Catnip Toy: Bag of Feathers

Ginger loves feathers. She will usually pounce on and try to kill anything with feathers. She also loves catnip toys.

Ginger is a lucky cat, because, along with a large amount of scrap fabric, I have a bunch of feathers. I recently decided to make her a "bag of feathers". It only has a few feathers, but it looks like an open bag stuffed with them!

What you need
a piece of fabric that is about twice as long as it is wide
needle and thread
pins
fiberfil stuffing
feathers
catnip
scissors

What you do

With the wrong side facing out, fold the fabric almost in half (leave an inch or two free on one end)  and pin along the sides. Hand sew the two sides together. Turn right side out. You should now have a small bag with a flap that has raw edges.

Make a small hem along the top of the flap. Sew it down.

Fill the bag with a mixture of fiberfil and catnip. Pin the raw edge of the bag down with the edge tucked under. Place some feathers between the pins. Hand sew the bag closed.

You should now have what looks to be an open bag of feathers!

This toy has been inspected and approved by Ginger: (the color is off because I'm still not sure how to use this camera!)

Wordless Wednesday: Rose of Sharon Hibiscus

Evil Mini Muffin Variation

I believe that the only way to properly investigate the evilness of mini muffins is to consider every possible (good tasting) form these muffins take on. Today, we will take a look at streusel cake (aka coffee cake) mini muffins.

These turned out well and nothing strange happened during the baking process. Everyone seemed to enjoy them except for my boyfriend. He kept telling me how terrible they were, yet he couldn't stop eating them. I do believe that is a result of the pure evilness of the mini muffins! I offered to just throw them away for him, but he said he would do it later.

Streusel Mini Muffins (Printer-friendly PDF Version)

The base of the muffin is the same as before with a few minor variation. First, don't add the banana. Second, add 1/4 C more milk and 1t more vanilla. Mix according to the instruction.

Streusel topping:
1/3 C flour
1/3 C brown sugar (packed)
1/2 t cinnamon
2 1/2 T butter (chopped into bits)

Combine the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Mix well. Add the chopped butter. With a fork, cut the butter into the sugar mixture until well combined. It will be crumbly and kind of moist. Set in refrigerator until ready to use.

Grease the mini muffin pan. Place a spoonful of batter into each cup (fill each cup 3/4 full). Place half a spoonful of streusel topping on top of the batter in each cup. Add more if you want to. Gently press the topping down.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. The tops won't brown, but the sides and bottom will.

This makes approximately 44 mini muffins.

Reintroduction to Quills

I found my quill pen set today. What? What do you mean not everyone has a quill pen set, multiple colors of ink, and two different shades of parchment paper? I think you are confused. That is a very common set of objects for people to possess.

Unfortunately, all but three colors of ink are dried up. I have black, green, and purple. The green is a bit dry, making it difficult to write with. Writing with a quill pen isn't the easiest thing to do to begin with, so non-optimal ink isn't a great way to reintroduce yourself to the writing utensil.

Anyhow, I pretended to make some greeting cards. They are rather plain since I don't own any stamps and I didn't feel the desire to attempt to draw anything on them.

The entire process made me want to learn calligraphy. My "fancy" handwriting is just the writing I use when decorating cakes. 

This was a nice and simple way to start off with the quill set. I can't remember what the different nibs do to the writing. I suppose I will have to do some research on that at some point.

If you are interested in obtaining a quill pen set, here are a few places for you to purchase one:

These are also a neat and non-feathery version: Glass Dip Pens

Wordless Wednesday: Sleeping Zoo Animals

Aren't sleeping animals just adorable? These pictures were taken at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Visit them at www.clemetzoo.com Click the images for a larger view :)

Doggie Cookies: Oatmeal Cookies

These are the result of a failed attempt to make chicken flavored doggie cookies. I realized too late that I didn't have all the ingredients I wanted to use, so I just threw something together from what I had. The recipe is simple and I'm not including pictures because they just look like normal smushed oatmeal cookies. I'm not sure how much of a chicken flavor they have, but they have a faint chicken smell!

Oatmeal Cookies

1 C oatmeal
1 C flour
1/3 C chicken broth
1 egg (beaten)

Combine the oatmeal and flour. If you want to make cookies that are less chunky, run the oatmeal through a food processor to turn it into a powder. Combine the chicken broth and egg. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together.

With your hands, roll the dough into small balls. Press down onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

Note: Use all natural chicken broth! Don't use products that contain MSG. That stuff is bad for humans, so why would you feed it to your dog?

