Image: FotoosvanRobin

With all your holiday cooking, don't forget about the birds outside your window.

Have fun with family or just your feathered friends -- make simple recipes to attract and keep healthy wild birds to your porch, patio, or balcony.

Here are five recipes for high-energy suet:

Feathered Friends

from Suet Facts, Feeders, & Recipes

• 1 Cup Chunky Peanut Butter
• 2 Cups Cornmeal
• 2 Cups Quick Cook Oats
• 1 Cup Lard or Suet
• 1/3 Cup Sugar
• 1 Cup White Flour

Preparation:

1. Melt lard/suet and peanut butter together and stir
2. Stir the remaining ingredients
3. Pour the mixture into a square container about 1-1/2 inches thick
4. Allow it to cool, then cut it into squares and store in the freezer

Winter Feed

courtesy of John Schuster via Sialis

• Lard
• Peanut butter (crunchy of course)
• Chopped up raisins, nuts
• egg shells (after baking the empty shells for 25-30 minutes at 275 degrees, or microwaving rinsed wet shells for 3-4 minutes)
• Add extras: chopped up Cheerios, boiled chopped up dates, and boiled chopped up citron fruits, chopped up sunflower seeds

Apple Dumplings

from Suet Facts, Feeders, & Recipes

• 3 Cups Rendered Suet
• 1 Cup Whole Wheat Bread (dried & crumbled)
• 1/2 Cup Shelled Sunflower Seeds
• 1/4 Cup Millet
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Dried Apples

Preparation:

1. Melt suet in a saucepan over low heat
2. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a large bowl
3. Allow the suet to cool until slightly thickened
4. Stir suet into the bowl of mixture; mix thoroughly
5. Pour or pack into molds, feeders, or any household item
6. Refrigerate until hardened or freeze.

Suet Cups & Cones

from the Denver Audubon Society

• Large pine cones
• Suet mixture
• Red yarn, heavy string or wire
• Hollowed-out orange halves
• Pipe cleaners (or other stiff wiry material for hanging the oranges)

For suet cups, hollow out orange halves. Fill the empty halves with the suet mixture. Poke a hole on each side of the orange half near the top. Work one end of the pipe cleaner through each hole, bending the ends to make handles with which to hang the cup.

For suet cones, cover the pine cones with your choice of suet mixture or plain suet. Work the suet mixture into the scales of the pine cones. Hang the cones with yarn, string or wire.

Sharon Smith's Sure-fire Suet Mix

from the Baltimore Bird Club

• 1 part peanut butter
• 1 part shortening
• 1 part flour
• 3 parts cornmeal
• 1 part cracked corn
• black oil sunflower seeds and/or mixed seed (optional)