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Save more on Pork treats,and Hare treats
From January 27th through February 2nd, you can save more on Hare treats,and Pork treats.
**Hare ears (6 ears/package)
Hare ears (6 ears/package) made in Argentina.
These are made from hare in Argentina, and ear is about 3"-5" in length, and very crunchy treats.It is almost like potato chips texture.
Normally,it is $3.62,with sales price,it will be $3.37
You can read more on Hare ears in the taste testing entry titled "Palette's note:Hare ears". Please click here to read the entry.
**Porky chew (Pig ear)
Porky chew (Pig ear) made in USA. This Porky chew (Pig ear) is bigger than traditional pig ears you will see at pet supply stores, and it is about approx 6" -8" width. When I first saw this chew, I was wowed. Some of the Porky chews was bigger than k9 executive chef Palette's head!
Palette, our k9 executive chef, spent about 40 minutes on this chew.
Normally,it is $3.44,with sales price,it will be $3.18
**Pumpers (Pork heart)
Pork heart made in USA. This treat is a baked whole pork heart, and it is approx 5" -7" width.
Our k9 executive chef Palette went nuts for this treats and literally pushed me away to be the first in the line in front of the box full of pumpers (Pork heart)! Her nose got wet in a seconds and became talkative,being impatient, and she really loved them.
This pork heart treats are individually wrapped to retain the freshness.
Normally,it is $2.31,with sales price,it will be $2.16
Please enjoy treat hunt for your furry friends!!
** Selected Dog toys on sale.Please click here to visit Dog toys page.
** You can get Free shipping with order over $100 (No coupon code required)
** We ship the order on every Monday,Tuesday, every other Wednesday.
** If you order on Saturdays, you can get free GDK treats. For more information on Snack Saturday offer,please click here.
** You can now sniff out Dog/Cat toys,Training aids,Dental products,and Grooming supplies as well.
** You can get FREE one count of lamb trachea (Lamb version of Moo-tubes) with every order!
** Watch Palette enjoy her Lamb trachea below.
If you are a blog subscriber,please click here to watch the video.
Palette and Lamb Trachea
Please note that current batch of lamb trachea color is more like Beef/Buffalo trachea.
** We accept only US order, no international order please.
**If you become fan of our Facebook page,you can get "Fan only" offer,and discounts. Please find "Yassy's Gourmet Dog Kitchen" on Facebook.
To visit our store,please click here or paste and copy the link below into your browser.
http://yassysgdk.com/main.sc
**Hare ears (6 ears/package)
Hare ears (6 ears/package) made in Argentina.
These are made from hare in Argentina, and ear is about 3"-5" in length, and very crunchy treats.It is almost like potato chips texture.
Normally,it is $3.62,with sales price,it will be $3.37
You can read more on Hare ears in the taste testing entry titled "Palette's note:Hare ears". Please click here to read the entry.
**Porky chew (Pig ear)
Porky chew (Pig ear) made in USA. This Porky chew (Pig ear) is bigger than traditional pig ears you will see at pet supply stores, and it is about approx 6" -8" width. When I first saw this chew, I was wowed. Some of the Porky chews was bigger than k9 executive chef Palette's head!
Palette, our k9 executive chef, spent about 40 minutes on this chew.
Normally,it is $3.44,with sales price,it will be $3.18
**Pumpers (Pork heart)
Pork heart made in USA. This treat is a baked whole pork heart, and it is approx 5" -7" width.
Our k9 executive chef Palette went nuts for this treats and literally pushed me away to be the first in the line in front of the box full of pumpers (Pork heart)! Her nose got wet in a seconds and became talkative,being impatient, and she really loved them.
This pork heart treats are individually wrapped to retain the freshness.
Normally,it is $2.31,with sales price,it will be $2.16
Please enjoy treat hunt for your furry friends!!
** Selected Dog toys on sale.Please click here to visit Dog toys page.
** You can get Free shipping with order over $100 (No coupon code required)
** We ship the order on every Monday,Tuesday, every other Wednesday.
** If you order on Saturdays, you can get free GDK treats. For more information on Snack Saturday offer,please click here.
** You can now sniff out Dog/Cat toys,Training aids,Dental products,and Grooming supplies as well.
** You can get FREE one count of lamb trachea (Lamb version of Moo-tubes) with every order!
** Watch Palette enjoy her Lamb trachea below.
If you are a blog subscriber,please click here to watch the video.
Palette and Lamb Trachea
Please note that current batch of lamb trachea color is more like Beef/Buffalo trachea.
** We accept only US order, no international order please.
**If you become fan of our Facebook page,you can get "Fan only" offer,and discounts. Please find "Yassy's Gourmet Dog Kitchen" on Facebook.
To visit our store,please click here or paste and copy the link below into your browser.
http://yassysgdk.com/main.sc
Amazing Clicker trained Bengal cat "Kaiser" and Border Collie "Nana"
As you already know, I love teaching Palette some funny tricks and tricks that give her some chore in the house with clicker.
I love when she is very ready and willing to learn new stuff each day and gives me huge grin on her face. I enjoy every moment I train her and, I know we both having a lots of fun.
In the previous entry titled "Mental exercise for your dogs", you have seen the youtube video of the clicker trained horse.
Clicker training is not just for dogs but for many more variety of animals.
Did you know that cats can be trained with clicker too?
Recently, I came across youtube video of clicker trained Bengal cat named "Kaiser". Kaiser is very smart and, she can do many things dogs get to be trained for; roll over,beg,close door,turn around,weaving through leg etc etc..
I thought Kaiser is amazing and, I thought I would share the youtube video with you.
Kaiser,the Bengal cat, is living with Border Collie named "Nana",and having a trick contest. Which do you vote for the win?
Cats vs Dog;Trick contest
If you are a blog subscriber,please click here to watch video.
I love when she is very ready and willing to learn new stuff each day and gives me huge grin on her face. I enjoy every moment I train her and, I know we both having a lots of fun.
In the previous entry titled "Mental exercise for your dogs", you have seen the youtube video of the clicker trained horse.
Clicker training is not just for dogs but for many more variety of animals.
Did you know that cats can be trained with clicker too?
Recently, I came across youtube video of clicker trained Bengal cat named "Kaiser". Kaiser is very smart and, she can do many things dogs get to be trained for; roll over,beg,close door,turn around,weaving through leg etc etc..
I thought Kaiser is amazing and, I thought I would share the youtube video with you.
Kaiser,the Bengal cat, is living with Border Collie named "Nana",and having a trick contest. Which do you vote for the win?
Cats vs Dog;Trick contest
If you are a blog subscriber,please click here to watch video.
People food for thought Part XXIII;Benefits of yogurt and D.I.Y. Yogurt
When you hear the word "Yogurt", you would imagine that yogurt is one of healthy food products you can get at the grocery store.
When you watch TV, you would see a couple of different kinds of yogurt commercials from flavored yogurt to yogurt that claims to contains many strains of friendly gut bacteria in them.
Our stumpy little dog "Palette" loves frozen yogurt treats I make for her, she thinks that the yogurt is super yummy food in the world.
You can see frozen yogurt cool down treats recipes with Palette's treat diary series here.
There are commercially made frozen dog treats for dogs or ready to freeze smoothie yogurt cups.
Dogs may like them but have you looked at the ingredients in them?
For example, commercially made frozen dog treats you can get at grocery store contains...
"Water, Whey, Soy Flour, Coconut Oil, Dried Whey Product, Whey Protein, Soy Lecithin, Polysorbate 60, Calcium Carbonate, Choline Chloride, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Microcrystalline Cellulose, Magnesium Oxide, Silicon Dioxide, Mono And Diglycerides, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Cellulose Gum, Niacin Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Polysorbate 80, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Potassium Iodide, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Folic Acid. "
There are 31 ingredients to make one!
Ready to make smoothie cup has shorter ingredients list but, ingredients are either "Apple puree, banana puree, water, pear puree, natural peppermint extract, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C)" or "Apple puree, banana puree, water, natural peanut butter flavor, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C)".
Compared to the frozen dog treats,ingredients are more recognizable items and shorter and it is better but, I would prefer to see "Peanut butter" for the peanut butter flavored smoothie treats rather than "peanut butter flavor".
And I would prefer just fruits and water and nothing else if I were to make smoothie treats using only ingredients used for the actual smoothie treats.
I see many people add honey, peanut butter etc.. for homemade frozen yogurt treats for dogs and some people use yogurt with vanilla flavored one but,I personally prefer to use the plain unsweetened yogurt and, I don't see the point to sweeten up the yogurt with honey or peanut butter because whatever you will be putting them has enough flavor dogs like.
I also have seen the frozen yogurt recipe that has banana,peanut butter,honey and yogurt.Peanut butter has sugar in them and honey is sweetener and banana by itself is sweet enough and I have to wonder how much more they want to sweet things up for their dogs?
One particular recipe I came across using honey,peanut butter,banana,and yogurt came out to 782kcal with entire recipe and recipe instructs you to pour these into 4 oz disposable cup,which means probably comes out to about 8-10 cups.
If it was for 10 cups worth recipe, one cup (one treat cup) is about 78 kcal! Even if you pour them into ice cube tray and make them into smaller cubes,it probably better when it comes to kcal consumed but it runs around 24 kcal per ice cube size treats.
My version of frozen yogurt treats you can find at Palette's diary series has less sugary ingredients and much lower kcal per ice cube size treats.
For them, all food they consume does not have to be sweetened up,or flavored up.
That being said,if you make your own cool down treats, they are much cheaper,not fortified with any vitamins/minerals,and you can be creative with what flavor you will make for your dogs and, it will be fun.
Also,since they are made from fresh food,ingredients list will be much shorter and simpler treats,and they will be much more nutritious, much more low in calories although it depends on what ingredients were used to make them.
Those are what Palette will be looking forward to getting after daily walk and bathing time. She literally drool over the treats and enjoys every bite of it.
I love to try all kinds of new fruits or food and, recently, I tried out star fruits and, I liked it. It tasted like apple/pear all in one bite and, I let Palette taste it and she liked it so, I let her enjoy some of star fruits in the form of frozen yogurt treats
YUM!! I love frozen star fruits celery yogurt treats!
Now, you find all kinds of yogurt at grocery stores, and they are good for you but only if you choose the right one.
You maybe tempted to reach out to fruits flavored yogurt or yogurt that has chocolates pack comes with them or maybe jam on bottom.
However, as you have read in the previous entry titled "People food for thought Part II:Hidden sugars in food",yogurt has natural sugar "Lactose", and plain yogurt has natural sugar around 12 grams. Flavored yogurt can have 35 grams of sugar in the label.
Therefore, you may reach out to the flavored yogurt and thinking it is good for you but, if you look closer to the label, it is actually very sugary snack of the day.
Back to the dog treats topic, if you used french vanilla yogurt for example, 1 Cup of French vanilla flavored yogurt contains 29 grams of sugar, and if you use plain yogurt, one cup contains only 12 grams of sugar in them.
You can see the flavored yogurt like French vanilla yogurt has almost 2.5 times more sugar and,if you were adding extra sweetener such as peanut butter, honey etc.., then,the yogurt treats will be quite sugary.
Of course, dogs would love sugary yogurt treats made with flavored yogurt but, just because they like the treats does not necessary means they are good one to give them.
Recently, I came across interesting newspaper article on yogurt written by Jennifer Motl and, I thought I would share it with you.
According to the article, there are some studies done on the relationship between yogurt and people health and here are some of the examples that shows yogurt is good for your health.
Benefits of yogurt..
** Women who ate most yogurt had half the risk of diabetes compared to those who avoided yogurt in a study of 82.000 Americans.
** Eating yogurt 6 weeks everyday caused "bad cholesterol LDL" level dropped 7% in Italian study
** Children who ate more yogurt had fewer dental problems in Dutch study
** Those who ate most yogurt had 35% fewer case of colon cancer than those who avoided yogurt
What kinds of yogurt you should pick to eat?
There are many kinds of yogurt at dairy aisle. What kinds of yogurt you should choose? Here are some tips from the newspaper article written by Jennifer Motl.
Greek yogurt has been "Hot item" these days. Greek yogurt is thicker yogurt than regular yogurt and it has almost like cream cheese consistency if you will.
According to Jennifer, these Greek yogurt is milder and less sour because whey is removed. Also, they have twice the protein of regular yogurt; up to 15 grams of protein per cup and it equal to the protein you would consume if you eat 2 eggs.
