The wait is over! Fido & Wine is back for a new season! We’ll be premiering new episodes online, right here at www.thepetnetwork.tv, starting this Monday. Here’s the news release with all the details:

TORONTO, January 7, 2013: Fido & Wine, the world’s first cooking show dedicated to sharing ideas and recipes for meals that both people and their pets can enjoy, is returning to The Pet Network for a second season.

New episodes of the half-hour program, hosted by Laura Ducharme, will premiere online at www.thepetnetwork.tv, starting on Monday, January 14. The episodes will make their broadcast television premiere on The Pet Network in the spring of 2013.

Viewers will find full episodes of the show, along with recipes and more, at www.thepetnetwork.tv/fido-wine.

Fido & Wine Producer Jen Mitchell Oddi says this Pet Network original series taps into an area of growing interest among animal lovers.

“More and more Canadians are concerned with finding alternatives to processed pet foods and making sure that their dogs and cats enjoy healthier, more wholesome diets,” says Ms. Mitchell Oddi, who also authors My Dog’s Breakfast, a popular blog devoted to home cooking for canine companions.

“People often assume that preparing homemade meals for a pet is difficult, time-consuming and costly – but it doesn’t have to be,” she says. “Fido & Wine is all about finding inspiration to create simple, enjoyable and affordable meals for the special animals in our lives, using fresh and natural ingredients.”

The highlights of season two will include a “round-up” dinner inspired by a demonstration of duck and sheep herding, and a hearty cold-weather meal for some hard-working sled dogs. Fido & Wine will also take on the issue of pet obesity, with an episode devoted to weight-loss recipes. All this, plus a look at meal ideas for felines, and guest appearances by some of Canada’s leading design and renovation celebrities.

Don Gaudet, Vice President, Programming and Production for Stornoway Communications, which owns and operates The Pet Network, says the return of Fido & Wine reflects the station’s commitment to delivering entertaining and informative stories about the animal companions who share our lives.

“Pets are important members of our families. And as with other family members, we want the very best for them. Fido & Wine speaks to the many Canadians who care passionately about making sure their pets enjoy long, healthy and happy lives.”

The success of Fido & Wine has also sparked a spin-off project from the same production team: an original documentary for The Pet Network, now in development, that will explore the link between nutrition and aggressive behaviour in canines.

Season two of Fido & Wine is produced with the assistance of the Canadian Media Fund.

One of our favourite reads, as you know, is My Dog’s Breakfast, the blog created by Fido & Wine producer extraordinaire Jen Mitchell. Jen’s constantly posting imaginative recipes for people who, like her, want to prepare nutritious, homemade meals for their dogs.

For the upcoming Canada Day long weekend (Yay!) Jen has come up with something extra special: red and white maple leaf cookies! (There’s no food colouring involved, by the way. To get the desired shade of patriotic red, Jen borrowed an idea from Fido & Wine colleague Melissa Auger and used beet juice.) Why not give these a try?

Don’t forget to check out Jen’s blog HERE. Here’s wishing you — and your furry friends – a very happy Canada Day.

Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

- 5 1/2 cups of flour

- 1 cup no-sugar-added applesauce

- 1 cup chicken stock (with no onions, preferably no-salt added)

- 1/4 cup canola oil

- TSP baking powder

- TSP cinnamon

 - 1/3 cup of beet juice (My grocery store has it in the “natural” section. You could also make your own beet juice.)

Begin by fork-whisking together the canola oil, chicken stock and applesauce. Then, whisk in cinnamon, baking powder and flour and mix together until your dough “ball” forms. Gently knead to get it firmly together, wrap in parchment, and then put her in the fridge for at least an hour.

When you’re ready, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the dough to about a 1/4-1/2 thickness. Use your cookie cutter and start cutting away! (I bought myself a large leaf one at the bulk food store; they have small ones too.) Bake them on the parchment paper for 20-25 minutes.

Remove from oven, take them off the pan, and let them cool down. Here comes the fun part – get out your pastry brush and a small bowl (I like my silicone one because it washes well, although it’s harder to use) and paint as many as you want red with the beet juice. You don’t need much at all — just do the entire cookie and two-three coats should cover it.

Pretty cool, eh?

Remember to catch Fido & Wine every Tuesday and Saturday on The Pet Network at 8 pm ET/PT.

Do you believe in Dog? In their latest column for On The Go magazine, our Fido & Wine team of Laura Ducharme and Jen Mitchell explore the many fascinating connections between pets and spirituality, from “blessing of the animals” services to pet memorials.

On the Go is available at TTC and GO Train stations in the Greater Toronto Area. CLICK HERE to check out the current issue.

Don’t forget to catch Fido & Wine on The Pet Network every Tuesday and Saturday at 8 pm ET/PT.

