Smelly Horse Treats

Hank decided to add a little drama to the holiday weekend by coming up lame. He has a bad knee and reinjured it doing who-knows-what on Saturday. He's been confined to the infirmary pen since then and is making a rapid recovery, to my great relief. But it pains me to see him in pain, so I've been doing whatever I can to keep him comfortable and happy during his convalescence.

Justina had posted a recipe for horse treats awhile back, which she had received from C in WI. I had never gotten around to making them, but Hank's solitary confinement seemed like the perfect excuse to whip up a batch.

I was going to go all food-blogger on you and post step-by-step instructions for making Paco's Favorite Treats, but my kitchen was trashed in no time. For a recipe with only four ingredients, I'm amazed at the mess I made. I blame it all on the smell of the molasses. It stinks. Unless you're a horse, you will not be tempted to lick the spoon.

Paco's Favorite Treats
1 cup bran cereal, smashed
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup molasses
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

Mix together, standing as far away from bowl as possible to avoid the fumes. Drop teaspoon of dough on greased baking sheet. Flatten with fork and sprinkle with sugar (like Peanut Butter cookies). Bake at 350 for 15 min. Unless you're one of those people who likes the smell of molasses, go outside while these are in the oven. Makes about 4 dozen.

Here are the treats, stinking up the kitchen on their way into the oven:
I suppose I could have left off the sprinkled sugar, but they smelled so bad, I was afraid Hank might not like them. The sugar was insurance that my baking efforts and trashed kitchen would not be in vain.

Ok, Hank, see what you think of these. I think they smell funky but what do I know?

No, Hank, you may not have another one. Now wipe that smile off your face.
I don't care if they're the best treats you've ever tasted, we've got to save some for later.
Yes, you do have to share them with George and Alan.
Don't you dare hurt yourself again just so I'll make more!

For the record, as much as Hank loves these treats, George and Alan love them even more. I think I actually saw them jumping up and down when they got their first whiff.

Here are the cookies stinking up the refrigerator. Have I told you I hate the smell of molasses?
But they do look good in the new bowl, which I won from petsblogroll.com, a new community of pet bloggers. Click on the link for more information about adding your pet blog to the group.

p.s. Blogger is doing something weird with comments this morning - if you add one and it doesn't appear, Blogger may have swallowed it temporarily.