Not to slight the canine and catnip crowd, Aunt Bee, your Christmas coordinator, wishes a festive feast for all you furry food section fans out there.
The following recipe is dedicated to my four-legged neighbors - Blue, Suzette and Sam, and all culinary canines out there.Convince your owners to whip this up for your holiday rations. Perhaps it will put an end to the yearly dilemma - What? Another flea collar?
(Loosen up, Scrooge - forget the Science Diet for a day.)
DOG BISCUITS
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 cup rye flour
2 cups cracked wheat OR Wheatena cereal, uncooked, straight from the box
2 teaspoons salt
1 package active dry yeast
2 cups beef broth or consomme
1/2 cup milk
2 large eggs
In a large bowl, mix together flours, cracked wheat, salt and yeast; stir in beef broth, milk and eggs. (Dough will be very stiff and heavy.)
Knead dough with your hands until well-mixed, then roll out to a thickness of 1/4 to 1 inch on a lightly floured board.
With scissors or a sharp knife, cut into 1-inch squares and place squares on a lightly greased cookie sheet. (They don't spread, so you can put them close together.)
Bake in pre-heated 325-degree oven 45 minutes. Then turn off oven and leave biscuits in oven overnight or 8 hours. Store biscuits airtight. Makes 20 dozen.
- From "Beat This! Cookbook" by Ann Hodgman
- Each biscuit contains 14 calories, 3 g carb, 21 mg sodium, 2 mg cholesterol, and 1 g cat, er, fat.
- Warning: Do not serve biscuits at bridge clubs, gourmet groups or Junior League luncheons. Keep young children and teenagers with tall bangs away from oven while biscuits are baking.
And now - fur all you cats
Auntie Bee refuses to list the ingredients in cat food, so she suggests a wonderful musical feast for Socks, Midnight or Panda.
For your divine feline - a collection of 20 holiday classics on tape or CD: "The Jingle Cats - Meowy Christmas."
Aunt Bee tested the effects of real cat meows combined with Christmas carols on her very own Toonces the cat.
And was Bee ever-so amazed at her furry friend's enthusiastic response and recognition of old kitty favorites.
Toonces purred along with "Waltz of the Flowers" and scratched the sofa to "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies."
And "Up on the Housetop" caused great furrvor. A definite 4 paws up.
What a purrfect present!