The Southern Holy Culinary Trinity

I read this and had to share.... The Southern Holy Culinary Trinity as I never heard it called but found it to be a great description for the way us "Southerners" stock our kitchen and cook.

This Trinity includes.........: Butter, Sugar, and Salt. No surprise! I know my kitchen is Very WELL stocked with these items! I don't understand how some people deal with the artificial sweetners and "I can't believe I it's not butter". I always believed it!

Let's face it if you grew up tasting the real stuff no matter what you do to try to hide those lab created science experiments us Southerner's will always know. And I must add EWWW!

At some point in my life I may need to cut back but I will NEVER give up the real goods and while I am at it hand me a side of bacon.

So just curious how many pounds odd butter do you have stashed? We have 6.

Sad Night

It's a sad night tonight. We had our first loss here at the Patch. Our Little Mini, one of the black kittens never developed or grew in the last 2 weeks; she was already much smaller than the others of that litter. I watch her eat but something more must have been wrong. She started getting lethargic this afternoon and passed this evening. We were very blessed to have known her. Mini is the little one on top of her brother napping this morning.

Newest Guests have arrived

More guests have arrived. These are four adorable spotted tabbies of beige and black. Ohhh and so feisty! Mom is not happy right now. I can here her crying outside but we nee to get control of this feral population.

The Mastermind

This my friends is the face of an evil mastermind. He's pretending to be all innocent reading my copy of Cook's Illustrated but, what he is really doing is plotting a plan to steal my bag of tasty corn chips!

Our most recent guests

These adorables are a our most recent guests. After the dog's found them under the porch their mother thought it would be safer for them on the roof! I don't think so! Rains were coming and their safety was a concern so I cat-napped them. Please  meet; Tina, a silver bob-tail, Stubbs, he has a collar and bob-tail, we needed to tell him apart from Mini, who is also bob-tailed but we are finding to be much smaller than the others and finally Shelby, he has a tail and a little white star on his chest. Too Cute!

We are glad we found these guys so we can get them fixed. Apparently there are quite a few ferals here. More pics to come!

Re-Purposing Feed Bag - Hay Bag

It seems that everyone these days are interested in re-purposing things. I just happened to need a hay bag for Prince so this is what I did:

Supplies Needed:
Feed Bag
Pie Plate
Marker
Scissors and/or Rotary Cutter
Ruler
Straight Pins
3 1/2 Yards of Webbing, binding, or 1/4 yard of fabric (3" strips) - something to seal hay opening & to make straps
2 Buckles
Thread
Sewing Machine

First Prince needed to empty out a feed bag, absolutely not a problem :o)
Next I brought it in to my cutting table and laid a plate on it toward the front bottom (approx. 3inches from the bottom) and cut out a hole.

I measured and cut the strappings to hang the bag. 2 - 10 inch lengths and 2- 18 inch lengths

 

I then took about 16 inches of webbing and folded it over the hole and sewed around the circle. This is easiest if you have a free arm on your machine.

 

Now measure out approximately 5 inches from each side of the bag on both front and back. Pin down placement of the straps. Dont forget to put the buckles on the straps at this point as well.

With the remainder of the webbing you fold it over the top of the bag and stitch it down this will give it a clean finish and complete the straps.

 



Voila!! There you have it. Instant hay bag.

 

 

 

if you are interested in learning more about Safe Choice feed visit: http://www.nutrenaworld.com/nutrena/products/horses/safe-choice/index.jsp





Mixed Pepper Jelly

It's been awhile since I have blogged please forgive me. I hope to get better, just been a bit busy making fun things. Today we will start with Yums! So recently friends of ours Jon & Judi gave us a large bag of peppers that they received from friends of theirs. (Don't Judge! There is nothing wrong with re-gifting plus they put them in very capable hands.)

Back to these peppers...a good mix of jalapeno, Guindilla Verde, and hot banana. I mixed them with some good old fashioned bells and made some fantastic jelly. This may sound crazy but I can just taste this stuff on some of my home smoked brisket on a tortilla with a delicious side of my Spanish rice and refried beans. OK now I am drooling!

The basic recipe for pepper jelly ( don't forget to add your twist):
2 large green bell peppers
2 large red bell peppers
10 large jalapenos
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 pkg. SURE-JELL fruit pectin
1/2 tsp butter
5 cups sugar

For more details visit www.m.kraftrecipes.com