"cat food" news and stories

Gazpacho. Photo: Emily Farris, Fifty Bucks a Week.

Each week, we round up the top food articles we've spied Web-wide. This week, a special edition of our own bloggers' primo pieces from elsewhere on the Web.

Pervaiz Shallwani boards a bus with a stripper pole alongside a bunch of bartenders to harvest rye in upstate New York ... for Gourmet ... really.

"Mad Men" fiend Eric Diesel reveals his recipe for perfectly "clean" martinis -- a 2-to-1 gin-to-vermouth concoction at his Urban Home blog.

Mike Pomranz on the phenomenon of a cat opening a jar of food at Comedy Central.

Bruce Watson reports at sister site DailyFinance that the United States may "run out of sugar" in the next year!

Cook and film buff Monika Bartyzel notes that Michael Moore might be done with the documentary style that made him famous, for Cinematical.

Gretchen Roberts, our savvy sommelier-in-training, offers freebie gourmet treats at her wine blog Vinobite.

CoffeeMeister Erin Meister makes peace with the five-second-rule over at her culinary blog, the Nervous Cook.

Joshua M. Bernstein visits Scores, a Manhattan strip club, to eat steak (again, really!) for the New York Press.

Emily Farris tries to toe the budget line with a basic, beautiful gazpacho at Fifty Bucks a Week.

As part of a project about cats, a teacher in Alingsås, Sweden gave her students cat food to try. According a Swedish new site (in English), this was not the first time this teacher had fed cat food to her charges. This time, though, one of the parents complained and the teacher was reprimanded.

I absolutely cannot imagine this happening in the U.S. Of course, I can't really imagine it in Sweden either. I personally don't think it's wrong to try pet food (as long as it wasn't made in China). I can see, though, where other people might.

I wonder what other experiments this teacher has tried out on the kids?

With all of the recent pet food scares, a lot of dog and cat owners have been gun shy about going back to their favorite (or, should I say, their pet's favorite!) brand. But have you ever thought about actually cooking for your dog?

By sheer coincidence, I was watching a Will & Grace episode last night where they got a dog and Will was actually cooking fancy dog food for the puppy. But a lot of people do it in the real world too, because pets are like a member of the family. There's even a beer for dogs!

You have to make sure you're using ingredients that are safe for dogs and that it actually fits into their diet. Here's a link to several recipes, including one for the Rrrruvery Rrrrisotto recipe mentioned in the article. It's probably good to check with your vet too.

Since we saw a cookbook that specialized in doggie treats yesterday, it seems only fair that we look at one for cats today. Real Food for Cats is a book with 50 (vet-approved) recipes for cat food and treats. The recipes are pretty straightforward and use ingredients that are available at the grocery store. There are Kitty Tacos, Shish Kebabs and Salmon Popsicles, as well as recipes for cats with special dietary needs.

I will admit, however, that I do not like the idea of the "tandem" recipes, which (with only a very few modifications) are dishes that can essentially be served both to pets and people. I don't care what it is, but if I made it for a cat, it is cat food and I'm not eating it. I feel the same way about preparing a meal to share with your dog, which is a feature in the version of this book for dog owners.

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