Oh Yeah, You Blend

If you’re watching the riveting viewing that is the puppycam (trust me, it gets more exciting as they get older and more mobile), you will see that occasionally Jim or I move puppies around while they’re nursing. While I generally try to interfere as little as possible (other than by rescuing puppies who get stuck behind Alice under the pig rails or whatever), if we have a puppy who didn’t gain as much as the others, we will try to place that puppy on the inguinal teats (the ones closest to Alice’s back legs) preferentially. In general the inguinal teats seem to let milk down faster and easier and this can help the puppy catch up. In the big picture it’s pretty normal for them to gain more or less each day and as long as the overall trend and average gain are going the right way it’s not a concern, but much better to be proactive anyway in my view.

I make Nova Scotia Oatcakes pretty often. I probably make them a couple of times a month at least, I certainly make them more than any other baked good. I’m Canadian originally, but I’m from Toronto and the child of English immigrant parents and I never had them growing up so it’s not like I can claim that I make them for nostalgic reasons. I make them because they’re amazing.

I usually use this recipe. And I can even make them in our toaster oven (which is also awesome and we refer to it as “the science oven”) which means I can bake these in the summer and not heat up the whole house.

And once in a while, if you don’t mind sacrilege, you can add a splash of vanilla, or dried wild blueberries, or even chocolate chips.

They’re delicious, not too sweet, a bit salty, chewy and oaty and just awesome. Filling and tasty and they have oats so they must be good for you.

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled puppy programming.