All Things Dog Blog

Friday, February 18, 2011

Mutt Meatball Recipe and Snoopy Prize Drawing

by Carrie Boyko, CEB

Our tribute to Charles Schulz has come to an end. Oliver has done his job well; he guarded the prizes, making sure Tanner did not decide they were chew toys. That's a very big job for a little guy and he deserves a reward, don't you think?

Of course! Before I announce the winners' names, let's share a sneaky little recipe for Leftover Night that your dogs will devour. I'll be sure Oliver gets his reward. Here's what I do with leftovers:

Mutt Meatballs

Your dogs will likely enjoy any assortment of meats you have available. Go ahead and mix them up, or make one-flavor meatballs if you prefer. I used 1/2 leftover cooked chicken breast, 1/2 braised pork chop, and 2 slices of leftover ham to make the meatballs in this photo, with a few cooked carrots mixed in as well. Even this small amount of leftovers made a dozen meatballs and filled 2 Busy Bones; great money saving opportunities shouldn't go down the garbage disposal. My dogs think this is heaven.

When you clean out your refrigerator for those leftovers that just aren't going anywhere, give them a sniff. If they're still okay--no spoilage--then set the meats and veggies aside. Toss the onions and garlic; they're not safe for Fido.
Separate the vegetables into one pile for addition to the mixture last.
Cut up any large pieces of meat into bite sized chunks.
Toss all the meats into the food processor with the blade in place at the bottom.
Run the food processor until you have an evenly blended, course grind that looks somewhat like ground meat.
Now add the vegetables and do a few quick whirs of the blade to mix them into the ground meat. There will be flecks of color from your vegetables now.
The resulting mixture of ground meats and veggies will be a smorgasbord to Fido and a delightful addition (or partial substitution) to his dinner. Be sure to adjust his kibble accordingly, so he won't be getting too many calories.
Using a soup spoon, I form meatballs with most of the meat. Size these to your dog; they should be too large to swallow whole. You want them to bite and chew them up, so they are not a choking hazard when frozen.
Then I pack some of the mixture into hollow, sterilized beef bones. I freeze these for serving anytime I want to keep the pups busy while I have company, an important phone call, or something I can't be interrupted from. A frozen "Busy Bone" will keep the dogs working to chisel out the icy meat for anywhere from 15-30 minutes, depending on the shape and size of the bone. Great fun!
The meatballs made above, can be served fresh today, and then freeze the remainder for serving either frozen (like a Busy Bone) or freshly thawed.
To thaw safely, do it in the refrigerator overnight, and then serve the next day to assure freshness.

Now it's time to announce our Snoopy board book boxed set winners. If you're one of the lucky names drawn, be sure to drop me your address to LetsAdoptaDogPark@gmail.com ASAP. Your address will be used ONLY for this shipment--no spam mail afterwards. Today's winning names are:

Janet and Mike Merriman

FiveSibesMom

Congratulations. Hope to see you here for more upcoming children's books giveaways. Happy tails!

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Saturday, February 12, 2011

Snoopy's Creator Honored

by Carrie Boyko, CEB

Charles Schulz's creation, Snoopy, is by most estimations, the most famous Beagle in history. Today marks the 10th anniversary of Schulz's death. Not surprisingly, his syndicated comic strips continue to run in newspapers, a tribute to the characters he gave life to in the 1950s.

Snoopy belonged to Charlie Brown, although this was not made evident until sometime after the beginning of the series. Snoopy's most adorable additions to the movies and comic strips were likely his fancying himself as a World War I flying ace. This is how I remember Snoopy from my childhood, which closely paralleled Schult'z career.

While reading about Snoopy's characteristics recently, I was surprised to learn that his one regret was that he was not a Golden Retriever. I'm sure Tanner would be proud to know this and will have some comments at 5 Minutes for Fido, where he and Oliver love to share commentary on my posts and generally act silly.

For this week's drawing we'll be changing course a bit in our giveaway process. Rather than drawing from our rolling drawing box of names (from the beginning of the weekly prizes), I'll be drawing 2 winners' names from this post's commenters, and those that comment on this article at my facebook page. You may enter as often as you wish at either location, or both. In addition, you may enter at Tanner and Oliver's blog, 5 Minutes for Fido, where you'll see that they have some thoughts about all of this famous dog stuff too. Are you ready to see the booty now?

I didn't remember Snoopy's typewriter until I opened this book. He was a writer; how cool. All 3 books in each set are adorable, and perfect gifts for that young child in your life. Who's first?

Don't want to wait to see if you won? Click one of these and search through thousands of Charles Schulz's books at Amazon. You're sure to find just the right one for your Snoopy fan.

Monday is Valentine's Day, and I'll be serving up a special Mock Chocolate candy for Tanner and Oliver that you may wish to try. It's super delicious for both you and your dog, and safe too. Remember to stay away from chocolates--bad news for Fido. See you Monday for our yummy goodies and a recipe you'll treasure.

Today's post is a blog hop. Be sure to stop in at our hosts to check out their entries, leave a comment and then go have fun hopping. Linking up is optional, but it sure is fun! Your hosts for the Saturday Pet Blogger Hop are Life with Dogs, Confessions of the Plume, and Two Little Cavaliers: