Tag Archives: somerville

Let’s Celebrate! | Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dog Treats

22 Sep

Every family has their own little traditions or occasions to celebrate, ours included. 🙂 This post is a celebration of Ollie. We found him on Petfinder and knew that we had to give this little brown Boston Terrier, a puppy mill survivor, a proper home. A home where he always has a toy to comfort him, a brother to play with, homemade treats to snack on, and someone to cuddle.
ImageMy favorite memory from the first week Ollie lived with us, happened at my parents’ house, my childhood home, in Dracut, MA. It was my Aunt’s 60th birthday and the family had decided to go out to lunch and then have cake and ice cream back at my parents’ house. After lunch, Kate and I made sure we were the first to arrive back at the house. Then Auntie came in and called out for Stevie “Where’s my Stevie?” “Come and see your Auntie!” All of a sudden, to her surprise, this tiny little white flash came running down the hallway! She had the biggest smile and greatest birthday surprise — puppy love from the newest member of our family!
In honor of Ollie’s adoption anniversary we took him to the Somerville Dog Festival in our neighborhood on a recent Sunday afternoon. A field full of games to play, prizes to win and free treats to sample… any dog’s dream. Followed up by some homemade dog treats for the boys to enjoy. Yay!

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Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dog Treats
Recipe credit: Adapted from an original recipe by Courtney Danyelle Georg (instagram handle: triceracourt) 

Makes 40 – 60 treats (depending on the size & shape you choose)

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
2 eggs
1 cup 100% pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 TBS natural peanut butter
1 TBS ground flax
1 TBS honey
3/4 tsp cinnamon

1) Preheat the oven 350 degrees

2) Line two baking sheets with parchment

3) In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment combine all the ingredients

4) The dough should be dry and come together in a ball when mixed

5) Add a few drops of water if the dough does not form a ball while mixing

6) Remove dough from bowl and place on a floured work surface

7) Using a rolling pin roll dough out to 1/2″ thickness, cut out shapes using a cookie cutter shape of your choice

8) Bake for 20 minutes, then take the baking sheets out, flip over each treat, and then rotate trays before returning to oven

9) Total bake time: 40 mins

10) Turn oven off after 40 mins and let cool in oven on the baking sheets

Stevie and Ollie loved them — they couldn’t get enough! Also, we made a little package for our dog walker to share them with her pack 🙂

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Happy baking! Enjoy the recipe — I’m sure your pups will! Below is a photo of Ollie with the prize he won at the Somerville Dog Festival. He carried all around the festival and all the way home on our walk. What a character!

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Simple Side Dish | Roasted Sriracha Brussels Sprouts

6 May

One of my favorite places to eat locally is Highland Kitchen. Highland Kitchen is a family owned neighborhood restaurant and bar located in the heart of Somerville. They serve American comfort food, local craft beer, creative cocktails and great service. Recently Kate and I had an impromptu date night there, and this is when I remembered one of their famous side dishes, buffalo brussels sprouts. As we walked out, I brainstormed with Kate about making a riff on that buffalo brussels sprouts recipe at home for us one night the following week. Kate in all of her genius, then exclaimed… it would be tasty if you used Sriracha instead of Franks Red Hot Sauce. Done and done.

sriracha brussels

Sriracha Brussels Sprouts
serves 2

Ingredients

 1 lb brussels sprouts (cleaned and cut in halves)

3 TBS melted butter

1 tsp – 1 TBS Sriracha (hot chili garlic sauce) 

salt and pepper to taste

cut brussels

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Lightly coat a baking sheet with nonstick spray or olive oil
3. Place the cleaned and halved brussels sprouts in a medium bowl
4. Combine melted butter and Sriracha, pour over brussels sprouts, stir to combine, make sure they are coated evenly.
5. Place coated brussels sprouts on to the prepared baking sheet in a single layer.
6. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
7. Bake 20 – 30 minutes depending on the roast level you desire. Stir brussels half way through to ensure even browning.
8. Remove from oven, season before serving with salt.

Notes
1. Sriracha is a sweet hot chili garlic sauce, 1 tsp will give you a slight heat factor, feel free to increase the Sriracha in this recipe to increase the heat!
2. This recipe could be used with roasted cauliflower too. Y-U-M!
3. If the brussels sprouts are particularly large, cut them into quarters.

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