Birdies

I am blogging to you today from a remote location! This is new for me, I've never taken the computer out of the house. Whole point of a laptop, right? So here I am at my favorite coffee shop in downtown Anoka. I have been coming to Avant Garden for at least 10 years. This is where I taught the boys to play chess. It's in a beautiful old building with a pressed tin ceiling and a long mahogany bar. It's right on Main Street, between 2nd and 3rd. It's cozy in winter, but in the summer I love the hidden garden in the back.


This is a tiny little garden between Billy's and the coffee shop. Trees, birds, flowers and caffeine, what more could I want?
They are turning the inside walls into an art gallery for local artists.









The spring migration of songbirds has begun! Yesterday I saw a Myrtle Warbler. These are also called the "Yellow rumped warbler", for obvious reasons. They look like a chickadee with bright yellow armpits and butt. They are always the first warblers I see in the spring. My cat, Merlin is an avid bird-watcher. I have feeders and a heated birdbath on the deck so we can both watch birds all winter.











This is a Pine Siskin. These were at my feeders all winter and will soon decamp for the north. The Juncos have already left. Siskins are what my brother, Chris, calls "little brown jobbies" or "LBJ's". I like them, they are chirpy and not at all shy. They are very fond of thistle seed.













Merlin gets very tired after a bird-watching session and must nap. He sleeps like this all over the house. He does a very good impression of roadkill.















In the spring, my little friend the chipmunk also wakes up. It is so happy to see this feeder I've placed low for Merle's entertainment. It stuffed it's little cheeks so full of sunflower seeds that I'm surprised it could get it's head through that hole. Paul put a bounty on it. Lucy-dog may get it first, she hates chipmunks and has killed more than one. She leaves them in Paul's parking space as a gift. She caught and ate an entire (huge) grey squirrel one day. Then she barfed it up in the living room.

What do birdies and squirrels have in common besides eating me out of house and home? They both taste like chicken!

I made this yummy dip last weekend. It's not cheap, but it is really good and makes a lot of dip. I bought the chicken salad at Aldi for $3.50 a pint. I ate the extra half pint for lunch. Instead of baking the dip, you could put it one of those little baby crockpots. This is a very low-carb item if you use the celery for dipping.

Hot Buffalo Chicken Dip

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup hot wing sauce (Frank's Red Hot is great)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 Tbls ranch dressing mix (powdered, like Hidden Valley)
3 cups chicken salad, packaged or from the deli, or make it yourself)
1 and 1/4 cups shredded pepper jack cheese
dippers such as crackers, celery sticks, tortilla chips, baguette slices, etc

Mix cream cheese, hot sauce, sour cream and ranch mix, stirring until smooth. Fold in chicken salad and cheese. Bake in 1 quart (greased) casserole for 45-55 minutes until bubbling, or nuke and put into small crockpot. Makes about 4 cups dip.