Aw -- Children Grow Up So Quickly

It seems like just two weeks ago they were babies. Um, that's because they were.

My feathered babies have grown up and left the nest. But here's a photo of them just two days before leaving. The photo is dark, taken from indoors looking through the window at the basket. The birds are in silhouette, with the mother bird in the center and two of her four chicks reaching up for a tasty bite of a worm on either side.

I'm sad that they're now gone. They left a nest dug into the soil inside the basket. I'll have to remove the nest and clean up the soil before replanting that basket. 

What a joyful stretch of days we've had with our bird friends!

Homemade Slurpees for a Hot Summer Day -- AKA How to Use That Flat Cola

I've mentioned before that we buy a 2-liter bottle of cola every Christmas season. A 2-liter bottle is the least expensive size, cheaper than a small bottle. However, we never drink more than half the bottle, leaving us with several cups of flat cola to deal with. I've used it in baked beans and sloppy Joe mix. Yet I still had more to use.

Monday was hot, hot, hot (for my area, at least). I decided to use my ice cream maker to make a slushie-type drink. I froze the chilling chamber overnight. Then Monday afternoon I poured the cola into the chamber and churned in the same way I would for ice cream. 

One difference between making ice cream/sorbet and using cola for a slurpee is in the texture upon freezing. Bottled soda freezes more solidly. I found that at the end of the freezing/churning, I still needed to use a large spoon to knock some of the frozen cola off the sides of the chamber, then chop it ups with the same spoon. In the end, the texture was great, and we had a very cooling drink to enjoy on the hottest day of the year so far. To note: our cola slurpee was not nearly as sweet as 7-11's version. But I actually think that was a good thing.

Anyway, we have some fruity soda that's gone flat, too. I'll be using this in future slurpees this summer when it heats up again. 

This has turned out to be a great way to finally finish off those open 2-liters of soda that linger in my fridge. I now know that if I can't use it up in winter meals, I can use what's left in summer cooling treats.