Trying to redeem myself to the pups...

Uh oh... the dogs have been without treats for almost a week now! I couldn't stand the "look" they give in the mornings anymore, so I figured I better get going on making them more! If you're looking to give your pups an extra special treat (or your feeling guilty!), then these Peanut Butter Bones may be one to try.

These bones have quite the ingredients in them - mashed potatoes, milk, molasses, chicken broth and chunky peanut butter... how could they resist? The dough looks a little ragged when you start, but after just a couple minutes of kneading it turned into this beautiful supple dough. Depending on the moisture in your potatoes and the weather, you may need to add more or less all-purpose flour as you go along - just gradually add what you need until it does not stick to your fingers. This was a dream to roll out and makes a large amount of biscuits, depending on the size cutter you use. I kept the dough fairly thick when I rolled it out - right around 1/2" thick, as I wanted to keep these more chewy than rock hard. You could roll them thinner if your pup likes those extra crisp treats. While this is a yeasted dough, you won't need to let it rise - it just gives them a little lift and helps with the texture.

Tonight's dinner, Turkey-Potato Casserole, sure turned into an interesting meal tonight. Basically this is a two layered sliced potato dish with ground turkey in between. When we have done something like this before, any type of meat has usually been cooked - however, this time it just called for ground turkey so we went with it. Once it was all layered and seasoned, it called for 3 cups of milk (full disclosure - it also said you could use cream) to be poured on top - which we did. This cooks for 1 1/2 hours to allow the potatoes to get very tender and to fully cook the hidden layer of turkey. Before serving, we scattered sharp cheddar and crumbled bacon on top and set it under the broiler until bubbly and melted. Now, I'm not sure if we did something wrong or there was too much liquid, but after it had finished cooking there was so much milk left that we could pour it out of the pan! We both looked at each other with that "huh!" look on our face as we were not sure what happened. Maybe if you use cream it would thicken up enough in 1 1/2 hours, but for us it did not. Besides that issue, it was actually quite good! The turkey was fully cooked and surprisingly still quite juicy as it basically poaches and slowly soaks in the seasonings.

The potatoes, while still being very tender, we not overly mushy and had a good texture to them with a slight tang from the Dijon. The gooey and salty mixture on top added just the right finishing touch. By the way, if you happen to use a food processor to thinly slice the potatoes as I did, please do your self a favor and remember that when you go to wash the dishes that the slicing blade is lurking near the bottom. One deeply sliced finger (which makes it hard to type) will be all that I need to remember next time. Ouch!

Recipes
Peanut Butter Bones
Turkey-Potato Casserole

PS - We will be switching the blog over to the new version tonight. If you happen to spot any issues, please don't hesitate to send us a note with any problems!