Weekend Picnic!

Oops! I'm behind again in visiting my bloggie friends...>.<" Really sorry about that! Will come around to visit you all after this...I hope I didn't miss out on some important events!


I hope everyone's weekend was a great one! *grins* Gramma wanted to do a little picnic at the park on Sunday, so we packed some light food & drinks, treats, leashes and we're off!

Right in the beginning of the walk to find a nice place to sit, Kenji managed to get loose from the leash that Rachel was holding and almost ran away! o.O" Sneaky little Kenji! Mom decided to hold on to both our leashes, but that turned out to be a bad idea too...LOL! Our leashes got tangled within 5 seconds! *wink*

Cheeky Kenji with his tongue long and wide...haha! We found a nice place to sit here, so Grampa put out a nice piece of plastic sheet for everybody to sit down *grins*

Ooh...what's this that I spy?

There are more doggies playing around in the park! Cool!

I wanted to join along too, but Mom made me wait...*pouts* After that, we met up with this cute Shih Tzu doggie! I didn't really like him that much at first (I growled at him), but after a while we sniffed and got over our differences by giving each other a big hug! *grins*

We became such good friends too after that...heh! That's me putting my hand over his shoulder...*wink* His name is Cash...and I think his smile is SOOO cute!

I met quite a few other doggies too...here I am telling a joke to this Shih Tzu dude who felt it was SOOO hilarious, I can't see his eyes when he laughed. *grins*


I met up with this cute Golden Retriever puppy too! Her name is Chloe (no relation to Amber Mae's gorgeous sistah! *wink*)

Meanwhile, Kenji got to playing with a nice Boston Terrier named Bruce! See Bruce's googly eyes? Hahahaha! Birds of a feather (or in this case, dogs of a pair of googly eyes? *wink*) flock together! heh!

This is another pup that I met...she's so cute! it's the first time that I met up close with a West Highland White Terrier...Mom loves her adorable face. *wink*

Mom snapped a photo of this cool American Cocker Spaniel too...she's SOO good at posing! When she saw Mom holding the camera up, she would just start posing by sitting quietly for a while, then on to lying down primly like a girl should! *grins*

Oh, and that's me...haha! Mom did some heelwork exercises with me that day, just to refresh my memory. This was me doing the Stand Stay exercise. heh! *grins*

That's all for now...*wink* Aunty Vivian has come back from Japan yesterday! It was so nice to see her again! Stay tuned to see what she got us from Japan...*wink*


xoxo,
Scottie

Behind-The-Scenes: The Making Of 'The Meat Cake'

First of all, I would like to thank everybody for the wonderful birthday wishes! You all are too kind! *grins* I think it was the best birthday for me so far! heh!

Okay, as promised, here is how Mom came about with my birthday Meat Cake! *grins* It ALL started with Mom looking for some recipes for doggie birthday cakes...she came upon loads of great recipes, but somehow she feels that there is too much flour used and she wanted something that (somewhat) resembles our raw diet...meat! *wink* And then she came upon the Meat Cake Recipe...so,she went through the recipe and the gallery of other versions of the Meat Cake, and got 'inspired', especially by this version! LOL!

Anyways, she got to it and started looking up the ingredients for the cake...in the process, also modifying the recipe to make a mini version of it, coz let's face it...3 lbs of meat to make a cake? o.O" I think it could last me a month just eating it. LOL! So, let's move to THE DAY of preparation...heh!

The ingredients for the cake layers! From left: about 500g of minced beef, a teaspoon of basil, a teaspoon of minced garlic, an egg, and a cup of bread crumbs.

Us as the 'official taste testers' waiting to do the job..hehehe!

Mix all the ingredients above thoroughly...Mom thought it was too dry, so she added another egg. Apparently, the eggs she got were small sized ones, so if you have bigger sized eggs, one large egg would do. *grins*

It got all nice and smelly after mixing...I think it was the basil and the garlic. Made me drool a lot...*grins*

And so, Mom gave us a teensy bit to taste...me first, of course! I'm the birthday boy! *wink*

And then it was Kenji's turn!

Divide the meat evenly into two small pans and bake them for about 35 minutes at 200 degrees C (or 400 degrees F)...Mom used the disposable aluminum pans because she's lazy like that. LOL!

Voila! The freshly baked cake layers! Mom did not expect them to shrink and shrivel like that though (Just goes to show how much she knows about cooking...*rolls eyes*). No biggie! She let it cool off on the rack and patted off the excess oil with kitchen paper...

While waiting for it to cool, we got ANOTHER taste test...hehe! My tongue just can't get enough of the yummy beef! Sad that I had to wait a bit longer...

Kenji got a little googly-eyed as usual when presented with yummy food...haha!

Back to the prep of the cake! For the 'icing', Mom used instant mashed potatoes! It sure is hard to find plain old instant mashed potatoes here...Mom said she went to a few supermarkets before finding this one! >.<" Most of the others that she found had other flavors put in which she didn't want....