Yogurt is basically fermented milk products with friendly gut bacteria, and to make Greek yogurt, yogurt is strained to drain sour whey in the regular yogurt.
The reason why Greek yogurt is more expensive than regular yogurt is because it requires more milk to make same amount of yogurt to regular yogurt,and it costs more.
One other thing she has mentioned in her article was about frozen yogurt products for human. She wrote that frozen yogurt products are least healthful and it has more sugar than regular yogurt and some brands have no friendly gut bacteria in them.
Therefore, I had a look at the website of grocery store we often go to and, interesting thing I found is that,there are no plain frozen yogurt products and everything is flavored up.
I have picked vanilla flavored one to look up the sugar amount in them and it was 19 grams of sugar in half cup so, if you make it to 1 cup to compare, frozen yogurt has 38 grams of sugar in one cup!
Not only ingredients are lengthy than unfrozen yogurt,but also frozen yogurt contains lots of sugar in them.
Jennifer recommends to buy a tub of plain yogurt and add fresh/frozen/dried fruits to enjoy your flavor and add a touch of honey if you need to sweetened up.
She writes it is good for cereal and,I agree with that. I eat toast for breakfast but I used to eat plain unflavored cereal top with yogurt mixed with puree strawberry on top.
It was tasty.
If yogurt is the staple food items in your fridge, instead of buying yogurt tub every time it runs out,why not making on your own?
Incidentally, Jennifer's article was with slow cooker yogurt recipe and, I had to try out to see what it will be like. It looked easy to make and here are recipe you can try on your own.
Since her recipe was big volume, I had to scaled it down to good enough amount to keep one at a time. I also tweaked some instruction after browsing through yogurt making tips.
To read full article written by Jennifer Motl,please click here.
Homemade yogurt recipe..
Homemade Yogurt with strawberry..
Ingredients;
4 C Whole Milk
3 tbs Plain whole milk yogurt (for source of friendly bacteria)
-------------------------------------
1. Pour milk into slow-cooker set to "Low",and cover with lid
2. Wait for about 3 hours until temperature reach to 185F
** Use thermometer to take temperature of the milk
** Do not open lid frequently since every time you open lid, temperature will drop
** 185F temperature is the temperature you will start seeing froth on milk
3. Unplug the slow-cooker,and cool it to 110F
** Will take about 2 hours to reach the temperature
** 110F is the temperature where yogurt culture being reproduce
4. Skim off the film on top of the milk if any
5. Ladle 1/2C warm milk from slow-cooker into measuring cup and add 3 tbs of plain whole milk yogurt (I like stonyfield organic Plain whole milk yogurt with cream on top)
6. Mix it well
7. Pour the yogurt-milk mixture back into the slow-cooker
8. Take the inner ceramic bowl out from the slow-cooker and wrap them with big towel to keep them warm and set it in the oven with light on (Oven is not on,just light is on),and oven door closed
** It is good idea to put a big note that says "Do not use oven" on top of the oven so family member will know what is going on, and not accidentally turns the oven on
9. Wait for 7 hours
10. Stir well and put it into sealed container and keep the container at back of the shelf in the fridge over night
** Back of the shelf is the coldest area in the fridge and it is best to keep there
11. Next morning, you can enjoy your homemade yogurt
The yogurt I made came out touch thinner than store bought yogurt but good thing is, it was not as tangy as store bought one so I really did not need any sugar to add to enjoy them.
I just pour it over fresh fruits and enjoyed freshly made Yogurt.
Yogurt making is very easy and economical.Try it yourself and see if you like them.
The recipe above makes 2 1/2 C yogurt.
Palette got to taste test freshly made yogurt and she was 7 paws up! She really loved them! Since I knew she liked strawberry, I put sliced strawberry in the yogurt and she licked to clean and came back to the bowl over and over again just to be sure there are no more yummy left out.
When you watch TV, you would see a couple of different kinds of yogurt commercials from flavored yogurt to yogurt that claims to contains many strains of friendly gut bacteria in them.
Our stumpy little dog "Palette" loves frozen yogurt treats I make for her, she thinks that the yogurt is super yummy food in the world.
You can see frozen yogurt cool down treats recipes with Palette's treat diary series here.
There are commercially made frozen dog treats for dogs or ready to freeze smoothie yogurt cups.
Dogs may like them but have you looked at the ingredients in them?
For example, commercially made frozen dog treats you can get at grocery store contains...
"Water, Whey, Soy Flour, Coconut Oil, Dried Whey Product, Whey Protein, Soy Lecithin, Polysorbate 60, Calcium Carbonate, Choline Chloride, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Microcrystalline Cellulose, Magnesium Oxide, Silicon Dioxide, Mono And Diglycerides, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Cellulose Gum, Niacin Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Polysorbate 80, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Potassium Iodide, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Folic Acid. "
There are 31 ingredients to make one!
Ready to make smoothie cup has shorter ingredients list but, ingredients are either "Apple puree, banana puree, water, pear puree, natural peppermint extract, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C)" or "Apple puree, banana puree, water, natural peanut butter flavor, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C)".
Compared to the frozen dog treats,ingredients are more recognizable items and shorter and it is better but, I would prefer to see "Peanut butter" for the peanut butter flavored smoothie treats rather than "peanut butter flavor".
And I would prefer just fruits and water and nothing else if I were to make smoothie treats using only ingredients used for the actual smoothie treats.
I see many people add honey, peanut butter etc.. for homemade frozen yogurt treats for dogs and some people use yogurt with vanilla flavored one but,I personally prefer to use the plain unsweetened yogurt and, I don't see the point to sweeten up the yogurt with honey or peanut butter because whatever you will be putting them has enough flavor dogs like.
I also have seen the frozen yogurt recipe that has banana,peanut butter,honey and yogurt.Peanut butter has sugar in them and honey is sweetener and banana by itself is sweet enough and I have to wonder how much more they want to sweet things up for their dogs?
One particular recipe I came across using honey,peanut butter,banana,and yogurt came out to 782kcal with entire recipe and recipe instructs you to pour these into 4 oz disposable cup,which means probably comes out to about 8-10 cups.
If it was for 10 cups worth recipe, one cup (one treat cup) is about 78 kcal! Even if you pour them into ice cube tray and make them into smaller cubes,it probably better when it comes to kcal consumed but it runs around 24 kcal per ice cube size treats.
My version of frozen yogurt treats you can find at Palette's diary series has less sugary ingredients and much lower kcal per ice cube size treats.
For them, all food they consume does not have to be sweetened up,or flavored up.
That being said,if you make your own cool down treats, they are much cheaper,not fortified with any vitamins/minerals,and you can be creative with what flavor you will make for your dogs and, it will be fun.
Also,since they are made from fresh food,ingredients list will be much shorter and simpler treats,and they will be much more nutritious, much more low in calories although it depends on what ingredients were used to make them.
Those are what Palette will be looking forward to getting after daily walk and bathing time. She literally drool over the treats and enjoys every bite of it.
I love to try all kinds of new fruits or food and, recently, I tried out star fruits and, I liked it. It tasted like apple/pear all in one bite and, I let Palette taste it and she liked it so, I let her enjoy some of star fruits in the form of frozen yogurt treats
YUM!! I love frozen star fruits celery yogurt treats!
Now, you find all kinds of yogurt at grocery stores, and they are good for you but only if you choose the right one.
You maybe tempted to reach out to fruits flavored yogurt or yogurt that has chocolates pack comes with them or maybe jam on bottom.
However, as you have read in the previous entry titled "People food for thought Part II:Hidden sugars in food",yogurt has natural sugar "Lactose", and plain yogurt has natural sugar around 12 grams. Flavored yogurt can have 35 grams of sugar in the label.
Therefore, you may reach out to the flavored yogurt and thinking it is good for you but, if you look closer to the label, it is actually very sugary snack of the day.
Back to the dog treats topic, if you used french vanilla yogurt for example, 1 Cup of French vanilla flavored yogurt contains 29 grams of sugar, and if you use plain yogurt, one cup contains only 12 grams of sugar in them.
You can see the flavored yogurt like French vanilla yogurt has almost 2.5 times more sugar and,if you were adding extra sweetener such as peanut butter, honey etc.., then,the yogurt treats will be quite sugary.
Of course, dogs would love sugary yogurt treats made with flavored yogurt but, just because they like the treats does not necessary means they are good one to give them.
Recently, I came across interesting newspaper article on yogurt written by Jennifer Motl and, I thought I would share it with you.
According to the article, there are some studies done on the relationship between yogurt and people health and here are some of the examples that shows yogurt is good for your health.
Benefits of yogurt..
** Women who ate most yogurt had half the risk of diabetes compared to those who avoided yogurt in a study of 82.000 Americans.
** Eating yogurt 6 weeks everyday caused "bad cholesterol LDL" level dropped 7% in Italian study
** Children who ate more yogurt had fewer dental problems in Dutch study
** Those who ate most yogurt had 35% fewer case of colon cancer than those who avoided yogurt
What kinds of yogurt you should pick to eat?
There are many kinds of yogurt at dairy aisle. What kinds of yogurt you should choose? Here are some tips from the newspaper article written by Jennifer Motl.
Greek yogurt has been "Hot item" these days. Greek yogurt is thicker yogurt than regular yogurt and it has almost like cream cheese consistency if you will.
According to Jennifer, these Greek yogurt is milder and less sour because whey is removed. Also, they have twice the protein of regular yogurt; up to 15 grams of protein per cup and it equal to the protein you would consume if you eat 2 eggs.
Yogurt is basically fermented milk products with friendly gut bacteria, and to make Greek yogurt, yogurt is strained to drain sour whey in the regular yogurt.
The reason why Greek yogurt is more expensive than regular yogurt is because it requires more milk to make same amount of yogurt to regular yogurt,and it costs more.
One other thing she has mentioned in her article was about frozen yogurt products for human. She wrote that frozen yogurt products are least healthful and it has more sugar than regular yogurt and some brands have no friendly gut bacteria in them.
Therefore, I had a look at the website of grocery store we often go to and, interesting thing I found is that,there are no plain frozen yogurt products and everything is flavored up.
I have picked vanilla flavored one to look up the sugar amount in them and it was 19 grams of sugar in half cup so, if you make it to 1 cup to compare, frozen yogurt has 38 grams of sugar in one cup!
Not only ingredients are lengthy than unfrozen yogurt,but also frozen yogurt contains lots of sugar in them.
Jennifer recommends to buy a tub of plain yogurt and add fresh/frozen/dried fruits to enjoy your flavor and add a touch of honey if you need to sweetened up.
She writes it is good for cereal and,I agree with that. I eat toast for breakfast but I used to eat plain unflavored cereal top with yogurt mixed with puree strawberry on top.
It was tasty.
If yogurt is the staple food items in your fridge, instead of buying yogurt tub every time it runs out,why not making on your own?
Incidentally, Jennifer's article was with slow cooker yogurt recipe and, I had to try out to see what it will be like. It looked easy to make and here are recipe you can try on your own.
Since her recipe was big volume, I had to scaled it down to good enough amount to keep one at a time. I also tweaked some instruction after browsing through yogurt making tips.
To read full article written by Jennifer Motl,please click here.
Homemade yogurt recipe..
Homemade Yogurt with strawberry..
Ingredients;
4 C Whole Milk
3 tbs Plain whole milk yogurt (for source of friendly bacteria)
-------------------------------------
1. Pour milk into slow-cooker set to "Low",and cover with lid
2. Wait for about 3 hours until temperature reach to 185F
** Use thermometer to take temperature of the milk
** Do not open lid frequently since every time you open lid, temperature will drop
** 185F temperature is the temperature you will start seeing froth on milk
3. Unplug the slow-cooker,and cool it to 110F
** Will take about 2 hours to reach the temperature
** 110F is the temperature where yogurt culture being reproduce
4. Skim off the film on top of the milk if any
5. Ladle 1/2C warm milk from slow-cooker into measuring cup and add 3 tbs of plain whole milk yogurt (I like stonyfield organic Plain whole milk yogurt with cream on top)
6. Mix it well
7. Pour the yogurt-milk mixture back into the slow-cooker
8. Take the inner ceramic bowl out from the slow-cooker and wrap them with big towel to keep them warm and set it in the oven with light on (Oven is not on,just light is on),and oven door closed
** It is good idea to put a big note that says "Do not use oven" on top of the oven so family member will know what is going on, and not accidentally turns the oven on
9. Wait for 7 hours
10. Stir well and put it into sealed container and keep the container at back of the shelf in the fridge over night
** Back of the shelf is the coldest area in the fridge and it is best to keep there
11. Next morning, you can enjoy your homemade yogurt
The yogurt I made came out touch thinner than store bought yogurt but good thing is, it was not as tangy as store bought one so I really did not need any sugar to add to enjoy them.