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Phew! Hot enough for ya? Summer has arrived in full force — and if you think you’re sweltering, just imagine how it must feel to be sporting a fur coat. Fortunately, our Fido & Wine producer extraordinaire Jen Mitchell has come up with a cool ‘n’ creamy treat that will help your pooch to chill out a bit on the stickiest of summer’s afternoons. Jen’s “Berry Good Pupsicles” are made with plain yogurt, which is good for dogs in small doses, and can help you introduce some fruit into Fido’s diet.

Don’t forget to bookmark Jen’s blog, My Dog’s Breakfast. She posts a ton of great recipes and ideas for folks who want to prepare healthy and delicious meals for their canine companions.

Here’s her “Pupsicle” recipe:

INGREDIENTS (Makes three to four pupsicles)

- 1 cup of plain yogurt

- 2 TBS peanut butter (preferably natural)

- 1/4 cup blueberries

- 1/4 cup diced strawberries

In a mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter and the yogurt. A spatula works well for this. Then, add in almost all of the blueberries and diced strawberries. Save a bit of each.

Take three plastic or styro cups and place the reserved berries at the bottom of each cup. Then, add the yogurt mixture on top, distributing evenly between the cups. The pupsicles in my picture appear larger than they actually are, by the way. I only filled small plastic cups about 2/3 of the way. This is a good size for a large dog. If you have a medium-sized dog, you might distribute between 4 cups. If you have a smaller dog, use ice cube trays.

Freeze the pupsicles. When you remove from freezer to serve, let them thaw enough upside down to “drop” them out of the cups — or, if you lack patience like me, run them under a bit of hot water to set them free.

If you’re really nice, like my friend Laura, you can make these in popsicle trays and hold them for your dog as he/she licks it like an ice cream cone …

Enjoy — and have yourself a cold treat too!

Remember to catch Fido & Wine every Tuesday and Saturday on The Pet Network at 8 pm ET/PT.

You know, there’s more to the world of pets than dogs and cats. As Fido & Wine‘s Jen Mitchell and Laura Ducharme point out in their latest column for On The Go magazine, fish represent one of the fastest growing pet categories. Check out the article below for lots of fascinating fishy facts.

On the Go is available at TTC and GO Train stations in the Greater Toronto Area. CLICK HERE to check out the current issue.

Don’t forget to catch Fido & Wine on The Pet Network every Tuesday and Saturday at 8 pm ET/PT.

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No, we’re not sure what that post title means, either. But anyway. We love checking in on Fido & Wine producer Jen Mitchell‘s blog, My Dog’s Breakfast. She’s always got wonderfully creative, road-tested new recipes for homemade doggie meals and snacks. Some are delightfully offbeat — like her latest offering: dog cookies studded with colourful veggie chips, so that they resemble those ever-popular M & M’s cookies. (Never feed the latter to your pooch by the way: chocolate is extremely bad for our canine friends.)

Jen says the recipe took a few tries to get right. Here’s the final version:

INGREDIENTS

- 4 tbsp. butter or margarine

- 1/2 cup honey

- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

- 1 cup dry milk

- 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1/2 tsp sea salt

- 2 tbsp. water or carrot juice

- 2 eggs

- 1 cup of “Veggie chips,” dealer’s choice: frozen peas, carrots, beets, potato, etc. Basically, cut up tiny chip-like pieces of dog-friendly veggies. (I used dehydrated ones I bought from my fave Heronview Raw And Natural: you just soak them in hot water and they are ready to use. I also used lots of frozen peas, which I left frozen for additional water content.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Begin by adding soft butter or margarine to your mixing bowl. Give it a good forking until it’s a little whipped! Then, add your carrot juice or water, and the eggs. Beat lightly. Then, add the honey, sea salt, baking soda, and stir together. Finally, in portions, stir in the whole wheat flour. Lastly, add 1/3 of your veggie chips and gently mix into the cookie dough.

Place your cookie dough balls on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Make them the appropriate size for your dog(s). Mine are huge as my dogs are of the pig variety. Then, place your veggie chips on top of the cookies and slightly press in. Leave most of them exposed as the dough will puff up a bit around them. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Let them cool before letting the dogs have a taste.

Follow Jen’s blog HERE.

Here’s a little secret that just about every pet owner knows: having animals in our makes us healthier and happier. Fido & Wine‘s Jen Mitchell and Laura Ducharme devote their column in this month’s On The Go magazine to the mental and physical benefits of pet ownership — and suggest ways that people without pets can still soak up some of the benefits of befriending an animal.

On the Go is available at TTC and GO Train stations in the Greater Toronto Area. CLICK HERE to check out the current issue.

Don’t forget to catch the newest episode of Fido & Wine, “Dogtoberfest,” tomorrow (Tuesday April 17) at 8 pm ET/PT. Repeats on Saturday.

