Peanut Butter Banana Cookies!

Hi everyone! Mama and Gramma have been making a lot of Christmas cookies lately. So Mama decided we should have some special Christmas cookies! (At least the dogs among us.* Mama still hasn't found a good recipe for kitty treats. Does anyone know of any?) 


Mama found a recipe on Bullwrinkle.com. Here is the recipe she used:

Ingredients

½ cups water(add more water later if required)
½ cup oil
2 eggs
3 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
½ cup cornmeal
½ cup oats

Directions

Blend wet ingredients together. Whisk dry ingredients together and mix into wet mixture to form a ball of dough. Roll out and shape. Put onto a non-stick cookie tray or lightly greased one. Cook 20 minutes at 400 F. Turn off oven and allow the biscuits to cool in oven until crisp and hard. Store in airtight container. 

Mama only made a few changes here. First, she didn't have any cornmeal, so she used extra flour instead. (She Googled it first and found out this was fine.) Second, we had some overripe bananas in the house, so Mama mashed one up and added it in. 


Finally, Mama used a cookie cutter to make gingerbread man shapes for us! The only problem was, she couldn't find a rolling pin, so she tried to use the jar of peanut butter to roll out the dough. The result was that instead of lots of thin cookies, we had about ten really thick cookies! Thats fine with us, since Mama only lets us eat a little piece at a time anyway. 


Here is a picture of our super-thick "gingerbread men" with no gingerbread in them! 

Since its Christmas, Mama thought she'd turn some of these cookies into Christmas gifts. (What? We don't get to keep all of our cookies? Boo, Mama!!!) So she put a few in bags. We are sending three to our cousin Judah in California, and bringing two to our second cousins Rocky and Nugget on Christmas Eve. Also Mama packaged up three for our very favorite neighbor dogs, Andi, Betty and Finn! Here is what the cookies looked like, packaged nicely by Mama. 

We got to taste the cookies and we were so happy! Mama tasted one also and she said they were kind of bland. She said it was because there was no sugar, and she's considering adding a little brown sugar in the next batch. We think they're fine, though! No blander than our usual Milk Bones! 


We love it when Mama bakes for us! So we asked her a question. We all got together and suggested to her that she make her baking a monthly thing! We thought that, every month, whether she likes it or not, Mama should bake some delicious treats for us. And she agreed! She said we can try out a new dog recipe every month, and blog about it here! Mama says she actually loves to bake, but her treats for humans don't always work out so well (for instance, every time she tries to make chocolate chip cookies, they come out puffy, dry and bland) and she thinks pets are much easier to please than people. 


Next we told Mama, maybe she could start a whole new business! It could be called the Pet Treat Of The Month Club! People could subscribe, and each month she'd send them a bag of homemade dog treats. We'd become rich! And she could quit her job and stay home with us full time, baking and baking and baking! 


Mama told us our imaginations were getting a little out of control.


Anyways, we sure do like our peanut butter banana "gingerbread" men! We can hardly wait for Mama to bake something else next month! (Lets just hope she doesn't forget.) 


*We have to edit this part because later Mama did give Sammy-Joe a small, kitty-sized piece of one of these, and he happily ate it! 

Wordless Wednesday... Some Love For Sammy-Joe

Its Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

Hi everyone! The other day lots of you were surprised that our mystery box had a Sammy-Joe in it instead of a Christmas tree! But it turns out you were partly right. That box used to have a tree in it. The humans took it out of the box and stood it up in the living room. They do this every winter, inexplicably. They put lots of little things up on the tree. It looks very pretty now! We wonder why they don't leave this tree up all of the time! 

Lily is kind of mad at Grandpa because he turned one of her tennis balls into an ornament. Now she keeps running to the tree and crying, saying, "Give me back that ball!" Mama explained to her that she has fifteen more tennis balls just like it (yep, literally, fifteen) and that she never played with that one anyways. Her favorite tennis balls have all of the fuzz chewed off, and you can see that this one has barely any fuzz chewed off. Also her favorite color is blue, not yellow. Still, Lily does not like to share. Not even with a tree! 

