frozen puppy treats and birthday cupcakes ( for the pups) 

my sweet pup, Fenway had a birthday a few weeks ago.  She’s 11!  ( or 77 in people years 😁)

  

This is a pic of her first day home.  Gosh that seems like it was so long ago! 

It set put to get her birthday treats and decided to make my own version of ‘frosty paws’

It was quick, easy, inexpensive .. And she loves  them! 

  

Homemade frosty treats 

2 cups non fat plain yogurt

1 cup smooth peanut butter  ( you could also sub pumpkin if your dog can’t eat peanut butter ) 

1 banana

2 tablespoons honey 

Dog treats that will fit in the containers you choose. 

Small glad ware type of containers with tops 

Start by mixing yogurt, peanut butter, banana and honey 

  

Place a dog treat in the bottom of each container ( I chose scoobie treats in honor of my successful kombucha brewing and my homemade scobie that is so awesome already that I can share it with friends ) 

  

Pour peanut butter mixture over dog treats and top with another, pop the lid on and freeze

  

See! Easy peasy!   And other than the initial investment of the plastic cups ( which I will reuse to make future batches). This whole batch cost under 5 buckaroos to make !

  

The birthday girl was very happy 🎉🐾🎉🐾

I also made her carrot cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. 

And a small bone from the butcher.. After all, you only turn 11 once! 

puppy love

Ya’ll know how much I love my pup, Miss Fenway

 

isn’t she sooo sweet??

 

This past August she became very sick and we feared the worst.  She has a great group of vets who helped us figure out what was wrong with her and nurse her back to health.  During this time, one of Ali’s good friends ( and one of my honorary daughters’) who is amazing with animals and (*ahem, Sara…*  )SHOULD become a vet turned us on to Frosty Paws.. the frozen dog treats that are a pups’ version of a hoodsie cup.

We were basically spoiling her rotten while we were figuring out what was wrong with her.

 

Let me tell you .. she LOVES frosty paws. But they are kind of pricey.  about 5 bucks for a box of 4…  and when you read the ingredients in them.. I can’t even pronounce half of them.

 

So I got to thinking….. “self,” I said, ” we should try to make these”.

 

so I headed off to the on the line new fangled computer thingy.. and guess what? I found a recipe!

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:5]

 

it’s no accident that i chose Princess cups to make her treats in 🙂

 

 

I used vanilla, but if your dog is diabetic, use plain yogurt

 

 

*side note*.. this is only half of the mix.. I ran out of cups, so just refridgrated the rest of it unitl I get more cups tomorrow..

I was so nervous and excited to see if she wold like them….

 

 

 

one last thing… I think that I may have confused everyone with the raffle… using the raffle copter fancy thingy below helps everyone to make sure that their entroes are counted and randomly generates a winner, BUT you have to click on the green button and that is what enters you..

 

where it says +5.. do it… click that.  that way your name will be entered.  I will try to go back and add you name in for those who have not done this, but using this hleps me to make sure that everyone has a fair chance..

 

toodles!

 

click on the link below to watch the video 🙂

Fenway trying her frosty treat

mercury is in retrograde

I’ve been saying this for years and yet, I have no idea what it means. I actually have no idea where I even ever heard this term

And yet I use it often. What does it mean you ask? This is what I refer to when everything seems to be going well (or at least ok) and the BAM! out of the blue.. everything goes wrong at once. EVERYTHING.

I know you know what I mean.

Like when a certain cutie pie pup decides to eat the butter that you are about to bake cookies with…or when you spend an insane amount on material to make Halloween costumes for your daughter and her friends then spend 4 days crying as you work with it because the material is so dang slippery?

Clearly that was a long visit of Ms. Mercury to her beloved Retrograde..

(which reminds me.. Halloween is in like less that 2 months… eeik!!!)

must. get. thinking.

Truth be told, I don’t even know where I had even heard this term… perhaps from one of those many awesome *outdated-to-everyone-but-me* 80’s or 90’s sitcom?

Perhaps. Either way. It happens.

Yesterday, it rained. Like ALOT.

I really like rain. LIke more than sun (go ahead, gasp.. everybody does)

When it rains you can do this with your favorite girl in the world.

When it rains, I can spend the day in the kitchen (or curled up with a book or my fav blankie ) yes, at my tender young age I still drag my blankie from room to room with me.

don’t judge.

So it is more than obvious to me that as I entered the kitchen to play yesterday afternoon at that EXACT moment..

Mercury went into Retrograde.

It started by hearing a peeing sound coming from the living room.

nope. she was innocent.

it was my fireplace. I did the girly thing first & called mr. barefoot.

no answer. Darn ( I said something much more colorful than this.)

I put a bucket in the fireplace listened to it drip

and drip and drip.

