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It was just yesterday (ok, last week) that our wee kitten was nursing it’s mother.  Now it’s a big cat munching on cat food!  We fed Mama-C this afternoon and after she ate her fill and wandered away, I heard crunch, crunch, crunch.  I was surprised to see the little one eating away at the leftovers.  Baby-C didn’t want to share either.  When I would get close, the hair on it’s back would rise.  When Patches got closer, it started hissing and spitting. 

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There has been an beautiful bluebird coming to our birdfeeder.  It is not a typical Eastern Bluebird that I was used to so I had to get a photo.  My zoom is not quite far-reaching enough, so I had to stake out a spot on the ground close to the feeder and wait!  My not-so-good patience was rewarded with this photo.

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I did a little research and found that it is an Indigo Bunting!  The blue color of this bird is amazing.  It is as blue as the goldfinches are yellow,…

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And the cardinals are red.

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C and I want to wish both our wonderful mothers a very, very, very happy Mother’s Day!  You both deserve the best of everything!  We love you both very much!

Here is a blast from the past…photos of C and his mom and me and my mom from several (I do mean SEVERAL) years ago. 

 

withchad Tammi & Betty appr. 1977

Yes, I am a blonde, so I guess I am a little biased toward this recipe.  It is one of my favorite brownie/cookie recipes, and I have been making it for over 10 years.  I found it in the July 1998 edition of Bon Appétit magazine.  They had found this creation at the S-Moores Cafe in Augusta, GA.  It is a winner!  It is easy, rich, decadent and delish!  Here it is…

 

Blonde Brownies

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

10 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

2 cups light brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup milk chocolate chips (I use 1 cup)

3/4 cup chopped pecans

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 13×9” baking pan.  I use the wrapper from the stick of butter.  Combine flour, baking powder, salt & baking soda.

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Add sugar to melted butter and whisk to blend.

 

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Whisk in eggs and vanilla.

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Gradually stir in flour mixture.

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Add chips & pecans.

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Spread batter in pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.  I know, I know.  When this comes out of the oven, you will want to dig in with a spoon.  DON’T DO IT!  It’s worth the wait to let it cool and then cut into squares.  ENJOY!

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Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Kerrygold.

I have never been a cat person, always a dog person.  When C & I lived at a different house, we adopted a stray and named it Blondie.  That was the only cat I had ever named.  Blondie got ran over and I swore that I would never get close to a cat again.  I was wrong.

When we built our house, a female cat just showed up one day.  She thinks this is her house and she just allows us to live here.  We call her Mama-Cat because I refused to give her an actual name, and now that IS her name.

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She presented her baby to us earlier this week.  Again, I was not getting attached.  I was not feeding her here, she could still go to where the food usually is.  I was not going to worry about her.  They would be fine on their own.  I said it before, I’ll say it again…I’VE BEEN SCHNOOKERED!!!!  When Mama-C came to the door yesterday morning, I broke down and gave her a plate of food.  When the storms came, C & I worried about where she took the baby.  They were fine, by the way, hiding under our bay window on the deck.  I was trying to be all tough until I took one look at this…

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And this…

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And now, I’m hooked! Sigh!

It seems that we are need of congratulations.  We have a new farm baby that we did not know was coming.  Mama Cat is living up to her name in word and deed!  C & I found a fuzzy little surprise this morning when we went out on the deck.  It is alert, active and not afraid of much of anything. 

It would come up to us and try to climb our shoes, follow us around the deck and watch our every move.  Mama Cat didn’t seem to care what it did, but she stayed very close by.  Later on this afternoon, we caught them “cat-napping”.  For some reason, Mama C decided that my new flower pot with the freshly planted coleus plants seemed to be the perfect bedroom!  I was not pleased but the plant did not seem any the worse for wear.  Oh, well.  It looks like we now have a Baby-Cat to go with Mama-Cat.

 

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While C & I are off from our regular jobs, we are trying to accomplish a few things here at the house.  Since today was one of the few, if not only, dry days this week, we did as much as we could.  The last thing we did was mow and trim.  But first…

I finally got to plant my raised bed!  Yay!!!!!  I am so excited.  Here are some views of the bed.  First, ready to plant:

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Here are the carrot seeds that I used.  They are both heirloom varieties.  I have never grown the French ones that are different colors.  Apparently, according to Good Eats’ Alton Brown, all carrots were not originally orange, but for some reason, the growers kept mixing them to get orange carrots. 

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I also planted 2 rows of Black Seeded Simpson lettuce.  I have already picked enough for 2 salads before it was in the ground!  This photo shows the lettuce and the bare spot next to it are the carrot rows.