I just pour it over fresh fruits and enjoyed freshly made Yogurt.
Yogurt making is very easy and economical.Try it yourself and see if you like them.
The recipe above makes 2 1/2 C yogurt.
Palette got to taste test freshly made yogurt and she was 7 paws up! She really loved them! Since I knew she liked strawberry, I put sliced strawberry in the yogurt and she licked to clean and came back to the bowl over and over again just to be sure there are no more yummy left out.
Palette's winter treats diary;January 22nd,2012
For us, last month was eventful month of the year.
First, I have baked cookies for my side of family who lives far far away from us in Japan. It takes us 14 hours to get to Tokyo,Japan with direct flight.
I also made some cookies for my husband's workmates as I do every year. Then, I made another batch of cookie dough and froze it so I can bake those at my mother in law house.
If you have not tried it, freezing the cookie dough is one thing you can do if you have made cookie dough more than enough for one occasion. All you need to do is to shape it to log and tightly wrap them with plastic wrap and twist both ends just like candy. Then, put those into a freezer bag and write the cookie name and dates on so you know what it is.
Later, when you want to bake them, you just thaw them and slice as much as you needed and, bake them.
If you are following cooking entries, you have seen the cookies that I made for Christmas; Green tea chip cookies/ Pecan Toffee chip cookie with Macadamia nuts".
The cookie was huge hit and, I am already excited to come up with new kind of cookies for the next Christmas I just love to be creative,and enjoy watching our family eat those cookies with huge smile.
Second, we did 12 hours long road trip to our mother in law house. Palette loves car ride and she gets so excited for the trip.
While we are loading luggage into cars, she follows us everywhere so she would not miss us and she goes up and down,up and down. She must be tired doing all the stair exercise way before the actual road trip
Finally, it is THE moment Palette was waiting for! I have opened up the car door and adjusting her bed and, here comes Palette poking her head from in between my legs and push herself to the front, and 1.2.3.. and quick jump to the car seat.
In the past, I was giving her the boost so she can hop into the car but,now she has learned that she can hop into the car by herself. So, she jumps in herself.
She sometimes amaze me for her agile act. She once jumped onto 4th or 5th steps by jumping over my legs because I was in her way sitting on the step side way,and she wanted to go to kitchen.
I did not imagine she could jump that much but,obviously, she can.
Despite such busy time, we did daily walk if not bad weather. The walk was rather interesting for the month, because many houses start decorating house with lights and Christmas decorations for their yard.
Therefore, Palette got to see all kinds of yard decorations for Christmas. Particularly, one of the Christmas decoration we have passed by caught her eyes.
It was the inflatable Christmas tree but, its top moves up and down slowly and as they goes up, a little snowman pops out from the tree.
Palette does not like things that move when she thinks the things should never move.
She stopped and stared at it with her ears pointed at the decoration and, she started giving the little snowman low growl warning but snowman still moving to shows up so she gave him high pitch woof "Woof-woof-woof-woof-woof".
Then, the snowman was moving down to go hide in the Christmas tree and, Palette turned back and we kept walking for the next interesting Christmas decoration..
Now, I will pass a pen to Palette to write her diary here.
January 22nd,2012
Last month was a month I smelled paw-licking aromas floating in the air just like the month before, and it was a torture for my nose because if you smell the pawlicious aromas in the air, you would imagine what you will be tasting and, it gets my nose wet.
But then, when all the yummy cookies came out from the oven, and I was extra good for the nibble near the kitchen cart,which I call it "Doggie food stand", mom told me that Chocolate is not good for me plus nuts she used (Macadamia nuts) is fatal toxic and I would not get any nibble for those.
I was like "Whhhat?"
I was waiting for the nibble times but,it did not happen. It is not fair!
Maybe I should make my cookies myself by mixing in my favorite food in the world "The Green tripe",which mom and dad cannot eat them! All for me!
That would even out the fairness
We also visited dad's mom. It was a long 12 hours drive. Mom hook me to doggy seat belt and I said "Lets roll!" and, I gave everyone an excited "Woof" for the day.
I love car ride!
I looked outside through the car window and, I enjoyed the scenery and at the same time, I spent some time making very artistic nose-art on the car window so everyone knows Palette was here
Every now and then, we stopped for potty and, I got to meet other furry friends. I sniffed out the very good spot for potty but then, little white dog came sniffed out my spot and she scratched my pee-mail!
Next time, I should look for hard to find spot for potty for pee-mail purger
12 hours long car ride was very long drive,but I enjoyed a lot and I enjoyed meeting all of dad's family. Everyone likes me and,I visit every one of them so I can personally greet them and ask for the petting for return
Then, I enjoyed all the nibble time. Dad's mom makes lasagna every year and, she has made Beef burgnion with pasta too. So, every time she find spot to trim, she put those aside and tossed one for me to nibble. I got jackpot sirloin bits!
Then, I got provolone cheese bit too! I love Christmas at dad's mom!
I cannot wait to come back there again!
Back home, walkie was fun, but it was so strange to see that all of sudden, mom and I got many walkie cheerleaders like Reindeer,Snowman,Penguin,Santa Clause, Candy cane, Christmas tree etc etc...
When I see them, I just had to get close with cautious steps if I could, and slowly reach to them to sniff. They were so many of them and, I had busy walkie time.
Sometimes, unexpected happens like Mr snowman popped up from the Christmas tree slowly and, I got very surprised, and looked back at him and said " No scares for me!" and I gave him a high pitch woof.
He went back in the Christmas trees, I hope he would not give me any more surprises. I hate when you think things should stay still and they move!
I walked to the finish line with brisk walk because I know what I will be getting after each walkie. You would already know that too,wouldn't you?
Cool down treat time!
That is what I am looking forward to getting them every walkie time.
This months, mom and I have tried unique fruits called "Star Fruits".
Have you had them? Mom said it tastes like apple/pear and, I thought it was awkward shape and difficult to hold with my mouth, but I liked them! So, mom decided to make cool down treats with Star fruits.
What is Star fruits?
Star fruits..
Star fruits is tropical fruits and usually grown in Thailand,Australia,Southeast Asia, Hawaii,and Florida.
If you want to use Star fruits right away, you should pick the ripe ones. If you got unripe Star fruits,wait till it gets ripe before eating them.
Usually,ripe Star Fruits is yellow with light green tint. Then, you would see the 5 brown ridges.
Star Fruits is high in Vitamin C, Antioxidant and flavonoids and they are good for you.
Here is how you eat them.
1. Wash Star Fruits and remove 5 brown ridges
2. Cut the fruits across and remove seeds
* You can poke the seed with tip of the knife and you can take seeds out easily
Star fruits cut across, seed removed..
3. Enjoy!
Mom got me nibble some Star Fruits.You see I like them!
Here I come for nibble!
One more nibble with wet nose!
Nom,nom,nom.I like them!
YUM!
This time, mom has made Frozen Star fruits Celery Yogurt treats.
Frozen Star fruits Celery Yogurt treats....
Here is how you make the frozen star fruits celery yogurt treats.
1. Cut the star fruits seed removed,ridge removed (7.9 oz ) into bite size pieces
2. Cut 1 celery stalk (3.4 oz) into bite size pieces
3. Add 8 oz of Stonyfield Organic Oikos Geek yogurt Plain and puree them to mix everything evenly.
4. Pour those onto ice cube tray and freeze them
** Since Tropical fruits "Star fruits" nutrition profile was not found, this entry is only with the treat recipe.
Here I come!
Hmm.... Yum!
Privacy,please..
I really like them!
Making sure nothing is left behind...
The cool down treats was yummy as always,and I wonder what treats she would make next. I love all the surprise
My dad got mom a gift on the way back to our house from his mom when we took 12 hours long car ride.
He got her this.
It is a sign to hang. Mom said she would like to put on my den den (Crate) door,but am I spoiled?
I think it is a myth!
First, I have baked cookies for my side of family who lives far far away from us in Japan. It takes us 14 hours to get to Tokyo,Japan with direct flight.
I also made some cookies for my husband's workmates as I do every year. Then, I made another batch of cookie dough and froze it so I can bake those at my mother in law house.
If you have not tried it, freezing the cookie dough is one thing you can do if you have made cookie dough more than enough for one occasion. All you need to do is to shape it to log and tightly wrap them with plastic wrap and twist both ends just like candy. Then, put those into a freezer bag and write the cookie name and dates on so you know what it is.
Later, when you want to bake them, you just thaw them and slice as much as you needed and, bake them.
If you are following cooking entries, you have seen the cookies that I made for Christmas; Green tea chip cookies/ Pecan Toffee chip cookie with Macadamia nuts".
The cookie was huge hit and, I am already excited to come up with new kind of cookies for the next Christmas
I just love to be creative,and enjoy watching our family eat those cookies with huge smile.Second, we did 12 hours long road trip to our mother in law house. Palette loves car ride and she gets so excited for the trip.
While we are loading luggage into cars, she follows us everywhere so she would not miss us and she goes up and down,up and down. She must be tired doing all the stair exercise way before the actual road trip
Finally, it is THE moment Palette was waiting for! I have opened up the car door and adjusting her bed and, here comes Palette poking her head from in between my legs and push herself to the front, and 1.2.3.. and quick jump to the car seat.
In the past, I was giving her the boost so she can hop into the car but,now she has learned that she can hop into the car by herself. So, she jumps in herself.
She sometimes amaze me for her agile act. She once jumped onto 4th or 5th steps by jumping over my legs because I was in her way sitting on the step side way,and she wanted to go to kitchen.
I did not imagine she could jump that much but,obviously, she can.
Despite such busy time, we did daily walk if not bad weather. The walk was rather interesting for the month, because many houses start decorating house with lights and Christmas decorations for their yard.
Therefore, Palette got to see all kinds of yard decorations for Christmas. Particularly, one of the Christmas decoration we have passed by caught her eyes.
It was the inflatable Christmas tree but, its top moves up and down slowly and as they goes up, a little snowman pops out from the tree.
Palette does not like things that move when she thinks the things should never move.
She stopped and stared at it with her ears pointed at the decoration and, she started giving the little snowman low growl warning but snowman still moving to shows up so she gave him high pitch woof "Woof-woof-woof-woof-woof".
Then, the snowman was moving down to go hide in the Christmas tree and, Palette turned back and we kept walking for the next interesting Christmas decoration..
Now, I will pass a pen to Palette to write her diary here.
January 22nd,2012
Last month was a month I smelled paw-licking aromas floating in the air just like the month before, and it was a torture for my nose because if you smell the pawlicious aromas in the air, you would imagine what you will be tasting and, it gets my nose wet.
But then, when all the yummy cookies came out from the oven, and I was extra good for the nibble near the kitchen cart,which I call it "Doggie food stand", mom told me that Chocolate is not good for me plus nuts she used (Macadamia nuts) is fatal toxic and I would not get any nibble for those.
I was like "Whhhat?"
I was waiting for the nibble times but,it did not happen. It is not fair!
Maybe I should make my cookies myself by mixing in my favorite food in the world "The Green tripe",which mom and dad cannot eat them! All for me!
That would even out the fairness
We also visited dad's mom. It was a long 12 hours drive. Mom hook me to doggy seat belt and I said "Lets roll!" and, I gave everyone an excited "Woof" for the day.
I love car ride!
I looked outside through the car window and, I enjoyed the scenery and at the same time, I spent some time making very artistic nose-art on the car window so everyone knows Palette was here
Every now and then, we stopped for potty and, I got to meet other furry friends. I sniffed out the very good spot for potty but then, little white dog came sniffed out my spot and she scratched my pee-mail!
Next time, I should look for hard to find spot for potty for pee-mail purger
12 hours long car ride was very long drive,but I enjoyed a lot and I enjoyed meeting all of dad's family. Everyone likes me and,I visit every one of them so I can personally greet them and ask for the petting for return
Then, I enjoyed all the nibble time. Dad's mom makes lasagna every year and, she has made Beef burgnion with pasta too. So, every time she find spot to trim, she put those aside and tossed one for me to nibble. I got jackpot sirloin bits!
Then, I got provolone cheese bit too! I love Christmas at dad's mom!
I cannot wait to come back there again!
