And often when I returned on market days, while the other dogs greeted me, Badger quietly raided my produce bags and snagged produce, cheese or bread. Her favorites were carrots, but she once walked off with an entire head of cauliflower and I found her happily eating it outside. Another time I caught her stealing an expensive cheese, a treat for our salads.

As a puppy, Badger quickly became friends with Abe, our other misfit underdog, whose misshapen front legs gave him a duck-like waddle walk and an eggbeater run. Abe's one washed-out blue eye frightened children, and adults often asked if he was blind. But Abe had one of the most beautiful howls I'd ever heard. A fire engine would go by and Abe would start low like this--whooooooo and then work up to a full-pitched howl. But just like people, some dogs can sing and others shouldn't even try. All the other dogs were compelled to join in, and Badger's howl was way off-key and grating, but like most bad singers she had no clue.

The howling stopped completely at our house when Abe died at nearly 14. I cried over Abe and Badger sat next to me, hunched her shoulders and hung her head as if she understood. But Badger was never sad for long, and as a life-long follower she quickly followed young Finn's lead.

As the oldest hound in the house, Badger got special treasures--corn cobs, ice cream dishes and bits of eggs, toast or cheese. Finn and Chloe played together and it must have helped Badger feel young, but gradually she slowed down and there's nothing slower on earth than an old basset hound. Zen masters one four legs, old hounds teach you patience.

Last year when Badger's appetite declined, my sister said, "Why don't you try rotisserie chicken." I can't believe I bought rotisserie chicken for so long--the only meat we had in our house and it was for the dogs. But last week even the scent of chicken failed to interest her. I think she was just tired out from her long happy life.

She slipped away quietly last Thursday and Finn sat by my side while I cried. I wanted to make a soup that would celebrate this very sweet dog for giving us so many years, so I typed in "long life soup" on Google and that's how I found this soup recipe from Mark Bittman's book Food Matters. I thought the soup was called Long Life Soup, but it was the website not the soup, so I changed the soup title along with some of the ingredients. The original recipe has an option for salmon instead of tofu and the ingredients don't include carrots or mushrooms. And now the instructions have changed too. That's the way it goes with soup recipes.

I found a jar of Hearty Brown Rice South River Miso tucked behind a few jars in my refrigerator. I couldn't remember how old the jar was, so I called the company to make sure it was okay to eat. A woman checked the records and said I'd purchased that miso in 2003. "Is it still okay?" I asked. She assured me it was, making my title change for this recipe perfect. I guess miso has a naturally long life.

As I put the ingredients together, Finn took mental notes on everything that went into this soup.

I hope this spring soup revitalizes your soul.

Long Life Miso Noodle Soup with Bok Choy and Tofu

(Serves 4)

4 to 5 mushrooms, sliced

10 ounces extra-firm tofu

Sauce of choice to season tofu (teriyaki, hoisin or another Asian sauce)

6 ounces buckwheat soba noodles

5 to 6 cups vegetable stock or water

3 or 4 large stalks bok choy, leaves removed from stems and both sliced thin

2 carrots, sliced thinly

1/3 cup miso (your favorite; I used hearty brown rice)

1/4 cup sliced green onions or snipped chives (for garnish)

1. Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat. When skillet is hot, add mushrooms. Stir and cook until mushrooms lose their juices. Remove from pan and set aside.

2. Slice tofu into four slices. Cut each tofu slice into a triangle and spread one side with sauce of your choice. Heat a stove-top griddle to medium-high. Place tofu, sauce side down on the grill. Spread top of tofu with sauce. Cook tofu until browned; then flip and cook the other side. (Watch carefully, it doesn't take long for tofu to brown nicely with grill marks.) Remove from grill and set aside.

3. Put stock or water into a pot and bring to a boil. When the stock is almost boiling, put miso into a small bowl and ladle in a cup of the stock. Whisk in the miso until the texture is smooth. When the stock boils, add bok choy stems and carrots. Let them cook for about a minute, then add the leaves and continue cooking until the soup bubbles steadily and the bok choy gets silky--3 to 5 minutes.

4. Remove from heat and quickly add miso mixture, mushrooms and soba noodles and heat just to warm everything. Serve the soup with tofu triangles and garnish with scallions. This soup is great with leftovers or for dinner another day.

Check out the Asian spoon. It's over a hundred years old and not a crack in it. Three cheers for long happy lives!

Cooking Assistants and Food Photos

I've been busy with my photography class, so this post is just a short diversion about my final photography project, I decided to focus on my Cooking Assistant and explore his world, since he's so laid back and willing to pose for food. This shot really captured his total contentment with life.

I chose black and white because Finn is always a prop for food photos and with black and white the focus is more on Finn.

He's patient in this position but change his position and the picture-taking moment is uncertain.
Sometimes he loses his focus, but once food is underneath his nose, he assumes a pose. He's a ham with his one pose that sometimes reminds me of Ben Stiller in Zoolander with his "Blue Steel" look. I think perhaps my gentle Cooking Assistant has always wanted to be a model. He has no idea how small-time he really is. I don't have the heart to tell him "he'll never be Marley."

As soon as the food is within reach, I tell him "Wait." But I totally confused him when I handed him a carrot and then said "Wait." In this photo people thought he looked a bit like Winston Churchill with a cigar. Black and white is analyzed differently in the brain than color photos, that's why the two are rarely mixed in a show. If I had gone with color, I think everyone would simply look at the food first.

The last photo stumped the class. Most people thought Finn had a mirror image, but in fact the dog behind him is Chloe, Finn's sister. Finn never lets Chloe come close in his photo shoots and at first I nearly tossed this picture out, but on closer examination, I realized she was staring and learning about what he does with the camera. When I showed the picture to Tom he laughed and said, "Doesn't matter who you are, if you've got something good going, there's always somebody waiting in the wings to take your place."