Pumpkin Pup-sicles

A few days ago, I had some bananas getting too ripe. Usually, I make them into Kim Sunée's superlative chocolate banana bread. But this time, I made a batch of pumpkin pup-sicles for the pugs to enjoy.

The ingredients are simple: a 15-oz. can of pumpkin, 1 C. plain nonfat yogurt, a banana or two, and a little drizzle of honey:

Put them in a bowl and mix them up:

Yummy! (If you are a dog.)

You can use cute ice molds (like bones or dog shapes) if you have them, or you can just plop the mixture into a standard ice-cube tray:

They are a little messy-looking, but my pugs won't mind:

Won Ton was very happy to help me clean up afterwards:

Here's the finished treats. I gave everybody one--okay, maybe two--and put the rest in a zip-style bag in the freezer for another hot day.

We'll be ready, when the inevitable heat wave hits!

Roasting: A Second Chance for Vegetables

If you have veggies that are a bit old and past their peak of loveliness, like these slightly-wrinkled cherry tomatoes...

Don't throw them out; roast them! Roasting is a great way to resurrect veggies that are past their "best-by" date. A quick lashing of olive oil and a grind or two of fresh black pepper is all that's needed before roasting.

Roast the veggies in a very hot (425 degree Fahrenheit oven); depending on what you are roasting and how small you've chopped them, your veggies will be done quickly--maybe 15 minutes or so for the softer veggies, 20 or a bit more for harder ones.

Whatever vegetable you choose, things are ready when just fork-tender, with bits of char here and there. (In the case of cherry tomatoes, I like to push them to a slightly-squooshy stage, which brings out their wonderful, natural sugars):

This method works beautifully on many other vegetables, too, like root veggies (including carrots, parsnips, and potatoes) and the cruciferous family (including cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts). Just peel your veggies (if necessary), trim off any less-than-lovely parts, and cut everything in more or less equal-sized bits so things cook at the same speed.

For Brussels sprouts, I cut them in halves (or thirds, if they are very large). You may find they require a bit more olive oil, because they soak it up like little sponges. Add a grind or three of black pepper...

...and place them on a baking sheet with a lip, with a little space around each piece. (If you crowd the pan, the veggies will steam, not roast).

If roasting several vegetables at the same time, be sure to cut the harder, denser ones in smaller pieces so they cook at roughly the same pace as the softer, less dense ones. Here's the Before on a batch of sprouts and 'maters:

And here's the After:

Yum! Before serving, add a little finishing salt--I like Maldon salt from England, because the flakes are crunchy and big enough to add a visually pretty element: 

And there you go! Roasted veggies like this are fabulous tossed into a cooked, hot pasta, added to a cold vegetable salad, stirred into soups, or even cut smaller and used as a pizza topping.

This quick and easy method is a wonderful way of salvaging vegetables that aren't perfect.

So get roasting!

Two Fast, Easy, and Delicious Appetizers

For New Year's Eve, we like to stay in, eat an array of appetizers instead of dinner, and drink Champagne at midnight. This year, The Boy and Lovely Daughter #2 helped us ring in the new year with some delicious dishes.

Two of the appetizers we made were total standouts. They use just a few, simple ingredients, are put together quickly, and use roasting to transform the components.

First up, Smitten Kitchen's Mediterranean Baked Feta with Tomatoes. (Click on the link for the recipe.) This dish was scrumptious! 

I could make a meal out of this by adding a simple tossed green salad, a baguette, and a glass of crisp, white wine.

On New Year's Eve, though, it was just one of a number of tasty things we ate. We inhaled a ridiculous number of Warm Rosemary Olives. I found the recipe in "Real Simple" magazine a few years back. It is stupidly simple to make and amazingly yummy. Heating the olives up with a few ingredients absolutely elevates them:

And it's very easy to make a half batch, or even a quarter batch, as we did.

Warm Rosemary Olives
(from "Real Simple" magazine)
hands-on time: 5 minutes/total time: 35 minutes
makes 6 cups, or enough for 30 guests

6 cups mixed olives, such as Niçoise, Spanish, Picholine, and Greek (we used Kalamata and garlic-stuffed green olives)
5 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (I use perhaps half that amount for a full recipe. For the quarter-recipe, I used somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of a teaspoon.)

Combine the olives, rosemary, and red pepper flakes in the center of 1 or 2 large sheets of aluminum foil. Fold the foil to enclose the olives in a pouch. (Recipe can be made to this point one day ahead. Refrigerate.) Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve warm.

Note: Heating up olives with herbs and spices is an easy upgrade of a familiar party food, and it perfumes the house with a heady, exotic aroma.

(Just don't count on having any leftovers!)

Berry Bounty

Most of the country is turning cool, thinking about Halloween, and pulling sweaters out of the back of the closet.

Here in Los Angeles, it's summery-warm yet, and for some magical reason, the local farmers' markets are still selling fresh berries:

 Is it through some sort of witchcraft or alchemy? I don't know.

I just know I like them sprinkled lightly with sugar.