Back home, walkie was fun, but it was so strange to see that all of sudden, mom and I got many walkie cheerleaders like Reindeer,Snowman,Penguin,Santa Clause, Candy cane, Christmas tree etc etc...
When I see them, I just had to get close with cautious steps if I could, and slowly reach to them to sniff. They were so many of them and, I had busy walkie time.
Sometimes, unexpected happens like Mr snowman popped up from the Christmas tree slowly and, I got very surprised, and looked back at him and said " No scares for me!" and I gave him a high pitch woof.
He went back in the Christmas trees, I hope he would not give me any more surprises. I hate when you think things should stay still and they move!
I walked to the finish line with brisk walk because I know what I will be getting after each walkie. You would already know that too,wouldn't you?
Cool down treat time!
That is what I am looking forward to getting them every walkie time.
This months, mom and I have tried unique fruits called "Star Fruits".
Have you had them? Mom said it tastes like apple/pear and, I thought it was awkward shape and difficult to hold with my mouth, but I liked them! So, mom decided to make cool down treats with Star fruits.
What is Star fruits?
Star fruits..
Star fruits is tropical fruits and usually grown in Thailand,Australia,Southeast Asia, Hawaii,and Florida.
If you want to use Star fruits right away, you should pick the ripe ones. If you got unripe Star fruits,wait till it gets ripe before eating them.
Usually,ripe Star Fruits is yellow with light green tint. Then, you would see the 5 brown ridges.
Star Fruits is high in Vitamin C, Antioxidant and flavonoids and they are good for you.
Here is how you eat them.
1. Wash Star Fruits and remove 5 brown ridges
2. Cut the fruits across and remove seeds
* You can poke the seed with tip of the knife and you can take seeds out easily
Star fruits cut across, seed removed..
3. Enjoy!
Mom got me nibble some Star Fruits.You see I like them!
Here I come for nibble!
One more nibble with wet nose!
Nom,nom,nom.I like them!
YUM!
This time, mom has made Frozen Star fruits Celery Yogurt treats.
Frozen Star fruits Celery Yogurt treats....
Here is how you make the frozen star fruits celery yogurt treats.
1. Cut the star fruits seed removed,ridge removed (7.9 oz ) into bite size pieces
2. Cut 1 celery stalk (3.4 oz) into bite size pieces
3. Add 8 oz of Stonyfield Organic Oikos Geek yogurt Plain and puree them to mix everything evenly.
4. Pour those onto ice cube tray and freeze them
** Since Tropical fruits "Star fruits" nutrition profile was not found, this entry is only with the treat recipe.
Here I come!
Hmm.... Yum!
Privacy,please..
I really like them!
Making sure nothing is left behind...
The cool down treats was yummy as always,and I wonder what treats she would make next. I love all the surprise
My dad got mom a gift on the way back to our house from his mom when we took 12 hours long car ride.
He got her this.
It is a sign to hang. Mom said she would like to put on my den den (Crate) door,but am I spoiled?
I think it is a myth!
P.F.Chang's Menu: VIP Duck Yassy's version
As you already
know, I like re-creating meals from restaurants or eatery places that I
have visited. It is fun to brainstorming what are in the dishes I like.
One of the restaurants I like to go to is called "P.F. Chang's". You can find many restaurants or fast food place that offer Chinese food but, often times, I get disappointed with what I get from those places.
Partly because I am from Japan, and many Chinese restaurant in Japan seemed to hire real Chinese chefs, and dishes Chinese restaurants in Japan offer tastes much superior/better than Chinese food you can get from most Chinese restaurants here in the states.
One thing in the "to do list" when we back home in Japan to go see my family is actually to visit Chinese restaurant with our family and enjoy tasty food there.
Chef at the restaurant we go to in Japan is Chinese chef and, his food is real tasty and I enjoy every bite of it.
That being said, P.F. Chang's dishes taste similar to how I remember "Chinese food" back home in Japan, and when we want to eat decent Chinese food, we visit P.F. Chang's. I have tried some of their dishes and, so far, they have not disappointed me yet.
With recent visit, I wanted to try something different and, since it requires long drive to come visit them, I wanted to try something new and something I would not eat often.
Then, I was browsing through the menu and I saw "Duck" section. I have cooked Duck before but, I do not cook it often and I have decided to try their Duck menu called "VIP Duck"; half duck was sliced and it had sweet glaze on them and it came with sesame cucumber with sliced green onion on top.
With one bite, I tasted Hoisin sauce, Chinese Five spice.. and, all the familiar flavor combination and their Duck was tender, juicy and the sweet glaze was very tasty.
Then, Christmas season has started soon and I started seeing Duck products at the grocery store more and, I have decided to re-create the VIP Duck menu with my way.
The restaurant's menu was with half Duck but, we do not have a lot of people in the house. Therefore, I decided to try out with boneless duck breast.
My version of VIP Duck is Pan seared Duck breast with Hoisin garlic sauce. I think it came pretty close for the taste of the sauce and, I am happy with the result.
My husband has mentioned that P.F. Chang's Duck was touch more tender,juicy but the sauce was pretty close to theirs.
So, how do you make "Pan seared Duck breast with Hoisin garlic sauce"? Here is how.
Pan seared Duck breast with Hoisin garlic sauce..
Ingredients for Brown rice with wild rice;
5/16C Uncle Ben's brown rice
1/16C Wild rice
2 tbs butter
Pinch of Kosher salt
Ingredients for Mixed vegetables;
1/2 white onion sliced
1/2 celery sliced diagonally
1/8 Green pepper sliced
1/8 red pepper sliced
1/4 Cubanelle pepper sliced
3 whole water chestnut sliced
Morton's Natures Seasons
pinch of Chinese Five spice
1 Whole Star Anise
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Ingredients for pan seared Duck breast;
1 lb boneless Duck breast
Pinch of Kosher salt
Pinch of black pepper
1 whole Star Anise
Extra virgin olive oil
Ingredients for Hoisin Garlic sauce;
2.5tbs soy sauce
2tbs sugar
1 tbs sake
2 tsp Honey
1 tsp Hoisin sauce
1 tsp black bean sauce
a little bit of grated ginger
2 garlic cloves grated
1/32 tsp Chinese Five spice
<Brown rice with wild rice>
1. Add 3/4C + 1/8C + 1/16C brown rice with 1/16C wild rice and 2 1/3C water, 2tbs butter,pinch of Kosher salt and stir, let them come to boil
2. Turn the heat down to medium low, cover the pan with lid and cook for 15 minutes.
3. After 15 minutes on medium low heat, turn the heat down to simmer and cook 15 minutes more
** 1C of uncooked rice should make about 3 adult servings. You can look the cooking instruction on your preferred brand of rice package and adjust amount of liquid,rice, and cooking time.
** Since cooking rice takes longer, start with rice first, and then start working on other things.
Makes; 3 servings
<Mixed vegetable>
1. To the skillet, drizzle extra virgin olive oil and when skillet is hot enough, add 1/2 white onion sliced, 1/2 celery sliced diagonally,1/8 Green pepper sliced,1/8 red pepper sliced, 1/4 Cubanelle pepper sliced, 3 whole water chestnut sliced, and sprinkle Morton's Natures Seasons, pinch of Chinese Five spice, and stir
** Chinese Five spice is spice blend that contains Anise, Cinnamon, Star Anise,Cloves,and Ginger.
2. Toss in 1 whole star Anise and cook the vegetable until tender crisp
** Whole Star Anise looks pointed star shape like the picture below. It is very fragrant,and they are fruits of Chinese evergreen.
Anise tastes a little bit like licorice and when you add Chinese Five spice or a whole Star Anise, you may want to play around to see how much of those spice is needed. Sometimes, a little goes long way.
Whole Star Anise..
** You can get whole star Anise at specialty spice store or from online retailer like spice barn located in Ohio state
3. Serve
Makes; 2 servings
<Pan seared Duck breast>
0. Preheat the oven at 375F
1. Place a paper towel over the plate, place boneless Duck breast on top
2. Place another piece of paper towel over the boneless Duck breast and press lightly to take off any moisture out from the duck breast
** Wet Duck breast would not make any good sear,and crispy skin outside
3. Take off the paper towel and score the Duck skin cross pattern with about 1/4" between the sliced line
** Scoring the skin ensure that the fat can render well and makes crisp skin outside.Make sure that you are not scoring the meat. Score only skin.
4. Season the duck breast both sides with pinch of kosher salt and black pepper
5. Place the oven safe skillet on medium high heat and heat the skillet hot enough to sear the duck breast
** You can test the temperature by wet your hands,then flick/sprinkle water drops onto the skillet. If you hear the sizzles,the skillet is hot enough.
6. Place the seasoned Duck breast skin side down on the skillet,and leave them alone for about 4 minutes
7. Flip the Duck breast over,add 1 whole Star Anise and cook another 4 minutes long
** If you were to cook more than 1 duck breast,make sure that the skillet is not overcrowded with duck breast. If too many were on the skillet, it is rather being steamed than being seared. And, do not move it around,just leave them alone.
8. After that, drain the fat,take out the whole Star Anise
9. Flip it over the duck breast so the breast is skin side down again,and place the skillet in the oven and cook for 8-10 minutes or until meat thermometer reads 125F-130F
Here is a picture of seared Duck breast. You can see the skin got very crispy.
Seared Duck breast resting on the plate..
10. When duck breast is nicely seared and temperature reads 125F-130F, take it out from the oven and let it rest on the plate for 5-10 minutes
** Remember that after you take off the meat from the skillet and set it on the plate to rest,meat will still be cooking and temperature will rise about 5F-10F more,and by the time you will slice them, it will be at medium rare temperature (130F-135F)
** Do not cover the duck breast with foil while resting them because covering makes the crispy skin soggy/soft
11. Slice the Duck breast against the grain
Makes; 2 servings
<Hoisin Garlic sauce>
1. To the sauce pan, add 2.5tbs soy sauce, 2tbs sugar,1 tbs sake,2 tsp Honey, 1 tsp Hoisin sauce,1 tsp black bean sauce, a little bit of grated ginger, 2 garlic cloves grated,1/32 tsp Chinese Five spice and stir and simmer to dissolve the sugar in the sauce
** Both Hoisin sauce,Black bean sauce can be found at the regular grocery store at international aisle.
2. Let the sauce thicken up a little
3. Turn off the heat and pour the sauce over the seared Duck breast when serve
Makes; enough sauce for 1 lb duck breast
** This Hoisin garlic sauce is versatile and,you can use it in your stir fry of any kind and also good sauce for grilled meat such as sliced beef or skillet chicken breast/fish fillet etc..
Enjoy!
One of the restaurants I like to go to is called "P.F. Chang's". You can find many restaurants or fast food place that offer Chinese food but, often times, I get disappointed with what I get from those places.
Partly because I am from Japan, and many Chinese restaurant in Japan seemed to hire real Chinese chefs, and dishes Chinese restaurants in Japan offer tastes much superior/better than Chinese food you can get from most Chinese restaurants here in the states.
One thing in the "to do list" when we back home in Japan to go see my family is actually to visit Chinese restaurant with our family and enjoy tasty food there.
Chef at the restaurant we go to in Japan is Chinese chef and, his food is real tasty and I enjoy every bite of it.
That being said, P.F. Chang's dishes taste similar to how I remember "Chinese food" back home in Japan, and when we want to eat decent Chinese food, we visit P.F. Chang's. I have tried some of their dishes and, so far, they have not disappointed me yet.
With recent visit, I wanted to try something different and, since it requires long drive to come visit them, I wanted to try something new and something I would not eat often.
Then, I was browsing through the menu and I saw "Duck" section. I have cooked Duck before but, I do not cook it often and I have decided to try their Duck menu called "VIP Duck"; half duck was sliced and it had sweet glaze on them and it came with sesame cucumber with sliced green onion on top.
With one bite, I tasted Hoisin sauce, Chinese Five spice.. and, all the familiar flavor combination and their Duck was tender, juicy and the sweet glaze was very tasty.
Then, Christmas season has started soon and I started seeing Duck products at the grocery store more and, I have decided to re-create the VIP Duck menu with my way.
The restaurant's menu was with half Duck but, we do not have a lot of people in the house. Therefore, I decided to try out with boneless duck breast.
My version of VIP Duck is Pan seared Duck breast with Hoisin garlic sauce. I think it came pretty close for the taste of the sauce and, I am happy with the result.
