this one's for the birds...

I like making things. Not only do I like having a finished product that I created, but I like the process of creating. I like it so much that I will spend the good portion of a Saturday making suet cakes that I could buy at the store for less than $2 each.

Okay, that's a bit of a stretch. I didn't realize that it was going to take me so long, or how much effort would be involved. I'm not so sure this is a project I'll be tackling again.

Although, if I get some new feathered visitors to my backyard --or my cardinals come back-- I may rethink this.

You can use vegetable shortening, but since we had beef fat included in the cow share we bought this past summer, I used that. When using animal fat, you are supposed to chop it up before you put in the pan, but since I wanted to handle this as little as possible, I broke it up with a knife IN the pan. That worked okay, but I did eventually had to put some of the bigger chunks into my Magic Bullet, as they didn't seem to want to melt.

After it melted, I strained the very lumpy (ew) liquid through four layers of cheesecloth into another pan and left it for a few hours to cool. I forgot to grab photos of these steps.

Then, you melt it a second time, and strain it again. It looks a lot less disgusting the second time around, and you can almost pretend you're not poking a spoon around in animal fat.

Once it has been strained that second time, you don't have to let it cool before you start adding the treats for the birdies. First, I added a large dollop of peanut butter and stirred until smooth. Next, I added in some cornmeal...

...and then some rolled oats...

...and then the birdseed. 

Poured into a foil-lined 8x8 pan. (Most of the birdseed and all of the oats sank to the bottom. Oh well.) Left overnight to cool and set.

End result!
Four suet cage-sized cakes that smell whole lot like peanut butter fudge. The missing piece is already outside waiting to be sampled and these remaining three will go into the freezer for later.

And now? 

I'm going to spend the remainder of the day stalking my bird feeders watching for any takers via the kitchen window :)