Covid comfort cooking .................................................................14

Kat and Mego’s Good Dog Treats (for pets and their people!)

My dog Mego, a 13-year-young Shiba Inu, was diagnosed with back issues earlier this year. Kym the Vet noticed that Mego appeared very ‘Yin’ heavy and suggested adding foods to his diet that would warm him up. This, along with some digging down a rabbit hole into Yin and Yang philosophies, led to the creation of this recipe. Mego and I hope you love these treats as much as we do!

What you need:

• 1 ½ cups jumbo rolled oats (coarsely ground, i.e. not ground to a flour). Use buckwheat or coconut flour for a gluten-free alternative. • ½ cup activated buckwheat (coarsely ground). • ½ cup quinoa flakes. • ¼ cup ground flaxseed (coarsely ground). • ¼ cup hemp seeds. • ½ cup roasted pumpkin (mashed). (Banana could be used instead.) • 2-3 tbls of tahini or peanut butter. • 1-2 tbls finely grated fresh turmeric. • 1-2 tsps finely grated fresh ginger. • Optional – Handful or two of coconut flakes, sunflower or pumpkin seeds

What to do:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Combine all the dry stuff in a large mixing bowl. Add the ginger and turmeric to the mashed pumpkin with the tahini/peanut butter and mix together. Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry mix. Smoosh it all together by hand into an epic ball of superfood dough. Dump the dough onto a cutting board. (Use eco-baking paper or some oats or buckwheat ground to a flour for non-stickiness.) Using a rolling pin (or your hands) flatten the dough out to around 0.5cm thick. Get your favourite cookie cutter (I use twinkle, twinkle little stars) and cut out the dough into about as many stars as there are in the sky. Place treats on a baking sheet covered with eco-baking paper and bake for around 15-20 minutes (or until they’re golden at the edge and smell super yum). Grab out of the oven and leave to cool. Time for doggie (and human) taste testing! • Try not to let the mixture get too wet or it won’t crisp up in the oven • You can freeze the treats for up to two months • Love planet Earth – Use organic, fair trade and locally sourced ingredients where possible.

– Kat Bridges

>> New in the ’hood, Continued from page 9

Te Uru will be developing some public programmes and events so we can bring our gallery audiences into discussions and workshops to build on the ideas in these exhibitions.

I’m working on an exhibition for Circuit’s 10th anniversary which will culminate in an exhibition at Te Uru in June 2022. We’ve already partnered with a great film festival in the UK and Spike Island. The exhibition and an accompanying symposium will look at how artists have used animation in their film and video work. It’ll be a fun and lively exhibition with some interactive components as well.

Finally, outside of my work at Te Uru, I’m guest co-editing, with Becky Hemus, a forthcoming issue of The Art Paper – a brilliant new art magazine based in Aotearoa but with a strong readership internationally as well. The theme of this forthcoming issue is ‘touch’ and we’re excited to share it with everyone next month when it launches.