My husband has mentioned that P.F. Chang's Duck was touch more tender,juicy but the sauce was pretty close to theirs.
So, how do you make "Pan seared Duck breast with Hoisin garlic sauce"? Here is how.
Pan seared Duck breast with Hoisin garlic sauce..
Ingredients for Brown rice with wild rice;
5/16C Uncle Ben's brown rice
1/16C Wild rice
2 tbs butter
Pinch of Kosher salt
Ingredients for Mixed vegetables;
1/2 white onion sliced
1/2 celery sliced diagonally
1/8 Green pepper sliced
1/8 red pepper sliced
1/4 Cubanelle pepper sliced
3 whole water chestnut sliced
Morton's Natures Seasons
pinch of Chinese Five spice
1 Whole Star Anise
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Ingredients for pan seared Duck breast;
1 lb boneless Duck breast
Pinch of Kosher salt
Pinch of black pepper
1 whole Star Anise
Extra virgin olive oil
Ingredients for Hoisin Garlic sauce;
2.5tbs soy sauce
2tbs sugar
1 tbs sake
2 tsp Honey
1 tsp Hoisin sauce
1 tsp black bean sauce
a little bit of grated ginger
2 garlic cloves grated
1/32 tsp Chinese Five spice
<Brown rice with wild rice>
1. Add 3/4C + 1/8C + 1/16C brown rice with 1/16C wild rice and 2 1/3C water, 2tbs butter,pinch of Kosher salt and stir, let them come to boil
2. Turn the heat down to medium low, cover the pan with lid and cook for 15 minutes.
3. After 15 minutes on medium low heat, turn the heat down to simmer and cook 15 minutes more
** 1C of uncooked rice should make about 3 adult servings. You can look the cooking instruction on your preferred brand of rice package and adjust amount of liquid,rice, and cooking time.
** Since cooking rice takes longer, start with rice first, and then start working on other things.
Makes; 3 servings
<Mixed vegetable>
1. To the skillet, drizzle extra virgin olive oil and when skillet is hot enough, add 1/2 white onion sliced, 1/2 celery sliced diagonally,1/8 Green pepper sliced,1/8 red pepper sliced, 1/4 Cubanelle pepper sliced, 3 whole water chestnut sliced, and sprinkle Morton's Natures Seasons, pinch of Chinese Five spice, and stir
** Chinese Five spice is spice blend that contains Anise, Cinnamon, Star Anise,Cloves,and Ginger.
2. Toss in 1 whole star Anise and cook the vegetable until tender crisp
** Whole Star Anise looks pointed star shape like the picture below. It is very fragrant,and they are fruits of Chinese evergreen.
Anise tastes a little bit like licorice and when you add Chinese Five spice or a whole Star Anise, you may want to play around to see how much of those spice is needed. Sometimes, a little goes long way.
Whole Star Anise..
** You can get whole star Anise at specialty spice store or from online retailer like spice barn located in Ohio state
3. Serve
Makes; 2 servings
<Pan seared Duck breast>
0. Preheat the oven at 375F
1. Place a paper towel over the plate, place boneless Duck breast on top
2. Place another piece of paper towel over the boneless Duck breast and press lightly to take off any moisture out from the duck breast
** Wet Duck breast would not make any good sear,and crispy skin outside
3. Take off the paper towel and score the Duck skin cross pattern with about 1/4" between the sliced line
** Scoring the skin ensure that the fat can render well and makes crisp skin outside.Make sure that you are not scoring the meat. Score only skin.
4. Season the duck breast both sides with pinch of kosher salt and black pepper
5. Place the oven safe skillet on medium high heat and heat the skillet hot enough to sear the duck breast
** You can test the temperature by wet your hands,then flick/sprinkle water drops onto the skillet. If you hear the sizzles,the skillet is hot enough.
6. Place the seasoned Duck breast skin side down on the skillet,and leave them alone for about 4 minutes
7. Flip the Duck breast over,add 1 whole Star Anise and cook another 4 minutes long
** If you were to cook more than 1 duck breast,make sure that the skillet is not overcrowded with duck breast. If too many were on the skillet, it is rather being steamed than being seared. And, do not move it around,just leave them alone.
8. After that, drain the fat,take out the whole Star Anise
9. Flip it over the duck breast so the breast is skin side down again,and place the skillet in the oven and cook for 8-10 minutes or until meat thermometer reads 125F-130F
Here is a picture of seared Duck breast. You can see the skin got very crispy.
Seared Duck breast resting on the plate..
10. When duck breast is nicely seared and temperature reads 125F-130F, take it out from the oven and let it rest on the plate for 5-10 minutes
** Remember that after you take off the meat from the skillet and set it on the plate to rest,meat will still be cooking and temperature will rise about 5F-10F more,and by the time you will slice them, it will be at medium rare temperature (130F-135F)
** Do not cover the duck breast with foil while resting them because covering makes the crispy skin soggy/soft
11. Slice the Duck breast against the grain
Makes; 2 servings
<Hoisin Garlic sauce>
1. To the sauce pan, add 2.5tbs soy sauce, 2tbs sugar,1 tbs sake,2 tsp Honey, 1 tsp Hoisin sauce,1 tsp black bean sauce, a little bit of grated ginger, 2 garlic cloves grated,1/32 tsp Chinese Five spice and stir and simmer to dissolve the sugar in the sauce
** Both Hoisin sauce,Black bean sauce can be found at the regular grocery store at international aisle.
2. Let the sauce thicken up a little
3. Turn off the heat and pour the sauce over the seared Duck breast when serve
Makes; enough sauce for 1 lb duck breast
** This Hoisin garlic sauce is versatile and,you can use it in your stir fry of any kind and also good sauce for grilled meat such as sliced beef or skillet chicken breast/fish fillet etc..
Enjoy!
Palette's note:Dehydrated Grass-fed Goat Liver
When you pick up treats for your
dogs, what would you look at?
Ingredients? Fancy looking pictures? Description of the products?
Have you ever wondered if you could actually see how other dogs are enjoying them? Not pictures,but in video so that you can actually HEAR and feel the treats' textures?
Some of you may have already recognized I have been putting up treats' taste testing video on youtube so that people can hear the sound,and see Palette in action and get more detail on each products.
With "Palette's note" series,I like to put taste test videos. This time, "Dehydrated Grass fed Goat liver 12 oz".
Dehydrated Grass fed Goat liver 12 oz..
100% grass-fed dehydrated goat liver made in USA. This treat is made from grass-fed New Zealand Goat liver, and this treat is sold by 12 oz jar.
This treats is easy to cut to small pieces with hands, and perfect as training treats.
When I sit at the table, cutting one piece to small pieces, Palette comes right up with huge grin and patiently lie down on the floor, and she then waits for my preparation for her training session.
If she were lucky, she gets small piece of "Dehydrated Grass fed Goat liver" that dropped to the floor while I was cutting the piece into small pieces.
Each whole piece of "Dehydrated Grass fed Goat liver" is thinly sliced liver, and if you prefer, you can cut it to a little bigger piece and use it as "Snack before bed",too.
If you do, your dogs may feel like they cannot wait to go to bed each night. Then, after their last potty before bed, you may find your dogs with drool around muzzle dash to their crate and waiting for you to come with yummy treats .
At our house, Palette gets "Snack before bed", and snack can vary depending on availability but, things that never change is that she dashes to her crate as soon as we back from potty before bed, and I find her in the crate lie down with drool bubbles around muzzle.
She knows the routine, and she knows she gets something yummy before bed. Always "Lets go bed" makes her big ears perk up, and get her so excited to go bed.
After switching Palette's diet to fresh diet a.k.a raw diet, I have realized so many dog treats that are sold as "all natural dog Jerky treats" have ingredients such as sea salt,garlic,sugar,lecithin(additives),rice flour etc, and also some are fortified with vitamins.
Some Jerky sold as wild caught salmon Jerky is gray colored sandy texture although wild caught salmon is bright orange color, and if manufacturers have used meat as main ingredient,it should be fibrous not sandy texture. It seemed like they had more brown rice flour than actual salmon meat.
What I do not understand is why denature the perfect protein source with added ingredients and use less meat,and bulk them up with added ingredients.
With common sense, you can make Jerky much cheaper if you use less meat and bulk them up with other ingredients but, as quality goes, it is not as good as the one that one protein source is simply being dehydrated without any fillers.
1 single ingredient Jerky is superior in quality and, dog would not need any other flavor enhancing agent in the treats.
Also,some Jerky is preserved with Vitamin E (Mixed tocopherol) and Mixed tocopherols is delivered from soybean oil.
Some dogs, including our K9 executive chef "Palette" reacts to treats preserved with mixed tocopherols. She starts chewing paws.Therefore,we are very picky about treats.
Some are preserved with rosemary oil. Some dogs (Dogs with EPI) might react to Rosemary in treats because rosemary can be a trigger for seizure for EPI dogs.
We wanted to offer treats made with simple ingredients without any fillers, and you would not find "All natural Jerky treats" that has 39 ingredients in the list at our store.
Our k9 executive chef "Palette" love this Dehydrated Goat liver treats. She gets excited and really works hard to earn the clicks (She is clicker trained) from me when I use this treats as training treats.
Goat is probably be in the top of her favorite meat list. Her nose gets very wet, bubbles around her mouth, and I get a little twirl,twirl, nice sit in front of me if I have this treats. Sometimes, she gets whiny.
She really loves this treats.
Ingredient:Goat liver
Let's watch Palette in action with Dehydrated Grass fed Goat liver treats. If you are a blog subscriber, please click here to watch the video.
Palette and Dehydrated Grass fed Goat liver treats
Can you see she is very,very excited to do her doggy school time? Can you see how serious her eyes follow the treats?
You can see how much she loves when you see her in the video
After the video time, I left the table for a moment and here I found her trying to get to her favorite treats. She is working so hard with her stumpy legs.
I think she would wish she had longer legs like Golden Retriever
I found the yummy still on da table!
Maybe I can push this jar with my tongue and get jar-ful of Goat liver tweats?
There... I .am. trying. to. get.to. it. with... gator jump! Urgh!
I am smart Corgi. I am trying from different side of da table.
See? I can tell which one has more treats for me.
I can use my secret trick;grab the paper and pull to my side.
Then, I can get 3 big pieces, not tiny single piece!
Oops! I will be leaving evidence of my snacking behind Mom...
I maybe can reach this tiny piece.
Better than nothing
There!
Being persistent works!
To visit our store,please click here or paste and copy the link below into your browser.
http://yassysgdk.com/main.sc
Ingredients? Fancy looking pictures? Description of the products?
Have you ever wondered if you could actually see how other dogs are enjoying them? Not pictures,but in video so that you can actually HEAR and feel the treats' textures?
Some of you may have already recognized I have been putting up treats' taste testing video on youtube so that people can hear the sound,and see Palette in action and get more detail on each products.
With "Palette's note" series,I like to put taste test videos. This time, "Dehydrated Grass fed Goat liver 12 oz".
Dehydrated Grass fed Goat liver 12 oz..
100% grass-fed dehydrated goat liver made in USA. This treat is made from grass-fed New Zealand Goat liver, and this treat is sold by 12 oz jar.
This treats is easy to cut to small pieces with hands, and perfect as training treats.
When I sit at the table, cutting one piece to small pieces, Palette comes right up with huge grin and patiently lie down on the floor, and she then waits for my preparation for her training session.
If she were lucky, she gets small piece of "Dehydrated Grass fed Goat liver" that dropped to the floor while I was cutting the piece into small pieces.
Each whole piece of "Dehydrated Grass fed Goat liver" is thinly sliced liver, and if you prefer, you can cut it to a little bigger piece and use it as "Snack before bed",too.
If you do, your dogs may feel like they cannot wait to go to bed each night. Then, after their last potty before bed, you may find your dogs with drool around muzzle dash to their crate and waiting for you to come with yummy treats .
At our house, Palette gets "Snack before bed", and snack can vary depending on availability but, things that never change is that she dashes to her crate as soon as we back from potty before bed, and I find her in the crate lie down with drool bubbles around muzzle.
She knows the routine, and she knows she gets something yummy before bed. Always "Lets go bed" makes her big ears perk up, and get her so excited to go bed.
After switching Palette's diet to fresh diet a.k.a raw diet, I have realized so many dog treats that are sold as "all natural dog Jerky treats" have ingredients such as sea salt,garlic,sugar,lecithin(additives),rice flour etc, and also some are fortified with vitamins.