It's so funny to hear her exclaiming when she followed the instructions on the box: 'OMG, it REALLY is instant! Just add in water and milk, and it's done!' Well, hate to say the obvious, but DUH MOM!

For the 'chocolate flakes', they were actually BACON BITS! *drools* Gramma said to get those thinly sliced bacon if we want to get crispy bits, so here they are...heh!

Into the frying pan they go, then drain off excess oil, chop them into teensy weensy bits...

...and TADA!! Bacon bits...yummy! Mom stole a few of them as she chopped, but didn't offer any to us...no fair! *pouts*

After all that was done, it was cake frosting time! LOLLLL! This was Mom's lame attempt at frosting the cake...hahahaha! She didn't know how to do it like in the original recipe, where you actually had to lob off the tops and sides or something to make it level and easy to frost...go figure! No matter, she says...we're going to cover it with bacon bits anyways. Now we're talking, Mom!

Sprinkle the bacon bits on the top and sides, and we have our finished meat cake! YAYYY!

Mom is feeling a bit smug now...*sigh* Give her something easy that she can relatively pull off, and she thinks she can cook. Oh dear...

Me with the finished cake! This was before the candles were put in...Mom was so nervous when I started sniffing near the cake! She thought I would ruin it...*rolls eyes* It's meant to be eaten, no?

What the inside of the cake looked like...LOL! DEFINITELY nowhere near the pretty layers of the original recipe, but still edible nonetheless! haha! I forgot to mention that there's also a layer of mashed potato between the two cake layers...don't think it's visible in the photos here, but there was one. *grins*

Well, that's about it for our Behind-the-Scenes post! Maybe you could persuade your Moms to make you a meat cake too for your birthday! I'm sure your Moms will do better, especially the ones who are great cooks...*wink* After this successful recipe, Mom says she wants to try out more recipes for dog treats...as long as it's for me Mom, I ain't complaining! *wink*

xoxo,

Scottie

Turning Two The Nottie Scottie Way...*wink*

Hi everyone!

So sorry that I didn't go visiting your blogs this week...Mom has been bustling about a lot the past week! And all because...

It's my birthday today!! I am officially two years old now...yayy! I feel so grown up...*puffs chest* Because my birthday's on a Monday, Mom threw me a little 'paw-tea' yesterday (hence the running about to get stuff), and I enjoyed it LOADS! Here's how it all went down:

The yummy spread of food that Gramma and Mom prepared (and bought as well! heh!)

But the centerpiece of it all is MY BIRTHDAY CAKE! It's a meat cake! *grins* Mom made it herself, and she's feeling rather proud of herself coz it was her first time making a cake! I heart the 'Happy Birthday' candles...even though I think it's a bit too many candles to celebrate a 2-year-old birthday! *grins* We'll post up the recipe and how she came about with this cake in the next post...*wink*

Peanut butter cookies and tartlets for us as well! Those were not made though...LOLL! Mom bought them from a pet bakery blog. Yummy!

Me enjoying the 'sea' of food...heh!

And then it was time to light the candles! *grins*

Kenji joined in the festivities as well...*grins*

I got a little birthday song from Mom...albeit it being a bit out of tune, but hey it's the thought that counts right? LOL! We then blew out the candles (well, Mom did it!) and it was CAKE TIME! Yummy!

But first, we had to pose for photos...*sigh* I thought it's MY DAY, Mom!

After that, it was (FINALLY!) feasting time! Me getting a big bite of the meaty goodness...yumm!

Kenji licked off all the 'chocolate flakes' and the 'frosting' first before delving in...haha!

I finished mine in no time flat...and licked my bowl clean!

And then, I spied Kenji's bowl...OMG,he still has some there!

But I didn't eat his portion...I'm a good brother. *wink* Ooh...I forgot to mention, we got some raw turkey wings for dinner as well! I've not had turkey before, so it was a real treat! So yummy! And after that, Mom gave us some tartlets for dessert! But I have to do my silly trick again...


Lady got her share of the cake, tartlets and cookies too! But she was too quick for Mom's camera, so Mom had to do this to get her to stay still. But she's still so fast! LOL!

Finally, she got her wish and enjoyed her piece of cake too...heh!

After ALL that feasting (or should I say GORGING! LOL!) on the yummy food, it was present time! YAYY! Mom got us to pose next to each other, but it seems that Kenji wasn't a bit too happy. Wonder why...

Ripping off the wrapping paper...

...to reveal new toys! YAYY! I got a new tug rope, a bottle of 'dog beer' (that squeaks! haha!) and a slipper-lookalike toy!

Mom got Kenji a new tug too! She said he should have one his own size...heh!

Kenji trying out his new tug...it's called a 'Flavor Rope'. Apparently, as we bite or chew on it, the rope releases some flavor. Kenji's was 'chocolate'..

...and mine was mint! *grins*

It was quite an eventful, tiring, but AWESOME day for me! Thanks Mom and Gramma for doing all this for me! I feel so blessed...*grins*

xoxo,
Scottie