I made the Zick Dough.

With the beginnings of a head and chest cold, I went back to work on Wednesday. Evenings are the worst with chills, burning eyes, itching ears, and oh, the cough. Ughhh. I'm wearing a coat as I type this. We’ve had unseasonably cold weather for the past few days – in the low teens with the wind chill.

It’s Friday night and I feel like a sack of you know what but I made Zick Dough! Referring to the poor male scissor-billed White-breasted Nuthatch I talked about on my previous post, there is good news. Around 5pm this evening I saw the gray head – a female mate on the peanuts, as the Science Chimp suspected.

If you have never heard of Zick Dough, Julie is the creator of this feast for birds, especially appreciated by them during the cold months. Many people have posted this recipe but I want to share my experience making it, too. It was quick and very easy to prepare. The dinner I served tonight should have been so easy!

1 cup lard
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups quick oats
2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup white flour


I doubled the recipe.

Melt the lard and peanut butter on low heat.

Add the dry ingredients and stir. When the stirring makes your hand and wrist ache, put both hands in there and mix it while it’s warm.

I cooled the mixture on a cookie sheet for about 30 minutes outside then cut it into squares.

This recipe yields two large zip-loc bags of suet! Serve it crumbled. I tasted it. Not bad! Store it at room temperature.

When my feverish self gets to normal, I’ll let everyone know how much the birds enjoy it. I’ll need to serve it under supervision because the Starlings are acting like militants since the ground is frozen solid.
Now I’m off to find Kleenex and some nighttime meds, which will probably be expired. I hope to be back to normal blogging soon instead of feeling so dull, dimwitted, and damned sickly.