Doggie Delight

As a Sunday treat, I baked some homemade doggie snacks for Princess Luna and Sir Gabe.

Gabe closely supervising, per usual.

Luna being cute, per usual.

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Doggie Delights

1 cup rolled oats (aka dry oatmeal)
1 cup boiling water
5 1/3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 5 pieces
3/4 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules (I just smashed the cubes)
1/2 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 egg, beaten OR 2 medium bananas
3 cups whole wheat flour

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the rolled oats, butter, and boiling water. Let stand for 10 minutes. Grease cookie sheets.

Add the cornmeal, sugar, beef bouillon, milk, cheddar cheese, and egg/banana to the bowl. Mix well. Stir in the whole wheat flour, 1 cup at a time, until a stiff dough has formed. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface (or wax paper) and knead, adding additional flour if necessary, until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky.

Divide the dough in half. Working with one half at a time, roll the dough out with a rolling pin to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with a cookie cutter and space evenly on prepared baking sheets. Reroll remaining dough scraps and continue cutting until all dough has been used.

Bake 35-45 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Let cool completely before allowing your pups to sample!

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Here are my treats during the process:

Dough ball. Duh.

Princess cookie cutters!

Ready to bake!

The finished princess products!

Babycakes Cake Pop Maker

Kristi and I exchanged Christmas gifts last week before she left to visit her family in OH. I thought that I had given her some pretty spot on gifts... until I opened mine. Homegirl knows meway too well!

She gave me a Babycakes cake pop maker, a double tier collapsible cake/cupcake carrier, a cupcake/cake decorating icing kit (with tons of tips, etc. -- pic to come later), and a giraffe wisk!

(Can you guys tell that I like to bake?)

While Kristi is away, I am watching her furry child, Carter.

Sir Carter

Anyways, since it was cold and I didn't really want to do much, I decided to crack into the Babycakes box and make some treats for my coworkers. And boy was this an adventure! I will preface this post by saying that the cake pop making was the easiest part of all. The maker really does make it so quick and easy.

The maker came with a recipe book (other recipes are also found online) and I, of course, chose to make red velvet cake pops. The batter was simple to make and yielded about 3 dozen pops. I also made some chocolate pops but those weren't as tasty as the red velvet, in my opinion.

Chocolate balls, post baking.

Red velvet balls cooling in the tray.

Red velvet balls preparing to be stuck!

Balls become pops.

Notes:

1. It says to place one tablespoon in each divot. I found that to be a little too much so don't go crazy with the batter in there. If it overflows, that is ok. As you can see from my pictures, the overflow easily detaches from the balls.

2. I highly recommend using the removing tool that comes with the kit! It's a little wired prong instrument that doesn't look like it can do much but trust me - it does!

3. In order to get the sticks to stay inside of the balls and not move around when icing (more on that in a bit), dip the sticks in melted chocolate/icing before placing the stick in the ball. Once you have a few balls with sticks, place them in the fridge/freezer for about 5 minutes.

Now, on to the icing...

You can make your own icing if you want. If you're crazy. Or you can just buy the Wilton candy chips and melt them like I did.


In sticking (haha, no pun intended) with the holiday theme, I chose green candy melts (vanilla flavored) to coat my red velvet pops. I placed about 1/3 of the bag into this small little pot that came with my larger crock pot. I'm not even sure what it's called but I know that it was made specifically for me to melt chocolate and candy. It's just so cute!

This pot only has one setting but it doesn't get too hot; just hot enough to melt the candies and keep them melted. I do, however, recommend stirring this occasionally - especially if you're not going to use it right away. Also be sure to keep adding chips as you use the icing. I found that when you only have a few chips in the pot that it gets too hot. DUH.

So now you can remove your pops from the fridge/freezer and dip them in the icing/melts that you have in your pot. Because the sticks are frozen into the cake balls, you won't have to worry about the sticks spinning inside of the balls while you're trying to coat them.

I also added sprinkles to my pops just for giggles. Plus it made them prettier :)

Then I decided that I needed to package these suckers if I was going to distribute them to coworkers. I took pieces of saran wrap and cut them into 4x4 inch squares and wrapped the pop in them. I then took some thin red ribbon and tied a bow at the base of the pop.

Now, aren't those just the cutest things that you've seen in your entire life?!?!

No? Ok, well, I bet they're at least close.

I've only talked to one worker about these pops and she was pretty excited about them. I don't think she ate it yet but she at least liked the packaging. If I weren't such a dessert fanatic, I would think that they were almost too pretty to eat.

Tonight I plan on icing the chocolate cake balls with white Wilton candy melts. I'll be sure to let you know how those turn out (because I know you'll be up all night wondering...).

Happy holidays, y'all!

Crock Pot Pulled Buffalo Chicken

I forget where I saw this recipe (probably through one of my friends on Pinterest) but it was a great find! Fairly common sense when you think about it but we all know that sometimes I just don't think about it.

I have amended this recipe slightly based on my observations but what works for me may not work for you. Be sure to read the notes section at the end before you jump on this recipe!

Crock Pot Pulled Buffalo Chicken

Ingredients:

2-3 lbs. chicken breast, frozen

1 package ranch seasoning

1 jar of hot sauce

Cooking Instructions:

1. Turn crock pot on highest setting and place frozen chicken breasts inside.

2. Mix together hot sauce and ranch packet and apply directly on top of frozen chicken breasts.

3. Cook for about an hour or until chicken is cooked thoroughly enough to pull apart.

4. Remove chicken from crock pot and pull apart using two forks.

5. Place pulled chicken back into crock pot and mix with liquids that were in the pot from before.

6. Turn crock pot to "low" or "warm" setting and allow to simmer for another 1-2 hours.

7. Serve pulled chicken on tortillas, bread, etc. Garnish with desired toppings.

Notes:

1. I chose to use chicken tenderloins but only because that was all that was in my freezer! This is also a great option when you are cooking for one, which I am.

2. If you are cooking for one, I would only use half of the package of ranch. I used a whole package and it was way too salty for the amount of chicken that I used.

3. This recipe will probably work best if you were to mix together the hot sauce and the ranch. I chose not to do that and had chunks of ranch throughout my chicken. That was fine by me but again, it was rather salty at times.

4. The longer you let the pulled chicken sit in the sauce mixture, the thicker the sauce will become. And the spicier the chicken will become!

5. This chicken would also be great on nachos, garnished with some sour cream, jalapenos, shredded cheese, beans, etc.

Enjoy!