Homemade Suet

It's all about feeding the birds today, y'all! During these cold winter months, suet is where its at for several kinds of birds. Suet is basically a mixture of animal fat, cornmeal, flour and seeds/peanuts that many birds love. Because it is made of fat, it should only be fed during the cold winter months, as the fat can melt and get on the birds feathers causing some issues. Plus, the heat could made it go rancid very quickly.

My birds (and squirrels) were going gangbusters on my suet feeder, so I decided than rather buying the premade suet cakes, I could make my own. Thanks to my friend Google, I came across several recipes for homemade suet. It's also a great way to use up any ingredients that you need to purge from your pantry. Here's what I ended up with:

Homemade Suet:

• 2 cups tallow (I couldn't find any tallow, which is beef fat, so I ended up using lard, which is pork fat)
• 2 cups crunchy peanut butter
• 6 cups cornmeal (I ended up using cornmeal mix because that's what I had. It is a mixture of cornmeal and flour. Next time I will probably go with actual cornmeal to help the consistency)
• 1 cup flour
• 8 cups birdseed
• Dried Fruit (optional)

First, melt the lard and peanut butter in a double boiler or the microwave.

Gag....

After everything is nice and smooth, start mixing up the rest of the ingredients.

It was really funny mixing this suet up. It's not every day I cook with lard and/or birdseed! Ok, I've never cooked with birdseed.

Once everything is mixed, put it onto a pan and throw in the fridge to harden up.

I was going to be all fancy for the suet that I was taking to my office and cut out little Valentine Day suet cakes.

I even had red/pink/white string and everything to hang it with but that got nixed because my suet was a little too soft. Hence why all cornmeal would probably work better than the cornmeal mix.

Anyways, after your suet has hardened up just cut it up into rectangles and put in zip-lock bags. Store your suet in the freezer until ready to use. Below is a typical suet feeder.

Yellow-rumped Warbler enjoying some suet

The guys at Birdsong Nature Center have their suet in a cypress stump, which makes me want one really bad now.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-winged blackbird

So go ahead and make some homemade suet - your bird friends will thank you!

{ps -Stacey I can feel you rolling your eyes at the post while I am writing it. Enjoy!}

Christmas Home Tour

Happy holiday season, everyone! I just wanted to pop in and share a few pictures of my Christmas decorations. It's nothing fancy, but I know that my mom wants to see what all I have done. (ha!) So here you go mom. Merry Christmas :-D

I always decorate my tree in gold, silver, bronze, and whatever color that brown ribbon is. I also love to have lots of mercury glass and winter white thrown in as well. As you can tell, I love all my little birds on the tree!

Since I didn't use a real tree, I still wanted some fresh pine in the room. I grabbed a live wreath from Lowe's and put it on my coffee table with some candles and a poinsettia.

In the foyer, I added a huge arrangement of cotton that I picked from my father's field and a reindeer. This is where I put all the Christmas cards I receive on display. I just love getting Christmas cards!

Ignore the present..it was too big to fit under the tree!

Speaking of Christmas cards, I actually got some out this year. So if you didn't receive one from me- here is your virtual one- with much love!

A few more touches around the living room include hanging my wreath over the console table and adding some garland around the tv unit.

My mom found this Christmas pillow for my couch. Love it!

It's not easy finding black and white Christmas pillows, so I'm glad she found that one.

Moving on to the kitchen, I put up the tree that contains all of my special ornaments. Granted, the tree is pretty sad and puny and I didn't decorate it at all other than the ornaments, but it is still my favorite because it has all those ornaments that are very dear.

This is my new ornament that my parents gave me for the year. 

One main thing I love about Christmas is that I get to pull out my Christmas china. I have two place settings out on display.

I also took down the thing I normally have on display on the hutch and put up a few Christmas items.

I put out another Christmas pillow on the bench and I'm totally excited that my Christmas cactus that I inherited from my grandmother is finally showing signs of blooming. My poor kitchen has turned into a greenhouse since I have pulled all my plants from outside in. However, after I took this photo I decided I was done with the ferns and took them back outside. I am soooo over sweeping up after that thing constantly! Oh- and I repainted the bench because, well yeah it needed it.

