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Cheesy Cat Treats
April 4, 2012 | 
Author I have returned! The past couple days were deceptive as I was still in San Francisco and scheduled them before I left. But I am back for real this time, much to my cat’s delight as he is glued to me at this very moment. In honor of him I have a non-human treat to share today! Weird thing is I was a little sad knowing these treats weren’t for me while smelling them bake in the oven. Mmmm cheese. I guess technically I could have hoarded them to myself, but that just wouldn’t be very nice now would it? Especially after my cat meowed at me the entire time they were baking.
But true to form, all his meowing was for nothing. He merely sniffed these and then looked at me confused. That’s what I get for trying to feed a cheese treat to a cat that rarely eats cheese in any form. Lunch meat is about the only human-food he truly loses his marbles over. Any other thing that he meows at me for, he will sniff and then look at me as if that’s all I’ve got. Good thing I know other cats that would love to have these! Silly Brady-cat.
Looking for other pet-friendly treats? Check out Kitchen Confidante’s dog biscuits, Peabody’s peanut butter and oatmeal dog treats, Doggy Desserts Chef’s tuna crunchers kitty treats, My Cat Site’s cat treats, and even Peabody’s bunny treats.
Speaking of pets and treats, I am calling out to all of my fellow food bloggers to assist me in putting together a bake sale to benefit the House of Mews 2012 annual food drive. Just $20 buys a month of lunches for four homeless kitties in their sanctuary – that’s 120 lunches! The House of Mews is a non-profit, volunteer run, feline rescue organization located in Memphis, TN. I am asking for virtual treat donations to be bid upon in a bake sale starting Wednesday, April 11th with all proceeds will going towards the food drive. And in the spirit of the cause they can be human or pet-friendly treats! Please contact me if you are interested in contributing (spiffycookie@gmail.com).
One year ago: Funfetti Cake Batter Smoothie
CHEESY CAT TREATS
Makes about 10 dozen
Ingredients:
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt (I used Chobani 0% fat Greek yogurt)
1/4 cup cornmeal
5 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
A few Tbsp water
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
- While your oven is preheating, combine all the ingredients into dough. Add water by one tablespoon at a time until the dough sticks together.
- Knead the dough into a ball and then roll it out to 1/4-inch. Cut into 1/2-inch pieces and bake for 25 minutes on prepared cookie sheet.
Source: Adapted slightly from Natural Pet Essentials.
March Foodie Pen Pals
Foodie Pen Pals. Sounds like something cool right? That’s what I thought when I saw posts floating around last month, so I signed up! On the 5th of March I was given my match (who I would be sending goodies to by the 15th) and it was my duty to find out things about my foodie pen pal in order to better gather fun things for him/her, with a spending limit of $15.
At the same time, Nicole from Becoming a Mother Runner contacted me to find out what I like, dislike, allergies, etc. And she did a fabulous job putting together my first ever foodie pen pal care package! She sent me two of her favorite peanut butters, two bottles of fruit seasoning, some blue raspberry sours, and all kinds of Easter goodies!
The jars of peanut butter were obviously instant winners. I mean, hello, have we met? And mixing peanut butter with white chocolate is even better (in my opinion) than with any other chocolate out there.
But the fruit seasoning I had never heard of before. I tried it on a few pieces of melon and pineapple per Nicole’s suggestion and loved it so much went back for more! What a fun new experience. I hope I can find more when it runs out.
And do I really even need to get in to whether I enjoyed the Easter candy or not? Reese’s and marshmallow treats? Done deal.
Thank you thank you Nicole so much for your wonderful goodies! I only hope that my foodie pen pal enjoyed her package as much as I enjoyed mine!
One year ago: Strawberry Nutella Bread Pudding
Falafel Pizza
Even though this pizza isn’t much different than wrapping some falafels up in a pita and topping it with the usual suspects, I thought it was still worth sharing. Originally I was going to attempt making a giant pita for the crust, but decided to go with a thinner sourdough crust by dividing my sourdough pizza crust recipe in half. Mixes things up a little! And you have to admit, an entree option turned into pizza is always a winner.
