Adventures in No Fuss Baking the Mary Lou Way

I did a few chores around the house this morning (plenty left in case you're bored and looking for some excitement).  One of the remaining chores is to clear off the dinning room table. It's the gathering place for my many PIPs (projects in process).  As a result, it's cluttered and piled a mile high. At the start of the daunting declutter task I came across a couple recipies:  slow cooker Swedish meatballs and doggie treats.

I stopped moving the mountain so I could cook.  Anyone who knows me, knows I don't enjoy cooking.  I make 2-3 meals each week and rotate the leftovers for my lunches. And I eat out.  A lot. Choosing to cook tells you how thrilled I was to be clearing the table,

I set about gathering the ingredients for the crockpot recipe and found I had used up all my cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soups in previous weeks caseroles.  I'm pretty sure the WalMart online grocery ordering and delivery service has a minimum purchase, and I could not think of anything else I needed, so that meant I would have to dress and go to HEB.  On a Saturday morning.

With. All. Those. People.

I have so few unplanned mornings, putting on a bra and shoes (and everything in between) wasn't in the cards for this lazy Saturday morning, so I set about making treats for the Bald One.  I made the dough my way (eyeballing the measurements, shunning the parchment paper or silicone matt, as well as kneading, and dusting with flour--it's so much easier my way). Then I realized all the cute little cookie cutters I have are AWOL. The only cutter I found was one that was misplaced--in the cupboard of all places!  It's a large Texas.  Not what I envisioned for treats.  Ya know how Carpenters "measure twice, cut once"?  Cooks assemble the ingredients--which I did.  But Bakers also carefully measure ingredients and gather all the tools they will need prior to starting a baking project.

I'm. No. Baker.

So I shaped the dough into a rectangle and cut it into bars and popped 'em into the oven.  Then I heard the mountain calling, and I returned to scaling it. Guess what? 

No, I did not fall off like the Price is Right Mountain Climber.  I found  the bone, flower, and heart shaped cookie cutters--all neatly contained and organized in their heart and flower shaped clear plastic,  inside  a ziplock baggie so they wouldn't get lost.  One of my many PIPs on the table.

Since I still had 1/2 can of pumpkin...I whipped up another round of dough.

Bandit wagged his tail and gobbled up a cooled treat I offered him.  He was less enthused with a warmer (but still not hot) treat--although he gobbled it as well--sans tail wag.  I also gave Moggy two cooled pieces of the treats.  He ate one and left the other.  I had hoped he would like them as well.

The mountain is calling again; however, in an attempt to treat (yes I went there) the FurBoys fairly, I will now be googling cat treat recipies....





In case you want to bake treats for your FurKids here is the recipe  (my No Fuss--what actually happened directions--are in parentheses)

(No Fuss) Pumpkin-Peanutbutter**  Doggie Treats
Preheat oven 350F

Mix: 
2/3 Cup Pumpkin (1/2 can)
1/4 Cup Peanut Butter (2 deep swirls in the jar with a rubber spatula)
2 eggs
Add up  to 2 1/2 Cups Whole Wheat flour half a cup at a time (2 C all at once)
Add flour until dough is no longer sticky (at 2C it wasn't sticky--trust me)

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone matt (I have both--but skipped this and used a nonstick cookie sheet)

Dust hands with flour, and on a flour dusted space knead the  dough 3-4 times (dust hands with a small handful of flour over the dough ball,  pat down and flip the dough to cover with the excess flour--still in the bowl)

Roll out the dough to 1/4" thickness (plopped the now dusted and patted down dough ball directly onto the nonstick cookie sheet and patted the dough thinner--pinky finger thick).

Cut shapes and place on parchment or silicone lined cookie sheet (cut shapes directly on the nonstick cookie sheet).

Bake @ 350F for 20-25 minutes (my nonstick cookie sheet is one of those dark ones that browns the bottom faster so I pulled 'em out after 18 minutes).



**some peanut butters have the sweatener xylitol in it--ensure yours does NOT as XYLITOL is TOXIC to FurKids.