Wordless Wednesday: Sleeping Cats

Tess & Ginger sleeping

Chocolate Meringue Cookies

If you've ever wanted to eat crunchy hot chocolate, then this is the cookie for you. I'm not sure how else to describe these meringue cookies. They are weightless and taste like hot chocolate. I can't even decide if I like them or not! The taste/flavor/texture combination is just too odd for me.

I found this recipe online after some searching. It is easy to follow and doesn't require ingredients that aren't in the kitchen of someone who bakes. The only issue I have with the recipe (and every other recipe for this type of cookie!) is that it takes hours to bake. Some recipes require the cookies to do an overnight stay in the oven!

Chocolate Meringue Cookies (Printer-friendly PDF Version)

1/4 C Powdered sugar

1/4 C unsweetened cocoa

3 large egg whites (room temperature)

1/8 t cream of tartar

3/4 C granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees and grease a cookie sheet.

Sift together the powdered sugar and cocoa. This will remove any clumps.

Place egg whites into a mixing bowl (1) and beat on low speed until frothy (2).

Add the cream of tartar and beat on medium until soft peaks form (3). This means that you beat the egg whites until they hold some shape and starts to get a glossy appearance.

Continue to beat the egg whites and slowly add the sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form (4). This just means that you can make peaks in the egg whites and they will hold.

Turn the mixer to low speed and slowly add the cocoa mixture. Mix until well combined.

Place spoonfuls of the meringue onto the cookie sheet. You can also pipe the meringue onto the cookie sheet with a parchment bag and large frosting tip. This allows for creativity and results in pretty cookies!

Bake the cookies for an hour and a half. Do not remove the cookies from the oven after baking. Turn off the oven and open the oven door slightly. Let cool in the oven for at least an hour.

Store the cookies in a tightly sealed container.

Note: I used Hershey’s Cocoa: Special Dark.

Something about meringue cookies have always been intimidating to me. I think it is because of the egg whites. The cookie is basically just egg whites and sugar. Because of this, I'm awarding myself this little "I did it!"

Cookie Baker Lynn's "I did it!"

Doggie Cookies: Almost Minty

I'm working on new flavors of doggie cookies again. The main issue with the cookies seems to be texture and that they dry out. I'm cautious with what I will add to the dough because I want to keep the cookies healthy. Eventually, I'll get that all situated and post some new recipes. For now, here is a look at one type of doggie cookie that I'm working on.

My dad has bought quite a few different types of doggie breath mints for Bichon. Bichon has terrible breath that even daily brushing isn't helping. Unfortunately, since his teeth are part of the issue, he can't (or just won't) eat the doggie breath mints because they are too hard. I was asked if I could make some sort of cookie out of the mints.

What I did was crush up the mints into tiny pieces and dissolved them some in warm water. Next time I will let them sit in near boiling water for a bit to let the pieces dissolve a bit more. I then mixed in some oatmeal and flour until it reached a cookie dough consistency. I rolled the dough into little balls, pressed them down a bit with my thumb, and baked them for 8 minutes. The result was a greenish cookie with gooey melty spots.

Bichon ate the cookie, but only after realizing I didn't have anything better to offer. Lucky ate the cookie without thinking twice... he'll eat nearly anything.

Any suggestions for future flavors of doggie cookies? I'm considering chicken, turkey, and sweet potato.

Wordless Wednesday: Ducks

Ducks at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Click the image to make it larger. Makes a nice desktop background!

Soft Peanut Butter Cookies

Insomnia is for baking. At least, that is one of the few useful things I can do when I can't sleep at night. I can't really work on my thesis or think critically at this point in the night. The only reasonable thing to do at 2am is bake. It doesn't disturb anyone sleeping and it provides me with something creative to do. Oh, yeah... it also gives me something delicious to eat!

Tonight I wanted peanut butter. I usually just eat a spoonful of peanut butter or put it on a banana, but I was bored so I decided to make cookies. I did a search on Google for "soft peanut butter cookies" and this is the first recipe I read through that I liked the sound of. They turned out pretty well! Very soft with a nice peanut butter flavor that isn't too strong or too weak. The recipe is also very easy to follow.

Soft Peanut Butter Cookies (Printer-friendly PDF Version)

Cream together the butters, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Add the baking soda, salt, and flour. Mix until well combined.

Roll the dough into balls and place on a cookie sheet. The size of the dough balls depends on how big you want the cookies. I tend to make smaller cookies. Use a fork dipped in flour to make a criss-cross pattern on the cookie to press them down. This allows the cookie to bake evenly!

Bake the cookies at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the edges start to brown. The edges didn't seem to brown for me, so I just baked them for 10 minutes. The cookie is fully baked when the bottom turns brown, but since the cookies are so soft, it is hard to check for browning.

Don't forget the milk!