Sweets and Treats

One of Wayne"s favorite Christmas gifts is this (unofficial) Harry Potter Cookbook. He's got a lot of recipes he wants to try, including Chicken and Ham Pie, but his first recipe was Peppermint Humbugs. You cook all the ingredients, mainly sugar, to a certain temperature, let it cool a bit, and then you are supposed to pull and twist the warm sugar into ropes and snip off into 1 inch pieces.  Wayne's candy hardened up too quickly to do any pulling and twisting, but he did manage to cut it into small squares. They tasted very good and I love the color.

The other day, Wayne and Cole went over to Dante and Fintan's house to join a group of friends playing Dungeons and Dragons. Apparently, it's making a comeback!  Heather and I spent that afternoon outside, enjoying the snow before the bad weather came on.  We armed her snow fort with a stock pile of snowballs, so she can be ready to battle her brothers at a moments notice.  Then we decided to make a snowman treat for the chickens. We built this small snowman near the chicken coup and decked it out with stale crackers and cereal. The hat is a leftover pancake from Christmas morning breakfast. I don't know how healthy that is for chickens, but I do know they'll eat just about everything. We also sprinkled some leftover corn and beans on the ground to lead them over to the snow man. (Actually, it seems more like a snow lady)

They liked the corn and beans, but eyed the snow lady suspiciously. They didn't go over while Heather and I were watching, but maybe later they worked up some nerve.