We've seen you Slashfoodies pressing your noses up against the windows of new restaurants or talking for an unseemly amount of time about the pasta you made last night. And we love it, since that's what we go nuts for, too.
But we also know you have multiple obsessions, so if a meowing, drooling or swimming compadre is one of them, check out our brand-new sister site Paw Nation, featuring adorable photos, smart advice and even pet horoscopes!
For those canine-lovers devoted to both dogs and food, there's also a new book out there for ya: "One Nation Under Dog: Adventures in the New World of Prozac-Popping Puppies, Dog-Park Politics and Organic Pet Food." Say that six times fast. An exploration of America's puppy prediliction, the book features a whole chapter devoted to the grub we feed our four-legged friends. Journalist Michael Schaffer's tours Bogner Meats, where they manufacture human food and raw dog food alike. Though one manager declares his father would have "rolled over in his grave" at the notion of upscale dog food made from people food, Schaffer seems pretty taken with it, especially in the wake of the salmonella scandals.
But seriously, folks, Paw Nation? One Nation Under Dog? Who's in charge here, anyways??
I was in Napa a few weeks ago for the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers, and had the opportunity to visit Tres Sabores Winery on my way out of town. (I won a fellowship to the symposium, and Tres Sabores was the sponsor. One of the reasons the judges matched me with that particular winery is that I write a lot about green issues, and Tres Sabores is a sustainable winery.)
At the Tres Sabores ranch, I toured the property with owner Julie Johnson and one of her sweet dogs, who acted as if she owned the place. Turns out, she does. She and Julie's two other dogs have been featured in the U.S. Wine Dogs book, one in a series taken all over the world by Australian photojournalists Craig McGill and Sue Elliot.
To date, they've got two U.S. editions, Italy, New Zealand, Australia, and the Australian Deluxe edition. It seems they've tapped into something: wherever there's a winery, there's a dog (or two or three).
If you love dogs and wine, this book is a winning combination.
OK, I think I've now seen it all. What the heck is the world coming to? I was perusing the frozen organic food aisle at my new neighborhood supermarket, trying to memorize where everything is located. It's just a hair under ten miles to the nearest market and I want to make my trips there fast and easy. I don't like most prepared organic foods, I find them a bit to crunchy, dippy hippy, bland, and boring for me. After working for many years out in the wilderness for Outward Bound I ate a bit too much granola, and bland, easy to pack and carry but tasteless, organic and vegetarian schlock; called food by my partners. But I try to buy organic produce whenever possible and I love the thought of organic food. So I tend to try every new product that catches my eye. I was checking out all the faux "Ice Cream" when I saw it. Yöghund: Frozen yogurt for dogs- Banana and Peanut Butter flavor!
From their website, "Our Organic Banana & Peanut Butter recipe features potassium rich bananas, which are also a great source of the prebiotic inulin, along with peanuts for flavor and antioxidants. And of course, its primary ingredient is organic, low fat yogurt with live and active cultures, complete with all the benefits of probiotics."
Can you tell which one is made of butter and flour?
Pastry Chef Elisa Strauss of Confetti Cakes is the mastermind behind this and many other magnificent reproductions made of cake and fondant.
She put together a video of the construction of the dog cake, a four hour process sped-up to four minutes and set to hurried classical music that makes the whole process seem even more impressive. Watch as she whizzes through the crumb coating, tosses on layers of fondant and double-times the "fur" sculpting.
You should also check out a video montage of more of Strauss' cakes, from cheese steaks to hat boxes to Yankees caps. You'll walk away in awe, with a new appreciation for cake making and an unmistakable craving for sugar.
Today's featured cookbook isn't one that you would want to cook out of for yourself. However, I know that there are many of you out there who are interested in making sure that your pets have healthy meals and so I thought it might be fun to turn our attention to a book that can help you out with that goal. If you've been thinking about changing up the foods that you feed your pets, but are uncertain where to start, The Ultimate Pet Food Guideby Liz Palinka will be incredibly helpful in giving you a hand in determining how to best nourish your furry family members.
