Mud House Year

Goodbye Rosie

If you have read my "About" page then you already know I love scruffy dogs and we have a few of them here at the Mud House.  I am very sad to report that we lost one of our sweet and beloved little dogs this past weekend.That's Rosie on the right.  This picture was taken a few years ago, not long after we adopted Marzipan. Marzipan was immediately welcomed into our scruffy hound family by Rosie and Sparky, on the left.

Rosie was a spirited and spunky little dog, right up to the end.  It is very hard to believe she was 15 years old.  Just two days before she died, she was scampering around in our unexpected desert snow like a puppy. Click here to see a video of her on that snowy day.

We loved Rosie very much and she will be missed by her scruffy dog and human friends alike.

 

And the Final Elf

This is the third and final Christmas cookie post.  The first two posts highlighted cookie recipes that have long family traditions.  This one, not so much.  In fact, it was new  this year and is creatively called "Ginger Coopies."  That's right, not cookies, "Coopies."  There is an explanation for that and here it is:Cooper is the reddish-brown scruffy hound.  As you can see, he is one of many who live at the Mud House.  Cooper is an 11 years old Norfolk terrier who joined the Mud House gang a year-and-a-half ago. He isn't our oldest Mud House hound.  That distinction goes to Sparky, our 16 year-old Westie standing to the left of Cooper.  He isn't the youngest - that's Miss Marzipan in the front.  He also isn't the newest. That would be Rex, the 14 lb crazy Chihuahua who does a killer Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde impersonation. But, Cooper has been through a lot and he is one my youngest daughter's favorites (she has several) sooooo...  Now, I know what you are thinking, she made dog biscuits!  But, sadly for the hounds of Mud Houseville, they are people biscuits.  They are gingerbread cookies that just happen to look exactly like sweet Cooper.  No worries though, we shared our people biscuits with Cooper and all of his scruffy companions.  

This recipe is from Epicurious and you can find it here.  I have made this same recipe using a cookie scoop to drop dough onto cookie sheet rather than making them as rolled and cut cookies.  They are good either way. So, as the official finale to the First Annual Mud House Christmas Eve Cookie Exchange, I am awarding the Most Original Cookie Award to Sam, who came up with the great idea and the cute name for the Ginger Coopies, our newest family cookie tradition!