Homemade Dog Treat: Pawcakes

What's better than a nice, warm stack of pancakes for breakfast?  Not a whole lot. Well, maybe a massive pile of bacon. Today's homemade dog treat recipe shows you how to make a meaty short-stack for your pup.

Pawcakes

Things you'll need:

1 cup pancake mix

1/4 pound ground beef

3/4 cup of water

1 medium pan

1 food processor or blender (optional)

 Step 1: Brown your ground beef in a pan over medium heat.

Step 2: Set the ground beef aside to cool once it's been thoroughly cooked.  You can drain the meat, or you can save the grease and use it to flavor the pawcakes.

Step 3 (optional): Place the beef in a food processor once it's cooled.  Chop it as fine as you want.  Don't worry if you don't have a food processor or blender to complete this step.  I like to do this since smaller chunks of meat makes for an easier batter to work with.  Really if you skip it you'll just have bigger chunks of meat.

Step 4: Combine the ground beef and pancake mix into a mixing bowl.

Step 5: Add 3/4 cup of water and mix the ground beef and pancake mix.  You'll want to use a spoon for this step-it's ten times easier than a whisk.  You should end up with something that's a bit thicker than regular pancake batter.  You can add more water for a thinner batter if you want.

Step 6: Cook your pawcakes!  Spoon out however much batter you want per pawcake-I went with two spoonfuls each.  If you're using a pan or griddle you'll want to cook on medium heat for about 1-2 minutes on each side, or until the pawcake is brown.  If you've got one of these fancy machines (it's called a Pancake Factory, you can find something similar over here at Amazon) it's 1 minute, then flip.

Step 7: Wait to cool, and then serve to your pooches!  Troy and Enrique are waiting patiently to dive right into their pawcakes.  Of course you can tell Enrique's a little less patient than Troy is.  The pawcakes will store for a few days in the fridge, or you can freeze them.

The amount this recipe makes is very subjective.  You can make the pawcakes as small or as large as you want (adjust cooking time for smaller ones, of course).  I got about 9 good-sized pawcakes out of this recipe.  You can give them to your pup whole, or tear them up and use them for dog training treats.  

Now you may be wondering what type of pancake mix to use.  Really that all depends on your personal preference.  I used Market Pantry Buttermilk Pancake Mix that I got from Target for a little over $2.  You can use any brand, though, and still get pretty much the same result.  I've even used gluten-free pancake mix without changing the overall recipe.  If you're worried about the amount of sugar in the mix, though, you could always make your own.  Allrecipes.com has a quick and easy pancake mix recipe you can use.  Just take out the sugar.

That's all, folks.  Try it out and let us know how your pups liked it!

Homemade Dog Treat Recipe: Doggy Ice Pops

Ah, summertime!  The sun, the long days, the...unbearable heat.  Help your pups stay cool this summer with this quick and easy homemade dog treat recipe.

 Doggy Ice Pops

What you'll need:

• One bouillon cube-chicken, beef, or vegetable
• 1 cup (8 oz) of water
• Medium sauce pan
• Ice cube tray 

What you do:

Step 1: Add 1 cup (8 oz) of water to your sauce pan.  Bring the water to a boil.

Step 3: Add one bouillon cube once the water's boiling.  Continue boiling until the cube is dissolved.

Step 4: Place the broth in a container to cool.

VERY IMPORTANT!  Don't skip this step.  Working with boiling hot broth is not a good idea, and can cause some serious burns.

Step 5: Pour the cool broth into your ice cube tray.  Leave in the freezer to cool until solid.

Yes, I have heart-shaped ice cube trays.  Don't judge.

Step 6: Serve to your pup when cool!

This recipe probably takes about 10 minutes of actual work.  Really most of the time with this recipe is spent just waiting for it to freeze.  You'll probably want to wait an hour or so to make sure it's really solid.  Otherwise you might end up with a mess on your hands.

Now the only bad thing about bouillon cubes is they tend to be high in sodium.  If you're worried about that you can always make your own stock.  Just grab any raw or cooked bones you have lying around, and boil them for about an hour.  After that you just follow the recipe normally.  Just be sure not to give the cooked bones to your pups!

Here's some pics of Troy and Enrique cooling off with some homemade ice pops:

Trust me, it's there...or at least it WAS...

Even Enrique, the pickiest of eaters ever, enjoys an ice pop.

And voila, an easy and fast homemade dog treat recipe for your pups to enjoy.  Try it out and let us know what you think!

That Time I Failed At Cooking

Okay, so I consider myself to be a fairly good cook.  I like to think I've mastered the basics like searing fish, broiling meat, and not burning down the kitchen while trying to boil water.  I deep fry a turkey every year for Thanksgiving.  I can even grill a pretty mean burger.  Every now and again, though, I cook something that would cause Chef Ramsay to burst an artery.  

Like this. This is bad.

 Did the plumbing back up?  Is that the result of partying way too hard?  No, ladies and gentlemen, that is what you get when you leave egg noodles in a crock pot overnight.  Never leave egg noodles in a crock pot overnight.  By the way, it tasted just about as good as it looked.  

Yeah...kind of like that...

Obviously I was not a happy camper.  That was a lot of food that had seemingly gone to waste, but I couldn't bring myself to just toss it all out.  Turns out the answer to this problem, as with so many others, was to give it to my dogs. Really I wasn't sure what they'd think of it-they can be surprisingly picky at times.  I decided the only thing to do was to slop it in their bowls and see what happened.

The whole affair ended up playing out kind of like this...

That's right folks.  It turns out they liked it.  A lot.