Finally, the last thing I did was put up a small table top tree in my bedroom. I've been sick, so it's been nice to lay in bed with the tree lit up. Makes me feel a little bit less bahumbug and a little more in the spirit of the season.

That's it, folks! Hope you enjoyed my mini Christmas home tour. Here's to a very Merry Christmas to you all!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life,and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

~ John1:1-18 

Playing Catch-Up

Get ready for an epic (and rare apparently) blog post today. I have lots to catch up on ! It's nothing too exciting. Just a few pictures that I had on my phone.

1.  My nephew celebrated his 6th birthday. I can't believe he is that old. Time surely does fly!

2. I never shared my Halloween decorations. Not that it is anything special, but I did add some LED stick lights to my ferns to add some extra light out there for the trick-or-treaters. 

And speaking of those massive ferns. I had to bring them in when it turned a little bit cooler and it is like a jungle in my kitchen. 

Please ignore the plates on the wall. I am missing one that I need to hang and some other stuff that needs to go up there as well to balance everything out. But seriously- look how big those ferns are and how they dwarf that bench! Thanks Miracle Grow. 

3. Oyster weather! I have really taken advantage of these cooler temperatures and the fact that it is perfect oyster weather. The other weekend, David and I went and grabbed 1/2 bushel and went to town! We set up the TV outside to watch some football and it was perfect. 

This past weekend, my brother, his wife, and Barrett came and stayed with me and we got some more oysters and watched some more football on the patio. 

In other oyster-related news: David and I were invited to an oyster roast in Savannah a couple of months back. Guess the Charleston/coastal/northern communities don't eat raw oysters, they roast them. I'll take mine raw. Thank you very much (or fried of course, I am still a southern girl!). But it was in a great place on the marsh on Wilmington Island. 

David wanted to stay on the dock forever and watch the sting rays. It was pretty fascinating to watch them. 

4. The other weekend we had a girls weekend in Destin. My mom, her sister (whom I refer to as Birdie and you can too), and my cousin Stacey had a great time soaking in some south Walton County, FL goodness. 

Now living in Georgia, I really miss being able to slide over to Destin anytime. I used to sneak off to Destin during college on my breaks to do a little shopping. It was great! Or Stacey and I would meet up there to do our annual Christmas shopping together. Sigh...dang you , Georgia! :-) 

On Saturday we drove over to Seaside for lunch and ate at Bud and Alley's. It's great if for none other than the dachshund on their sign :-D

We ate up on the top deck and the weather was absolutely divine!

5. Now for the one thing I have done that I was truly the most excited about! First off, there was a whole lotta documentary watching this last couple of weeks. 

That's right!!!! SQUEAL!! The Eagles concert was this past week!

Image via

My brother Brad and I drove up to Birmingham, AL to meet David. We stayed with David's sweet, sweet sister, Frances. We had a blast! It's always fun to be in the car with your sibling for 5+ hours, right? Ha! He's a mess for sure. I brought my ipad with me so that he could watch the Eagles documentary on the way up there (it is almost right at 4 hours long) to get him pumped up. We got to Birmingham in the middle of rush hour. I was driving. He looks up does, a little scream, tries to push his imaginary breaks and then proclaims that he is just going to focus on his movie and not look up. He didn't want to see death before him on the road. Ha! I'm not that bad a driver I assure you. 

Frances took us for a little tour of Birmingham while we were there. We went and saw the Vulcan, which was pretty neat. 

The views were absolutely stunning from up there. We had a fabulous time and I was so happy to get to see the Eagles before they break up again. Ha!

6. I decided that it wasn't too early to start getting into the Christmas spirit. I pulled out my Christmas wreath. It looks so itty bitty in this picture. Thanks iphone :-)

7. And just because it wouldn't be a post of mine until one of my little boys showed their face, here is JJ and his special friend. 

He and Brutus have fought over this stuffed dachshund more than anything else. Guess they just love him that much. 

Well- here's to the weekend! Hope it's a great one!