Month: July 2014

Chew on this: A woman in Richland, Washington, is on a 30-day mission to eat nothing but pet food.

Dorothy Hunter embarked on the bizarre diet June 19 while stocking shelves at her business, Paws Natural Pet Emporium.

“I didn’t have time to go get a snack, so I grabbed a bag of treats off the counter, and I was like, wow, you know, these read better than normal people treats,” she told KNDO TV. “So I started eating the treats and I was like, you know, I could do this for 30 days.”

So far, she doesn’t have a bone to pick with the foods she’s eating — to a point.

“I’ve also been doing our oven baked blueberry treats, as well as freeze dried green beans, carrots,” she told the station. “I’m even doing some canned cat food, one is a succulent chicken, and it actually tastes really good. So I’m really happy with that one. I don’t do raw bones or meat products like that, or the frozen because I’m just not into raw.”

Hunter has lost at least two pounds eating pet food, and gained a dining partner in employee Amanda Kempf, who has been feeding the pet food to her kids as well.

“My kids love the dog treats as well, and I don’t mind them eating those because they are nutritious,” Kempf told the Tri-City Herald. “They even told their teachers, who then asked me if it was true. Everything is labeled here so you know what you’re buying, and you’re buying nutrition.”

Like human food, pet food is required to be compliant with food additive regulations and be free of pathogens. Still, consuming kibble comes at a risk, according to nutrition expert Madelyn Fernstrom.

“Choosing to experiment with pet food as a long term option is a nutritional negative and might make you sick,” she told Today.com.

Hunter’s 30-day pet food gorge mission just happens to coincide with the expansion of her store, but Mike Rylander of WTFark.com hopes it coincides with something that makes more sense.

“Please tell me this has something to do with the legalization of weed in Washington and not that she was just hungry and lazy,” he said.

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The only thing worse then having to cancel a family barbecue due to rain is not canceling the family barbecue and having a torrential downpour break through those perfect billowy clouds just as Uncle Irving is piling his plate high with coleslaw and hot dogs.

As if this isn’t bad enough just what the heck are you supposed to do with a grill full of hot dogs, corn on the cob and barbecued chicken?

Well biscuits, I can’t do much about the rain but I do have suggestions for some great ways to use leftover barbecue grub.

If you’ve got a sense of humor you might even turn this into a day-after-the-rained out-barbecue-soiree’. Could be twice as much fun and no lighter fluid needed.

Hot Dog Anti-pasto Salad

That’s right. You heard me. I invented this recipe after a barbecue I hosted got hit with all twelve plagues set upon the Pharaoh about two minutes after I threw the hot dogs on the grill. I was stuck with a fridge filled with wrinkly ol hot dogs, buns and a whole lotta condiments.

So here’s how it goes. Take your day old cooked and chilled dogs, slice them up and toss them with your fave anti-pasto fixings. I like diced red onion, sliced cucumber, plum tomatoes cut into wedges, diced celery, quartered artichoke hearts, pickled peppers and sliced olives. Whatever you like is just fine. Toss the whole thing up with olive oil and salt and pepper and then toss again with a little red wine or balsamic vinegar. You’ll want half as much vinegar as you had oil. Pour over a bed of lettuce and garnish with shaved Parmesan or Romano or asiago and say, “Just like my Italian Jewish mama used to make!”

Hot Dog Bun Croutons

If you have a sense of humor, you can make croutons out of the hot dog buns too. Seriously. Slice em up or cube em up, toss in olive oil, salt and pepper and then toast in the oven at 350 degrees until nice and crunchy, then sprinkle over around your anti-pasto.

Next Day Corn Salsa

Yep grilled corn on the cob is a fabulous idea for any outdoor event, that is, of course, if the event happens. The good news is corn on the cob is great for salsa.

Shave the corn off the cob and mix 2 coffee cups of corn with 1/2 diced bell pepper, ½ diced red onion, 1 and 1/2 jalapeno peppers (de-stemmed) and minced fine, 4 good drizzles of fresh lime juice and a handful of chopped cilantro. Season with salt and cumin. If you don’t like it hot, (wimp) use less jalapeno.

Barbecue Chicken Cobb Salad

Take all that gorgeous day old barbecue chicken and cut up into a nice dice.

Wash a head of Romaine lettuce and chop it up then lay it out on a round platter. Imagine your platter as a big pie. One slice of your pie cover with sliced avocado. One slice gets crumbled blue cheese or Roquefort. One slice gets sliced tomatoes any kind. One slice gets sliced hard-boiled eggs. One slice gets crumbled crunchy bacon, one slice gets diced avocado and one slice gets a heaping pile of barbecue chicken.

For the dressing –
Cobb-a-rama dressing

1 shot and a half of olive oil, 1 shot of sherry vinegar, 1 drizzle of fresh lemon juice, 1 plop of Dijon mustard, a drizzle of Worcestershire sauce and then salt, pepper and sugar to taste. Mix it all up and drizzle over your Cobb.

(Adds dates recalled products were produced; names of some bases; details of Defense Dept past purchases of Foster Farms products) By P.J. Huffstutter CHICAGO, July 8 (Reuters) – Federal regulators widened the recall of…

This story originally appeared on Mother Nature Network.

