Per Son Matthew's Request...

or a New Years Resolution of sorts,

if you will...

When asking son Matthew what his Christmas gift wishes were,

he requested a book filled with my recipes.

This idea came about a week before Christmas

and it just wasn't enough time to put one together,

yet I knew it was something both of my grown children

would enjoy.

So call this an early, weekly Christmas gift to Erin & Matthew

and also

a New Years Resolution

all rolled into one...

A Resolution to try one new recipe a week,

and if it earns a smiley face

from the Gervais' household,

I'll post the recipe on the blog

and hopefully

my kids will have 52 new recipes to add to their recipe books,
courtesy of Mom's test kitchen!

It's a cold & windy start to 2012 here on the Iowa plains....wow, hold onto your hat!  Looks and sounds more like March, then January...

very very windy and no snow yet on our ground.
They are calling for temperatures of 61 degrees for Thursday...
no complaints from this girl!

There is a nip in the air though, with the wind, and in general is a good soup day.  Today's new recipe try is called Tomato-Basil Parmesan Soup.  A recipe I found while perusing on Pinterest that has earned a smiley face...love the  mellow taste of tomato (not too strong) and the nice texture of the carrots and celery...delicious!

TOMATO-BASIL PARMESAN SOUP

Add two (14oz) cans of diced tomatoes, with juice to large soup kettle.  Mix 4 teaspoons of chicken bouillon into 4 cups of warm water and add to tomatoes.    Finely chop 1 cup each of carrots, celery and onion; add to kettle.  Finely chop 1 T. fresh oregano and 1/4 cup fresh basil; add to soup mixture. 

 

Place over low heat and cook down for approximately 1 hour, or until vegetables are soft.  Take a potato masher and slightly mash down the tomatoes and veggies to smaller pieces (this is optional and was my personal preference)

 

Melt 1/2 cup butter.  Add 1/2 cup flour. 

Stir to mix.

Stir constantly for about 3 minutes.

When mixture starts to turn a golden brown, take off of burner.

Slowly stir in 1 cup of hot soup into butter/flour mixture.

Stir until well mixed.

Add another 3 cups of soup to the mixture and stir until smooth.

Add mixture back into large soup kettle and stir until well mixed.

Add 1 cup parmesan cheese.

Stir to mix well.

Pour in 1 pint (2 cups) of Half & Half

Stir, mixing well.

Add freshly ground pepper and salt to taste.  I thinned down the soup slightly with 2% milk, just before serving as I prefer a slightly thinner based soup and it was delicious!

Enjoy!

And a recipe card for you to play...

this allows you to print, save or share!

Make a free recipe card design

2011

A year in review

of pattern designs

brought to you 

by

Country Stitches - With thy Needle & Thread...

The year of 2011 was a good year for Country Stitches - With thy Needle & Thread. There were a few firsts for us in 2011...

Began our first Mystery Sampler Club (Birds of a Feather), 

reproduced three antique reproductions samplers,

and

started a new monthly series,

Word Play.

Designed a limited edition pattern

titled Soar,

for all the eagle followers 

of the Decorah, Iowa eagle cam.

A donation of over $2000.00

was made to the Raptor Resource Organization

  from portions

of the proceeds

from this

cross stitch chart.

As 2011 is coming to an end and we hang our new 2012 calendars,

I reflect upon the past year

and look towards the new year...

what to bring our customers

in the form of needlework patterns

for the upcoming year???

I am always open to your comments,

and suggestions...

so let us know what you'd like to see

in patterns from us.

I tend to follow the saying, "if it's not broken, don't fix it"...

so you can expect more new pattern designs

in cross stitch and punch needle,

as this is what you all seem to be wanting from us.

It's been fun hearing from customers who are now

getting back into cross stitch,

many haven't picked up a needle and linen in 20 plus years

and

we are also hearing from new customers

who want to learn the art of punch needle

on a daily basis...

A NEW pattern series

will be released in 2012

that I'm very excited about!

Stay tuned for more details to come..

think tiny,

think purse,

think wear them around your neck...

This series will include cross stitch, punch needle & wool applique/embroidery.

Also in the plans for 2012

are more antique samplers, from my personal collection,

will be reproduced.

More of my punch needle designs

will be converted into cross stitch charts.

And a few surprises are in store for you in 2012,

we'll keep them,

just that...

surprises!

I'd like to say "THANK YOU"

to all our customers

for supporting Country Stitches/With thy Needle & Thread

in 2011,

making it

one of our best years

to date.

I appreciate your patronage, loyalty, friendship

and enjoy keeping you all in stitches.

Wishing you all a

NEW YEAR

filled with

peace,

love,

good health,

&

prosperity,

Brenda

February's Word Play

is here!

The printing is done,
my office is lined with stacks of them everywhere
and
I must admit,
I love the smell of freshly printed patterns...

  The weekend will be spent packaging
them,
so we can begin shipping next week.


A word about floss kits for this 12 month series...we will stock a particular month's floss kit for 2 months.  Currently we are selling floss kits for December, January and February.  November kit will fall off as soon as we are sold out of them (only a couple remain).  When March's pattern releases, the December floss kit will fall off and so on down the line.    So...if you want floss kits for these, do not delay!

We will have full and partial floss kits for the February Word Play.  The partial floss kit is for those of you who have already purchased flosses for the October, November, December and January kits...you then will not need to purchase all of February's flosses.  If you are just jumpin' on the Word Play bandwagon and haven't done all of the months, you will want to purchase a full floss kit.

