So its another wild & crazy Friday night here in the house of Orn.

Saffers & I are taking a training class from Surf City Dog Training trainer Dina Pavlis on Monday nights.  And in order to not blow my budget this month on healthy training bites I have decided to bake my own.

So in the oven right now is a big pile of beef liver and I certainly hope it is dehydrating… because at the moment its just this giant brown pile of viscous organ meat.  Also drying out in the oven are the actual dog treats that I made too.  The dehydrating liver is more of a “well what should we do with the leftover pile of beef liver” sort of experiment.   For way more dog treat recipe’s and ideas check out The Dog Treat Kitchen, it is where I got the idea for Saffy’s Liver Bites to start with.

Here is the recipe I modified a bit for a more Saffy Friendly Dog treat.

Saffy’s Liver Bites
1 Lb Beef or Chicken Livers
1 cup Oatmeal
1 cup Rice Flour
2/3 cup Oat Flour
2/3 cup Quinoa Flour
3 Tbsp Milk
2 Eggs
2 Tbsp Fresh Parsley
2 Tbsp Dog Pawr Joint & Hip Complex Powder (I have a jar of this in the fridge because Saff wont eat it on her kibble, so this seemed like a good way to use it up and add in some healthy extras to the treats)

In the food processor blend the 1 cup of Oatmeal till finely chopped, then add in all the dry ingredients (flours & Dog Pawr) and then transfer to a separate bowl.

Next in the food processor blend the fresh parsley, eggs & milk.  Add to the dry ingredients.

And now the grossest bit… in the food processor liquify the pound of liver till very very smooth.

Add the liver to the other ingredients & blend thoroughly.  The first time I made these treats I used a large frosting bag (which will never ever again hold frosting in it) to pipe out stars on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  This was really cute, but time consuming.  And although I liked how they looked, Saff did not seem to appreciate all the work that went into it.  So this time I decided to go all biscotti-style for the treats and piped long thick lines of the batter onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, and baked them for 20 minutes at 350 degrees till they were set.  Once the strips were baked soft cookie set I took them out of the oven & let them cool down till I could handle them.  Then I used my super sharp knife to cut the strips into bit sized pieces and then put them back into the oven for an additional 20 minutes at 200 degrees to finish drying out.  If you want to get the pieces super dried out & crunchy you can leave them in your oven overnight after you turn it off to completely dry them out.

So far Saffers seems to love them, and chooses them over her other favorite treats.  Its gross, and the smell is less than delicious, but they are healthy, wheat free, and all I had to go buy was the beef liver, which cost me about $2.

And as we all know, making your dog happy is the best way you can spend a Friday night…

even if your house smells like dried out liver for the next week. 

Like Vanilla.  Specifically; home made vanilla extract.  I’m sitting here looking at a bottle of clear rum that has about 7 vanilla beans in it.  It also features a label out of masking tape that reads “Use March 2012”.

That is how simple making your own vanilla extract is.  A bottle of booze, vanilla beans, and time.

Granted, not everything can be that simple.  But its amazing how much less complicated things CAN be, especially when you let them.

That is all!