Everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit around here, well almost.....

It's only a week away from the day that the jolly fat man treats those who have been extra special good this past year. The animals don their best holiday head gear to show their spirit.

 

 

Chet is looking quite dapper.

 

Chantilly, making fun of Lady's headgear......

 

"Oh, you didn't tell me I had to wear one of these dumb things also."

 

 

Mollie is convinced she has been really, Really good and has high hopes for a stuffed stocking Christmas morning.

 

But right now a nap would feel good, barking from 2 - 4 AM tends to wear a dog out.

 

Zoe is contemplating revising the list she sent to Santa, she's thinking a subscription to the Mouse of the Month club would be fun.

 

And then there is Clyde.....

 

"I'm not wearing no freaking Santa hat, you never know who's head it's been on!!"

Christmas baking.....for my chickens

While most kitchens are alive with fragrant aroma of Christmas cookies, pies, breads and other yummy baked goods, I decided to fix my chickens a treat, Knockoff Flock Block. Say that real fast and it sounds like something naughty. Flock Block is a commercial brand of chickie goodies, held together with molasses and other binding ingredients. I could go buy one at Bomgaars but it's more fun to save some money.

Mix some cracked corn, the by-product of the corn stove screenings, their layer feed, oats, sunflower seeds, wheat germ, wheat flour, raisins, unsalted chopped peanuts, some dog kibble and meal worms, if you happen to have any in the house. I did not. It's the perfect time to get rid of old chips, crackers or buggy stuff out of your cupboard. To bind it together takes eggs, since the shell is good for the chickens, just smash the entire egg and beat, molasses and coconut oil, I used bacon grease. Mix it all up, put it in a pan and bake for about 30 minutes. You can't believe how good it smells, I had a hard time not snacking on it.

 

I cut it into large squares and put one in a suet feeder and hung it in the covered scratch yard. The chickens were scared of it and ran into the coop.

 

Guess that's why they are called chickens.

 

They are also curious so it wasn't long before they had to come out and see just what it was. Gabby Gertie was the first one to try it.

 

Um....

 

 

....tasty!

 

 

It wasn't long before others were lined up for some flock block.

 

I also made them a suet block, using a lot of the same dry ingredients, I spread it out in a waxed paper lined Clementine box. Then poured bacon grease over the top and mixed it well. (I save my bacon grease all year long just to make suet cakes for the birds and chickens in the winter.

 

Stick it out in the garage to harden, cut into sections and they go into a dog bowl.

 

The chickens aren't bashful, they love suet.

 

 

It doesn't last long, yeesch! Bacon grease??

 

I guess they don't have to worry about cholesterol.

 

You can find the official recipes on Pinterest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All dogs go to Heaven

Sadie crossed that rainbow bridge today and was greeted on the other side by her cousins, Chloe and Buster who preceded her earlier this year and all those good dogs who went before them. Life was not good anymore, she had more problems than an enlarged heart and she is finally at peace after a tough week.

We once had a guest minister who, during the children's sermon, told them that their pets don't go to heaven because they have no soul. I told him on the way out that he may believe that but he had no business telling others, especially children, that they won't see their pets in heaven. If that is true, I don't want to go either. All you have to do is look into your dog's eyes and you will see deep into their soul.

Mollie and Bruiser were hovering around Sadie as she went gently into the night and I buried her in the McGregor garden. In the spring I will plant a rose bush, that was the only thing I could plant and not have my big dogs destroy it. Kind of retaliation.

I love this quote from Chicken Soup for the Cat and Dog Lover's Soul, it is so true....

"The final cause of dogs having such short lives...is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time?"   Sir Walter Scott

Thanks everyone for their kind words and well wishes.

Mollie is sleeping well tonight on Sadie's heated bed pad.

Something I would do different with a new puppy.

After the loss of their dear Buster, Tom and Carol have a darling puppy, Tinkerbelle. AHHHHH.....

 

But I do not envy their puppy potty training in Minneapolis in the winter, this morning was -16, YIKES!!

 

This is little bitty baby Mollie at 6 weeks, her first face off with a cat bigger than her.

 

 

If I knew then, what I know now, I would have started grooming her right then.

 

Because one day she would weigh 75# and run through the grove after who knows what, and come back covered in sticktights.

