New Year 2013

So I have 3 days off...today Liv and I took Stell up to Waldo Lake road and snow shoed maybe half way to Betty Lake...tomorrow Liv has to work so I am going to bake a large batch of biscuits...my quality control group is available and anxious for a new batch...they know supplies are scarce...right now...I have had no time to bake the latest batch...it has been on ice waiting for me to roll, cut and bake....and tomorrow is the day because...Tuesday...New Year we are going snow shoeing with both Poe and Stell...and we all need sustenance....

25 December 1012

It is the big Turkey day of the year....we have some turkey, stuffing, veg...gravy...and Yorkshire pudding...but before we get that all going...Liv and I will take the dags for a walk up the 101...after the big wind storm several trees fell across the road affording us some good assurance that we won't run across any other travellers...so the pups may race around in the snow with joyous abandon...

I have the dough made for a large batch of dag biscuits...but no time to bake them this week...perhaps on the weekend...I will be able to get it done...we are getting low and Poe and Stell are missing their usual ration of biscuits...but they will have a lovely Turkey dinner tonight...that may make up for the lack...of biscuits....not only for Poe and Stell but all my canine customers at the bank...

Oakridge Ladies Trike Club outing and biscuit making....of course

This weekend I set about the dog cookie making process by first thawing another tub of the purée of veg and PB etc. This batch of treats is particularly toothsome because it contains certain squash varieties that they really like. My recipe is somewhat seasonal in that I take vegetables in season to make the purée though the basics always remain the same...and the large variety of squashes give subtlety different flavour...which makes the biscuits unique in that, I think.  I generally make them snack size though I have and will make them in a smaller "dog training treat" or "dog training cookie" size.
I will be mixing the dry ingredients in later this afternoon and then bake some this evening because Liv and I are going to suit up in our rain gear and ride out on the trikes with Poe and Stell toward Salmon Creek...should be about a 3 to 4 hour ride and be 9 or so miles by the end...Poe's feet are tough as old shoe leather but Stell is not so fortunate so Liv has boots for her if her pads start to look sore...will add some photos of our excursion later...and will be taking "dag biscuits" with us as part of a healthy snack along the way! 

this week prepared the "liquid" part of the biscuits...a puree of spinach, celery, squash, carrots, and yams...then I added some baked pumpkin....a large jar of natural crunchy peanut butter...the organic brown rice....and today after a ten mile trike ride with Poe and Stell...made up about five pounds of biscuits using the oat flour .... I've moved away from regular wheat flour to eliminate gluten...from the biscuits....I still have about 25 pounds of the liquid that I popped in the freezer and a large pan of dough ready to bake this week...if is very labour intensive ...wish I could take a day each week from my other job to make biscuits...but currently must bake at night and on weekends...

Long weekend - new batch testing

today I discovered that garbanzo beans are good for dogs...I had some flour made of them and used them in this latest batch...thus I have enough ingredients to mix with the wet stuff that is gluten and corn free...I'm pretty excited about this latest discovery...I have also kept aside some tiny biscuits that will remain soft to send to my dear friends -  Candas and Timothy - whose wee puppies Shine and Buffo would prefer very small and a softer version of the dag biscuits...though a chihuahua made short work of one the other day...so go figure...also making up 3 pounds of biscuits for a gift basket...and working on my packaging this weekend...I'm liking the coffee bags and playing with stencils and stamps....with a seasonal theme...snowflakes... 

experimenting

Today I baked up a bunch of the dough that I made and froze a couple of weeks ago...or at least some of it...I used oat flour rather than whole wheat...and didn't put any beef broth in this time either...Poe and Stell still seem to be rather enamoured of them...though the aroma is slightly different...the initial bake is completed and the drying process is in the works...

I would have baked up more except for the fact that Stell...and Poe found a wounded bird in the house and I had to run it into the wildlife rescue in town...

Ingredients and photos...

Today I put together my list of ingredients for the biscuits on business cards with info on how to contact me to purchase them. I also put up nineteen 4 ounce sample packages for distribution through some friends who train dogs. I'm going to post the list ingredients here on the blog as well. My commitment to quality statement is:

“every batch is personally tested for quality by

Poe and Stell”

To order, email kmdyson@gmail.com 

The top photo is on Stella lounging on the couch the middle photo is of a batch of biscuits and the bottom photo is of Poe at the dunes south of Florence when he was a puppy.

Ingredient list: cooked brown rice, raw vegetable puree (carrot, celery, spinach), pumpkin and/or squash, yams, oat & garbanzo bean puree, natural peanut butter, flax, rendered beef and pork fat.  No added sugar and no preservatives.

New Directions

Since successfully defending my Master's thesis in Political Science on Islamophobia in January I returned to Oakridge and successfully found a job as a ....bank teller...a little hands on in Political Economy I suppose!

At some point this spring I decided to try my hand at making biscuits for Poe and Stella after looking at the ingredient list on various commercial brands of biscuits and becoming quite alarmed at what we were treating them with.  I began by looking up various recipes on line...there are hundreds of recipes out there....after 5 or 6 goes at it I began to develop my own recipe and method. The result is a dog biscuit that is pretty irresistible to dogs. Currently I use my large 1901 St Louis World's Fair bread mixer to make 20 odd pounds at a time. My daughter Olivia thinks they could be converted to hiker/biker nutrition snacks...if they had some kind of natural sweetening in them...though she does occasionally eat the "dag" biscuits. This play on the word dog was invented by Olivia...the actual owner of Poe and Stell...
I am going to develop a business plan and investigate whether it could become a viable business venture. This blog will serve as a diary to that end.