Country Cookin'

Fall has finally made it's debut with cooler temperatures, rain, light wind and changing of the colors. Beautiful reds, oranges, pinks, burgundy's, even mauve and the standard yellow, all against a back drop of many still-green leaves and a few evergreens.  Autumn on the east coast is a site to behold. I love God's wonderful paint pallet.

Check out Cat Food for a new recipe, a really yummy Quiche.  It was originally from AllRecipes.com, but I tweaked it, added ingredients and made it 'mine'.  Hope you enjoy it.

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that I didn't do much veggie gardening this year. However, in July, I adopted a 6-pack of "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree-Style" tomato plants for all of 99¢. They were so tall and leggy and I wasn't sure any would make it, but wanted to try. 

I put three of them in with the large container of marigolds, but had no place for the other three.  I thought I might get more soil, but they died before I got to it.  (And yes, this is a real picture of some of 'my' tomatoes - see the vine and the one that's still green).

I didn't get ripe tomatoes until a couple of weeks ago. They're not large, but I got my investment back!  I cut them down, leaving some vine and brought them in for fear of frost. We haven't had a frost yet, but I marked the calendar for October as a possible for our first frost.

When I cut down the vines, I picked one nice, almost ripe one, about the size of a baseball, and the rest (17 in all) are small, but ripening.  They are delicious; I guess it's true - good things come in small packages.

The weekend is right around the corner; hope you have some fall fun planned. I'm real busy these days getting things made or sewn and put into my Etsy Shop; that's a lot of fun.  Had my first sale, and I'm really stoked! 

Have a wonderful Country Weekend, whether you live in the country or just wish you did.

© 2011 Cat Brennan © 2011 Cat's Country Place

COUNTRY RAIN

Here on the east coast, it's a rainy Friday, but I love it.  The rain is here without the help of a hurricane, and that's a good thing.

I just put together a Crock Pot meal; Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff and it already smells yummy. I'll let you know how it turns out.  Also have a cauliflower on to cook. I'll "mash" that after while in the food processor, add a wee bit of butter, salt and milk. That recipe is compliments of my daughter in Illinois.  It's that time of the year for 'comfort' food. I'm there! 

Whether  you prepare cauliflower on the stove top or microwave, add MILK to or replace all of the liquid with milk. It vastly improves the flavor. 

Once you've cooked cauliflower, the house will be very "fragrant".  Time to get out the cloves; whole works best, but powdered also works.  I use a small cast iron skillet, but any heavy pan will work.  In the DRY skillet, place 8 to 10 whole cloves or a teaspoon of ground cloves and place on high heat (No, do not add any liquid). Watch your stove. When you see a little puff of smoke, shake the pan.  If you have a goodly amount of fragrant, NOT BURNED, cloves-smoke, walk through your home, letting the scent permeate the affected rooms.  You may need to return the skillet to the heat to have enough fragrant smoke for your abode.  This can be used again if the cloves are still 'brown, but once they turn gray, down the disposal or into the trash.  I have dedicated my little 6" cast iron skillet to this chore, and this only, so it's always ready.  Cloves "burning" is the ONLY method I have found that will eliminate these kinds of odors (works on fish, burned food, popcorn, etc. and it's environmentally safe).

Do YOU save and reuse plastic bread bags? Or the bags that the newspaper arrives in (of course I have to add WHEN the newspaper comes)?  I save both, and have a neat way to store them. I've saved empty facial tissue boxes and stuff the bags in each one.  The bread bags are the perfect size for sweet and savory homemade breads.  The newspaper bags fill a plethora of needs such as light weight packing for packages to mail or separating small items for storage.

Have a wonderful Country weekend whether you live in the country, or simply wish you did!

© 2011 Cat Brennan © 2011 Cat's Country Place

9/11 Tribute - God Bless Us Everyone

The  George W. Bush Presidential Center is accepting 9/11 Memories; stories, pictures and/or videos of those recollections.  These will forever be preserved as part of the tribute to those who fell, helped, suffered and remember the tradgedy of 9/11; that is US - we are the United States and we will never forget.  This is the entry that I submitted; that is part of the record.

     "As 9/11 unfolded, I sat glued to the television for days on end.  I stared in disbelief and when I came out, everything seemed surreal.
     Years later, I had the distinct honor of meeting a New York Fireman who had been at Ground Zero. Clarence will always hold a special place in my heart. Currently, I live in VA, but on 9/11 Denver, CO was home - far removed from the physical terror, but smack in the middle of the emotional upheaval, along with everyone else in this country.     
     We were ONE NATION UNDER GOD, and yes, WE ARE INDIVISIBLE!!! We all struggled to understand, but it is impossible for ordinary and good people to understand evil. So, we cried and prayed and called our loved ones. 
     I commend President George W. Bush, and his lovely lady, Laura, for their steadfast beliefs. I praise his unwavering strength during that time.  God Bless you, President Bush! You are still MY president.
     God bless your family, and yes, God Bless us everyone."
 © 2011 Cat Brennan

Our Country for All Country People

Please!! Be sure to fly Old Glory at least through Sunday, September 11th as we remember all the victims of 9/11 .. God Bless you and God Bless our country! 

