Letters from an Aspiring Sous #4

Peanut butter biscuits

Last summer, Alex asked if I would be interested in getting a dog to help weather the pandemic blues. In theory, I was extremely excited by the idea. Alex and I both grew up with dogs and it’s something I’ve always been interested in at some indeterminate later stage of life. In practice, the meticulousness with which I approach these large life decisions takes considerable time and I’ve just never felt quite ready to commit (Alex claims that this is a theme in our relationship). Naturally, I pushed back with a collection of arbitrary milestones. “It makes sense to wait until your fellowship match to know where we’ll be living,” I proposed (Match day was on December 4 and we’ll be moving to Palo Alto in June). “We should finish reading The Art of Raising a Puppy first,” I advised (Alex downloaded the audio book and finished it in a weekend, while I’m stuck on page 104).

While I plotted our next hurdle, Alex meticulously stalked the local rescue agencies on Instagram. A pandemic-constrained supply of rescue puppies eventually forced her to turn her focus to the less humane option of breeders (670k shelter dogs are euthanized every year). Apparently, our local stock of designer puppies was also exhausted because we looked at bernedoodles in Seattle, goldendoodles in Salt Lake City, and Australian mountain doodles in San Diego. If you’re wondering, as I was, “flight nannies” are in fact a real service.

Having overcome all reasonable-sounding obstacles, we picked up our tiny new lion queen from SFO on Monday evening — a nine-pound ball of crimson goldendoodle fur that we’ve aptly named Nala.

In preparation for Nala’s arrival (while I never did finish that book), we bought a small warehouse worth of puppy products, I signed up for MasterClass to watch a dog training course, and we both went down an endless rabbit hole of YouTube videos on a variety of puppy-related subjects. “This dog is going to be the most well-trained animal in San Francisco,” I said out loud at one point during the weeks preceding her arrival. Within four nights my sole concerns have narrowed markedly to having her no longer poop in our kitchen and enjoying more than two hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. We’re making progress on both fronts, albeit slowly.

While Alex claims to be accustomed to this level of sleep deprivation from work, I am woefully unprepared for this torment. Helping to keep the sourdough starter alive for all of those months in no way prepared me for this. Luckily, Nala has been approved by the state of California as an official Emotional Support Animal (quietly circumventing any rental requirements in the process), and so while she continues to terrorize my sleep, she provides ample therapy for the remainder of my day.

These peanut butter biscuits are entirely for our pampered little pup; although, I tried one and while they could use some salt, they’re actually pretty good. We do hope that Grandma and Grandpa will make some for Cooper, Charlie, and Dory as well. Alison Roman doesn’t do dog food so we’ve turned to Pinch of Yum for this recipe, which we’ve halved below.

Peanut butter (dog) biscuits

• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin

• 1/4 cup peanut butter

• 1 egg

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Glaze

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

• 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

Step 1. Combine pumpkin, peanut butter, egg and oil in a bowl. Add baking soda and flour, and stir until a stiff dough forms. Knead dough until flour is incorporated.

Step 2. Put some flour down and roll out dough with a rolling pin and use cookie cutter to cut out dog bones. It helps to also flour the cookie cutter. Bake for 15 minutes at 350F.

Step 3. Whisk coconut oil and peanut butter until smooth. Drizzle over biscuits and cool in fridge until glaze hardens. Dig in.

Nala’s favorite things

(for anyone with a new pandemic puppy)

• This snuggle puppy (with pulsing heartbeat to mimic sleeping with siblings)

• This dragon toy (thanks, cousin Dory!)

• This crate training tool (their crate has also been hugely helpful in crate training the little beast)

Gratuitous puppy photos