Nomnomnomnom

Honestly I was shocked.  I expected a huff of indifference at best, a "surprise" in my shoes at worst.  Even Enrique ate it, and this is a dog that turns up his nose at Heartguard.  I felt vindicated in a way.  It turned out I hadn't wasted my time the night before when I prepared the ill-fated meal.  The timing was perfect, too, because I had a crock pot full of food, and my dogs just happened to have run out of their prepared meals.  I wasted no time in turning that nasty-looking slop into a hearty repast.

They shall feast like kings!  For a few days at least...

Let's hear from you all now.  What cooking fails have you turned into wins for your pups?

Making Soft Toys a Little Safer...For Cheap!

So if your dogs are anything like Troy and Enrique they absolutely LOVE playing with stuffed toys.

Troy and Enrique havin some fun

Of course if you're anything like me, you absolutely HATE cleaning up all of the fluff you find scattered everywhere. 

Look at Woody's face...he KNOWS...

The stuffing can and does make an absolutely horrific mess.  You will be finding chunks of it for days; even after you thought you already cleaned it all up.  A bigger problem, however, is the potential it has to harm your pups.  Anything that goes into a dog's mouth has the potential to be swallowed.  The potential is there for your dog to choke on a big chunk of stuffing.  Vomiting could also be an issue.  Dogs that swallow too much stuffing can also suffer from an intestinal blockage, which can result in dangerous and costly surgeries, or even death.

So what's a concerned pet parent to do?  Obviously you can't just not buy your pup toys.  Especially if you value you and your dog's sanity (not to mention your house).  There are safe, soft dog toys out there.  Skinneeez is one brand that comes to mind.  They have a couple of different animal shapes, and are available at major pet stores like Petco.  The only problem is they can be fairly expensive, especially if your dog goes through toys like Troy and Enrique do.

So you want your pets to be a bit safer when they play with their soft toys, but you don't want to break the bank by buying expensive dog toys every few days.  Worry not, dear reader, because I'll show you a way you can do just that!

First thing's first.  You want to pick out a stuffed toy.  It can be a dog toy, but really any stuffed toy could work.  Just be sure you avoid toys with hard eyes or items that could easily be chewed off and swallowed, like tags or ears.

I grabbed this cheap little dog toy at Big Lots for about $2.  As you can see it's some kind of animal.  Dog, skunk, chipmunk, whatever.  I'm not really sure, but it does have two squeakers-one in the head, and one in the tail. 

What ARE you?

 Next you need to find a seam.  This one took a little bit of a search just because of how fluffy the toy was.

Like Where's Waldo? but not nearly as frustrating...

 Once you've found a seam it's time to grab a knife and slice it open.  Just be sure you get a sharp one.  We don't want you getting hurt while doing your best slasher impression.

We also won't judge if you hum the theme to Halloween.

 Now that you've made a big enough opening, it's time to rip it's guts out!  Literally.

The horror...

 It's at this point you may start having second thoughts.  Stay strong.  You need to pull all of the stuffing out.

The HORROR!

Once you've gone ahead and thoroughly gutted the...patient the only thing left to do is close it up and toss it to your pups!

Now, there are a few things to consider.  First off, the toy is not going to be 100% dog safe.  Mainly because there are very few toys out there that are 100% dog safe.  The de-stuffed toy will be safer, but you should still supervise your dog's playtime.  Or, you know, play with them.

Second, this type of toy will not last any longer than it normally would.  A dog that tears through a stuffed toy in an hour will tear through the same toy just as quick when it doesn't have stuffing.  On the plus side, though, it won't take you 2 hours to clean up the mess.

Finally, petMD has a listing of common symptoms of an intestinal blockage.  Get your dog to a vet as soon as possible if you notice any of these symptoms.

That's all for now.  Play safe out there!

We're Back, Baby!

Ever been so excited your tail vanished?

You read that right, folks.  Like the McDonald's McRib Enrique's Place took a short little (re: very long) hiatus.  And like just like the McRib we have returned!  

Those of you who followed us on Facebook know who we are already. Remember? We were that plucky little dog bakery with the delightful Etsy shop.  Anyone who competed on the Central Florida dog agility circuit last year saw our little tent.  We sold our (extremely) addictive dog training treats and our fabulous handcrafted leashes while we cheered on our favorite pups.  Truly it was a fun and glorious time...and we got days off of our regular jobs, too.

So what happened to us?  Why the social media blackout?  Why did we go dark pretty much everywhere?  Well, quite simply put, we had a little expansion in the form of a bouncing baby boy.  That didn't really leave much time for baking, making leashes, or traveling-something I'm sure every parent out there knows.

Troy snuggles with his new baby brother.

Of course now that our little guy is a little older (13 months older, to be exact), we can start getting back into the swing of things just a little bit.  Of course we still don't really have the time to bake our dog treats or make new leashes, and setting up shop at any dog shows is pretty much right out.  What we can do, though, is share our knowledge, pearls of wisdom, and random stuff we find on the Internet.  The best way we can do that?  With this blog of course!

So what can you folks look forward to here at Enrique's Place?  Well for starters we'll be sharing some of our dog treat recipes that we've collected over the years.  We're also going to have our share of thought-provoking content.  Of course it's great to kick back and relax a bit, too, so we're also going to have a fair amount of time-wasters here, too.

Lastly, we're pretty new at the whole blogging thing, even though I myself practically live online.  Just bear with us for the next few weeks.  You can expect our site to go through some changes as we figure out what works and what doesn't work.

Troy's excited to be back!