here's one for the dogs....

Last night as I was making blueberry pancakes, I spied a little touch of inspiration on my countertop:

My sister Laura got this for me in Ireland, along with the now infamous French press. Anyway, when I spied this cookie cutter I decided to make some homemade dog buscuits for Barley. After scanning a few recipes online, I chose one that would use up some bananas that were rapidly becoming too brown to eat, as well as some whole wheat flour that I've had for much longer than I care to admit.

Banana Biscotti

5 cups flour
1/4 cup peanuts
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 ½ cups banana
2 teaspoons vanilla
water

The recipe calls for chopping the nuts and pureeing the bananas (I used two), but I was pretty sure Barley wouldn't notice the difference (she didn't), so I just threw everything together with minimal effort.

Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl:

Mix the wet ingredients together in another bowl:

Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients:

After stirring the mixture, you realize that you really do need the water that is listed in the recipe. I did not add it in teaspoons as recommended, but by the 1/4 cup.

When the dough was moist enough to stick together, I put it on the counter and kneaded it.

I put it on a lightly greased pan, and pounded it into three logs.

I baked at 325 degrees for 30 minutes:

I then cut some of the logs with a pizza cutter and some with the cookie cutter. I didn't wait 10 minutes for it to cool like you were supposed to, so the cookie cutter became very hot, which is why I only made a few with the cookie cutter. After placing the biscuits on two cookie sheets, I baked them for another 20 minutes.

They smelled really good (almost good enough to eat myself!!), and even though Barley is more of a savory than a sweet dog (she prefers veggies to fruit), she really enjoyed these treats.