The Grind

I decided that I would give myself a late birthday present.  I have been thinking about getting a meat grinder, one capable of grinding poultry bones because (1) I want to grind my own meat for hamburger and sausages and (2) I want to be able to transition my pets to a raw/semi-raw diet.  I have
a Kitchen Aide Grinder attachment, but I liken its efficacy to trying to mix a swimming pool with a hand mixer.  It just is not very powerful nor engineered to handle the task of grinding regular meat (sans bone).

After much research I bought the Weston #22.  The Canning Pantry had it for the best price which included free shipping.  It is an investment--as would be any piece of good kitchen equipment.  It is commercial grade.  I gave it a test spin this a.m., and I'm HIGHLY IMPRESSED.  No regrets.  I was at Food Lion yesterday, and they had whole cut up chickens marked down (date expiration close).  I thought that would be a good place to start.  I cut it up a bit further so it would feed through the feeder tube, and put it in the freezer to firm up.  I used coarse grind plate.  2 chickens were processed in less than 5 minutes.  Cleanup was a breeze.  The machine is heavy (62lbs), so it is best to have dedicated counter space, of which I have.

My next culinary adventure will be to make some Italian Sausage or just regular breakfast sausage.  But, I'm getting ready to go on vacation, so I'm a couple of weeks away from doing that.  My husband goes down to the Nahunta  Pork Center in NC.  While we love the sausage, it is a very long trip.  Plus, all of the sausage has to be processed and frozen.  It took me almost a day to vacuum seal all of the sausage. And, I did not care much for the Italian Sausage.  Love the link sausage. 

However, I think that we can find a recipe for Italian and breakfast sausage that we like, and leverage our investment to make sausage that we enjoy. There are a number of great recipes at The Spicy Sausage which you can find here.



Moon Shadow Walking and Beech Tree Blight

One of life's great joys for me is to walk on the road under the light of the moon.  A white dog's coat becomes luminescent, and who can resist the appeal of a moon shadow? (Cat Stevens comes to mind now).  Watching them bound down the road (I live on a private road with limited traffic) and into the woods is marvelous to see. 

Ella is a tri-color setter, so she does not have so much white.  But Daisey is mostly white, and now our newest moon shadow walker, Dexter, has enough white to glimmer.  He gets not freedom, so he is attached with a long lead.

The other evening we were walking and the moon, about 3/4 full, was occulted by some dark clouds.  The clouds were fast moving, and the brilliant moon was soon revealed.  It was a reminder of how the clouds of our life sometimes cause us to lose sight of the backdrop of brilliant sunshine or moonlight that always lifts our spirits.

I try go be observant when I'm in the woods with my dogs.  Dexter is nose down kind of guy.  The English Setter girls are bounding (they are unfettered).  While walking to a favorite spot there is blackened debris at the base of a beech tree.  At first, it looked as if there had been a fire that had been stomped out.  I then thought that it might be bird/bat debris, but the coating was too uniform.

Upon closer inspection, I realized that the branches above were infested.  Here's a smallish video on that.  Apparently this is called 'beech blight aphid'.  They were on the lower limbs of the beech trees in the woods.  I do not see them on the beech trees in my front yard.







Dog Toys

This is Polly the Pig from mydogtoy.com   It is extremely well made.  Dexter loves it. I saw higher retail prices on it, but I see that Chewy.com has them priced about 50% higher than I paid for them.  So, I save a 1/3.

I also have the lamb, they call him Sherman.  I call him Too Cute as with the pig.  Our goal for Dexter is to keep his mouth engage while we are petting him.  These toys do an excellent job. (As well as his duck from Big Lots!).

Shopping at the salvage store (or Big Lots or thrift stores)  is like going on a treasure hunt.  You never know what you might find.  One Christmas, I was cruising through the aisles, and my magpie eye (which catches the glint of shiny things) spied a shiny handle on an above eye level shelf.  Hmmm....this is a nice pan.  It was a Scanpan.  I made my purchase for $19.99 and then went home and Googled it.  The cheapest I could find it was $135.99.  I promptly went back to the store and purchased the other 5 (total of 6 in stock).

I have found expensive olive oils, sherry wine vinegar (from the source!), painting supplies, German Barrel Pickles, dog food (the really good stuff) at amazing prices.  There are some things to watch. Not all deals are good deals.  They also have some great cleaning products at very favorable prices.  And bread is .99, and it is NOT out of date but will be soon.  I'll take 1/2 price and 1/3 of price or even 1/15th the price in the case of the ScanPan.  (Which by the way I gave as Christmas gifts and it is the favorite pan of all that I gave it to--and ours too!).

But....there are things to avoid too....some things are just too far out of date to bother with.  Vigilance is always a welcome quality when shopping for bargains.








Carnivore? Omnivore?

