Monday, April 23, 2007

Baked Lamb


I though I will share a few recipes that my 2 girls love. I made this for their birthday last year because I do not have time to bake them their birthday cake.

Ingredients
- Lamb steak 400gm. Cut into bite size cubes
- 1.5 tablespoon Honey (raw, organic or manuka honey)*
- 1 teaspoon of crushed rosemary (u can buy this from the herbs section at supermarket)
- 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
- 2 cloves of garlic chopped finely
- 40 pcs Farfalle pasta (look and are commonly referred to as bowties)
- 1 teaspoon olive olive oil

Preparations
Season lamb steak with honey, rosemary and chopped garlic. Cover it and leave it in the fridge for 1 hour.
Cook the pasta, drain and mix in the olive oil. Set aside for later.
Line the baking tray with aluminium foil and grease it with butter.
Place the lamb on the foil and cover with another sheet of foil over the baking tray.
Bake at 160 deg C for 1 hour.

When lamb is ready, serve it with 10 pcs of pasta per portion.

This recipe make about 4 portions for a maltese. 2 portion for medium size dog and 1 portion for a large dog. You can adjust the amount accordingly.

I wish I had taken picture for this but didnt have the opportunity. Perhaps I will if I bake this the next time.



*Honey are not suitable for puppies.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

HCF Beef Rice

Today mummy begin cooking for us and this is what she prepared for us.

Beef Rice
1 cup rice
250gms minced beef
1 medium size carrot
1 clove garlic(finely chopped or grated)

Cooked rice in rice cooker.
Add beef and rest of the ingredient when it boils.
Stir lightly.

It is just so quick and easy to prepare. This amount is 2 days worth of food for 2 malteses like us.

Pet Food Recall scare

I first heard of the petfood re-call was from aunty K in Canada. She wrote to mummy and tld her out many poor lil pups & cats had died from melamine poisoning. The affected food was not sold here and that is a relief. Just when we thought it doesn't affect us, the premium brand food we used to eat is also doing a voluntary re-call. Mummy was relief that we had aleady switched to another premium brand 2 weeks ago.

Then we heard bad news in USA and South Africa that they are recalling this brand too. Mummy got worried and had to put us on home cooked food until she is very sure that the food are safe for us.

The link to check the list from FDA
http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html#recall

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Upset Stomach

Porsche wasn’t quite herself and not wanting to sleep. She kept licking the bedsheets, blanket on my bed and constantly licking her own nose. It is getting late and she wouldn’t sleep. I reprimanded her but she didn’t stop. I got worried and got up to check her muzzle, gums, teeth to see if any foreign object is stuck there that cause this licking spree. I check her breathing by closing her mouth and listen to the air that flow from her nose. It sounded constant and normal.

 

I heard a slight rumbling in her stomach and I got my stethoscope to listen to the sound closely. Her breathing sound alright but her stomach sounded very “happening”. I decided to give her a dose of Mylanta to see if there calms her.  I rub some peppermint oil on her troubled tummy too.  The medicine began to work and she begin to calm down and not licking her own nose that frantically.

 

It took me an hour to pat her to sleep and I am already exhausted. I decide to read up and find out why the licking.  It turn out that it is behaviour in dogs that is under stressed. Stressed can be cause by pain from her troubled stomach.  She didn’t whine so it is not so alarming. But sometimes we do not know why they do something odd and it can be very worrying.

 

I hope to share my little experience here so if anyone come across similar situation, I hope you wouldn’t be as lost as me. What I learn through out the years is, once your dog behave apart from the norm and does something weird, it is always good to check on them.  Though it may not be life threatening situation but at least you can reduce the pain they have to go through before you realized what is going on.

 

Saturday, April 07, 2007