Some Jerky sold as wild caught salmon Jerky is gray colored sandy texture although wild caught salmon is bright orange color, and if manufacturers have used meat as main ingredient,it should be fibrous not sandy texture. It seemed like they had more brown rice flour than actual salmon meat.
What I do not understand is why denature the perfect protein source with added ingredients and use less meat,and bulk them up with added ingredients.
With common sense, you can make Jerky much cheaper if you use less meat and bulk them up with other ingredients but, as quality goes, it is not as good as the one that one protein source is simply being dehydrated without any fillers.
1 single ingredient Jerky is superior in quality and, dog would not need any other flavor enhancing agent in the treats.
Also,some Jerky is preserved with Vitamin E (Mixed tocopherol) and Mixed tocopherols is delivered from soybean oil.
Some dogs, including our K9 executive chef "Palette" reacts to treats preserved with mixed tocopherols. She starts chewing paws.Therefore,we are very picky about treats.
Some are preserved with rosemary oil. Some dogs (Dogs with EPI) might react to Rosemary in treats because rosemary can be a trigger for seizure for EPI dogs.
We wanted to offer treats made with simple ingredients without any fillers, and you would not find "All natural Jerky treats" that has 39 ingredients in the list at our store.
Our k9 executive chef "Palette" love this Dehydrated Goat liver treats. She gets excited and really works hard to earn the clicks (She is clicker trained) from me when I use this treats as training treats.
Goat is probably be in the top of her favorite meat list. Her nose gets very wet, bubbles around her mouth, and I get a little twirl,twirl, nice sit in front of me if I have this treats. Sometimes, she gets whiny.
She really loves this treats.
Ingredient:Goat liver
Let's watch Palette in action with Dehydrated Grass fed Goat liver treats. If you are a blog subscriber, please click here to watch the video.
Palette and Dehydrated Grass fed Goat liver treats
Can you see she is very,very excited to do her doggy school time? Can you see how serious her eyes follow the treats?
You can see how much she loves when you see her in the video
After the video time, I left the table for a moment and here I found her trying to get to her favorite treats. She is working so hard with her stumpy legs.
I think she would wish she had longer legs like Golden Retriever
I found the yummy still on da table!
Maybe I can push this jar with my tongue and get jar-ful of Goat liver tweats?
There... I .am. trying. to. get.to. it. with... gator jump! Urgh!
I am smart Corgi. I am trying from different side of da table.
See? I can tell which one has more treats for me.
I can use my secret trick;grab the paper and pull to my side.
Then, I can get 3 big pieces, not tiny single piece!
Oops! I will be leaving evidence of my snacking behind Mom...
I maybe can reach this tiny piece.
Better than nothing
There!
Being persistent works!
To visit our store,please click here or paste and copy the link below into your browser.
http://yassysgdk.com/main.sc
Ikebana (flower arrangement) in Japan
In the previous entry titled "Tea ceremony in Japan", I wrote about history of Matcha; Powdered Green tea, used for tea ceremony and variety of styles for tea ceremony in Japan.
Tea ceremony is big part of our Japanese culture, and flower arrangement; I-ke-ba-na in Japanese), is also big part of Japanese culture.
Flower arrangement (I-ke-ba-na) is art of traditional flower arrangement and just like tea ceremony styles, there are variety of styles for the flower arrangement.
Originally, in Japan, flower was arranged where gods were welcomed or used as offerings at Buddhist altars.
When tea ceremony became popular, flower was arranged in the tea room and, there are 3 major styles for flower arrangement in Japan;I-ke no bo-u, O-ha-ra, and So-u ge-tsu.
History behind variety of flower arrangement styles
I-ke-no-bo-u;
According to Japan zone website, I-ke-no-bo-u was funded by Buddhist priest "Ikenobou Senkei" back in 15th century.
Ikenobou has created the rikka (standing flowers) style, and it was developed as a beauty of nature;seven branches represent hills,waterfalls,valleys etc in formalized way.
Rikka style was originally used for religious occasions.However, later, it became the display for tokonoma (built-in recessed space in Japanese reception room) or for alcove.
O-ha-ra;
O-ha-ra style was created by Ohara Unshin in late 19th century when he broke from I-ke-no-bo-u style school.
O-ha-ra has created the Mo-ri-ba-na (piled up flowers) style in a shallow flat container.
Vase size= diameter of mouth of vase + height of the vase
Mo-ri-ba-na style arrange flowers in the shape of 3 points of shi-n (center), so-e (support), and hi-ka-e (overall balance); heaven (leader), earth (subordinate) and man (one to keep harmony in between).
These three elements are called Sa-n sa-i ( harmony between nature and man).
So-u-ge-tsu;
So-u-ge-tsu style was created in 1927 by Sufu Tashigahara with the belief that ikebana should be both enjoyable and creative and use variety of tools to create the flower arrangement works.
Tools for I-ke-ba-na
Scissors,small saw, ki-ri-fu-ki (atomizer), pitcher, ke-n-za-n (spiked holder), su-i-ba-n (basin), tsu-bo (pot shaped vase), Tsu-tsu (cylindrical vase), ka-go (basket), compote etc..
To read full article on i-ke-ba-na at Japanese zone website,please click here.
To read more on so-u-ge-tsu style of i-ke-ba-na at sogetsu soho study group,please click here.
With next entry on I-ke-ba-na Part II, I will show you what kinds of technique is used for flower arrangement.
Tea ceremony is big part of our Japanese culture, and flower arrangement; I-ke-ba-na in Japanese), is also big part of Japanese culture.
Flower arrangement (I-ke-ba-na) is art of traditional flower arrangement and just like tea ceremony styles, there are variety of styles for the flower arrangement.
Originally, in Japan, flower was arranged where gods were welcomed or used as offerings at Buddhist altars.
When tea ceremony became popular, flower was arranged in the tea room and, there are 3 major styles for flower arrangement in Japan;I-ke no bo-u, O-ha-ra, and So-u ge-tsu.
History behind variety of flower arrangement styles
I-ke-no-bo-u;
According to Japan zone website, I-ke-no-bo-u was funded by Buddhist priest "Ikenobou Senkei" back in 15th century.
Ikenobou has created the rikka (standing flowers) style, and it was developed as a beauty of nature;seven branches represent hills,waterfalls,valleys etc in formalized way.
Rikka style was originally used for religious occasions.However, later, it became the display for tokonoma (built-in recessed space in Japanese reception room) or for alcove.
O-ha-ra;
O-ha-ra style was created by Ohara Unshin in late 19th century when he broke from I-ke-no-bo-u style school.
O-ha-ra has created the Mo-ri-ba-na (piled up flowers) style in a shallow flat container.
Vase size= diameter of mouth of vase + height of the vase
Mo-ri-ba-na style arrange flowers in the shape of 3 points of shi-n (center), so-e (support), and hi-ka-e (overall balance); heaven (leader), earth (subordinate) and man (one to keep harmony in between).
These three elements are called Sa-n sa-i ( harmony between nature and man).
So-u-ge-tsu;
So-u-ge-tsu style was created in 1927 by Sufu Tashigahara with the belief that ikebana should be both enjoyable and creative and use variety of tools to create the flower arrangement works.
Tools for I-ke-ba-na
Scissors,small saw, ki-ri-fu-ki (atomizer), pitcher, ke-n-za-n (spiked holder), su-i-ba-n (basin), tsu-bo (pot shaped vase), Tsu-tsu (cylindrical vase), ka-go (basket), compote etc..
To read full article on i-ke-ba-na at Japanese zone website,please click here.
To read more on so-u-ge-tsu style of i-ke-ba-na at sogetsu soho study group,please click here.
With next entry on I-ke-ba-na Part II, I will show you what kinds of technique is used for flower arrangement.
How to check the nutrition profile of your dog's menu
In the series of "Raw feeding 911 Part I" through "Raw feeding Part IX", I wrote a lot about raw diet for dogs from what you feed,how much to feed, what you can do when your dogs turned nose up or vomited etc etc..
In the previous entry titled "Raw feeding 911 Part II", I wrote that with my way of feeding;1.5 day worth poultry,1.5 day worth fish,4 day worth red meat, it tends to have close omega 3 number enough to make Omega 3 being higher than Omega 6 if I give Palette fish body oil daily.
Therefore, I do not try to be exact on ratio number for omega 3 vs Omega 6 but,I make sure I get higher omega 6,and lower omega 3 by putting weekly menu into nutrition profile website.
Then,I decide how much of fish body oil capsules I would need to give Palette each week.
Depending on the menu detail, I give none,sometimes I give daily,sometimes just 2-3 days per week.It depends.
You would also notice that when I make an entry about Palette's treat diary series, I always leave the link to the nutrition profile website for you to look at more detail yourself for the nutrition information, and also tell you how much kcal in the treat.
In the previous entry titled "What brand/type of dog food are best for your dogs?", I wrote a little bit about homemade diet, and also wrote that with homemade diet, they will look the kcal rather than how much weight of food you would feed, and supplement your dogs with deficient nutrient,and try to achieve the balanced meal recipe by recipe.
For me, good diet is base of our health whether humans or furriends, and I strongly believe that best source of such various array of vitamins,minerals, and all other essential nutrients we need are best provided in the form of "fresh" REAL food, not via synthetic vitamin pills.
Synthetic vitamins/minerals could deliver deficient nutrient for the specific menu, but I feel that natural fresh food form will be more easily absorbed,plus fresh food can deliver more than 1 specific nutrient.
If you were to switch your dog's diet to fresh food diet from processed dog food that often times comes with statement "Complete and balanced", you may wonder how you can see what kinds of nutrient profile the menu you have created can provide to your dogs.
So I thought, in this entry, I would show you how you can use the nutrient profile website to have rough ideas about how many kcal your dogs are getting with the meals and what nutrients your fresh food menu can provide your dogs.
There are two websites you can look up the nutrient for food you feed to your dogs.
Websites you can look nutrient profile up
One is nutririondata.self.com , and the other is usda website nal.usda.gov
With USDA website, all you need to do is to put the food name in the empty box,select the appropriate food group and click on "submit" button. Then,select the appropriate form of foods; type of meat,cooked or raw etc.
After that, select the weight of the products (28 grams is equal to 1 oz wt), and click "submit" button and you will have the nutrition breakdown like this.
With USDA website, you cannot look combined nutrient profile (nutrient profile for all the menu you feed).
That is when nutritiondata website comes handy. You can look one thing up, you can look up overall nutrient profile by using the recipe function. Also if you did not find the item at the site, you can input the data from nutrition label on back of the products or maybe data from USDA website by using custom entry function. So, this website is very useful when you like to look things up.
How to find the nutrient profile for overall menu
Here is how nutritiondata website work.
1. Go to nutritiondata.self.com and create your account
2. Look for items you feed,and click on the item
** You will then see the nutrition detail for the product
3. If the item was common items you feed, click on "Add to my foods" and it will make it easy for you to search next time
** All of your common menu item added to "my foods" will be listed under "My Foods" page and you can hoover your cursor on "My ND" and you can see "My Foods" right under "My ND" box
4. After adding all the common food you feed to "My Foods" page, now you can create the recipe.
5. Hoover cursor over "My ND" and click on "My recipe" and that is the page where all your recipes will be stored
6. If you were to make new recipes, click on "create recipe"
7. On the bottom, you will find the search box and you will type in the food name and click "search" and you will see the list of items
8. Click the orange "+" mark right next to the appropriate food items to add to your recipe
9. Keep searching,adding items to your recipe
10. When all the menu is in the recipe, adjust the amount and quantity of each food
11. When everything is set, click on "Save & Analyze" button and you will see the overall nutrition profile on the page.
There, you can see roughly how much of omega 3,Omega 6, Vitamin A etc.. your dog is getting through the menu you feed them.
This is how I am getting the rough ideas as to how much of what nutrient I am feeding to Palette through form of food, and decide the number of fish body oil capsules I give to her.
Now, when you happened to have no nutrient profile found on the website, you can still create the profile on your own by using the custom entry function.
How to make nutrient profile using the custom entry
1. Hoover cursor over "Tool" and click on "custom entry tool"
2. Enter nutrient profile numbers using food labels on products and click on "Add to My food"
Also, there is another thing you can do at this website. You can compare recipe by recipe or food by food using "comparison" function.
How to compare food..