If you’ve been to a pet store lately, you’ve likely seen the variety of foods available for your kitty and canine friends.

There’s organic food, grain-free food, natural food and holistic food, and you can find kibble or canned food for virtually every specialized diet.

With these kinds of options, it’s no surprise the ingredients in much of our pets’ food are just as nutritious as those in our own food. And one woman is out to prove it.

Dorothy Hunter, who owns Paws Natural Pet Emporium in Richland, Washington, believes that the food she sells in her store is not only good for pets, but it’s also good for people.

To prove it, she’s embarked on a 30-day pet food-only diet to raise awareness about the diets of people and their pets.

“I believe in our products and how good they are. I actually believe our pets are eating better than us,” she said on her YouTube channel. “With that said, for the next month, until July 19 … I’m going to eat dog food for a month.”

Hunter said she was inspired to try this new diet while restocking store shelves when she was hungry.

“I didn’t have time to get a snack, so I grabbed a bag of treats off the counter, and I was like, ‘Wow, you know, these read better than normal people treats,'” she told NBC affiliate KNDO. “So, I started eating the treats and I was like, ‘You know, I can do this for 30 days.'”

Since beginning her new diet, Hunter has munched on everything from pumpkin dog treats to pet-friendly green-bean chips.

“This is a really good diet for me, because I’m going to be eating some green beans today,” she told TODAY.

The FDA told TODAY in a statement that while pet food is not intended for humans, it is required to be free of pathogens and compliant with food additive regulations.

Hunter shares many of her eating escapades on YouTube, and her co-workers are often game to try a bite and weigh in the taste as well. In the video above, watch Hunter and an employee sample Merrick’s Classic Grain-Free Grammy’s Pot Pie canned dog food.

A New Record Debuts as a Bottle of Beer

It’s an alt-beer. It’s an indie rock album. It’s a daring pairing.

When they decided to deliver a new album on a bottle of beer, Telegraph Brewing Company and the indie group, Buellton, gave new meaning to one-stop shopping. The world of beer and music is the better for it.

Silent Partner doubles as the name of a spry, saison-style ale and the name of Buellton’s new long-play album. Buy the ale and you’ve also bought the album. This beer-music pairing is going to make your happy hour a lot happier.

Accessing the Silent Partner track-list is easy. It’s printed right on the side of Telegraph’s shapely bottle, immediately drawing you in, especially if you’re already familiar with Buellton, the indie group from California’s Central Coast that’s back after a multiyear hiatus.

To unlock the music, twist off the wire cage and retrieve the download code from under the cap. It’s your digital key to Silent Partner, the album. Visit www.buelltonmusic.com. Tap in the code. Download, and you’re there.

To unlock Silent Partner, the ale, pop the cork, pour — and quaff. And do yourself a favor: Enjoy the ale and listen to the album at the same time. When you experience the music and the beer together, you’ll see why pairing this band with this brewery was a good idea.

Silent Partner is a perfect summer drink — it works in stand-alone mode or as an aperitif. It may just be a cousin of Kölsch. Starting with a hint of dry citrusy-ness, it vanquishes your thirst and finishes with a nice, dry back-palate tingle. Unlike Kölsch, it’s a medium-bodied brew, and at 7.4 percent, it delivers a smooth buzz. Telegraph’s brewer tweaked the hops and clearly got things just right.

Like the beer, the album Silent Parter is straight-up fun and it puts Buellton’s strengths on parade. With short solo runs, smooth group vocals and interesting harmonies, this is snark-free music that draws you in instead of clobbering you with Big Sound. The occasional Grateful Dead-flavored riff reminds you that this is a California band.

A band and a beer make an unorthodox mix by themselves. But — call it freakish or call it funny — somewhere along the way, the feds also got into the act, which amped up the quirkiness of the Silent Partner pairing even more.

Since the bottle label promotes the album and shows the track-list, a Treasury Department office scrutinized the arrangement before the release. The feds signed off on the label in the end, making Buellton’s record the only indie rock album known in history with a stamp of approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

Putting an album on a bottle of beer is High Concept, but it’s also savvy marketing. For all the magic in the brew and the music, the inventiveness of bundling an album with a beer gets high marks in its own right. It’s bound to earn a spot in the Creative Packaging Hall of Fame, and somebody should get a promotion over it, if they haven’t already.

That said, if craft beer and craft music didn’t fit together so well, and if Buellton and Telegraph Brewery weren’t such natural collaborators, you might be tempted to pass off the ale-album rollout as gimmickry. It’s not.

The band and the brewery evince a sort of native genius and they’re rooted in the local scene. They’re a natural pairing, and the beer and music are real. This is High Concept that delivers.

Taste the brew, taste the record. There’s a lot to love here.

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Tom Conrad will lead a small band of beer lovers, craft beer enthusiasts and Slow Food fans on a beer and brewery tour to Germany in October. The group will visit craft brewers, abbey breweries and independent beer-makers in the nooks and crannies of Bavaria.

Info: Treasures of Europe Tours www.treasuresofeuropetours.com

Visit us at Pinterest. Say hello on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at TreasEurTours

Photo credits: Telegraph Brewery, Alessandro Castillo. Band photo: (l-r) Erik Herzog, Graham Palmer, Curt Crawshaw and John Nygren.

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