A Special Dinner

So it just happens to be Valentine's Day. My hubby and I have never "celebrated" this Hallmark holiday. Wait, I guess that's not true. Our first V-day, I teased him about getting me some cute stuffed animal that would sit on my shelf and collect dust. I decided to be a smart-ass and I bought a $4 puppy holding a heart and left it on his bed. It sat on his shelf and collected dust until my real puppy dog decided it belonged to him. And that is the extent of our Valentine's Day celebration.

The real reason for this special dinner is that my grandparents recently moved into town and we inherited some of the contents of their freezer. I have never been a fan of eating duck. But here we had an almost 6lb duck taking up an entire shelf in our mini-freezer. My hubby pulled it out and decided he wanted to try it.

I was in class all day and right before I left the lab, I realized I still needed a recipe to cook this duck. From working in a restaurant, I knew that duck and cherry go really well together. Google to the rescue! A quick search for a duck and cherry recipe and I found this gem: Succulent Stuffed Roast Duck With Balsamic Cherry Sauce. A quick stop at the grocery store and by 6:30 we were eating. Feast your eyes on my cooking adventure.

Stuffed Roast Duck with Balsamic Cherry Sauce
Crescent Rolls
Asparagus with Almond slices
and a Mixed Green Salad

Brown Rice/Sage/Sauteed Onion/Pecan Stuffing

Reducing the Cherry/Red Wine/Balsamic Vinegar Sauce

Finished Sauce

I'm still not a fan of duck, but even I have to admit this dinner was pretty yummy.

Homemade Suet and Winter birds

Last week my hubby and I made homemade suet - his idea. He wanted to reuse the hamburger and bacon grease instead of throwing it out. I'm so proud!

Our recipe - which was really more like me throwing stuff into a pot.

First I melted the left-over fat (we keep it in a progresso soup can)
Then I added 1/2 pound of lard to try and spread out the amount of salt.
While the fat and lard were melting I added 2 giant scoops of peanut butter.
Melt completely but don't boil.

Then the fun came: I added
- dried mealworms
- niger thistle
- raisins
- 2 flavors of craisins
- and mixed seed containing: black oil and regular sunflowers, peanuts, and millet
add enough to make it almost a solid

Then we added a TON of whole wheat flour until it was the consistency of dough.

Put it in 9x9 recycled aluminum tins and put in freezer. We pulled one out that afternoon after it had frozen and put some out for our feathered friends to try - just in time for the cold weather to hit.

So far the chickadees and white-breasted nuthatches seem to love it.

I haven't been fast enough to take pictures of the chickadees enjoying the suet but I do have some pictures of them feasting on the dried mealworms I put out. I took an old wire hanger apart and made a holder for a tiny glad tupperware. Its not pretty but it makes a perfect mealworm feeder.

Also right before Christmas we had a flock of Cedar Waxwings take over our yard. They were here for just a few minutes and I haven't seen them since.

New Year's Resolutions

Here are my New Year's Resolutions - a month late -

I will start drinking more water.

and

I want to actually keep up with my blog this year

For those of you who know me well, most days I might drink a whole 4 oz of water. My goal is to drink more water and therefore quit drinking soda. Hi, My name is Emily and I am a Coke (classic) addict. In the last 2 weeks I have finally started falling into a trend. First I substituted cranberry juice for soda. Then I started doing half cranberry juice half water. Then when we ran out of cranberry juice, I went to just straight water. This last week, by my best estimates, I think I was averaging 2-3 pints a day. The conversion that means that I have been drinking 32-48 oz a day!! That's a record for me! Let's just hope that I can keep it up.

My other resolution is to get this blog back up and running. I have all kinds of fun ideas that I can't wait to do. I've already started the new year off running:

I love my 100% organic cotton tote bags and I wanted to dress them up a little:

Finished Project

I printed a vintage WW2 Victory Garden poster on to iron on paper. I think I let the paper get too hot because it the backing stuck to the canvas. I picked off the tiny pieces of paper with a tweezers and then used Mod Podge to protect it. There are some small pieces of the picture missing, but I kinda like it. I think it looks more vintage that way.

I also learned how to make my own vanilla extract! I also made a couple of trial jars for my friends. Vanilla beans, vodka, and 6-8 weeks to ferment - tada - homemade extract! Mine should be ready to try next week. I can't wait to bake with it - or make an adult vanilla coke!! I made the labels and used Mod Podge to glue them on.

This is the bottle I made for myself. It's a ACNW Maple Syrup jar and a wine cork I cut to fit.

Vanilla beans and vodka

These were gifts "From the Kitchen of the Gypsy Naturalist"!!

And last but not least I made Owl cupcakes for the Super Bowl party I bartended. My theory... "Whooo cares Whoo wins" plus who doesn't love big-eyed owls??

!

Is this one sad or sleepy??

I thought the ear tufts on this one turned out well.