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Next are the cucumbers and herbs.  I planted about 12 cucumber plants and am going to put tomato cages for them to run on vertically to save space.  Next to the cucumbers are 2 sweet pepper plants, one purple and one yellow.  I also have ferny dill, sweet basil, and flat leaf parsley.

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That only leaves the potatoes.  I have 2 rows, which should be enough for the 2 of us.  Next year we may have to add more!

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We dug a trench and planted the potatoes shallowly in that trench.  When they start to grow, we can put more dirt on them to “hill” them.

Lastly, here is a shot of the whole bed.  I just love to sit and stare at it.  It is so pretty!

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We also connected our second rain barrel. C devised a great way to direct the rainfall into the barrel until we get the downspout redirect thingy that we have ordered.

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I am so excited with the progress that we made today.  There just doesn’t seem to be enough time, daylight, and especially, energy to do everything that I would like to do.  Oh, well, there is always another day!

This week, C & I took vacation time from our “9-5” jobs, and let me tell you, I could get used to this!  It is so nice to not have to wake up to a blaring alarm clock!  I don’t have to sleep late, but I love to sleep until I wake up and not off to jump & run.  We are planning on getting a few things done around the house and also just rest and have a little fun.

 

Since it has been raining nearly everyday until yesterday, the dirt was way too wet to plant anything yet.  (Frown!)  Hopefully, I will get to plant a few things today.  I did manage to knock a few little things off my to-do list anyway.  I washed the front porch granny chairs so they would be bright red again.  I also washed and sanitized the garbage cans.  So much fun! 

 

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C & I received a Craftsman tool chest for Christmas.  Thanks, C’s mom & dad!  We had not taken the time to place it where we wanted it in the garage or put any tools in it.  Yesterday was the day.  C got a matching work bench for his birthday.  Thanks again, C’s mom & dad!  We finally put the pieces next to each other and filled them with tools.  We actually still have some empty drawers so we must not have enough tools!!  Ha, ha.  Below are before and after shots of the area in the garage.

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I hope to have some planting shots pretty soon.  My cucumber plants may start blooming in the four-packs before I can get them planted!

As some of you know, my workplace has a team in the local Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society.  We were getting very close to our fundraising goal, so we decided to have a cookout to try to reach it.  Well, we did it!!  We sold meals consisting of either grilled Green River Cattle Company hamburgers or grilled Uncle Charlie’s tenderloin sandwiches, a bag of chips, a homemade dessert, and a canned drink for $5.00.  We ended up making over $400!!!  That was pure profit since we had some very generous donations. 

 

My father-in-law is one of the co-owners of the Green River Cattle Company, a locally owned and operated gourmet beef business.  He graciously donated 40 quarter-pound hamburgers for our cause.  Thanks!!!  We used bake sale money to purchase the tenderloin.  My co-worker K, who co-owns a local restaurant, donated the chips.  The Wal-mart store in the next town donated the drinks, buns, and cheese, and the team members made the desserts.

 

I had plans of getting some very good photos of all the action, but there was NO time!  I got a few shots of our set-up before the rush began, but that was all. 

 

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According to the weather forecasters, we expected today to be a washout.  Instead, we just had a few showers this morning and this afternoon was beautiful.  Since it wasn’t too wet and C’s dad had some time to spare, we moved dirt!  I now have a full raised bed and lots of dirt around the retaining walls and in front of the garage.  Let the planting begin!!!  I can’t wait to see green things growing in all that beautiful brown.  I hope to plant the garden bed later this week or this weekend.  I have ordered 25 strawberry plants to set out along the back retaining wall as an experiment.  We will landscape the front wall toward the road, but the back will hopefully be full of bright red berries!  By the way, with just the small amount of rain today, our 45 gallon rain barrel was completely full!!!

 

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I just realized it has been two weeks since I posted a recipe on this “cooking” blog.  Not a lot of cooking has been going on since we have been feverishly working outside while the weather is so perfect, but I did make banana bread for a Relay for Life bake sale last week.

 

I had never found a banana bread recipe that I was really satisfied with until recently.  All the others that I had tried would turn out too dry or too heavy.  This is just right!  It is light, fluffy, and most importantly, moist.  It is also really, really easy.

 

Easy Banana Nut Bread

1 package yellow cake mix

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

3 medium-large bananas

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/4 tsp cinnamon or apple pie spice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 2 8×4 loaf pans with non-stick spray.  Combine cake mix, egg, and milk.  Mash bananas and add them to the cake mixture.  Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.  Stir in pecans and cinnamon/apple pie spice.  Divide batter evenly into the loaf pans.  Bake for 40-45 minutes or until tester comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes and then remove from the pans.

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