So Kate has this great teacher this year, who’s into all sorts of different and fun ways to learn that make extra work for me.
Just kidding. He’s actually very cool about that sort of thing. But this upcoming project is one where I’m going to have to do, or direct, a lot of the preparation. For two weeks in January, every kid in the class has to set up and run a “business” from their desk, which will be surrounded by a refrigerator box “storefront.” I have the box, thanks to a terrifyingly well-organized room mother, who went out to Livonia and picked up a couple dozen from an appliance store weeks ago, then drove around the Woods distributing them. And we have the business plan — Miss Kitty’s Homemade Dog and Cat Treats (which narrowly beat out the tattoo parlor). I even have a recipe for homemade dog biscuits.
(And needless to say, I have a camera-ready celebrity spokesdog to endorse them in billboards and advertising.)
What I don’t have is a cat-treat recipe. Which is where you, dear readers, come in. Of course I’ve found scores on the internet, but most require subsequent refrigeration or some other preservation, because they’re soft and moist the way cats like ’em. I’m looking for something dry enough to keep in a coffee can or Tupperware, but not so hard that Pussy will turn up her pampered nose. Anybody have a recipe that fits the bill?
Here are two tentative finalists, which I’ll make this weekend and test on neighborhood cats:
Cat crackers
6 ounces of undrained tuna
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/3 cup water
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Measure all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly with your hands. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness and cut into treat sized pieces. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden. Let cool. Give to your cat and watch them gobble it up.
Kitty cookies
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup soy flour
1 teaspoon catnip
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons wheat germ
1/3 cup powdered milk
1 tablespoon unsulfured molasses
2 tablespoons butter or vegetable oil
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix dry ingredients together. Add molasses, egg, oil and milk. Roll out flat onto oiled cookie sheet and cut into small, cat bite-sized pieces. Bake for 20 minutes. Let cool and store in tightly sealed container.
But if you have any to add, along with a personal testimonial, leave ’em in the comments.
Danny said on December 30, 2006 at 7:22 pm
Well, for the kitty treats, I’m with Gallagher who years ago explained that cats are not gourmets who need gourmet food. They lick their butts, so make the treats butt-flavored.
This isn’t helping, is it? Happy New Year!
225 chars
nancy said on December 30, 2006 at 10:10 pm
Based on how the house smells at the moment with the hot tuna crackers in the oven, I’d say butt is just about what flavor we’re planning on.
141 chars
brian stouder said on December 30, 2006 at 11:34 pm
well, it suits the new print you acquired….!
As fate would have it, the aroma of Indiana Sugar Cream Pie hangs in the air, since I saved the NN.c recipe from about this time last year, and executed it today (pardon the oafish current-events allusion)
Happy New Year, y’all!
281 chars
Laura said on December 31, 2006 at 12:25 am
You’re making cat treats? Wow. I’m impressed. Abram (my son) did the same sort of thing in 3rd grade. His business was called Sweet Whittlin’: wooden toy and pie service. I thought the project was a great opportunity for my husband to get more involved with school projects. Eddie & Abe have been making all our pies ever since.
332 chars
basset said on December 31, 2006 at 1:38 am
hmmm, the kitty cookies look a lot like what we shared with our sweet little old grandma landlady in Bloomington back in the 70s… with one important ingredient change…
oatmeal, of course. what did you THINK I meant?
233 chars
joodyb said on December 31, 2006 at 9:38 pm
if i’d known earlier i coulda sent you a couple bales of catnip. no one to enjoy it at our house, except the brain-damaged boy cat next door who SITS in it.
i’m working tonight, and everyone should give that a big YAY!
HAPPY NEW YEAR, ALL.
242 chars
LA mary said on January 1, 2007 at 5:20 pm
We’ve got catnip growing wild in the yard, having gone to seed in older son’s garden. Albert, my usually very sweet tomcat, is a mean drunk if allowed unlimited access. He picks fights with the other two cats and hisses at the dogs. The female cats just get silly, but Albert can’t hold his catnip.
298 chars
Marcia said on January 1, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Cats are evil.
That is all.
32 chars
LA mary said on January 1, 2007 at 6:20 pm
If you are going for butt flavored treats, you can use your new print on the label.
83 chars