Tuesday: The Cornucopia: Homemade Dog Biscuits

Yeah, last week I said that Tuesday’s entries would not be about recipes. Generally speaking at the Nest, they won't, but this week is an exception.

A few years ago, you’ll recall, it was discovered that certain pet food products (most from China) were tainted. Animals actually died, and at that point I decided to start baking my own dog biscuits. Heck, I thought, I bake our own human muffins, human crackers, and dog broth (to make their kibble taste better), why not the actual treats I give them (the dogs—not my human friends) between meals? I trolled the web for recipes and using them as a basis, developed my own. I can say with 100% certitude that my dogs LOVE these. (That cannot be said for many store-bought brands, or a few of the other "homemade" pricey ones. Have you ever had a dog spit out a two-dollar, farmers' market cookie? Humbling. I wanted to eat the cookie myself, given how much I’d paid for it.)

As it so happens, a few fellow cooks/dog owners (nationwide) have recently checked out my dog biscuit recipe on food.com and had positive comments. Knowing that we animal lovers tend to congregate with our own kind, I felt it might be helpful if I shared my chicken liver dog biscuit recipe with you.

A few notes. While I do own bone shaped biscuit cutters, I prefer this old cookie cutter (2") I have that's shaped like a parallelagram. Using this shape means no wasted space, and I can fit the entire batch of biscuits on one baking sheet. And my dogs scarf these things down so fast they wouldn't care what the shapes are.

BTW—Beef liver works equally well, but is stinky when you boil it, so I usually do that outside on the grill.

And you can substitute any pureed veggie for the meat in this recipe if you happen to own a dog who's a vegetarian. Pumpkin is great, or any jar of vegetable baby food that doesn't contain onion. (Who would feed a baby onions, anyway?) Add some extra garlic powder to boost the flavor if you decide to opt out on the meat.

Finally, I have begun throwing a few teaspoons of flax meal into the mix, for the health benefits. I like to think my dogs appreciate it.