I am also receiving questions about auto-ships...
there is no auto-ship available for this series.

Reminder...

Country Stitches' shipping 

is closed through January 2nd.

  We'll be back to shipping orders on the 3rd of January,

for those of you who placed orders,

during the holiday shut-down. 

Happy New Year everyone,
Brenda

Watching Grass Grow???

Well... Agassi must have been a good boy,

because Santa

brought him Kitty Grass Kits

for Christmas.

Agassi loves kitty grass...

I planted Agassi's grass for him

and found a nice sunny spot for his grass to grow in,

on the end of our kitchen table,

near the big sunny window...

placement of grass was

unbeknownst to this fur child (so I thought). 

  Upon returning home from the grocery store yesterday,

with my soup-makin' goodies,

 this is what I found

sitting on my kitchen table ...

Agassi always always practices good kitty manners

and

stays off the counters

and kitchen table...   

and if those big blue eyes could talk,

I just know they were telling me,

I'm just

simply watching

my  grass grow...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Thanks You for all your get- well wishes!

  Sounds like everyone in blog land has had this crud.

Why shoot, 

if we didn't all live in all the corners of the world,

I would have invited

you all over

for hot tea and honey.  

We could have sat around

and

blown our red noses together!!!

The chicken soup was delicious, 

I enjoyed it by myself 

as the dh is out of town on business.

I had some leftover cream from the holidays, 

so I added it to the broth

and turned it into creamy chicken noodle soup...yummers! 

The sore throat is better,

I'm just now to the coughing stage...

you know,

can't get it up,

can't get it down!

Feels like I have a hunk of gunk, the size

of Rhode Island, residing in my throat...

other then that

I think I might survive!

Have a good day,

Brenda

Vacation???

Sipping hot green tea & honey

and

making homemade chicken noodle soup

were not on my list of things to do

during this time away from work,

vacation,

vacation from work,

or whatever you want to call it...

{sigh}

I seemed to have caught the sniffles that were going around the family at Christmas time...

sore throat, body aches, sinus gunk,

and 

an overall feeling of 

yuck.

I'm hoping the chicken soup simmering on the stove will work wonders and I'll be good as new

in the morning...

 

Signed,

Brenda,

who has a kleenex stuck up her nose to stop the dripping so she can type...

{sigh}

Coming Home...

A favorite verse,

especially at Christmas time... 

Having my family home at the holidays 

is the best gift from

thee to me.

It's all I want for Christmas...

I cherish this family time,

the coming home

for Christmas time.

Blessings,
Brenda

 

Whoever said...

this guiding Santa's sleigh is easy stuff,

has had a few

too many 

egg nogs!

Just ask my human mom, 

it cost her

"purrt near"

a whole bag of kitty treats....

Meowy Christmas Everyone,

Agassi

Home for the Holidays

I've had several emails from you all wanting and wondering if there is, or is there going to be a pattern for the Christmas scene banner at the top of my blog.  This banner was created with the motifs for the HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS pattern, I just sort of squished everything together in a row, rather then in a stocking shape!  So yes, there is a pattern...kind of... and it is for sale under the CROSS STITCH category, sub-category PATTERNS on our website.

Also, am thrilled beyond thrilled, that you all aren't expecting some goofy leprechaun on March's Word Play...that's a relief!   Thanks for you input!  Release date for February's Word Play is January 3rd, upon returning from our year end shut down.

Have a good evening,
Brenda

Working on February's...

Word Play
and
stressing over
March's Word Play...

I just am really struggling with leprechauns...
wish me luck...
off to eat my morning bowl
of Lucky Charms...

Have a good week everyone,
Brenda

Noise over head...

This evening,
upon leaving the house,
the sky over-head was full of crows,
lots of crows,
lots of noisy crows.

My first thought was,
we are going to get do-doed on,
and my second thought was,
don't look up!
Yep,
don't look up
when crows are over head...

Several years ago,
I received a phone call from daughter Erin,
when she was a student at ISU.
She was crying and in distress,
sobbing really...
She had just gotten home
from a student health visit
after looking up,
into the crow-filled trees
on campus
and
bingo bango...
crow poop
right in her eye.

She's crying,
telling Mom what happened,
and Mom is trying her hardest not to laugh...
maybe I did laugh...
(no mother of the year awards for me)

So long story short,
a crow has very acidic do-do
and it causes
the eye to mucus
over rather quickly,
thus the need for medical attention
and eye drops
to prevent infection.

So
whenever I see crows,
as I did this evening,
I think of Erin
and
chuckle
and
then always think...
don't look up!

But I just couldn't help myself,
the amount of crows in the sky
was totally amazing
and
they seemed to be very agitated.
Agitated birds
usually mean there are larger birds of prey
in the area.

Then I spotted it,
a Great Horned Owl!

Wishing so badly
that my night time photography skills
were better,
as it would have been
a very very cool picture.

For those of you who haven't seen one of these guys,
they are big...
they stand about 2 feet tall
and have distinct horns on their head.

(Above is a borrowed photo from Audubon)
Isn't he pretty?
Just look at those eyes...

Yep,
I'm supposing
the fella out in our tree
is using those big eyes,
in search
of,
the Peter Rabbits
that come to feed on
dropped bird seed
in our yard at night.
I know,
poor bunnies...

Have a good week,
Brenda