Anywho, one project I did finally get done with Keenan was making our own suet cakes. As you know, we loves the birds, LOOOOOVES the birds (or in Teague's words, "BUUHHHHDD!!!"). So, naturally, if one loves something, one thinks of ways to further enjoy it, that's just logic. I had been pondering how to make this happen for awhile, and finally struck on the idea after doing some cooking. So, follow the flow, and make your own, oh adventurous SAHP (Stay At Home Parents) friends of mine.
First, you need the fat. I got mine from roasting bones for bone broth. You can get chunks of suet from a butcher and render them if you desire (or just cheat and put the chunks in the feeder which works just as well, but only in colder weather), but we do the bone broth because we get multiple things as a result of our efforts. As a side note, you can also use the fat you get from roasting bones to cook with like bacon grease, makes for a very beefy flavor. Links for bone broth (this still works for beef bones, but yes, I have gotten it to work for venison bones as well), and rendering tallow.
Now, once I got the fat from the bones, I had it set aside in a covered glass container in the fridge. It keeps FOREVER like that, so I was down with it. After I got that out and let the whole thing go to room temperature, I pulled out my blender and proceeded to process down some field corn that was leftover from deer season, and then two varieties of pumpkin seeds that we haven't eaten as much of as we should, and don't want to waste. Once I had the ground corn and pumpkin seeds in their separate containers ready to be used, I popped the fat in the microwave and melted it. Then, alternating between pumpkin seeds and corn, I slowly layered fat and cracked/processed corn/seeds until it was pretty full. When layering, realize that the cracked/blended seeds will soak up some fat in the process, so make sure to have a fork or spoon around to spread it around. I put some of the smaller pumpkin seeds on top completely whole just for aesthetics, and that was it. It then went into the freezer where I let it set. I did make sure once it looked pretty solid to run a knife around the edge to make sure it would pop out when I was done. See the pictures for the final product and a bit of the process.
Interestingly enough, the birds did not immediately start eating it, they stayed pretty focused on the store bought cakes and chunks of actual beef suet we had out there. However, yesterday, I saw a Red-Bellied Woodpecker going to town on it, so that was cool. I do not have a picture of any birds as they won't stay still long enough because our suet feeder is uber close to the window and we freak them out regularly. However, if you need a 20 minute project and you have the right things around for it, it is really fun, especially if the little hands help you sift through the corn to make sure the hunks that are too big for the birds to eat get sifted out and put back to get ground up some more. Let me know if you try it.
I also realize that most of my posts have something more than just a how to in them, and if you haven't noticed yet that I'm learning how to do this on a daily basis, you aren't reading closely enough. So let me say this, if this isn't your idea of fun, cool. I always hate reading stuff that makes me feel like a bad parent because I don't think I can handle the particular amazing activity idea some child-rearing guru just posted. Honestly, if you don't want to do something with your kid, then don't. This particular activity I'm posting does take some preparation, and some rather specific ingredients. This isn't the only thing I've seen that has those types of components of specificity and preparation. Some people are set up to do stuff, and some people aren't. If you have to change your entire lifestyle to do some activity with your kids, well, I hope that was a change in lifestyle you planned to do in the first place. There's my "deeper meaning", don't change who you are with your kids because some pretty instagram nonsense told you to.
Note: I don't have pretty instagram pictures, so you should totally find me more sincere and do my activity :)
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