The book is filled with helpful information about what is good and bad to feed your pets, ways to supplement their diets so they get all the nutrition they need and more than 50 recipes for easy home-cooked food that your pets will love (I realize that cooking for dogs and cats isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I'm sure that there are some of you out there who share at least parts of your dinner with your pets many nights). The other useful thing in this book is that it will give you an insight into how food effects your pet's behavior. There is the possibility that if you have a misbehaving animal, their diet might have something to do with it.
For the folks at The Honest Kitchen, quality control means tasting your own product - even though it's marketed for the four-legged crowd.
The company's employees attend weekly meetings - often with their dogs poised by their sides - where both humans and animals carefully taste both individual dehydrated bits of the organic dog and cat food mixture, as well as the final product, to make sure the pets are getting nothing but the best.
The company got the OK from the FDA to use the term "Human grade pet food" on all of its labels. According to a rep from the company, the food is "probably a little bland by most human standards," but compared to what they imagine ordinary pet food to taste like, "really quite delicious!" (That answers the next obvious question: do the testers taste their competitors' food, too?)
Even the packaging is appealing and atypical for animal food - multicolored boxes with enticing names like "verve," "force," and "embark" that aren't a far reach from the packaged granola available for humans. They also make treats and supplements.
I'll admit, it sounds a bit odd at first, but after the recent horrific incidents of dogs becoming ill from tainted dog food, it's nice that a company takes this much care in producing a quality, safe product for their best buds.
With a face like that, could you really deprive your baby of the refreshment that comes from frozen yogurt?
Of course not.
Yoghund is a line of organic frozen yogurt for dogs, with no additives, chemicals, or fillers. I wasn't even aware that yogurt was good for dogs, but i suppose if people can benefit from live cultures, dog can too. The yogurts are made with organic bananas, organic peanuts, and pure spring water. It is not clear whether there are different "flavors," though it seems that it's only one. Whether you can share in this treat with your dog is up to you (I can't imagine that it would be bad for people to eat Yoghund.)
A pack of four cups is $5.99, available from the website.
I'm not quite sure what to make of Alice Wang's set of two wine glasses. In the box, they look a little strange because one of them looks like it was taken out of the fire a little too soon. It's tilted! But it's tilted for a reason - so Fido can sip his wine, too.
Granted, I am not sure it's actually safe for a dog to drink wine, but the idea of the Pet Plus Wine Glasses is cute for a pet-parent and his or her pup to share in a drink together, lounging out on the veranda. Just pour yourself the Pinot, and fill his glass with water.
Kool Dog Kafe, which specializes in gourmet dog treats, has an incredible selection of canine-friendly cookies to get your pet for the holidays. And if you're an animal lover, you know that you like to give your favorite pet a little something special when everyone else in the family is getting their own gifts. From Hanukkah puppies (wearing little blue yarmulkes) and blue and white dreidels, to personalized red, green and white Christmas stockings, there are a lot of options to choose from. There is a complete holiday dinner, which includes 2 drumsticks, 1 baked potato, 2 crescent rolls, 2 doggie bones, 1 veggie leaf, and 3 cranberry churro bite cookies, if you want something more substantial, and even a set of snowflakes, for nondenominational dogs. The healthy cookies taste as good as they look and have a shelf life of 6-8 weeks. Dogs probably don't get the concept of these gift giving holidays, but they're going to be grateful to receive these cookies all the same.
I'm sure you've heard that chocolate is bad for dogs, but did you know that macadamia nuts are poisonous to dogs? Now that the holidays are starting we tend to have more nuts around to nibble on. If you have dogs in your house you may want to make sure that they don't help themselves to your prized macadamias. When dogs eat them they can get a toxic reaction called macadamia nut toxicosis. Within twelve hours of eating the nuts they start to develop symptoms such as an inability to stand, ataxia (walking wobbly), depression, vomiting, muscle tremors, hyperthermia (elevated body temperature), weakness, and an elevated heart rate.