1. Hoover cursor over "Tool" and click on "Compare foods"
2. Search food items, click the orange "+" mark right next to the appropriate food items to add to your comparison page
** If you were to compare recipe by recipe, you can search the recipe by selecting "recipe" on search box and click the orange "+" mark right next to the appropriate recipe to add to your comparison page
3. Click "compare" button and you can see basic nutrient profile side by side
I do use the nutritiondata website to get rough ideas as to how much of what nutrient I am feeding to Palette through form of food, and decide the number of fish body oil capsules I give to her.
However, I do not try to go "complete and balanced" every single meal.
I believe variety,and balance over time whether it is for us human or for dogs.
Even if you feed kibble,each brand of kibble has different combination of nutrient (formula) and different ingredients.
If you feed same brand of kibble day in day out, dogs are getting the same combination of nutrient (formula) with same ingredients over and over again.
Therefore, I recommend to have a couple of brands to rotate so dogs can exposed to variety of ingredients, and variety of combination of nutrient.
When Palette was on kibble, she used to have 3 brands to rotate.
It goes same with those who feed raw diet.
Different food offer unique combination of nutrient. If you feed the same protein source over and over again, combination of nutrient and level of each nutrient will stay the same.
Therefore, by feeding variety of protein source, you can provide your dogs wide variety of nutrient and its level, and there would not have excess nutrient over the other nutrient in the long run.
Whether human or for dogs, any diet should not have one particular thing to dominate the overall diet menu.
When deficient nutrient is present, it is easy to reach to the vitamin pills but,when you think about it, there is no way to know that the pill you gave to your dogs was absorbed nicely enough to give them the stated amount of nutrient on the vitamin label.
Try provide nutrient with the form of "REAL" food, not processed food and give variety of food for balance over time.
Now you have a tool to see nutrient profile and get the rough ideas as to how much of what you are giving to your dogs.
Feed the best diet possible for your dogs to live healthy and longer..
In the previous entry titled "Raw feeding 911 Part II", I wrote that with my way of feeding;1.5 day worth poultry,1.5 day worth fish,4 day worth red meat, it tends to have close omega 3 number enough to make Omega 3 being higher than Omega 6 if I give Palette fish body oil daily.
Therefore, I do not try to be exact on ratio number for omega 3 vs Omega 6 but,I make sure I get higher omega 6,and lower omega 3 by putting weekly menu into nutrition profile website.
Then,I decide how much of fish body oil capsules I would need to give Palette each week.
Depending on the menu detail, I give none,sometimes I give daily,sometimes just 2-3 days per week.It depends.
You would also notice that when I make an entry about Palette's treat diary series, I always leave the link to the nutrition profile website for you to look at more detail yourself for the nutrition information, and also tell you how much kcal in the treat.
In the previous entry titled "What brand/type of dog food are best for your dogs?", I wrote a little bit about homemade diet, and also wrote that with homemade diet, they will look the kcal rather than how much weight of food you would feed, and supplement your dogs with deficient nutrient,and try to achieve the balanced meal recipe by recipe.
For me, good diet is base of our health whether humans or furriends, and I strongly believe that best source of such various array of vitamins,minerals, and all other essential nutrients we need are best provided in the form of "fresh" REAL food, not via synthetic vitamin pills.
Synthetic vitamins/minerals could deliver deficient nutrient for the specific menu, but I feel that natural fresh food form will be more easily absorbed,plus fresh food can deliver more than 1 specific nutrient.
If you were to switch your dog's diet to fresh food diet from processed dog food that often times comes with statement "Complete and balanced", you may wonder how you can see what kinds of nutrient profile the menu you have created can provide to your dogs.
So I thought, in this entry, I would show you how you can use the nutrient profile website to have rough ideas about how many kcal your dogs are getting with the meals and what nutrients your fresh food menu can provide your dogs.
There are two websites you can look up the nutrient for food you feed to your dogs.
Websites you can look nutrient profile up
One is nutririondata.self.com , and the other is usda website nal.usda.gov
With USDA website, all you need to do is to put the food name in the empty box,select the appropriate food group and click on "submit" button. Then,select the appropriate form of foods; type of meat,cooked or raw etc.
After that, select the weight of the products (28 grams is equal to 1 oz wt), and click "submit" button and you will have the nutrition breakdown like this.
With USDA website, you cannot look combined nutrient profile (nutrient profile for all the menu you feed).
That is when nutritiondata website comes handy. You can look one thing up, you can look up overall nutrient profile by using the recipe function. Also if you did not find the item at the site, you can input the data from nutrition label on back of the products or maybe data from USDA website by using custom entry function. So, this website is very useful when you like to look things up.
How to find the nutrient profile for overall menu
Here is how nutritiondata website work.
1. Go to nutritiondata.self.com and create your account
2. Look for items you feed,and click on the item
** You will then see the nutrition detail for the product
3. If the item was common items you feed, click on "Add to my foods" and it will make it easy for you to search next time
** All of your common menu item added to "my foods" will be listed under "My Foods" page and you can hoover your cursor on "My ND" and you can see "My Foods" right under "My ND" box
4. After adding all the common food you feed to "My Foods" page, now you can create the recipe.
5. Hoover cursor over "My ND" and click on "My recipe" and that is the page where all your recipes will be stored
6. If you were to make new recipes, click on "create recipe"
7. On the bottom, you will find the search box and you will type in the food name and click "search" and you will see the list of items
8. Click the orange "+" mark right next to the appropriate food items to add to your recipe
9. Keep searching,adding items to your recipe
10. When all the menu is in the recipe, adjust the amount and quantity of each food
11. When everything is set, click on "Save & Analyze" button and you will see the overall nutrition profile on the page.
There, you can see roughly how much of omega 3,Omega 6, Vitamin A etc.. your dog is getting through the menu you feed them.
This is how I am getting the rough ideas as to how much of what nutrient I am feeding to Palette through form of food, and decide the number of fish body oil capsules I give to her.
Now, when you happened to have no nutrient profile found on the website, you can still create the profile on your own by using the custom entry function.
How to make nutrient profile using the custom entry
1. Hoover cursor over "Tool" and click on "custom entry tool"
2. Enter nutrient profile numbers using food labels on products and click on "Add to My food"
Also, there is another thing you can do at this website. You can compare recipe by recipe or food by food using "comparison" function.
How to compare food..
1. Hoover cursor over "Tool" and click on "Compare foods"
2. Search food items, click the orange "+" mark right next to the appropriate food items to add to your comparison page
** If you were to compare recipe by recipe, you can search the recipe by selecting "recipe" on search box and click the orange "+" mark right next to the appropriate recipe to add to your comparison page
3. Click "compare" button and you can see basic nutrient profile side by side
I do use the nutritiondata website to get rough ideas as to how much of what nutrient I am feeding to Palette through form of food, and decide the number of fish body oil capsules I give to her.
However, I do not try to go "complete and balanced" every single meal.
I believe variety,and balance over time whether it is for us human or for dogs.
Even if you feed kibble,each brand of kibble has different combination of nutrient (formula) and different ingredients.
If you feed same brand of kibble day in day out, dogs are getting the same combination of nutrient (formula) with same ingredients over and over again.
Therefore, I recommend to have a couple of brands to rotate so dogs can exposed to variety of ingredients, and variety of combination of nutrient.
When Palette was on kibble, she used to have 3 brands to rotate.
It goes same with those who feed raw diet.
Different food offer unique combination of nutrient. If you feed the same protein source over and over again, combination of nutrient and level of each nutrient will stay the same.
Therefore, by feeding variety of protein source, you can provide your dogs wide variety of nutrient and its level, and there would not have excess nutrient over the other nutrient in the long run.
Whether human or for dogs, any diet should not have one particular thing to dominate the overall diet menu.
When deficient nutrient is present, it is easy to reach to the vitamin pills but,when you think about it, there is no way to know that the pill you gave to your dogs was absorbed nicely enough to give them the stated amount of nutrient on the vitamin label.
Try provide nutrient with the form of "REAL" food, not processed food and give variety of food for balance over time.
Now you have a tool to see nutrient profile and get the rough ideas as to how much of what you are giving to your dogs.
Feed the best diet possible for your dogs to live healthy and longer..
Red wine burger
As you know, I came up the idea of "French Onion dip roast beef sandwich" in the past because my husband loves French onion soup and French dip roast beef sandwich so much.
"French Onion dip roast beef sandwich" is one of popular recipes viewed at our blog site, and one day, I thought what if I use the port wine steak sauce I make for my steak sometimes with a twist, would I be able to have easy to make gourmet burger for a change.
Turned out, it was a great idea and, my husband was two thumbs up and our stumpy little Palette was 5 paws up with drool for the homemade burger bun with a bit of sauce on it (no onion for her).
So, I thought I would share the recipe of "Red wine burger" with you.
This burger is easy to make but, it looks fancy and I think it is great burger for a change. If you have time to make the burger bun yourself, it is extra points because bun is really good one too! Almost like soft ciabatta bread.
How do you make "Red wine burger"? Here is how.
Red wine burger with homemade burger bun...
<Homemade burger bun>
Ingredients;
1C milk
1/2C water
1/4C butter
4.5C unbleached all purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
2 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1 whole egg
1 egg white for brushing the dough before baking
Extra virgin olive oil
Yellow corn meal
0.Preheat the oven at 200F and when it reached to 200F,turn the oven off.
** This oven will become your proofing box for your dough to rise.
1. In the sauce pan, heat 1C milk,1/2C water,1/4 C butter till 110F
** The temperature should not be above or less for proper proofing with yeast. If the temperature was below 110F, heat them some more till it reach to 110F
2. Pour the milk mixture into small bowl and add 2 1/4 tsp dry yeast,2 tbs sugar and mix well and let it sit about 5-10 minutes until you will see the frothy look on top
3. In a big bowl, add 4.5C unbleached all purpose flour, 1 tsp salt and mix well
4. In a measuring cup, crack 1 egg,and lightly beaten and pour it into flour mixture
5. Add milk-butter-sugar mixture into the flour-egg mixture and mix well
6. When dough comes together, put them onto lightly floured surface and knead the dough for about 8 minutes and do the "windowpane test".
What is windowpane test??
Windowpane test is the test the gluten development in the dough.
What you do is to cut off small piece of dough,and gently stretch out/pulling to see if it will hold a paper-thin membrane.If it tore apart,you would knead a bit more and do the test again.
7. Drizzle Extra virgin olive oil into a big bowl and smear around the bowl and also drizzle extra virgin olive oil on all surface of the dough.
8.Put the ball of dough in the big bowl, cover with plastic wrap and proof the dough in the oven for 90 minutes or until the dough gets double in volume.
9. Divide the dough into about 12 pieces and roll the dough to smooth ball
** To make a nice smooth ball, make the rolling surface clear of flour to create nice traction to roll. Then, take one piece of dough covered with your hand (form your hand like a cup and place a dough inside,flip it up side down), under your palm and press the dough into counter and rotate hand circular motion to make a round ball
10. To non stick foil lined sheet pan, sprinkle pinch of corn meal for crusty bottom,and place the shaped dough on top and cover with plastic wrap and put it back into the oven for the second proofing for another 30 minutes
11. When dough is doubled in volume, take it out from the oven and preheat the oven at 400F
12. Brush the dough with egg white to create the sheen on the bun,and bake about 12 minutes or until golden and temperature of the roll reach to 180F
** You can check the temperature of the bun with meat thermometer
** You can also sprinkle sesame seed after brushing the bun with egg white
13. Cool it down over cooling rack
<Simple beef burger pattie>
Ingredients;
ground beef
kosher salt
black pepper
grated onion
extra virgin olive oil
1. In the big bowl,add ground beef, pinch of Kosher salt,pinch of black pepper, and some grated onion, mix well and form the patties.
** Adding grated onion makes burger juicy. To grate the onion, use the microplane. It grate things very easily.
** I usually add roughly about 1/8 onion grated per half pound of ground meat
**Don't try to mix too much because it makes tough burgers
** I usually make a small well/dimple in the center of the patties with one finger so that the burger is not going to swell up when cooked
3. Put skillet on stove,add a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and wait till you see the steam coming out.
4. When skillet got hot enough, put the burger onto the skillet,no pressing,no messing,just leave it alone a while and turn it over and it is done when thermometer read 160F.
** My mother used to teach me how to know the burger is cooked through without meat thermometer.She uses toothpicks. Poke the burger with toothpicks and if the juice running out from burger is clear,it is done. If the juice coming out from the burger had red in color,middle is still pink/red.
