Dog Food

Some time ago I purchased a book on how to make food for my dog.  I thought it might be helpful in that if I made the food, I'd know exactly what was in it.

The problem was that most of the recipes call for animal meats . . . lamb, salmon, etc.  As a vegan myself, I don't currently purchase those things for myself.  Heck, when I did eat meat those weren't things on my diet!

Anyway, there was a recipe for blueberry pancakes.  It said their dogs loved this recipe and was something they were fed weekly (on Sundays).  Since I had never fed Harley, my dog, this, I wanted the first time I tried it to be a weekday so I could take him to the vet, if necessary, if he got sick from them.

Today was the day.  The recipe called for 2 large eggs.  Since this is an animal product, I don't eat or keep them in my house.  I substituted a half a banana (after making sure bananas were dog friendly) for the eggs and vegan yogurt for the greek yogurt.

The consistency seemed off so I added water (and more and more water!) to the batter.  And then I started cooking them.  After one of them had cooled enough, I put one in Harley's food bowl.

He sniffed it and then did a taste of it without actually eating it.  He proceeded to eat around it until his food bowl was empty except for this pancake (some of his breakfast was still in the bowl).

Because all the ingredients are people friendly and because the book said this was a recipe the whole family ate from, I tasted another of the pancakes.

The taste reminded me of those sour ball candies you can get.  It wasn't a pleasant taste and I'm not sure what brought that taste in . . . I don't remember buying sour ball candies and / or putting them into the batter.  But that's definitely what they tasted like.  So I completely understand Harley not caring for them.

Oh well, at least I made something from the book.  :)

June Book Review

Click icon for more
book review blogs
@Barrie Summy

 

 

 

The book I will be reviewing this month is New York Dead by Stuart Woods.  Many years ago I worked with a man who, when he "introduced" himself to the group, told us about his love for books.  The first box he unpacked in his office was a box of books . . . the only one he had labeled because "it was the most important box".  We found that, aside from romance novels - which he did not care for - we shared the same tastes in books we liked to read.  So, when he auctioned off several books by Stuart Woods, I snatched them up.  I had never heard of Stuart Woods so was unfamiliar with what he wrote.  

I brought the books home and they've been sitting on a shelf in my office for all these years.  Then, a couple of months ago I shipped some of the books off to my step-father, explaining that I hadn't read them so couldn't officially endorse them but asked him to let me know what he thought.  I haven't heard if he's read them or liked them but in the meantime, I decided I wanted to read one and borrowed an eBook copy of New York Dead - the first in the Stone Barrington series from my library.

Stone Barrington is a police detective in the 19th Precinct in Manhattan.  He had gone to law school but when they visited the police station during his criminal law class, he decided his calling in life wasn't as a lawyer but rather as a police man.  He finished his law degree but didn't take the bar exam.  Instead he joined the police academy.  He's a well-respected police officer and is good at what he does.

In the line of duty, he was shot in the knee and is recuperating when he decides to walk home from dinner one night, to exercise his knee.  During this walk he comes upon a woman falling from a 12th floor balcony.  Not only is he not on duty, he's technically on medical leave while his knee heals but that doesn't stop him from springing into action at the scene.

Surprisingly the victim survived the fall but promptly goes missing.  Sasha - the victim / missing person - is a high profile news person in Manhattan so this is a big news story and the police force is under the gun to make an arrest, even if it's not the right person.

I'm not a big eBook person (I prefer a real book!), not to mention reading for me recently has been a struggle.  Despite that, I read this book in one day.  It was very engaging and I didn't want to put it down.  I really liked this book a lot.

Having said that, there were a couple of threads that weren't neatly tied up at the end of the book.  I believe these to be editing oversights that didn't affect my enjoyment of the book but I do like a book that ties up all the loose ends before the ending.  :) 

I've read other reviews of this book and apparently this was the "worst" of Woods' Stone Barrington books so I'm looking forward to reading more of his work.  :)

For more book reviews go to barriesummy.blogspot.com or click on the icon at the top of this post.