Vanilla Yogurt Taste Test

I'm lactose-intolerant yet love all dairy products: ice cream, milk, yogurt, cheese: yum! But the only way I can ingest cow's milk products is to take a lactase enzyme with the first swallow.

That's okay, but sometime I just want to dive into a dish of ice cream or a cup of yogurt without worrying about repercussions. So decided to taste-test three different vanilla yogurts--one made with cow's milk, one with sheep's, and one with goat's:

This is the goat's milk yogurt. The packaging is a little funky:

The foil lid is definitely funky, although kind of cute:

This is the sheep's-milk yogurt. Nice packaging:

The foil lid is restrained but attractive:

And this is the cow's milk version. It somehow reminds me of an IKEA store:

Simple, with just a touch of humor:

The goat's milk yogurt was a decidedly caramel color. The smell and taste of goat was overwhelming, and not in a good way. I could only handle two small bites:

The sheep's milk was delightful. There were little flecks of real vanilla bean in it, and the taste was slightly different from regular, cow's milk yogurt, but in a nice way:

The cow's milk yogurt, not too surprisingly, was spectacular. It tasted as rich and sinful as ice cream. I had to keep checking the label to make sure the sugar content was as low as it said. And nonfat? Could hardly believe it:

The cow's-milk yogurt is so good I would serve it as a dessert, covered with sliced strawberries or maybe freshly sliced peaches.

All three yogurts had admirable side qualities. The sheep's milk carton felt and acted like plastic, but was biodegradable:

The cow's-milk yogurt packaging urged you to recycle the removable, paper sleeve. And it identified the county where all the deliciousness came from:

The goat's milk folks have created a kosher, "Certified Humane" product, and they are savvy enough to mention there are seasonal variations in their product (it's close to Nature! it responds to the seasons!):

But for just plopping down on the back porch and ripping open a quick snack, I vote for the sheep's milk yogurt:

And while goat's-milk may not make the best yogurt, it makes the best non-cow's milk ice cream I've ever had in my life. I've tried all these flavors of LaLoo's (except the Vanilla Snowflake, which for some reason I can't find).

Rich, nuanced, deeply satisfying. They are absolutely amazing. I may have to go out and buy some right now.

Summertime Dog Treats

I usually don't like one-use kitchen gadgets, deeming them silly and unworthy of the space they take up. But when I saw this at a pet-supply store, I made an exception because it is so perfect at what it does:

It's a dog-treat pan made of silicone, so it can handle baked yummies AND frozen treats. It's flexible enough that the treats pop right out, with no sticking or breaking. And it has a reinforced steel rim, so whether it's loaded with squishy batter or a slurry for frozen treats, it won't dump your creation on the floor before you can get it into the oven or freezer.

In this hot summer weather, I love using the tray to make "pup-sicles" for my pugs. Below are "bones" made of baby-food squash, baby-food carrot, and a single one of salt-free chicken stock (lower right position):

I didn't "pretty up" the tray by cleaning off all the little spills when I filled up the cups. Because, hey, this is life as it's lived, not a commercial.

Anyhow, it's really easy to push the frozen treats out of the tray:

And when you flip them over to display the "right" side, they are so cute!:

They're almost cartoonish. That's a chicken-stock pup-sicle on top, with a squash one underneath, and a carrot one on the bottom of the pileup:

I feed my pugs these goodies outside because, just like children, they make a mess when they eat frozen things:

I make each pug "Sit" and "Wait." Treats are a fantastic way to reinforce basic good manners in dogs:

Mu Shu stares intently at his goodie, waiting for my signal:

Ohhhh, so hard to wait, isn't it, Pao Pao?

I say "Okay!," and they spring into action. It's almost frightening, how swiftly they wolf down their yummies:

If you don't want to spring for a silicone tray like this, a simple ice-cube tray works, too. I find it a trifle harder to pop the frozen cubes out of the tray, but using the tip of a knife helps them to release:

I keep one ice-cube tray just for the dogs. I've marked it with a sticker, available wherever kosher foods are sold. But you could use a different-colored tray, or mark one try with a marker, to accomplish the same goal.

It's good to mark the dogs' ice-cube tray this way because chicken stock and lemon juice (which I also freeze in cubes) look almost exactly the same at a glance!

(Mu Shu tends to get an upset tummy when he eats frozen goodies too fast; he appreciates my holding his so he can lick it.)

When making dog treats, simple, unsalted, unspiced ingredients are best. Plain, nonfat yogurt. Banana. Sweet potato. Low-fat buttermilk. Baby-food vegetables that contain no salt. That sort of thing. I like baby food, because it's simple, pure, ready-to-eat, and one little jar makes five or six "bones" for my pugs:

Keep in mind that if you're going to make treats with calorie-dense ingredients (like peanut butter or whole-fat plain yogurt), you may have to reduce the amount of regular food you feed them that day.

Otherwise you may end up with a roly-poly pet.

Unless you have pugs, in which case they're already roly-poly.

You just don't want them to get roly-poly-er.