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A salmon dinner for just $1.25? A French omelette for 97 cents? Yup, you read that right. Tonight’s episode of FIDO & WINE (airing at 8 pm ET/PT) reveals the secrets of making “Doggie Dinners On A Dime.” Producer extraordinaire Jen Mitchell has the scoop in the latest post on her must-bookmark blog, My Dog’s Breakfast:

Our latest episode of Fido & Wine, Dog Dinners on a Dime, set out to bust the myth that it’s too expensive to home cook for your dog. My team (Hey-yo Melissa Auger!) went on a mission to pet stores and grocery stores in our area and calculated the average cost of a half a can of wet food and a cup of kibble. (The amount of food each of my labs would need to eat twice per day). The processed meal averaged out at $1.45, so it was a challenge to create some divine dinners with wow factor for less than this!

In the first part of our episode, Kim Clancy of the popular website frugalshopper.ca shared cost saving tips with our hostess with the mostest, Laura Ducharme. She had a lot of great suggestions, and the one that worked really well for us in this case was to check the flyers for sales. We found a great deal on frozen wild salmon filets: Four bucks each. Portioned into four, and served with two sides,  this dinner deal rang in at even less than the average processed meal. TAKE THAT PROCESSED FOOD!

Fresh, wild salmon, pot barley (a better carb for dogs than rice), and vibrant green peas that we always have kicking around – topped with dollop of plain yogurt. I know a lot of people say that salmon is too expensive to eat often, and yes, the unfrozen, thick ruby beauties at the seafood counter are more appealing and cost more than these – but you can turn the less expensive frozen filets into a beautiful meal – just look at the picture! The trick, which I learned while developing this recipe, is to dry the bejeezus out of the filet first with some paper towels. You will get a mushy result if you simply thaw and broil, but a dry fish to roast will give you a nice crust on it like you see in the picture [above].

The other dinner Laura Pants will show you is a Fluffy French Omelette – only 97 cents! KA-CHING!! Get cooking for your dog already – and don’t let me hear you say it’s too expensive! OK, sure, if you’re feeding cheap kibble only, it’s going to be cheaper than these meals … but if you’re buying even a medium priced kibble and mixing with cans or feeding a can as a meal, you will not be breaking your bank with these dinners! Real food for your dog IS an option.

Find recipes and more from tonight’s episode HERE. Follow Jen’s blog HERE.

We’re all a little bit Irish on March 17 — and that goes for our dogs as well. Fido & Wine producer Jen Mitchell decided to get her Irish on and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by creating these shamrock-shaped dog treats. She used spinach and peas instead to colour her “ShamBowWow Treats” the glorious green of the Emerald Isle. You can find loads more fabulous recipes for Fido on Jen’s blog, My Dog’s Breakfast. (Bookmark it now!)

Here’s how she made them:

INGREDIENTS

* 1 cup of whole wheat flour
* 1 cup of cooked peas (from frozen, they’re greener than the canned ones)
* 1 cup of spinach
* 1/4 cup canola oil
* 1 egg
* tsp sea salt
[Optional – 1 additional egg for egg wash]

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a big bowl, add the cup of flour and tsp of sea salt.

Now, puree a cup of peas and a cup of spinach with the canola oil. If you don’t have a power tool – get one. OK, if you don’t, just mash your peas and chop chop chop that spinach like a chump. Er, champ!

Add the green mixture to the flour, and crack in your egg on top. Blend together until dough forms – it will be a damp dough. Now, I like to wrap in parchment paper and put in the fridge to chill for about 20 minutes, but you don’t have to.

Now, sprinkle dough with flour and roll out to about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. You don’t want them too thin or they will turn brown on the edges in the oven. Use your shamrock cookie cutter to cut out your shapes, or use your wily ways with a knife to make them look like a shamrock. OR … you can make circles or squares, they’re still gonna be green and be festive for St. Patty’s day.

[Optional – lightly beat an egg and brush it on top of the treats to make them glossy. You don’t have to do the egg wash, they’ll still look great without it.]

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Follow Jen’s blog HERE.

The Pet Network’s Fido & Wine team of Jen Mitchell and Laura Ducharme have published their latest column in On the Go magazine. This month’s article offers welcome advice for anyone who’s ever felt like they’re waging a losing battle against encroaching pet hair.

On the Go is available at TTC and GO Train stations in the Greater Toronto Area. CLICK HERE to check out the current issue.

Oh, and this is probably a good time to remind you about our contest: The Pet Network and Fido & Wine will be giving one lucky viewer the ultimate shedding solution: a FURminator deShedding Tool, courtesy of our friends at SuperFetch Bloor in Toronto. To enter, visit The Pet Network on FACEBOOK. Contest closes Friday March 30, 2012.