Usually the symptoms go away within 48 hours but the weakness, vomiting, and fear can lead to dangerous, and sometimes deadly, shock. These symptoms can be even worse if your dog also eats some chocolate with the nuts. Then the effect of both combined is much worse and kidney failure can set in. So enjoy your nuts, but make sure that Lady and the Tramp get their doggy treats instead. Or a nice big bowl of spaghetti to share.
It's a common scene in the movies. The family leaves the kitchen or dining room unguarded, distracted by some meaningful event, such as a proposal, death, natural disaster or mental breakdown - whatever constitutes "meaningful" in the movies these days - and returns to find most of dinner missing and Fido licking his chops on the floor.
Unless you have a big dog with quick reflexes, it's more likely that your pup or your cat will snag a bite or two of food than a whole meal. And just about everyone who has owned an animal has caught them red-pawed at one time or another. Now, that's not my kitten in the picture and I probably would have shooed him away before thinking to snap a photo, but that is an extremely cute shot that brings up the question of what "people foods" do your pets tend to go for when they have the chance?
Personally, I've had a cat that would go for macaroni and cheese if I wasn't looking and neighbor whose dog would watch for unguarded egg dishes (making brunch a tricky meal to enjoy).
I'll be keeping a closer eye out the next time I make waffles, just in case.
It's common knowledge that dogs will, er, dog just about anything. I've never had a dog and I am by no means a "dog person," but I hear that they're known to feast indiscriminately upon table scraps.
In my limited exposure to dogs, I've known canines with particular affections for people food. I once lived with a woman whose boxer had such an appetite for bread from Italian restaurants that we would always save her a doggie bag from the bread basket. I liked to refer to her as "pure-bread."
And I've had the pleasure of meeting Jeffrey Steingarten's golden retriever, Sky King, who is reported to have a discriminating palate when it comes to all things barbecue.
But I've never even conceived of canines craving vegetables until a friend sent me this snap of a dog chowing down on cukes at his master's farm in Japan. In case you're wondering, it's not a case of the dog chasing after green bones, he really does enjoy cucumbers. Does anyone else know of dogs that dig farm-fresh produce?
I know this isn't a landscaping blog, but chocolate is chocolate, and according to the ASPCA, mulch made from cocoa bean shells is both tempting and dangerous for dogs. Like chocolate, hulls used for the mulch contain theobromine which has all sorts of nasty effects-vomiting, elevated heart rate and death-on dogs. What's more, the stuff apparently smells good, which is why landscapers, gardeners and some dogs like it. Cocoa mulch, which sounds more apt for the breakfast table, is actually one most concentrated forms of theobromine available to consumers, according to recent Kansas City Star article. I'm not sure how this news will be taken by gardeners looking to keep their neighbors' dogs out of their rose gardens.
Perhaps with an eye towards ballpark munchies and the upcoming grilling season, someone asked Yahoo! how hot dogs got their name. They directed the questioner over to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council which has come up with a (semi) definitive answer, since no one really seems to know the exact origin. One thing is clear: it's an American name, even if the sausages themselves were German.
Apparently, the name originated in the 1800s, when a large number of German immigrants began to move to the US. With them, they brought lots of sausages, but they also brought long, thin, dachshund dogs. The similarity in shape between the two is what probably prompted someone to dub the sausages "hot dogs" and the name stuck. No one person can be attributed to this, but the name was so popular that for many years, when someone said they wanted a "dog," they were inevitably referring to the frankfurter and not to a puppy.
Summer is for grilling: 
I'm sure you've heard that 
It's a common scene in the movies. The family leaves the kitchen or dining room unguarded, distracted by some meaningful event, such as a proposal, death, natural disaster or mental breakdown - whatever constitutes "meaningful" in the movies these days - and returns to find most of dinner missing and Fido licking his chops on the floor. 
It's common knowledge that dogs will, er, dog just about anything. I've never had a dog and I am by no means a "dog person," but I hear that they're known to feast indiscriminately upon table scraps.
I know this isn't a landscaping blog, but chocolate is chocolate, and according to the 
Perhaps with an eye towards ballpark munchies and the upcoming grilling season, someone 
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