** My favorite meat thermometer is called Thermapen.It reads the temperature very fast,accurate and I like them a lot.
<Red wine sauce>
Ingredients;
1 Sweet Mayan onion sliced
1/3C Port wine (recommend Sandeman Ruby Porto)
1/3C zinfandel
1/2C beef broth (recommend College Inn brand)
1 bayleaf
Molton's Nature's Seasons
1 tbs butter
1/8 tsp dry thyme leaves
corn starch
1. In a sauce pan, add 1 tbs butter and cook 1 sweet mayan onion sliced at medium high heat
** If Mayan sweet onion was not available, you can use Valida onion or white onions instead.
2. When onion is started getting translucent, add 1 bayleaf, bit of Morton's Nature's season, 1/8 tsp dry thyme leaves and stir
3. Add 1/3C port wine,1/3C zinfandel,1/2C beef broth and stir.
4. Cook about 8-10 minutes at medium low
5. In a small container make slurry (mixture of corn starch and water)
** Mix 2 tsp corn starch,2 tbs water in small container and mix well.
6. Add about 7 tsp of slurry to the sauce to thicken it up
** Once slurry is added to the sauce, bring the heat up to medium high heat and bring it to boil and stir and adjust the thickness
If sauce was too thin, add more slurry. If sauce was too thick, add more water to it.
7. When sauce is good consistency, take it off from the heat
Makes; 2-3 burger toppings
Enjoy!
"French Onion dip roast beef sandwich" is one of popular recipes viewed at our blog site, and one day, I thought what if I use the port wine steak sauce I make for my steak sometimes with a twist, would I be able to have easy to make gourmet burger for a change.
Turned out, it was a great idea and, my husband was two thumbs up and our stumpy little Palette was 5 paws up with drool for the homemade burger bun with a bit of sauce on it (no onion for her).
So, I thought I would share the recipe of "Red wine burger" with you.
This burger is easy to make but, it looks fancy and I think it is great burger for a change. If you have time to make the burger bun yourself, it is extra points because bun is really good one too! Almost like soft ciabatta bread.
How do you make "Red wine burger"? Here is how.
Red wine burger with homemade burger bun...
<Homemade burger bun>
Ingredients;
1C milk
1/2C water
1/4C butter
4.5C unbleached all purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
2 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1 whole egg
1 egg white for brushing the dough before baking
Extra virgin olive oil
Yellow corn meal
0.Preheat the oven at 200F and when it reached to 200F,turn the oven off.
** This oven will become your proofing box for your dough to rise.
1. In the sauce pan, heat 1C milk,1/2C water,1/4 C butter till 110F
** The temperature should not be above or less for proper proofing with yeast. If the temperature was below 110F, heat them some more till it reach to 110F
2. Pour the milk mixture into small bowl and add 2 1/4 tsp dry yeast,2 tbs sugar and mix well and let it sit about 5-10 minutes until you will see the frothy look on top
3. In a big bowl, add 4.5C unbleached all purpose flour, 1 tsp salt and mix well
4. In a measuring cup, crack 1 egg,and lightly beaten and pour it into flour mixture
5. Add milk-butter-sugar mixture into the flour-egg mixture and mix well
6. When dough comes together, put them onto lightly floured surface and knead the dough for about 8 minutes and do the "windowpane test".
What is windowpane test??
Windowpane test is the test the gluten development in the dough.
What you do is to cut off small piece of dough,and gently stretch out/pulling to see if it will hold a paper-thin membrane.If it tore apart,you would knead a bit more and do the test again.
7. Drizzle Extra virgin olive oil into a big bowl and smear around the bowl and also drizzle extra virgin olive oil on all surface of the dough.
8.Put the ball of dough in the big bowl, cover with plastic wrap and proof the dough in the oven for 90 minutes or until the dough gets double in volume.
9. Divide the dough into about 12 pieces and roll the dough to smooth ball
** To make a nice smooth ball, make the rolling surface clear of flour to create nice traction to roll. Then, take one piece of dough covered with your hand (form your hand like a cup and place a dough inside,flip it up side down), under your palm and press the dough into counter and rotate hand circular motion to make a round ball
10. To non stick foil lined sheet pan, sprinkle pinch of corn meal for crusty bottom,and place the shaped dough on top and cover with plastic wrap and put it back into the oven for the second proofing for another 30 minutes
11. When dough is doubled in volume, take it out from the oven and preheat the oven at 400F
12. Brush the dough with egg white to create the sheen on the bun,and bake about 12 minutes or until golden and temperature of the roll reach to 180F
** You can check the temperature of the bun with meat thermometer
** You can also sprinkle sesame seed after brushing the bun with egg white
13. Cool it down over cooling rack
<Simple beef burger pattie>
Ingredients;
ground beef
kosher salt
black pepper
grated onion
extra virgin olive oil
1. In the big bowl,add ground beef, pinch of Kosher salt,pinch of black pepper, and some grated onion, mix well and form the patties.
** Adding grated onion makes burger juicy. To grate the onion, use the microplane. It grate things very easily.
** I usually add roughly about 1/8 onion grated per half pound of ground meat
**Don't try to mix too much because it makes tough burgers
** I usually make a small well/dimple in the center of the patties with one finger so that the burger is not going to swell up when cooked
3. Put skillet on stove,add a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and wait till you see the steam coming out.
4. When skillet got hot enough, put the burger onto the skillet,no pressing,no messing,just leave it alone a while and turn it over and it is done when thermometer read 160F.
** My mother used to teach me how to know the burger is cooked through without meat thermometer.She uses toothpicks. Poke the burger with toothpicks and if the juice running out from burger is clear,it is done. If the juice coming out from the burger had red in color,middle is still pink/red.
** My favorite meat thermometer is called Thermapen.It reads the temperature very fast,accurate and I like them a lot.
<Red wine sauce>
Ingredients;
1 Sweet Mayan onion sliced
1/3C Port wine (recommend Sandeman Ruby Porto)
1/3C zinfandel
1/2C beef broth (recommend College Inn brand)
1 bayleaf
Molton's Nature's Seasons
1 tbs butter
1/8 tsp dry thyme leaves
corn starch
1. In a sauce pan, add 1 tbs butter and cook 1 sweet mayan onion sliced at medium high heat
** If Mayan sweet onion was not available, you can use Valida onion or white onions instead.
2. When onion is started getting translucent, add 1 bayleaf, bit of Morton's Nature's season, 1/8 tsp dry thyme leaves and stir
3. Add 1/3C port wine,1/3C zinfandel,1/2C beef broth and stir.
4. Cook about 8-10 minutes at medium low
5. In a small container make slurry (mixture of corn starch and water)
** Mix 2 tsp corn starch,2 tbs water in small container and mix well.
6. Add about 7 tsp of slurry to the sauce to thicken it up
** Once slurry is added to the sauce, bring the heat up to medium high heat and bring it to boil and stir and adjust the thickness
If sauce was too thin, add more slurry. If sauce was too thick, add more water to it.
7. When sauce is good consistency, take it off from the heat
Makes; 2-3 burger toppings
Enjoy!
Mirror Method dog training
In the previous entry titled "Merry Christmas!", I shared the youtube video I came across; the video where very well trained dogs are preparing for Christmas decoration.
I was curious how the trainer has taught them to make the video with chains of tricks after tricks.
The method used to teach dogs to perfect those tricks shown in the Christmas tree decoration video by group of dogs is called "Mirror Method" and, the method was developed by a group of first time dog owners called "Népszigeti Kutyaiskola" at dog school in Hungry.
What is Mirror method??
The Mirror method consists of 3 parts.
1. Build the relationship with your dogs
** Leadership should be established without force and, you can guide your dogs with set rules which dogs can understand them.
2. Training your dogs with positive training method "clicker training"
** With clicker training,dogs are willing/loving/motivated to learn new things,and enjoy the training time
You can read more about clicker training in the previous entry titled "Clicker training; Clicker is your friend".
3. Life style
** It is important to take your dogs out for a walk and feed good diet, but also it is important to make sure to give your dogs plenty of opportunities to let out the pent up energy via activities that deal with their natural instincts
The group of developer of the mirror method state in their video that..in other word, give your dogs opportunities to do what they were bred for.
For example,hunting dogs needs long walk in the forest,and lots of plays that satisfy their prey instinct.
With working dogs, protection work,nose work (tracking) etc.. are great ones to do.
Also, agility, swimming etc are good sports for dogs to enjoy.
If dogs were not given opportunities like that, they could get stressed out and start finding things by themselves to entertain themselves such as chewing,barking problems etc..
I think the Mirror method is great in many ways.
There are many training method options out there, and each method focus on how they teach their dogs a lot, but not many address evaluation of "self" or management before problems happen before the actual training itself.
Also, when behavior problems happen, often times, people would be looking into how to teach not to XXX behavior instead of evaluating self or their life style first or try to act on management before the problems occur.
I personally enjoy training time with our stumpy little dog "Palette" and enjoy teaching her fun tricks, and I never think it is a chore in a day but, to some, it might be.
I think that training should be fun, enjoyable, opportunities for both of you and your dogs to build your bond stronger.It does not have to be doggy boot camp.
One thing I really like about this "Mirror Method" is the philosophy behind it.
The group promotes positive reinforcement training method "Clicker training" but also address building the bond between you and your dogs plus address needs of activities what each individual dog was bred for, and give them opportunity for them to "be a dog".
The philosophy behind the "mirror method" is that dogs reflect their owners' behaviors and personality, so we have to learn how to read their body language, and then change your behavior to reflect the behavior in your dogs.
Here is another video clip from Dog show in Budapest,Hungary 2008 by the "Népszigeti Kutyaiskola".
The dogs look like having fun performing them. I liked the scene where big dog placed a basket on the floor and a little dog jumped in the basket and big dog came back to carry the little dog in the basket That was very cute trick!
Euro Dog show 2008
If you are a blog subscriber,please click here to watch the video.
I was curious how the trainer has taught them to make the video with chains of tricks after tricks.
The method used to teach dogs to perfect those tricks shown in the Christmas tree decoration video by group of dogs is called "Mirror Method" and, the method was developed by a group of first time dog owners called "Népszigeti Kutyaiskola" at dog school in Hungry.
What is Mirror method??
The Mirror method consists of 3 parts.
1. Build the relationship with your dogs
** Leadership should be established without force and, you can guide your dogs with set rules which dogs can understand them.
2. Training your dogs with positive training method "clicker training"
** With clicker training,dogs are willing/loving/motivated to learn new things,and enjoy the training time
You can read more about clicker training in the previous entry titled "Clicker training; Clicker is your friend".
3. Life style
** It is important to take your dogs out for a walk and feed good diet, but also it is important to make sure to give your dogs plenty of opportunities to let out the pent up energy via activities that deal with their natural instincts
The group of developer of the mirror method state in their video that..in other word, give your dogs opportunities to do what they were bred for.
For example,hunting dogs needs long walk in the forest,and lots of plays that satisfy their prey instinct.
With working dogs, protection work,nose work (tracking) etc.. are great ones to do.
Also, agility, swimming etc are good sports for dogs to enjoy.
If dogs were not given opportunities like that, they could get stressed out and start finding things by themselves to entertain themselves such as chewing,barking problems etc..
I think the Mirror method is great in many ways.
There are many training method options out there, and each method focus on how they teach their dogs a lot, but not many address evaluation of "self" or management before problems happen before the actual training itself.
Also, when behavior problems happen, often times, people would be looking into how to teach not to XXX behavior instead of evaluating self or their life style first or try to act on management before the problems occur.
I personally enjoy training time with our stumpy little dog "Palette" and enjoy teaching her fun tricks, and I never think it is a chore in a day but, to some, it might be.
I think that training should be fun, enjoyable, opportunities for both of you and your dogs to build your bond stronger.It does not have to be doggy boot camp.
One thing I really like about this "Mirror Method" is the philosophy behind it.
The group promotes positive reinforcement training method "Clicker training" but also address building the bond between you and your dogs plus address needs of activities what each individual dog was bred for, and give them opportunity for them to "be a dog".
The philosophy behind the "mirror method" is that dogs reflect their owners' behaviors and personality, so we have to learn how to read their body language, and then change your behavior to reflect the behavior in your dogs.
Here is another video clip from Dog show in Budapest,Hungary 2008 by the "Népszigeti Kutyaiskola".
The dogs look like having fun performing them. I liked the scene where big dog placed a basket on the floor and a little dog jumped in the basket and big dog came back to carry the little dog in the basket
That was very cute trick!Euro Dog show 2008
If you are a blog subscriber,please click here to watch the video.