I take fact over opinion any day. I'm seeing lots of  opinions trumpeted (stridently no less) as 'facts' that dogs are carnivores and there is no place for vegetables in a dog's diet. Clearly these people with such strong opinions about such things do not have the happy combination of a dog and a garden.  So for all of you stridently yammering folks on the internet who say with such authoity that dogs do not eat vegetables and vegetables do not belong in a dog' diet, zip it up!

Now I freely admit that my sample size is not statistically significant, but I cite the following as true facts:
  • My sister in law's dogs would pull up radishes out of her garden.
  • 2 of my dogs eat blackberries off the bush
  • All of my dogs love tomatoes (as does my sister in law's dogs)
  • I found 2 poodles in the wild (yes, this is true).  They ate everything including digging for grub worms and anything out of the garden.
  • 2 of my current dogs eat (with gusto) cucumbers and squash
 According to this article in National Geographic News, 
Dogs and bears, which diverged some 50 million years ago, are 92 percent similar on the sequence level. 
Well, with wolves at 99% dog DNA sharing and cave bears (and bears are great omnivores) at 92%, I'm willing to bet that my observations are lining up with the cave bear omnivore.

I'm not a rocket scientist, nor do I need to be.  But any observant human being (of which I ascribe to myself!) who has dogs and opportunities (e.g. a garden, bread on the counter, hamburger on the plate) will know that a dog is an opportunistic eater.  Now having said that...just because they can eat it does not mean that they should....and the same goes for us.  We eat a great many things that our ancestors did not eat.

I think it a reasonable assumption to say that that it is unlikely that a dog ate grains such as rice, soybean and wheat.  However,  our family dog, Duchess (a German Shepherd mix always on the look out for some man-butt to sneak up on and bite) would routinely wrestle fresh corn from the field across the street, though I never saw her tackle soybeans.  I have had dogs eat raw potatoes-sparingly.  It was likely more the chew experience than the taste--but I surely do not know.   Goodness knows that eggs are a wonderful thing...raw or cooked.  And I have to believe that dogs in the wild were frequent consumers of any egg thing (and the layer) on the ground.

Truthfully, dogs likely existed on the very thing that we are not to feed them....scraps from our table.  I imagine that early man's garbage heap was a cornucopia of great things that nurtured the symbiotic relationship that benefits canine and human.  And it has only been about 150 years since commercial pet food was invented.  Here's a great article from Feline Nutrition.

So in the grand scheme of things, pet food has only been available for ... tee up for LET's Do Math...

  • Dogs domesticated somewhere between 18,800 and 32,100 years ago according to Scientist Magazine
    • That makes an average of  25,450 years ago.
      • Pet food in existence since about 1890 after being introduced in 1860
        •  that's 124 years
      • Ratio of pet food existence since domestication average
        • 124/24450 =  .005
Looks like pet food industry does not quite measure up to years of historical significance in terms of historical record.  Accordingly, we should be careful about conclusions drawn on the basis of this 'slice'.

Fundamentalism of any ilk is to be avoided at all costs.


    Hot Pepper Juice Brine

    I have been making hot pepper relish with the bounty of my garden.  My neighbor also has been bringing me peppers.  After grinding and draining the peppers, I was left with lot of pure hot pepper juice.  I consider myself a pretty good researcher, but the internet did not turn up much in the way of what to do with the pure, 100% hot pepper juice.

    In the vacuum of information, I elected to be intrepid and brine a chicken in nothing but this unadulterated hot pepper juice as a stand in for water and a salt/sugar additive to constitute a brine.  My expectation is that I would have an inedible mess on my hands.  But as the whole chicken was about $5, a culinary disaster would not equate to a financial disaster.

    Method:  Combine 4ish cups of pure hot pepper juice with 3/4 cup salt (Kosher) and 3/4 cup brown sugar.  (I used about 1.5ish cups to dissolve the sugar salt for the brine).  I added 2 bay leaves, olive oil (.25ish cups) and garlic powder (indeteriminate-ish measure).

    Verdict:  Succulent, delicious and spicy on the outside.  But not an untoward spiciness which I was fully expecting.  In fact, there was nothing "spicy" about the dish as a hole, which fully surprised me.  The juice made a great brine without any surprising side effects that would detract from the dish.  If anything, the chicken had a deepened, though indeterminately jalepeno, flavoring.

    Who knew?

    Repurposed Marrow Bones | Let's Do Math!

    Marrow bones are an expensive treat.  My dogs love them, but it does not take long for the marrow to go away.  After observing (and stepping on a few, OUCH!) of the marrow bone carcases (stripped clean of any morsel of tissue), I had the idea of repurposing them.  Surely this would fit any's notion of a biohazard in the commercial world.  But let's face it, there is a reason why there is a 5 second rule when things hit the floor!  Well, I'm merely applying my 5 second rule for gnawed-clean bones. (Though in hindsight, microwaving orI'm pretty confident that they are more sterile than most of what my dog's put their mouths on in a given day.

