I am NOT afraid of cows. But you're not taking my stick.
My dog hasn't been paying attention to the calendar, so today I was able to surprise her with the news that it's her birthday. She's four, and when I told her that was 28 in human years, she told me it was 111 in the binary system. She's kind of a show off that way.
Her friends the cows came over to wish her happy birthday, which was awfully decent of them, since the last time they were in the pasture behind our house she was very rude to them. Of course, her behavior was entirely understandable, under the circumstances. We'd just moved in, and she was afraid they might be a new type of predator native to the British Isles, maybe something like Parking Attendant Guy, who we'd scrapped with in London.
No, just Holsteins, I told her, talking her down from the tree she'd climbed to escape. (I didn't tell her the cows were laughing at her overreaction; her dignity was already in tatters after the swan spit at her in Regent's Park.)
She unwrapped her present, a new brush. (She's at that age where grooming is more important than toys.) Then we had the birthday cake I'd made her. Lately I've been making a lot of her food myself, ostensibly because it's better for her than Iams, but the truth is, I like to cook, and there's no more appreciative audience than a dog. I'm thinking of opening a restaurant, for dogs only, sort of like Three Dog Bakery, only this would be a place to sit and relax, maybe smoke a cigar....
Okay, I'm kidding about the cigars, at least if I open it in the States, where all the big cities now have No Smoking laws.
Here's the recipe for Dog Birthday Cake, a special edition of Wednesday Food Blogging. (Two recipes in one week! Next thing I know, Foodie will link to me!)
Dog Birthday Cake
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 cup shredded carrot
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup honey (optional)
1 egg
Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix the dry ingredients. Add the remaining ingredients and mix quickly. Bake in a greased round pan for 30 minutes. Insert toothpick to test for doneness, although your dog won't mind if it's a little mushy. Frost with soy cream cheese, or yoghurt, or cottage cheese, or go all out and put Cool Whip on top. They only live once.