I went upstairs to grab old towels to wipe up what had already puddled on the floor to realize that the windows were open in one of the bedrooms and the carpets were soaked.

duh? it never did occur to me to check windows as this beautiful N’oreaster ripped through my yard. nope.

Next was the call from Scott that he would be on the later train. again. C’la vie.

I cleaned up the multiple messes, cried to my friends on Facebook, poured myself a glass of wine and planted my patootiee on the couch with trashy TV.

Today is a new day and so for breakfast this morning I am making what should have been for dessert last night. I’ve been hearing about this combination for awhile, but it took me finding avocados at a wicked cool sale (I’m from Mass, I can say wicked) At the Whole Paycheck Store for me to be brave enough to try it.

adapted from Whole Living Magazine

Chocolate-mint pudding

3 avocadoes

6 Tbsp cocoa powder

1/4 cup raw honey

3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/8 tsp mint extract

fresh mint leaves

sea salt

1) place avocado, cocoa, honey, vanilla, mint and a dash of salt in a food processor and puree until smooth.

Sprinkle with sea salt and garnish with fresh mint leaves. (those aren’t sprinkles, I used a new Himalayan pink sea salt.)

seriously.. I made pudding from avocado! The only thing that I will say is that because all the ingredients are room temp, the pudding was too warm. I fear that refrigerating the avocado or the honey prior to blending would change the texture in a not so good way, so this is a definite make-ahead recipe. Mine’s chilling as I type 🙂

The pudding itself has a wonderfully smooth texture. It is very chocolatey. I think next time I will add just a bit more cocoa powder. And perhaps stir in some dark chocolate chips? Or toasted almonds? or shredded coconut?

hmmm……

happy Tuesday!

today.

I made a home-made face mask with a recipe that I found on the internet

1 Tablespoon old fashioned oats, ground

1 Tablespoon Yogurt ( plain non-fat Greek yogurt)

a squirt of honey

I mixed it all up & slathered it on my face & let dry for a little over 10 minutes.

Best.

Mask.

Ever.

my skin feels AH MAZE ING!

 

so there ya go.. I not only can keep myself out of my kitchen, but now I’m concocting potions for my skin like I’m some kind of back woods woman.

 

I wish.

 

oh, and I strongly resisted the urge to lick the mask. I have the willpower of a snake. Clearly.

 

 

dinner tonight is Vegetarian Paella.

 

 

 

miss me??

aaaachctober!!!!! *bring on the boots!!*

YAY! It’s finally here!! My very favorite month… of the whole entire year. (December is a close second) 😉

and it’s Friday, which means pizza night at Casa Hagg.  I happened to come across some fresh figs *hops* and just knew that they were pizza-bound.

I started with my pizza dough.. sometimes I buy it already made and sometimes I make it myself.  There is no rhyme or reason as to which one I choose.

The spirit moved me to make it , so that is exactly what I did

I’ve made it both in my food processor & in my kitchenaide mixer. My food processor was in the dishwasher, so the mixer won!!

While the dough was rising, I by caramelized some onions..

I melted some butter ( the REAL thing) over low heat, then add the onions & stir to coat. Add a  sprinkling of Kosher salt & let them slowly cook ..

everyone getting ready for the party

I love these little medallions of goat cheese from Trader Joe’s … Each one is just enough for a pizza topping or a salad, with nothing extra  to have to eat.

Did I say eat? I meant wrap.. Yeah, THAT’s it.

Yeah.

**I also got a whole bag of these medallions for FREE!!  The UPC code was on the twist tie that close the bag with all of the rounds of cheese was missing. I ran back to get a new bag for the cashier & she rang it in & put both in my bag, telling me that they can’t sell it that way.. so SCORE for me:)**

♥♥♥ free cheese♥♥♥

where were we?  oh, yeah..pizza….

After rolling out the dough, I drizzled a little EVOO on the dough & topped with some mozzarella, the goat cheese,; crumbled, the figs; sliced  & the caramelized onions.

I cooked it on my pizza stone in a 500 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes

When the pizza came out of the oven, I topped with some toasted walnuts, fresh sage & a light stream of farm fresh honey

we had a side salad with all of the same toppings over arugula. Overkill? perhaps.. but Neither Scott nor I complained..

I always say that you can’t have too much of a good thing 😉

on another note

The East coast deluge finally hit us this afternoon. The girls in these house are all smiles….

why you ask??

Because we finally both got Rain boots!!

mine !!

umm… full disclosure.. I have a wicked boot obsession 😉

So. So. Cute.

and Ali’s just as cute!! VERY her 🙂

I love that she is just as dorky / nutty as me when it comes to this stuff.  When I said, “Ali, I want a picture of your boots” she said, “ok.. let’s go find a puddle to jump in!!”

her mama raised her right!!

SPLASH ACTION !