    Let's do math!
    • A marrow bone skeleton (sample size of 1) weighs 6.55 oz. (16 oz to a lb)
    •  6.55/16 = .41 lbs. 
    •  .41 x $2.99 = $1.22
    • 41% of the cost of the marrow bone (in this sample of 1) was the bone.
    Put another way, taking out the inert ingredient (bone)  the marrow is costing $5.05 per lb.  That  comparative gives one some high quality options at the market, particularly if soon-to-expire quality cuts are purchased.

    Given my success with my dog treats and the cost of marrow bones is high, I decided that I would use a cooked mixture (chef's choice, but it included Denver steak purchased on a going out of date sale, grits and wheat flour--inappropriate for dogs with grain allergies), that was then ground into a pate in the food processor.  I then gathered up all of the marrow bone skeletons, stuffed the cavity with the mixture, and put them in a plate into the freezer.  Because the cavities are so large, it is easy to fill them with a 'pate' concoction of my choice.

    I'm not worried that my dogs are going to grind their collective teeth down, because the bones are so hard and the interior (marrow or fake marrow) is so tender  that once the interior is gone, the bone has no interest. I would not offer these to any other dogs other than mine (for the aforementioned reasons). 

    Even though Angel Marie has grain allergies, I have given her my homemade treats (in moderation) and one of these which have both wheat and corn in them.  I have not noticed that she has had any reaction to them whatsoever.  Also, I have been mixing canned dog food (which has many no-no's in it) with grain free kibble.  Her enjoyment of her food has increased immensely, and so far, no side effects.  The minute her toe webbing begins to swell, we'll go back to the food austerity program.

    Having said that, I'm seriously considering transitioning my pets to a raw diet.  I'm most particularly considering it for my cats.  Both of whom are extremely picky eaters--the worst of which is Wyatt. He loves it when I prepare a chicken--I give him the giblets, of which he and Minnah eat all of it.  He also loves lunch meat--but that is only a 'treat', not an acceptable food.

    I am now focused on the real cost of food that was enjoyed one month is no longer palatable--that is wasted or consumed by my dogs.  I mix canned food with dry food (mostly canned), and I'm out of the 'regular' options--easily purchased, reasonably affordable. 

    I'll post more later on what I end up with.




    Tipping Point?

    Malcolm Gladwells', The Tipping Point, brought a great many examples of how little things, when added up, can make a big difference. Over the long holiday weekend, Mark and I believed that Dexter has reached the tipping point--or rather the accumulation of our invested time in acclimating him to his home and other household members of all persuasions, is finally paying a dividend.

    The tonality of "Is this our dog?" was one of wonder, not consternation. It is now said in exclamation, "This is our dog!"   The long line work has really paid off.  And he is an eager learner--as are the balance of the girls when there are treats involved.  He is finally understanding that running and battering ramming the English Setters is not such a good idea. Say what you will about aversive v. non-aversive training, a good yank in the other direction when his body is running full bore toward another dog is a lesson in physics that is MUCH KINDER than the physics lesson that the object toward which he is running experiences.  The result is that after a few such lessons (on his webbing collar, not the training collar), he has dispelled (at least currently) his notions of engaging in such pursuit.

    The end result of that lesson is that we have pure walking enjoyment on the long line.  I now take it to the road (private). This walking is not a 'heeling' experience or a 'lead' experience, but simply a walk/jog on the road to
    • get some puppy energy burnt off
    • sniff here and there
    • be part of his 'pack' with Ella and Daisey running here and there, and the group of them stopping to sniff in a compelling smell without his entering battering ram mode.
    During our outdoor down time (sitting, chatting, visiting with neighbors who wander by), he is able to rest quietly with the other dogs.  I consider this time important time for him to feel part of the team.  I'm working with him to run alongside my bike without biting my foot or the front tire.  I have been feeding him treats at my right side to keep him in the middle of the bike v. in front of the bike.  I'm unclear as of yet whether I'm successfully training him to do anything.    I'm going to subscribe to the notion that there will be a tipping point, either or both in his training or my tumbling off the bike. I hope it is just the former!

    I bought this Treat Pouch from Entirely Pets.  It is very high quality, and it has made training life so much more easier. I was at Big Lots and I found a very high quality dog toy.  Yes, it is made in China, but I inspected it carefully.  I've never had dogs that played with toys much.  I have had good luck finding reasonable priced dog toys (for other people's dogs!) at Big Lots.  Well, Ella is the youngest (now 10).  She had some toys which she promptly shred--even when I thought she couldn't.  Dexter is no less determined.  The duck toy that I bought, made by Happy Tails, is made of super-durable materials and is very well constructed.  It has lots of textures to include a rope tail.  At $5 it is a good value.  I'm going to get a few more.

     No one enjoys Dexter more than Angel.  She always seeks him out to do her Spice Girl dancing with him. This tossed away boy has really brought so much enjoyment to our family.  He has made us all young again.