Erica & Wes make house made pickles.

The first time I had fancy "restaurant's own recipe" house made pickles was at Iron Starr BBQ a few years ago. I'm sure I've had house-made pickles before at various restaurants but this was the first time that it was brought to my attention. The menu highlighted them and our waiter praised them. After the waiter left our table, Wes told me that he's had them before and they were gross. LOL Their pickles were okay. I didn't really like them but I wouldn't say they were gross either. I never really paid much attention to pickles after that.

Fast forward a few years... I had dinner at Goro Ramen and they have the best house made pickles ever! I excitedly went home to tell Wes. He replied by telling me that ALL house-made pickles are gross. They're never pickled enough and they always still taste like cucumbers--and he hates cucumbers. A few weeks after that, we had dinner at Uptown Grocery (By the way, having a hot bar & salad bar inside of a grocery store is GENIUS! You get to have dinner and then go grocery shopping all in one place.)  I got some of their pickles and they were awesomely delicious. How does Wes not understand this? With that, I decided that we needed to make our own house-made pickles that wouldn't be gross; ours would be pickled enough and no longer taste like cucumbers.

House-made pickle recipe:
       Ingredients needed- 3 cucumbers, 1 teaspoon (1/2 teaspoon per jar) minced garlic, a handful of fresh basil (most recipes call for fresh dill but we are only growing basil & mint and I don't think mint pickles will taste as good), a pinch of red pepper flakes*, 1 cup water, 1 cup vinegar, 1 1/2 tablespoons salt, two jars with airtight lids
*We actually made two batches... one jar of spears with only basil & garlic and then a jar of round discs with red pepper flakes added.

1. Wash & dry the cucumbers. Cut off both ends and slice into spears or rounds.

2. Chop the basil.

3. Put the garlic, chopped basil and pepper flakes into the jars.

4. Place the cut cucumbers into the jar.

5. Boil water, vinegar and salt. (This will be the pickling brine.)

6. Pour brine into jars. Make sure the cucumbers are covered completely. I did this in the sink so it wouldn't make a mess if the brine spilled.

7. Tap the jars against the counter a few times to remove the air bubbles then put the lid on. Make sure it is nice & tight.

8. Let jars cool and then refrigerate. Leave in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. (Wes prefers 3 weeks to make sure they're pickled enough with no annoying cucumber flavoring.) Then look... yummy pickles!

Sadie & Athena are getting treats!

Athena loves to cuddle with Sadie. She hasn't realized that she's gotten a lot bigger than Sadie so the dog stacking doesn't quite work out sometimes. Sadie usually just gets frustrated and retreats to the pet bed after a while.

This will be another feel-good blog with plenty of dog pictures. Because life is too stressful without puppies. Am I right? Speaking of stressful, I still haven't registered RagsReborn with the Secretary of State nor gotten a tax ID, yet.  Ugh. I have at least started my research on the topics. Someday soon I will blog about my legal journey and offer any advice I may have learned. Anyway...
       I have two very spoiled pups- Sadie and Athena...you know them as the stars of my Instagram and they have been featured on my blog several times over. They're adorable and precious so they deserve all the attention. I have decided that I needed to bake them some dog treats on this Sunday afternoon. I bake plenty of cookies for myself and Wes so it's time that I whip up something for the dogs.

       Many years ago, I threw my first dog, Kensington, a birthday party. I lived Downtown and I invited a few of my friends and their dogs to all go to the dog park at the Myriad Gardens. For party snacks, I made homemade dog treats. (from a recipe I found online, most likely from a blog... I get everything from blogs nowadays.)
       A few summers ago, we had a BBQ at my mom's for Kensington and Sadie's joint birthdays. I made the same treats. The dogs love them and they're easy to make. I think it's just chicken broth, oats and peanut butter. They're also gluten free, grain free and all natural with no filler and all that other good stuff that you're supposed to check for when buying dog food. (I swear my dogs eat better than Wes & I do sometimes.)

Homemade dog treats!

#tbt to Kensington's party at the dog park with Cindye, Ninja & Wiggles. They are all waiting on treats. A friend of mine made Kensington a party hat but it must have fallen off. 

Kensington & Sadie's birthday. We are playing catch with the Frisbee and then someone thought it would be hilarious to have Kensington wear the Frisbee as a tutu. He didn't mind.

My vet sends out quarterly pet heath magazines to all of his clients. I think it's call Vet Street or something like that.  There's a pet photo contest in each magazine and I keep meaning to submit pictures...I'll get on that next quarter! The magazine is a pretty interesting read and this last quarter's included a recipe for dog treats. Perfect timing since I was looking for a new recipe! I had already made the other one twice and wanted something different. The recipe that was in the magazine was a bit plain (it was literally two steps... mash together a banana & a cooked sweet potato, then bake). I thought it might be fun to combine recipes. The first one that I have been making is a savory dog treat and the new one in the magazine is a sweet dog treat. Sweet and savory combinations work with human food so why not in dog food?

Homemade Dog Treat Recipe;

      Ingredients- 1 large banana, 1 large sweet potato, 1 cup of oats & 1/2 cup of chicken broth (I don't have any at the apartment so I'll be mixing chicken bouillon into a boiling water to make chicken broth)

1. Cut the sweet potato into chunks and boil until soft. (like really soft... nice and mushy!) 

Remove from heat, drain and peel. If you're like me and find yourself without chicken broth, now would be a good time to make some using the leftover water used to boil the sweet potato. Because sweet potato flavored chicken broth sounds so yummy if you're a dog! 

       To make chicken broth, add 1/2 teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder to 1/2 cup of boiling water. Mix until dissolved. Set aside. 

2. Cut the banana into slices and mash into the sweet potato.

3. Add the oats and chicken broth to the fruit mixture. Mix well. Warning: this will smell disgusting. 

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Shape the dough into cookies, bones, squares or whatever treat shape you want. I went with round cookies because I'm not feeling too creative today. I made mine a little big so Athena would have to chew them. They're also chewy because of the sweet potato & banana. So no just swallowing it whole!!

       Athena doesn't like chewing... if something is small enough for her to swallow, she will. She almost swallowed a Greenie treat whole (and those things are long and shaped like toothbrushes!). She's swallowed entire dog treats and she inhales her kibble. The only thing we can get her to actually chew up is rawhide treats.

       The dogs were waiting patiently for their treats .They're not allowed in the kitchen so they had to sit longingly in the living room. Sadie was still resting but Athena perked up when she started to smell the treats baking.

5. Place on a non-stick baking sheet or parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for roughly 45 minutes. Let cool, then serve. These only last a few days so have your pups gobble them up before they perish!