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Fun Finger Food
By Brenda Hyde
These snacks are perfect for making when you arelearning about the birds in your backyard and yourstate. Make these "Bird Snacks" with your kids for lunch or snack time!
BIRD CAKES:
Spread cream cheese on rice cakes. Use raisins, sunflowerseeds, crushed nuts, and chocolate sprinkles to push into thecake so it looks a little like a "suet cake" that the birds enjoy.
You can also soften cream cheese with a little milk and forminto balls, then slightly flatten with your hand to form a cake.Press the cake into any of the above items that have beenplaced on a plate, then serve on crackers.
KID FEED
In a large bowl mix together sunflower seeds (the shelledvariety for people), peanuts, mini chocolate chips, andraisins. Depending on how much you want to makeyou can use 1 cup each or equal amounts more or less.Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Meanwhilebuy and wash an inexpensive plastic bird feeder-makingsure it's completely dry. Serve your "kid feed" in the birdfeeder for a memorable snack time! Be sure to take pictures,so each child has one to glue in their Nature Notebook.
SeptemberLady "Born and have lived in Southern MD most of my life. My husband and I just finished building a new home on the family farm, where I hope to retire in the near future.
My interests: Doll collecting, cookbook collector (especially old ones), antiques, family/friend get-togethers, cooking/baking, flower and vegetable gardening, bird-watching."
Memorial Day: Backyard Grilling Memorial Day signals the start of barbecue season. Everyone wants to light that fire and charcoal that first meal. A few tips might pre- vent your entree from becoming a "Burnt Offering."
Read these tips for plenty of grilling ideas, make this year's barbecue perfect!
Growing and Using Garlic Chives Garlic chives, Allium tuberosum, is a hardy perennial (Zones 3-9) that will grow to about 12 inches high. The stems are skinnier and flat, instead of hollow as are regular chives, with greenish white blooms that are about an inch wide and not as rounded. They bloom in the summer rather than spring. The bloom stalks grow much taller than the leaves, sometimes up to 30 inches.
The stems and blooms are both edible and have a mild garlic onion taste. I've noticed many writers will list this as primarily as an Asian herb, as they are also known as Chinese chives, Chinese leeks, ku chai (China) or Nira (Japan), but it has many other uses as well!
The Perfect Porch Swing Perhaps it is the soothing rhythm or the reassuring creak of the porch swing that attracts us. Perhaps it is the companionable silence or quiet conversation. Or maybe swings simply remind us of more genteel times.
Although porch swings can be purchased in a wide range of materials, the most common are wicker and wood. You can also make your own porch swing from one of the myriad of woodworking patterns available at garden centers, hardware stores, or on the Internet.
Memorial Day: Backyard Grilling
Growing and Using Garlic Chives
The Perfect Porch Swing