FALAFEL PIZZA
Makes one pizza
Ingredients:
1/2 recipe sourdough pizza crust (I froze the other half for later)
1/3 cup tahini paste
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
2 Tbsp water
Juice and zest from half a lemon
1/4 cup red onion, sliced
1 small tomato, diced
1/2 cup lettuce
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees, with pizza stone on middle rack.
- Shape the dough into a flattened disk. On a well floured surface, roll out until it reaches the size of your pizza stone (or pan). Place it on a cornmeal-dusted pizza peel*, cover it, and let it rest for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the tahini paste, garlic, parsley, water and lemon juice and zest until well combined. Set aside.
- After dough has risen slightly, poke the dough with a fork several times, then shimmy onto the preheated pizza stone and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until lightly golden.
- Allow crust to cool for 5 minutes before spreading the tahini sauce over it, followed by the red onion, tomato, lettuce, feta, and falafels. Slice and enjoy!
*If you do not have a pizza peel and/or stone, do these steps on the pizza pan or baking sheet you will be cooking the pizza on.
Source: The Spiffy Cookie original
Posted in Entree, Pizza, Uncategorized, Vegetarian | 
Tags: falafel, feta, lemon, lettuce, red onion, tahini, tomatoes | 
11 Comments »
Share Our Strength and Yahoo!
Share Our Strength is a national nonprofit working to end childhood hunger in America. This organization has ambitious goals and is working creatively to meet them, making sure that children don’t just have enough to eat, but that they are getting the nutrition they need to learn, grow and thrive.
When you make Yahoo! your homepage by clicking on this link, you’re supporting Share Our Strength. Yahoo! is donating $20,000 to the charity on behalf of all the people who made Yahoo! their homepage.
How to get involved:
- Make Yahoo! your homepage – Learn How
- Check out Share our Strength’s website to learn more about what you can do to end childhood hunger.
I made my contribution by making Yahoo! my homepage. Have you?
New Blog Design
In case you haven’t noticed it’s been looking quite a bit more colorful in here. Surprise! It’s the new design for The Spiffy Cookie by Tracey at Little Bitty Blogs. I absolutely love it – so cute! – and I cannot thank Tracey enough. Definitely contact her if you are thinking about getting a custom design.
Now to explain things, in case it is new to you. On the sidebar to the right, you will see a ‘Search’ box in order to browse posts based on something of interest to you. Next are the ‘Top 5′ posts to date, followed by the ‘Categories’ list complete with expandable subcategory buttons for easier browsing. And then of course comes the multiple ways to make sure you always know what is going on at The Spiffy Cookie through Facebook, Twitter, E-Mail, and RSS Feed. Don’t forget to check out the ‘Blogroll’ for my regular reads. And last but not least the icon for Little Bitty Blogs which will direct you that way with just one click.
One more thing, I added a “Share” button which can be seen at the bottom of each post. This allows you to share that post by e-mailing, bookmarking, posting on social networking sites, printing, etc, if you so desire.
P.S. Look at my signature!
And so it begins
Look at me, another person on the internet about to embark in the world of food blogging. As if there were a shortage of such things! To be honest though, my reasons for starting my own blog were initially selfish – it is such a great way to organize recipes for personal use! Up until now I have been sharing my cooking and baking conquests through my personal page on Facebook to make friends and family who live too far drool with envy. A few have taken it to the next level and have tried some out for themselves, taking any alterations I made into consideration and sometimes adding some of their own. This paired with my desire to search through and categorize recipes has brought me here. POOF here I am!
But why am putting the name of “spiffy cookie” on a page that looks dull and very un-spiffy? Because the fabulous design is currently under way, much thanks to Tracey at Little Bitty Blogs. Since I do not have the patience to hold off on the posts until then you will just have to bare with me. Oh darn, you might have to enjoy a few recipes before the big reveal. Such a hard life!
