Desert Pics

Wordless Wednesday

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Dealing with Arizona Heat

Thanks to Wrigs's human, I learned a lot more about the Swamp Cooler vest from RuffWear.  I decided to go ahead and order one for Blueberry since she abhors the sun and the heat.  It finally arrived!  It's really easy to manage too - just soak it in water, gently wring it dry and put it on.  It works the same as B's harness, so no stepping through any straps since there are buckles.  

It is one of my all time favorite inventions right now!  I was so excited to try it out and I wasn't let down by it at all!  Blueberry and I went for a hike yesterday mid morning and she did so well.  Normally, if I try to take her that late, she'll seek out every bit of shade and want to stop frequently, or she'll try to stay in my shadow to be protected from the sun. But with this cooling vest - she really enjoyed the hike and didn't need any "shade breaks" and didn't even care to drink a lot of water.  While Blueberry did still pant - Wrigs's human did mention that as well as the fact that she'd probably shake herself more than a few times - which she totally did.  But it was fine - she also shakes herself off when she steps into 2 inches of water, so it wasn't a big deal.  Below are a couple of pics of Blueberry sporting her new vest.  Another plus was they only have one color - so I didn't hem and haw over color choices and I think B looks pretty good in this color.  

"Ta-da!"

"Cheeeeeeese!!!"

Desert Critters

"Last night was a most exciting hike!"

"First off, my human must have been wool-gathering because I stumbled upon the snake pictured below.  Now, it could have been a non-venomous King Snake or it could have been a venomous Coral Snake.  I tried to capture it cause hey, free snake right underneath my paws, am I right?  Who would pass that up?  But my human pulled me away from it and we watched it slither away.  My human is funny - she said her heart was racing.  That'll teach her to let her mind wander during snake season!  She's supposed to be watching out for me.

The other exciting thing that happened was that we heard this clippity clopping a little ways off the trail to our left and when we looked over - wouldn't you know it was a deer!  That's pretty crazy cause we've seen deer in the northern parts of the state but never in the desert down here.  And it was running, which seemed pretty silly to me since it was still pretty warm out."  

Photo Credit: Gary Boyd

Blueberry's human here.  This is the pattern as I remember it from last night.  If I am correct - then Blueberry had an extremely close call with a venomous snake.  I usually pay attention on our hikes but last night I foolishly allowed my mind to wander.  Thankfully, everything turned out fine and other than making my heart beat at about a million miles an hour - no harm was done.  I sometimes do an imaginary "practice emergency evac" from our trail if any harm should come to Blueberry and I wonder if I will get superhuman strength to carry her - while running down the trail to the car and then getting her to the ER vet as fast as I can.

Also, one last thing about yesterday's post on Tasty Tuesday.  http://kolchakpuggle.com/ left a comment about having read in some places that cashews are harmful for dogs.  I had never heard this before and I did see a few warnings about it in my online research (although nothing really definitive) - mostly to not overdo it with the cashews and to avoid the salted ones.  So, just thought I would let you all know in case you are thinking about making that particular dog cake for your dogs - it could be harmful.  While Blueberry (and the dogs I have had, both foster and resident in the past) have never suffered any ill effects from raw cashews, it is a possibility.  So be careful!  I wouldn't want any doggies in Blogville becoming ill from a recipe I posted here!  

Cashew Cake

Yesterday I wrote a post about this Bundt cake I baked over the weekend for Blueberry.  She was not pleased that I did some "taste testing" on this cake.  A little back story to how I came to make this cake...for the past 6 weeks, I've been avoiding all refined, processed foods.  I've done this before and lasted a whole year before I fell off the wagon.  It's a great way to lose weight easily and steadily and also a great way to feel healthier (no afternoon slumps).  So, in my bookmarks, I have this recipe I came upon months ago from Bashful Bao's Blog.  You can click on the blog name to read the whole recipe.  I will definitely make this at some point because it sounds amazing! 

Now obviously, this particular recipe calls for many things that I have deemed off limits.  But I was having a serious craving for cake and something cashew-y.  I love cashews.  I eat them raw all the time and I pretty much live off of them as healthy snacks while at work.    I nearly succumbed to my craving and then realized I could just substitute many things in this recipe to not only make it guilt-free, but also dog friendly!  I mostly eye-balled the measuring of most of these ingredients, so you can tweak it however you like.  One thing I would have done differently is leave out the cinnamon/raw honey swirl.  The taste of cinnamon was lovely - but it overshadowed the subtle cashew flavor.  

Preheat oven to 325 degrees - move the oven rack to the level below the middle rack position.  Grease a Bundt pan with unrefined organic coconut oil.  I then sprinkled some ground flaxseed instead of using flour - it gave it a nice extra crunch on the cake surface.

2 1/2 - 3 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup of ground flaxseed

1 tablespoon baking powder

3 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 8 oz jar Cashew Butter (the only ingredients in this jar were cashews and safflower oil)

1/3 cup unrefined organic coconut oil

2 cups water

1/3 cup raw honey

(Optional for swirl - 3 tablespoons cinnamon and 1/4 cup of raw honey)

Mix all dry ingredients together with wooden spoon in a large bowl.

In food processor or blender, combine all liquid-y ingredients.  Pour this into dry ingredient bowl and mix thoroughly with wooden spoon.  

Pour into Bundt pan and bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.  (After pouring, this is where I added the cinnamon swirl and just used a knife to swirl it into the batter.  I stink at swirling though so it was really more like I mixed it in.)  

I baked it for about 1 hour and it was a little on the dry side, so I recommend doing the toothpick test at 45 minutes.  Let it cool in the pan for a while on a wire rack, then remove cake from pan and let it cool some more.  You can even freeze some of it if you want.  You can eat it, your dog can eat it, it's a win-win!

"Blueberry here - I am dreaming about the day when my human participates in a Tasty Tuesday with a  roasted hamster with sweet potatoes and carrots recipe..."

Dog Cake Warning

"What a nice weekend I had with my human!  I got to go to the park and she even baked me a delicious cake!  It was a little over 100 degrees over the weekend too, so I got to eat tons of ice cubes!  

I also got to pick a winner for the Blueberry Pancake Cookie Giveaway!  Of course, I ate the paper with the winner's name on it so my human has to wait for it to finish the journey through my intestines to find out who the winner is.  My plan to hide the winner from her so she'd just give me the cookies failed miserably.  Note to self - next time eat ALL of the slips of paper."

"Doesn't this look delicious?  My very own bundt cake!  Or so I thought..."

"I wrote a little something about this cake.
 I call it 'Hey!  That's my Cake!'

Cinnamon, raw honey, cashew butter too,
My human said 'I'm baking this cake just for you'.
But then I see her steal a slice,
In my opinion that is just not nice.
That cake is mine, I will not share,
a human eating dog cake is simply not fair!
Does she not see my doggy frown?
Translated it means:  'Put that slice down!'
Cake is great, cake is yummy,
Cake is only for my doggy tummy!

Blueberry's human here:  Ok - now for the announcement of the winner of the Blueberry Pancake Cookie Giveaway!  Are you ready?  Can you hardly stand it?  Drum roll please...Oh wait.  I said I wasn't going to make the announcement til the 30th.  I guess you will have to wait until tomorrow then.  

What's that?  What are you doing with the pitchforks and why are you shaking your fists at me?  Ok, ok, I'll announce it today since by process of elimination (no pun intended) I was able to determine the winner despite Blueberry's attempts to hide it from me...Cue the drum roll again...




























It's Ruby!  Congratulations Ruby!  Be sure to have your mom email me her mailing address at tenbluetaters [AT] yahoo [DOT] com"