Wikipedia has an interesting write up on the history of Labor Day ... yes, I know, I know ... but you can "take what you like (or believe) and leave the rest.  

AND ... Please check out this blog , Heroes of 9/11: The Passengers and Crew of United 93 by my dear friend, Scott Allison. The book that Scott and George R. Goethals wrote, Heroes: What They Do and Why We Need Them came out in print the fall of 2010.  His heroes are, well, heroes.

A Country Gal Can Repurpose

Zipper-style plastic bags are a wonderful invention.  Personally, I don't like the ones that come pre-packaged with frozen foods etc., mainly because the zippers are narrow and often don't track, lock and zip shut easily.  I usually end up tearing them and just opt for a clothespin or an office clip to fasten the bag shut. 

Let's move on to your ideas for re- purposing 'clear' zipper-style bags.  These come in sizes from tiny snacks to large 2 1/2 gallons - maybe  larger, for all I know! 

A friend here in Virginia took "salad-in-a-bag" to a pot luck dinner. Everything but the dressing was in the bag, ready to eat. No mess, no bother.

Some of my grand children do NOT like milk on their cereal, so mama in Maryland gives them cereal-in-a-bag.  This is a fun way to get the little ones to eat their morning meal and a great idea for grab 'n' go breakfast.

From Colorado, "The only thing unusual to me is that we put leftover spaghetti in plastic storage bags. works fine."

From another friend in Virginia, "I volunteer at a gift shop where I often unpack new jewelery that is in little tiny zip lock bags.  I recycle the bags by placing one set of my earrings in each bag.  The bags keep the pairs together, are easy to see through, and lie flat in a plastic box that fits in my drawer (the plastic box once had delicious chocolate in it).  I also use sandwich size bags for necklaces that hold their circular shape and often have beads attached to them."  She continues, "I use and reuse sandwich size zip lock bags for all of the items needed for craft projects for children.  I recycle them so much that I only throw them away when they are totally ripped down the side." 

Daughter in Illinois uses these "magic'' bags for a plethora of things ... I got to see her very well organized craft and sewing room where she had all the items for various projects separated into these bags in all different sizes.  These make it easy to find the project she is working on and keeps everything corralled.

Further, she has small bags held with 

magnetic clips on her refrigerator; these hold her coupons, boxtops, twist-ties and such. 

Also from Colorado: Friend VM develops and designs web sites. She stores the products associated with her clients in large, gallon size bags and files as a much neater file folder.

How about you?

Hoping you can keep it Country as the summer winds down, whether you live in the country, or simply wish you did!

© 2011 Cat Brennan © 2011 Aunt Cat's Place

Country Jars Part IV

Repurposing ideas for jars are still trickling in; this latest from sister, June, who lives in NM. 


This is one cool idea, and I hope I can relate the story as June told it to me.  Recently, a visitor brought Banana Pudding to a function at June's; not just ANY Banana Pudding ... individual servings of Banana Pudding in small jars with lids and rings!
The pudding was put into little half-pint canning jars; a perfect serving size (8 oz), these little jars have a wide mouth, making them easy to access the food with a spoon.  These jars are normally used for jellies and jams, but what a wonderful country idea.  She brought them in a basket and June refrigerated the lot until time to serve dessert. 


To dress up the jars, the friend added pretty paper on top of each lid and THEN added the ring.  You have probably fitted pieces of fabric onto jar tops to gain a real country-hand-made look, but the paper is a clever twist: pick your season, theme, color .. endless ideas.


Don't forget to send your Christmas Ideas to me soon! 

Be sure to check out  Cat's CHRISTMAS, Country Style page for a new idea that you may want to "borrow".  That's where your ideas will be posted as they come in - pictures from you would be nice, too!! Be sure to check back often!!!
Happy Country Times to you.
© 2011 Cat Brennan © 2011 Aunt Cat's Place

Early Country Christmas Thoughts

Hello Country Friends!
     With the fire in the Great Dismal Swamp here in Virginia and the smoke generated from it, I've decided to stay inside today. It did rain here earlier, but the effects of the smoke linger. To me, it smells like burned Worcestershire sauce; a friend noted on Facebook that it smelled like the burning peat fires over in Ireland.  I would love to have first hand knowledge of that "fragrance" .. someday.
     Today, I'm rearranging furniture. Now, before you "start" on me, I'm not a regular furniture re-arranger; it's too much work (and like my mother, when I find the "way I like it, why change it?).  However, I have a couple of pieces of furniture that need to be moved from room to room, so, I'll get out the round sliders and get to it;  the end result will be getting the television OUT of my living room.
     Had a nice phone call yesterday from sister June.  She had a couple of neat blogging suggestions, one of which I'll pass on to you now. 
     I'm joining June in the suggestion that we share Christmas Ideas NOW. If you're like us, you're already thinking about what you'll do; make and bake, craft or sew, quilt or scrapbook, photograph or glue - you get the idea ... all ideas welcome for the holidays, so please share!
     I'll pass on your ideas as they come in; FYI .. I pretty much use your verbiage and only change if necessary for space or grammar-sense.  So, get your Christmas on, and send along your neat ideas.

Have a wonderful Country Weekend!
© 2011 Cat Brennan  © 2011 Aunt Cat's Place