 

 

When I try to clean her up, she turns into Crazy Dog!

 

 

Mollie snaps, snarls and tries to grab the brush and the hair that is coming out.

 

I have to pin her to the ground to comb her, it must be a sight to see us wrestling in the grass.

 

After the battle, I have my beautiful dog back.....

 

 

....until the next time Mollie hears things go bump in the grove and she's off, to protect her turf.

 

 

 

Your Sunday funny!

My sister, Susan, the glass artist.

My brother, Tom, married extremely well and I'm often the beneficiary of Sue's wonderful fused glass creations. I had already posted a picture of these three little glass birds she made me 2 years ago after seeing some. Ask and you shall receive!

 

This summer Sue surprised me with two more garden stakes, a cat and a frog for the pond.

 

 

But she blew me away the other day when we stopped by their house and she gave me this adorable ornament of my sweet Zoe!!

 

 

All this because I gave her some deer repellant stuff I'd bought on a whim and realized as long as I have a big dog, I don't need to worry about the deer.

 

Now I'm combing the house for other stuff I don't use, you wouldn't believe what I found in a tub in the back of the closet.

 

Boy is she going to be surprised next time I see her.

 

 

Confession time, my most embarrassing cooking moment.

Last week I was caught up in the pre-Thanksgiving/Christmas season and had some new recipes to try. Some I planned for gifts. (You will be very glad I didn't give them to you!)

The first recipe that caught my eye was one my sister in law, Sue, pinned on Pinterest, Peppermint Meltaways. I love all things mint and you mix butter, powdered sugar, peppermint extract, flour and cornstarch and wondrous things will happen.

I was short on powdered sugar so pulled out my trusty Vita-Mix blender, it is so powerful that 2 cups of sugar and 2 TBSP of cornstarch, blended on high for 2 minutes, viola! Powdered sugar! I couldn't find the little gasket that fits between the top and blender but luckily had a spare in the drawer. Otherwise I would have had sugar particles floating throughout the kitchen.

I made 2 batches of powdered sugar while I was at it, since my next recipe also used it. I mixed up the cookies and as I was scooping them out onto parchment paper, I noticed small green flecks in the dough. I didn't put anything green in the cookies. They were chewy, like foam rubber but had no taste. I picked them out as I formed the cookies, still puzzling over it.

The frosting for the cookies was powdered sugar, peppermint extract, butter and milk, as I mixed it up, there were the green flecks again! Peppermint is green, right? Even though the extract was clear, I was convinced something in it was reacting in the mixing and it was clumping.

Again, I picked out the flecks, frosted the cookies, sprinkled the smashed peppermint canes on the top and they are DELICIOUS!!!!

My next recipe was for a hot chocolate mix out of the HyVee cooking magazine. I made a mix last year but it wasn't very good, this one looked wonderful. It used powdered sugar, cocoa, dried milk, smashed peppermint candies, chocolate pudding mix and some instant cocoa. Yeah, Yeah, I know, you can just mix up the instant cocoa but this looked so much richer and it is!!

Bruce and I were both out in the cold the other day and when I came in I tried out the hot chocolate mix and loved it. When Bruce came in I asked if he would like a cup and he said yes. I asked him how he liked it and he said, "It's pretty good but is it supposed to have some paper in it??"

There were those darned little green rubbery flecks again, I didn't have any in mine. What is going on? I was sure it was the liquid peppermint until I remembered there wasn't any in the hot chocolate mix. I needed to get to the bottom of this, the other thing they both had was the powdered sugar. I took down my container and spooned some in a glass of water, instantly there were little green lumps floating!!!

This was indeed a conundrum, until a light bulb popped on in my head. This was the powdered sugar I made in my Vita Mix, remember the missing lid gasket? Yes, I think it was in the bottom of the container when I dumped the sugar and cornstarch in and I ground it up!!

I got out the sifter and put all the powdered sugar through it and got out several lumps but the small ones passed right through so I dumped it all.

So now you know my most embarrassing cooking moment and I learned a valuable lesson to look before I  grind, I guess I was lucky it was something that innocuous, not something nasty like a dead mouse!

You are probably thinking right now if I come to your house bearing gifts of food, you might want to bar the door and call out the dogs.