Christmas in the Country

We're on the downhill side of Christmas countdown and I hope you're ready.

Check out the new recipes I've just posted. One is a dessert recipe I promised; Pineapple Surprise Gelatin Dessert/Side dish - it has a surprise ingredient that will have all at the dining table trying to guess what it is.   My family has been making and serving this delicious treat for over 40 years!

Another recipe I promised is one to drink on those cold nights; party fare at it's finest during this beautiful holiday season - hope you enjoy my recipe for Tom & Jerry's.

Just click on Cat Food to find both!

Have a wonderful Christmas.

Country Christmas is Coming

     Where did 2011 go?  There are only 30 days left in this year.  I'm excited about Christmas as I'm sure you all know; such a wonderful holiday encompassing the Birth of our Savior and a season of fun, food, festivities, gifts and lots of other celebrations. 

My sewing machine has been running a lot! I enjoyed helping to celebrate three birthdays in November; now Christmas and six RED (adult) tutu's for a church program and many, many other sewing projects so I've been busy. 

     I'll be making at least two more tutu's for grand daughters; a red one and a purple one.  Have a lot more "on the books", but I'm not going to divulge those surprises just yet!

     Don't forget your "from scratch" recipes to share with all our readers. I've posted at least one new one for Pumpkin Pie Bars that is a real hit. My family refers to it as 'Punkin Heaven'!

     Tom and Jerry's? Pineapple Surprise Jello? I'll be posting these and others in the next few days, so please, stay tuned.  Be sure to try some of the other recipes I've posted.  Unless otherwise noted, they are all MY creations or reinventions and YES, I've tried them all ... some are old favorites and some are getting there. They're all on the Cat Food page.

     Speaking of staying tuned .. did you see the Lighting Celebration November 30th at Rockefeller Center (in person or on television)?  Neil Diamond and Tony Bennett! ! Oh my goodness. Of course some of the up and coming 'young pups' were also featured, but Neil Diamond!  I've always been a fan of his and you just can't not love Tony Bennett; he's older than dirt!

     Do you have any special holiday traditions, ornaments or anything else?  Want to share? 

     Have a wonderful Country life as the days wind down to Christmas.
© 2011 Cat Brennan    © 2011 Cats Country Place 

Country Thanksgiving

                     

For most of us, that's a National Holiday, offering some a chance for a short holiday and a day to cook and consume huge quantities of food. 

This idea is just in from my sister in Belen, NM. June wrote:

"I like reading your blog. Here's how I use zip lock bags. I keep quart and gallon size always. I make broth from chicken, turkey, etc. bones. I measure out 4 to 8 cups of broth and put it into a zip lock bag. I label the bags with the quantity, 4 cups; date; and contents, chicken broth, etc. I freeze the bags flat. When the bags of broth are frozen, I store them on the bottom shelf, standing like library books. The same works for spaghetti sauce, apple juice, etc. My freezer is orderly and I can access the broth, etc. easily. I freeze 1-4 cup lots of roasted jack o'lantern/pumpkin, left over gravy, red chili, etc. in quart bags. I label the bags, contents, quantity, and date; freeze them flat and store them in the freezer door."  Thank you, June .. some great ideas just in time for great food and their left-overs.

June also had a nice Christmas gift idea, which I've added to the Christmas, Country Style page. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, whether you live in the country, or simply wish you did.

© 2011 Cat Brennan  © 2011Cats Country Place

Country Quiche

Quiche! It's what's for dinner - or breakfast - or lunch.  I needed to use up some cottage cheese, so I went 'net surfing and found a quiche recipe that included a small amount of the curds and whey, but it didn't quite hit the mark.  I played with it, added a few ingredients, left out and/or changed the amounts of a couple of items and voila!  This is one Very Good Quiche.

The recipe makes a full 9" single pie crust quiche. If you don't make your own crust, use either Pillsbury® refrigerated pie crust (2 rolls per box) or Marie Calendar® frozen pie crusts (2 crusts per package). Both are large enough; the 'cheapo' or store-brand frozen crusts do not have enough capacity.

Just click on the page above, Cat Food, where you'll find my recipe for Two Cheese Green Chile Spinach Quiche.  It is Cheese-lishous!!!© 2011 Cat Brennan © 2011 Cats Country Place

And, to get an apron for your young chef, check out my Etsy Shop ..

http://www.etsy.com/people/catscountryplace

Country Holidays

Hello Country Pumpkins!

I am so glad that Halloween is over.  I got very tired of all the stupid stuff on television and especially all the junk in the stores. Now, I can breathe a big sigh of relief and get on with the important things in life, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Both of these events inspire me to think outside myself.  Giving thanks is such a wonderful way to live and many different studies prove that being Thankful is tantamount to happiness and even good health. 

Here on the east coast, the trees are beautifully clad - really stylin' - with their leaves dancing in their new fall costumes; delightful skirts of yellow, brilliant tunics of red, burgundy, pink, plum and capes of orange. These paint-box colors are set in a backdrop of some-still-green trees and a few brown ones too. 

By now, I'm sure you're aware of how much I love Christmas ... ALL THINGS CHRISTMAS! 

My sewing machine and cutting table are busy, very busy. And no, I'm not going to tell you what I'm making for Christmas gifts this year; one of my grown children suggested that I do just that..NOT!!

That same daughter sent me her Whoopie Pie recipe that she got from a website. I'm going to post it here just because it's fun .. if you're feeding a crowd, this may be just the thing. It's an Amish recipe and credit for the recipe follows:

Chocolate Whoopie Pies

Ingredients:

4 cups white sugar

2 cups oil

2 cups cold water

2 cups milk, plus 2 tablespoons vinegar (home made "buttermilk"?)

2 cups cocoa

8 cups all purpose flour

3 eggs

4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
Directions:
Mix together. Batter will be thin. Using a small scoop, drop scoopfuls onto cookie sheet. Bake at 400 to 450 degrees for about 10 minutes. Makes approximately 45 to 50.
Icing for whoopie pies
Ingredients:
8 pounds confectioner’s sugar
6 pounds shortening (Alpine shortening recommended)
2 cups water
3 tablespoons vanilla
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
Directions:
Put together in mixer and beat until fluffy. This should make a 5-gallon pail three-quarters full. Use cold water in the summer when the shortening is soft and hot water during the winter when it’s cold and hard. If you want peanut butter, put some in. Makes more than enough icing for 150 whoopie pies.

website: http://www.somdnews.com/article/20111021/UNKNOWN/710219825/1075/whoopie&template=southernMaryland

I guess I'll have to pass ... I drilled holes in the bottom or my ONLY 5 gallon pail, painted it green and planted Morning Glory's in it.

Have fun until next time.

© 2011 Cat Brennan  © 2011 Cat's Country Place

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