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Cold weather is for the birds! At least at our house it is. As the cool of fall and winter months pushes us back inside our cozy home, we spend more time in the kitchen, making tasty treats for... you guessed it... the birds outside the window.
Here in the north our feathered friends that stay with us through the winter months get extra special treats. As I've been told by family and friends from border to border and ocean to ocean, these goodies are loved by birds in all parts of the country.
Delicious bird treats can be made from many kitchen leftovers from cooking fat and suet to stale peanut butter, bread, crackers and nuts. So don't throw that old food away. Recycle it, along with clean tuna cans and mesh onion bags and bottle caps. You can use them all in some of our family recipes that follow.
One of the winter favorites of our birds (which include chickadees, blue jays, juncos, starlings, cardinals and sparrows... as well as others) is corn bread.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. corn meal
1 t. baking powder
1/4 c. fat drippings or lard
1 1/2 c. water
Directions:
Mix all ingredients and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. When done, corn bread can be placed on feeder or leave it in a large piece and put it in a mesh onion bag and hang from a branch or feeder.
Another way to warm your kitchen and feed the birds is with Grandma's Sunflower Seed Cookies.
Ingredients:
1 c. softened, unsalted butter
3 beaten eggs
3 1/2 c. sifted flour
1 t. baking soda
1 1/2 t. cream of tartar
sunflower seeds
Directions:
Setting sunflower seeds aside, mix all other ingredients together until soft dough forms. Roll out onto a lightly floured surface and cut cookies into any shape you desire. Sprinkle sunflower seeds on top and press firmly into dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. Cookies can be hung by making a 1/4" hole in top before baking them. When cooled add a string and hang as desired. In damp weather it is best to lay them on feeder or tray as they will crumble.
A simpler treat to make that is enjoyed every bit as much is called Fat Cakes. The Fat Cakes mixture can be put in small cans, like tuna cans, or stuffed into bottle caps screwed to an old piece of log. Directions for both types of feeders follow the recipe.
Ingredients:
2 c. of melted fat
2 c. corn meal
1 c. peanut butter
Directions:
Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan over medium heat. Cook for 3 minutes or until well blended. Pour into containers and refrigerate or freeze until needed.
There are a couple of old fashioned ways to serve up this recipe If you use the small cans, before filling them, drill 3, 1/8" evenly spaced holes around top sides of can. Attach 3, 8" pieces of string or wire to can. When can is filled it is ready to be hung from a branch or feeder.
Another old favorite is to make a feeder log to hang from a tree. Using a piece of an old branch, approximately 3" in diameter and 12" long, drill a hole through log, from side to side, 1 1/2" down from top. Run a wire or string through the log for later attachment to tree. Take bottle caps (the plastic 1/2" to 1" deep ones work best) and screw them to the log. Stuff caps with Fat Cakes mixture and hang the log from the tree. No bottle caps? No problem. Just drill 1/2" x 1" holes into the log and fill them, or come up with your own version of a Fat Cakes feeder. After all, half the fun of making the recipes is in finding creative ways to serve them.
My all time favorite bird treat recipe is also the easiest, least time consuming and kid friendliest. It is the Peanut Butter Pine Cone.
Ingredients:
3 parts peanut butter
1 part grit (Grit can be corn meal, stale bread crumbs or cracker crumbs, or finely chopped stale nuts. Peanut butter from a jar can stick in a bird's throat so a form of grit is necessary to prevent choking).
Bird seed
Directions: Tie a string around wide end of pine cone, leaving at least 5" on both ends for tying cone to a tree or feeder. Place peanut butter in microwave until soft. Stir grit into peanut butter in a deep bowl. Roll pine cone in peanut butter and then dip and roll in bird seed. Allow to sit on wide end of cone for at least 1/2 hour before hanging.
Upon hanging the pine cone, as with all of these treats, your final task is to sit back, relax and enjoy the show of beauty that will soon be outside your window, as your feathered friends find their way to say "Thank you".
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