Emily and Einstein

Emily and Einstein ****

by Linda Francis Lee

I’m joining Jain at Food for Thought, a delicious blog for readers with an appetite for the written word.

“He was a man who didn’t deserve a second chance…but he needed one. Emily and her husband, Sandy Portman, seemed to live a gracious if busy life in an old-world, Upper West Side apartment in the famous Dakota building. But one night on the way to meet Emily, Sandy dies in a tragic accident. The funeral isn’t even over before Emily learns she is on the verge of being evicted from their apartment. But worse than the possibility of losing her home, Emily is stunned when she discovers that her marriage was made up of lies.

Suddenly Emily is forced on a journey to find out who her husband really was…all the while feeling that somehow he isn’t really gone. And what if he isn’t? Angry, hurt, and sometimes betrayed by loving memories of the man she lost, Emily finds comfort in a scruffy dog named Einstein. But is Einstein’s seemingly odd determination that she save herself enough to make Emily confront her own past? Can he help her find a future-even after she meets a new man?”

This book received 4 stars from me and a 5 bone rating from Chloe & Gracie~  happy to play along for Food for Thought!

After the death of her husband, Emily turns to food and begins baking~  cupcakes & cookies. After my chocolate-fest, I decided I’d cut some calories and whip up some Dog Gone Good Treats.

I fetched my Three Dog Bakery Cookbook for some Chloe & Gracie-approved cookies that even Einstein, “a wiry little dog who acts like a snob of a man,” would enjoy. These smelled SO good baking, my husband came home and asked what was on the menu for dinner that smelled so good. . .

 Oops~ Uhmmm. . . dog treats?

The recipe stated it would make 30 cookies, but I got closer to 6 dozen~ more than I bargained for & enough to share with ALL the other dogs in Central Park where Emily & Einstein go running :)

Ingredients

~ ½ cup unsweetened applesauce

~ 1 egg

~ ½ cup natural peanut butter

~ 1 teaspoon vanilla

~ 1 ¼ cups water

~ 4 cups whole-wheat flour

~ ½ cup cornmeal

~ ½ cup quick cook oats

~ ¼ cup chopped peanuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 In a large mixing bowl, combine applesauce, egg, peanut butter, vanilla & water.

In a second bowl, combine dry ingredients and peanuts.

Add dry to wet ingredients and mix well. (I used the food processor to pulse everything together since the 5 cups of dry ingredients makes this challenging to mix.)

Turn dough onto floured surface and knead. Roll out to ¼ inch thick and cut into shapes.

Place on parchment or greased cookie sheet and bake. The recipe called for 45 minutes of baking time~ mine were done closer to 25 minutes~ watch and remove when slightly browned. Cool on a rack and store in sealed container.

 

We had some Einstein-inspiration & fun from The Lucky Charms Episode for Food for Thought:

“That day the primal part took over when my wretchedly overactive nose caught a whiff of something. I scrambled into the kitchen to investigate and found a box of Lucky Charms…”

“Much like Pavlov’s dog, I started salivating, the need for more of those horrid Lucky Charm suffusing my body. So I did the only thing I could. I upended the box, cereal spilling across my fine wood table. I could hardly contain myself as I scarfed up every last puffy marshmallow and crunchy nugget.”

“I scrambled to my feet on the kitchen tabletop, lost to the unwieldy darkness. I swung my head, unable to see a thing as I tried to remove what I only half understood was the box. I barked and whimpered, dancing over the table, mindless of my hard, curving nails clawing into the wood, certain the damned cartoon leprechaun was attacking me.”

Chloe says these cookies are magically delicious :)

Einstein attracts the attention of an overly amorous poodle which prompted me to mix up some Valentine’s Day cupcake-esque-muffins, perfect for a frisky feast~

Ingredients

~ 1 ½ cups whole-wheat flour

~ 1 cup rolled oats

~ 1 cup oat bran

~ 2 teaspoons baking soda

~ 1 teaspoon cinnamon

~ 2 apples, peeled and diced

~ 1 egg

~ ¼ cup honey

~ 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

~ ¼ cup walnuts

~ 1 cup skim milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a bowl, combine dry ingredients.

Add apples, egg, honey, oil & walnuts. Stir, add milk and mix thoroughly.

Spoon batter into greased muffin tin (I used papers) so cups are ¾ full and bake for 20- 25 minutes. Cool before serving and store in sealed container.

I got almost 2 dozen~ the recipe says it yields 16. I used smallish scoops for small dogs.

Since Chloe & Gracie are middle-aged ladies, they have to watch their girlish figures so we parcelled out Valentine treats to their canine cousins & pals. . .

Just checking to see if there are enough for everyone~ let’s see…Striker, Copper, Pickles, Trixie & LadyBug…

Solo, Smitty, Woody, Pink, Blue & Brutus~

 Einstein’s parting words of wisdom:

“In order to live a life truly worth living you had to have strength in the face of adversity, patience when confronted with challenge, and bravery in the face of fear.”

It was a tasty and full day posing for photos~ Chloe & Gracie’s parting words of wisdom:

Blogging is exhausting!

Tomorrow we take the day off and it’s back to our normal diet of dry kibble.

If you’re joining in the fun with Emily & Einstein for FFT, let me know by comment & I’ll add a link back to this post so every dog one can enjoy a taste :)

Other Thoughtful Reviews:

A taste of New York City from Maggie here.

Sample Sarah’s NYC tour & review here.

Thank you for your visit, I’m joining:

Food for Thought~

Alphabe-Thursday~

 Foodie Friday~

 Seasonal Sundays~

Mosaic Monday~