Bird Seed Cakes - Weekend recipe

These are a perfect indoor project for you and the kids to do that will let you feed the birds all winter.  You can get seed at the chain hardware store, but for better quality seed, try your local hardware or a specialty wild bird supply store, agriculture supply or livestock feed store and pet store.  You can get a variety of seed and you can ask for advice about what is best for the birds in your area.

These molded bird seed cakes can be hung from eaves and tree branches and replaced as needed.  All you need to make this recipe is unflavored gelatin and ways to shape the final product-- and seed of course!

BIRDSEED CAKES
1 - 1oz. package of unflavored gelatin

¼ cup water

1 ¼ cup bird seed (any combination is fine)

Combine unflavored gelatin and water in a saucepan over low heat. Stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved and add 1 1/4 cups of any combination of seeds the birds in your area enjoy. Mix until all seeds are coated.

Pack the mix firmly into molds.  Circles, wreaths, hearts, etc. all work fine. Large cookie cutters work well as a mold too.

Pierce the mold near the top edge of the molded seeds with a wood skewer or a drinking straw and allow the molded seed to set up.  Should take an hour or so.  Don’t forget to make that hole or these are tough to hang.

Indoor Crafty ideas for winter, How Tuesday

There is nothing so bad as posting an interesting title, but leaving the post blank!

Last Week I was going to be away from my computer so I posted a few blogs ahead. But few of them posted exactly right, so for those who looked at this before, I am sorry.  Here is the actual info:

Terracotta Bird Feeder / Bird Bath

Make the outdoor animals happy and give yourself something fun to view.

Make a bird feeder from a terracotta pot.

These make good gifts too!

Using a plain colored terracotta pot with a tray, invert the pot and the tray.  Use the upside down pot as a base and the right side up tray on top of the pot bottom.  Super glue the tray onto the pot bottom. You can use any size you like.  Now using paints, stamps, or permanent markers, decorate the pot.  Fill it with seed to create a bird feeder.  In the summer fill it with water to be a bird bath.






Tortilla Snow Flakes

We have not had a snow storm of any consequence here in Chicagoland this year, much to my disappointment, so when I found this activity in files I just had to try it.  It is very fun to try with your kids.

All you need is a few flour tortillas, melted butter and colored sugar (or food coloring and white sugar)
    or for a more adult tasting treat use olive oil and a blend of dried herbs like thyme, savory, parsley and oregano

Fold the tortillas like you fold paper to make snowflakes.

Cut out all the little bits just like you would for paper snowflakes.

Then open them up.

Place them on a baking sheet and paint with melted butter.  Sprinkle on colored sugar and bake for a few minutes. It's a great snack and a craft in one!

Scented Stones

I tried these with the Girl Scouts a few years ago and they were a big hit.

1 ½ cups white flour
¼ cup salt
¼ tsp cornstarch
2/3 cup distilled water, brought to a boil
1 Tbls essential oil or fragrance oil (any scent you want or make smaller batches and use multiple scents.)
2 tsp dried herbs if desired

Mix all the ingredients together in a disposable container until a dough forms.  Roll the dough into balls about the size of a large marble.  Flatten them with your fingers to look like pebbles and rocks. 

They must be allowed to dry very thoroughly.  If you are not sure if they are dry spread on parchment paper on a baking sheet and set in low oven 200 degrees for several hours.  Once they are dry place a few pebbles in a terracotta tray with a few dried herbs or leaves and pine cones for a decorative display.

Using dried herbs in the blend will give them a more earthy coloring.


 

Making Gifts Holiday Series - Gifts for Birds

Last year I wrote a set of posts on Decorating with Herbs.  This year I thought I would suggest a few hand-made gifts with herbs and such.  This will link very nicely to the Advent Calendar I am posting soon which will have other gift suggestions and ideas to make with herbs.  These will be different.

To start is a gift for our feathered freinds, who often get ignored during the winter months!

One of my great delights as a child in Northeastern Ohio in the winter was to watch the birds that gathered around the bird feeders in our backyard which my father faithfully filled each morning. Without the ability to put a bird feeder on my apartment patio, I let several containers go to seed and leave them out for the birds and squirrels.  Then in January I turn to something like this, I got this recipe originally from an internet freind who I think I got it from Susan Wittig.

Just-for-Birds Pudding
½ pound lard

1 cup crunchy peanut butter
½ cup raisins
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup mixed bird seeds
¼ cup honey or molasses
about 3-4 cups cornmeal

Soften the lard and peanut butter briefly in the microwave to make it easier to mix. Add raisins, seeds, honey or molasses, and as much cornmeal as the mixture will absorb. I keep this in the refrigerator and soften it in the microwave when I'm ready to put it out. I "butter" it directly onto tree branches and place big dollops of it on the tops of bird feeders; it will, however, stain tree bark. I have frozen it in a square cake pan, cut it into blocks, and laid the boxes on the floor of my patio on foil.

Other Winter-time Treats for Birds

• Hang strings of popcorn from tree branches, or scatter popped corn with the other seeds in the feeder.
• Many of summer's flowers will provide dried seeds for tasty winter treats for birds: sunflowers and coneflowers, especially. Store them in mouse-proof tins or in the freezer.
• Punch holes in a mostly-empty orange or grapefruit half (leave some for the birds!) and hang from a tree branch.
• Be sure your birds have plenty of fresh water—and keep the ice clear so they can get to it.