French Poodles

I don't know if I'm a stickler for tradition or merely set in my ways, but I love designated family dinner nights.  Regardless of television shows, house guests, or a mere lack of desire the family sits together, eats a meal and learns to coexist.  So, when the my oldest child's soccer practice threatened a scheduled family dinner, I refused to see the tradition die.  We now enjoy an early bird special one night week.  With dinner and dishes finished by 6:00, a new tradition was born: baking night with my youngest.  As the oldest heads out the door with her cleats, the youngest and I grab flour and sugar and promise warm cookies after practice.  This week, we elevated our baking efforts with Dorie Greenspan's elegant French Madeleines.  We then balanced that elegance by making dog biscuits.  Balance: it's the key to parenthood and its largest hurdle.

Perhaps it's their French heritage, but I expected Madeleines to be difficult; they were not in the least.  In fact, it took no more than fifteen minutes for me and my four year old sous chef to bring together the batter and place it in the fridge to chill.   After a quick clean up, and a new mise en place (a true necessity when cooking with your children) we were ready to offer culinary excellence to our beloved doggie.
Growing up, my mother would prepare a 'stew' for our family pets.  It consisted of dry dog food, hot water and mix-it.  It smelled horrific; hence, the dogs were only fed in our laundry room, and mealtime was quickly followed by a thorough clean up.  As I prepared to make dog food in my kitchen, I was a bit worried about the pending aroma.  I'm happy to report that these treats not only utilize typical pantry staples, but lend the homey smell of freshly baked muffins.  As these treats cooled, the chilled Madeleine dough was placed into molds and baked to a beautiful brown.

Peanut Butter- Banana Dog Treats
Recipe Created by: Rachel Ray 
Ingredients:
1 egg
2 TB honey
2 bananas, mashed with a fork
1/4 cup peanut butter
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a bowl, whisk together the egg, honey, bananas and peanut butter.  Stir in 3 cups of water; whisk until smooth.
2. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and cinnamon; add to the egg mixture.  
3. Spray two 12 cup muffin pans with cooking spray; fill each cup three quarters full.  Bake until browned, about 30 minutes. Let cool. 

With a plate of warm cookies prepared for our pre-teen, and a plate of fresh biscuits prepared for our pup all was well in the Pierce household.  Well, for that evening anyway.  It is amazing how an interruption can shake up routine just enough to make an improvement.

These Madeleines are another fantastic recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Around my French Table.  I highly recommend picking up a copy and visiting www.frenchfridays.com for more blogs on how this recipe was enjoyed at hundreds of tables this week.