Ham and Pineapple Quail Biscuits

Today I was having a conversation with one of my most favorite people on this earth (who also happens to be my sister in-law) Rebecca, regarding feeding people food to dogs. We both agreed that there is alot of information out there. Rebecca made the point that half the stuff you read tells you one thing is awful for your dog and the other half tell you its absolutely acceptable. So how is somebody to figure out what is okay to feed your dog?? I thought it was a great question.

I'm bringing this up because there is a common stigma that pork is awful for your dog. I don't necessarily believe that. The two biggest arguments against feeding your dog pork is that your dog can contract Trichinosis which is an intestinal roundworm. I'm going with the Alton Brown thought process on this which is in modern day America pork has for the most part been breed free of any Trichinosis along with any great flavor. Hence the heritage pork movement...but that's really for another blog. Besides if your pork is cooked thoroughly and or frozen for up to a month Trichinosis will not survive. Some people also claim that ham causes Pancreatitis. If your feeding your dog a balanced diet pork should not cause anymore issues than feeding your pup bison, chicken, beef or lamb. If you give your dog an awful fatty diet and never exercise it than yeah...its probably gonna have some issues. The same thing happens to people who eat awful fatty diets and never exercise, they tend to have health issues too. But in the end, ham and pineapple tastes yummy and doggies think so too. So here is a recipe for Ham and Pineapple Quail Biscuits. I found a base recipe on the internet and made some small changes to it but here it is:

Ham & Pineapple Quail Biscuits

What you need:
~1 Cup of grated or shredded ham steak
~20 oz. can of crushed pineapple with its own juices
~3 Cups of whole wheat flour
~1/2 stick of butter, softened
~1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl combine the whole wheat flour and cinnamon. In another bowl combine the pineapple with its juices, the ham and the butter. Then mix the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until a dough forms.

2. Roll the dough out on a floured surface to a 1/2 inch thick. Use the quail cookie cutter to cut out biscuits and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

3. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes then flip the quails and bake for another 10 minutes. Let the quails cool completely on a cooling rack and then keep in the fridge in an airtight container. 

You can use any kind of cookie cutter for these biscuits but I use the quails because Cleo is a bird dog. I found the super cool cookie cutter here: http://cookiecutter.com/ under the bird category.  They also have all kinds of doggie cookie cutters like bones, paw prints, fire hydrants and of course quails.  :)