It’s Halloween. Let’s dress up in costume and eat some pumpkin.
10yr old Miniature horse stallion, Saber and 9 1/2 yr old Harlequin Great Dane, Bailey had their portrait at the Petsmart at San Bernardino, California, then went out for some Trick or Treat.
Last year Saber carved a pumpkin with his teeth for Halloween.
I’m not sure if my horses have ever seen a pumpkin. That has to change for this Halloween. Don’t throw away your Halloween carved pumpkins. They can be a great horse treat or toy. Roll a pumpkin out for your horse and see their reaction. Many zoos give pumpkins out to their animals for environmental stimulation.
To coax your horse to try a taste, slather a carved out pumpkin with molasses and stuff it with apple and carrot slices. If your horse is Insulin resistant use sugar-free syrup with timothy hay cubes inside. Even if your horse doesn’t eat the pumpkin, working for enclosed treats makes a good mental stimulation. If they don’t like raw pumpkin, then try smashing up a baked / cooked whole pumpkin including seeds and give as a warm mash. Remember: Everything in moderation! What they don’t eat can be added into the compost pile.
Made on Dec 25, 2010 Authentic Mexican Marranitos (Molasses Gingerbread Pigs)
Moist and rich-tasting beneath a glossy, ever-so-slightly flaky top. Not quite cookie, not quite cake. Marranitos — or cochinos, or puerquitos, as they are called in some Mexican-American communities — are often called “Gingerbread Pigs,” although they don’t actually have ginger in them.
My mother remembered marranitos fondly from childhood when my great-grandmother baked them. She always had some for Christmas. I’m so glad that I made these cookies for us to enjoy last year. Seems my great-grandmother didn’t use as much baking soda, as my Mom’s memory was the cookies were not as fluffy as mine.
My Mom passed away in August 2011.
Spending time with family is so precious. Sure miss her and my mind keeps forgetting that I can’t pick up the phone to say hi or go for a visit.
My great-grandparents & grandparents fled from Mexico to the US during Pancho Villa’s ‘Mexican Revolution’. Starting over from next to nothing, but with their lives, they pursued the American dream! Thankfully back in 1913 immigration was legally just a matter of taking a train ride across the border.
My Grandmother’s marranito handmade cookie cutter is now an heirloom antique and not used anymore to bake.
Ingredients:
Cookies
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup unsulphured molasses
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
6 cups all-purpose flour
Egg wash
1 egg
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together brown sugar, shortening, baking soda, cinnamon and vanilla until the mixture forms a firm paste.
Add, mixing after each addition until blended, the molasses, egg and milk.
Gradually add the flour, mixing to form a dough; Roll dough out to about 1/4 inch thick; cut with a large pig-shaped cutter; Place each marranito on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
In a cup or small bowl, beat egg; Using a pastry brush, paint tops of marranitos lightly with beaten egg.
*This recipe is from Fort Worth, Texas baker Marco Rangel, and is used for the cookies he sells at his bakery, the Panaderia San Marcos. It uses the non-traditional addition of cinnamon.