The humans did another strange thing. They took a bunch of socks out of a box, and hung them over the fireplace with care. Everyone in the family has a sock with their name on it. Even Mama's brother who doesn't live with us. Even our sisters Chopper and Zip, and our parakeet brother Woody, who are at the Rainbow Bridge now! Look at all of our little socks. 

We seem to remember that this means something. Something about... that dude whose lap we sat on a few weeks ago... and... PRESENTS! 
So... how long until the presents get here?????

Whats In That Box?

A mysterious, large box has appeared in our basement over the weekend. What does it mean? What do you think could be in it? Any ideas?

Lets just keep our eyes on it. 

Hmm...

See anything suspicious yet?

:

:

:

w

a

i

t

f

o

r

i

t

:

:

:

OMG Hi!!!

Rescue LuvDuv (and some Rescue Me Week updates!)

Hi everyone! During Mayzie's Rescue Me Week a few weeks ago, we promised to start writing every week to feature dogs from Almost Home Foundation who need homes. Well, Mama didn't go there for a few weeks because she was so busy with tests for school, and other things, but she did go do some volunteering there today. And she thought we should tell you about LuvDuv! 

LuvDuv is a terror. Wait, a terrier! Nope, terror might be right. Not in a bad way, though! LuvDuv is just a very mischievious and adventurous 16 month old Cairn Terrier mix. Her foster mother loves her lots and enjoys telling stories of the things LuvDuv does! A lot of these adventures involve food. For instance,  when her human foster brother left a jar of peanut butter on the floor, LuvDuv carried the entire jar down a flight of stairs so she could enjoy it in peace! She did not want to share! Keep in mind, LuvDuv is only a nine pounder, so it was pretty tough to carry that jar down the stairs. But she did it! She also managed to climb up onto a table to drink a glass of red Kool-Aid. Her foster mama couldn't figure out who drank the Kool-Aid, until she saw LuvDuv's red muzzle! We heard she did another trick once with a cup of coffee! We also hear that LuvDuv is very playful and enjoys squeaky toys, playing with her human and animal friends, and going for nice walks with her foster mom. She is also housetrained and is currently not crated while her foster mom is out. She stays out on her own and manages not to cause any trouble most of the time! She is happy for attention and love from anyone, including human adults, children, other dogs, cats, etc. She will cuddle and play with anyone who is nice to her! LuvDuv has also been known to dress up in clothes, including a straw hat. (We wish we had a picture of that!) 
We think LuvDuv would make the perfect doggie for just about anyone, as long as they have some extra attention and love to share with her! Since she enjoys being with people and other animals a lot, we hope she'll find a home with people who really love and enjoy dogs and want to spend time with her. If you think that sounds just like you, and you live in the Chicago area, dial (630) 572-3738 or email dogs@almosthomefoundation.org! 


We also wanted to share some updates about the dogs who we talked about during Mayzie's Rescue Me Week! We don't really get to know the specifics of all of the dogs... we really just know whether they were adopted or not. A lot of times we only find out from looking on Almost Home Foundation's website. But still, we thought you'd like to know!
Heathcliff, the sweet two-year-old standard poodle we wrote about, WAS ADOPTED! 
One of the days, we wrote about a hoarder who gave up 25 of her 50 dogs to Almost Home Foundation. Specifically, we wrote about Brandy and Coco. Brandy WAS ADOPTED! But Coco is still waiting for a home. Remember we mentioned how Coco was deprived of human contact for the most part, and although he is a very laid back dog, he can be very timid around new people and will just sit there and stare at them. However, he's so cuddly... in fact, Mama got to hold him for a while this morning, and he just melted into her like a teddy bear! If you live in the Chicago area and are interested in a sweet 5-year-old Griffon/Brussel/Schnauzer mix to be your own personal teddy bear, call (630)290-3384. 
Prince Pom, the very happy and loving Pomeranian mix with the great smile, WAS ADOPTED! 
Mar Lee, the adorable brindle doggie who reminded us of Mayzie herself, is still looking for a home. The website doesn't give much information about her, but strangely, they have changed her breed from an American Staffordshire Terrier mix (pittbull) to a Plott Hound! Plott Hounds are generally brindle, so this could make sense for little Mar Lee. She is now four months old and sweet as ever. If you're interested in adding a Plott Hound to your household, you could call (630) 775- 1819 for more info about Mar Lee!
Finally, Bermuda, the shy chihuahua who is wary of strangers but loyal to her loved ones, is still looking for a home. Our Mama saw her today and said she is doing great, and even getting a little better about allowing strangers to pet her. If you like chihuahuas and have the patience to get to know this sweet girl, contact her foster dad by emailing him atc22036@email.mot.com, or calling him at 224-715-2526.
So, for Rescue Me Week, we wrote about six dogs, and three of them have been adopted. Thats not bad, is it? We'll write again next week and tell you about more great puppies! 

