Bird Treats

The other day, Bug and I stirred up some bird seed treats for our bird friends in our yard! I wanted to post the recipe on here for ya'all...very easy and fun...just some ingredients that we don't normally have at home that I had to go out and get, and you could probably substitute a few things but I didn't think of it at the time. My dad gave me a few suet feeders for our birds, ones that he didn't need anymore! So that was very sweet and I'm excited to see the birds gobble up their new fun food! THANKS DAD!!!

Here's the recipe, taken from a neat book that I received as a gift awhile back, "Company's Coming: Gifts From The Kitchen" by Jean Pare. (I don't know how to underline book titles or add accents on letters in this format yet!) It's a great book that has many homemade food and other gifts. I am always inspired to create something when I look at it!

Bird Feed Treats

(*Note at top of recipe says "save the mesh bags from onions, lemons, limes, [oranges], or tomatoes-on-the-vine to fill with this bird treat).

dry bread crumbs 2 cups
commercial birdseed 1 cup
chopped unsalted peanuts 1 cup (I couldn't find unsalted, so I had to use "lightly salted")
chopped raisins 1 cup
whole wheat flour 1/2 cup
yellow cornmeal 1/4 cup
cream of wheat cereal (not instant) 1/4 cup

chunky peanut butter (no salt, no sugar) 1 cup
suet (or vegetable shortening) 1 cup
bacon drippings 2 tbsp.

mesh bags (or a suet feeder!)
butchers string or jute twine

Directions:
Combine first 7 ingredients in large bowl.

Heat peanut butter, suet and bacon drippings in small saucepan on medium, stirring occasionally until melted. Gradually stir into birdseed mixture until moistened. Pack mixture into ice cube trays. Chill well or freeze.

Fill mesh bags (or suet feeder) with up to 10 cubes. Close. Tie with string. Hang from sturdy branch or shepherds hook. Makes about 4 dozen cubes.

Note: You could also just place a few cubes on your deck, fence rail or a bird feeder platform.

Christmas Cookie Exchange!!!

Well, yesterday for our MO_PS group at church, we had our annual Christmas cookie exchange! I love this day and look forward to it with great anticipation...and have been planning for WEEKS now, trying to find the right recipe, the right cookie boxes...way too much detail, I know, but sometimes I obsess about things like that. That's the perfectionist in me.

SO, all that to say, I found a great recipe in an old cookie magazine from La_nd O' La_kes that I purchased many years ago. I tried it out on my family and they liked it, so I made some more! Here it is - ENJOY! Oh, and this is a basic chocolate cookie recipe, but there are many variations that I listed below...and I chose to do the chips & mint one, retitling the cookies, "Hint of Mint White Chocolate Chip Cookies."

Chocolate Drop Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour (or, you could do a blend of white flour and whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Variations

Chips & Mac Nuts
1 cup semi-sweet real chocolate chips or vanilla milk chips
1 cup chopped macadamia nuts

Fruit & Cinnamon
2 cups chopped dried fruit mix (or whatever dried fruit you like...cranberries, anyone?)
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Chips & Mint (***This is the one I made!)
2 cups vanilla milk chips (aka, white chocolate chips)
1/2 teaspoon mint extract

Toffee & Chips
1 cup toffee pieces
1 cup semi-sweet real chocolate chips

Peanut Butter
1 (10 oz.) package (2 cups) peanut-butter flavored chips

Cherry
1 cup chopped maraschino cherries, well drained

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In large mixer bowl combine butter, sugar & brown sugar. Beat at medium peed, scraping bowl often, until creamy (1 to 2 minutes). Add eggs & vanilla; continue beating until well mixed (1 minute). Reduce speed to low; add flour, cocoa, baking soda & salt. Beat until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes).

2. Stir in ingredients from one of the variations.

3. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 1 inch apart onto cookie sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until set. Let stand 2 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet. Enjoy!

It says it makes approx. 3 dozen cookies.