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

Hi everyone! It seems like we always have these long periods of time when we don't blog! Mama has been so busy with school... the end of the semester is coming up and she had to write TWO entire unit plans, plus all the usual concept maps, reflections, observations, chapter outlines, etc, that teachers love to pile on at the end of the semester. But now we all have the day off so Mama said she'd help us post some pics!


You may know that we three animals don't always get along. Especially Lily and Sammy-Joe! Usually Sammy-Joe won't even come into the room while Lily is there! And when Sammy-Joe hisses, Lily freaks out! But they've really been working on their friendship. Just look at the evidence here. 


Well this is kind of an odd angle, isn't it! We really weren't defying physics. Mama tried rotating the picture on Picnik.com to make it look right, but on Blogger it just keeps ending up like this! But as you can see (if you slant your head to the left as far as you can) is that Sammy-Joe and Lily are sharing a couch together! Nobody is hissing or freaking out. Awwww!

Then, later that day...

Soon, Trixie decided to join them.

Hey, that is kinda like our profile picture, isn't it? Look at this picture Mama took, at around this same time in 2010!

In both pics you can kinda see our order of friendship. Sammy-Joe and Trixie like each other, Trixie and Lily like each other, but Sammy-Joe and Lily keep their distance. Oh well, at least they're progressing!

Sammy will always like his alone time, though...

And Lily will always be very protective of her possessions! 

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We ate LOTS of turkey... how about you?

Trixie Is Not Allowed To Read This!

Hi everyone! Its me, Sammy-Joe, with a quick question for all my friends who are dogs!

But first, a story.

Today Mama was cleaning her room, and she found an unopened Zhu-Zhu pet from a few Christmases ago. Mama used to have another blog about taking care of kids, and someone sent her a whole box of Zhu Zhu pets to review. She gave most of them to her little cousins for Christmas that year but there was one left over, and when Mama found it she thought I would like it! Because it is kind of like a mouse. And I am kind of like a cat.

Well, it was interesting enough. I stayed in my box and watched it carefully. It kind of freaked me out, to tell you the truth. I am smart enough to know it didn't smell like a living animal of any kind, so I didn't bother to chase it.
So then Mama took it upstairs to show Gramma, because she was amused that it kept making farting noises. She put it on the kitchen floor. And guess who went crazy for it? Trixie! She kept running up to it, picking it up, and throwing it! She was really happy and excited! Unfortunately it only took Trixie about two minutes to break the ZhuZhu pet. Now it just makes noise but doesn't move. I think Trixie feels guilty because every time she sees it now she gets up and walks away with her head down!

Mama had an idea. She wanted to find a more durable toy... maybe even a toy actually meant for dogs... that makes noise and moves around by itself! Trixie usually just gets bones or stuffies for Christmas, but if Mama could get her something she'd really play with, it would be awesome!

My question is, do you know of any toys like this? The only ones we could find on the Internet were the Zany Ball, the Bumble Ball, and the Weazel Ball.

If anyone has any of these toys, or knows of any others that are similar to Zhu Zhu pets but not so breakable, let us know so Mama can order them for Trixie!

Thanks friends!!! And whatever you do, don't tell Trixie what we're doing. In fact, don't tell Lily either. That dog cannot keep a secret!

Love, Sammy-Joe