Pumpkin Cheesecake From Scratch

My family is now wanting me to make homemade pumpkin cheesecake. When I made the cheesecake for Thanksgiving, I used canned pumpkin. For Christmas, I wanted to make the cheesecake from scratch. I used this pumpkin cheesecake recipe, but substituted the fresh pumpkin that I steamed in our steamer. They had a link for individuals who wanted to use fresh pumpkin. I never thought of using the steamer, but it was so easy. There were different methods to cook the pumpkin. I pureed the pumpkin in our food processor. Easy, peasy.

Latest Customer Custom Embroidered Apron Request for Country N' More

I enjoy creating custom embroidered aprons for my customers. I have made numerous aprons for this fellow business group member. Since I make all of the aprons and that I don't use mass produced aprons, I decided to have some already made up. I only had two of the black aprons made up, but plan on having more aprons already made up. I always get approval from the customer before embroidering the apron. These aprons are ready to wrap under the Christmas tree.  Ko Ko Kooks is done in an elegant font, while Uncle Jimmy will be stitched in a baseball font.

 This lovely waitress is modeling the Ko Ko apron.

Vintage Tea Towel Clearance Sale At countrynmore.com

Yep, you heard it right. We are having a clearance sale on all vintage tea towels. Now, is the chance to take advantage of these very low prices. Cheaper than you will find elsewhere. All vintage tea towels are 35% off.

Free Priority Mail Shipping At www.countrynmore.com

This is the first time that we have ever done this. We have free shipping to US destinations on orders of $40.00 or more. Country N' More has sales throughout our on line store for Cyber Monday.We specialize in custom aprons, handmade reversible cobbler aprons, vintage aprons, canning aprons, clothespin aprons, toddler cobbler aprons, neck coolers, oven door towels, custom embroidered gifts and more. All of our products at Country N' More are made with the utmost care. Since we do not mass produce our unique aprons, most of the aprons are one-of-a-kind.



Now, is a great time to get those unique gifts for holiday gifts and maybe something for yourself.

Country N More and Project Linus

I am so thankful for Suzanne from who is in charge of the local chapters of Project Linus. I have been donating my fabric scraps and larger fabrics to this worthy cause. I have been collecting fabric scraps and fabric for another donation. I forgot how many boxes I took this time, but that doesn't really matter. What really matters is that they use everything from the larger pieces, bolted fabric, to the small threads and tiny scraps. The tiny fabric scraps and thread are used to stuff pillowcases, etc. for animal beds. I didn't realize this until we took a donation last year. When I find those pictures, I will post all the quilts on display. These women are awesome and they take time to make these quilts for children. Usually, the room is buzzing with the sounds of women sewing on their machines, women knitting or crocheting blankets, and the sounds of women enjoying their time together.

Helping Children in Need

At Project Linus, a non-profit organization, we provide homemade blankets to children in need. Our blankets are lovingly made by adults and children from all walks of life and many different sources.

Here are some of the pictures that were taken yesterday.

 The back of our car loaded with boxes of fabric and scraps.

 This quilt is gorgeous. I should have taken a picture of the gorgeous fabric on the other side.

 Finished quilts, ready to go to needy children

 The women busy at work.

San Gabriel Rotary Fund-raiser Event

Well....it has been 10 years since I did a craft show at Hillside Farm in Norco, CA., and 15 years since I did a small show event. I was asked by a friend if I would like to sell some of my items at their fund raiser. They raise funds for different organizations, plus donate money for needy children that need shoes.

I thought that this would be fun, since it has been a while. I forgot how much work it was preparing and setting up. Albeit, this was not the 10 x 10 booth in Norco, just a table. I decided to take one of our grids to hang some cobbler aprons, waist aprons, and oven door towels. I had made a couple of embroidered Christmas aprons. The aprons were not yet put on our website, so one will be added.

The visitors and customers really liked our cobbler aprons.

New Oven Door Towels and Sales At Country N More

We have been busy making hanging oven door towels for the upcoming holiday gifting season. Of course, these beautiful oven door towels are also purchased for birthday, house warming as well. We have 58 different kitchen towels to choose from. Check them out as well as our great sales that are now in progress:

Save 10% off on selected oven door towels (limited time sale)
Save 20% off selected aprons
Save 20% off embroidered kitchen towels
Save 30% off grocery bag holders, which can also be used to hold rags, etc.
Save 15% off our embroidered pillow covers
Save 15% off our place mats, Fall and Christmas table runners.

 We have several combinations of these cute cat oven door towels.

 We have about 3 different versions of these cute puppy oven door towels.

There are 4 different combinations using this gorgeous tropical print.

New Fall Oven Door Towel At Countrynmore.com

New Fall oven door towels at countrynmore.com. I just love the colors of fall and these towels definitely bring out the true colors of fall. The towel fits so well with the fall theme.

Come check out this cute oven door towel and all of our other oven door towels.  Actual testimonial from one of our loyal customers: I have been buying their Hanging Oven Door Towels for quite some time. They are always so cute, wear well, and are very well made. Plus, they thanked me for the last few times for being a loyal customer, which I much appreciated.

Our Latest Custom Embroidered BBQ Aprons at countrynmore.com

We just love the elegant font used to embroider the bbq aprons. We recently received a request to create personalized bbq aprons for a customer. The recipients of the aprons are all happy with their unique gift. Instead of using mass imported aprons, we make all of the aprons at Country N' More. We use 65% polyester, 35% cotton fabric for all of our aprons. The black fabric is the most popular, but we also have it in navy blue.

These aprons are popping with their bright color embroidery thread. Mireya's Kitchen was done with a hot pink embroidery thread.

Glenda Cooks and Loraine Cooks were both done in a neon green. It is so gorgeous.

Fresh Huckleberries

Well....I think that this is the last of the harvesting of fruit for this year. The huckleberries are ripe for the picking. I usually will immediately turn them into delicious jam, but this year will be different. I am going to freeze them. Our poor refrigerator. It is overflowing with frozen apples, grape juice, along with our other frozen goods.

This year's crop is larger than last year.

I am thinking of using the jam recipe from food . com.

Now, it is time for countrynmore.com to get back to making some custom aprons for a customer. I will post pictures when I am done.

Apple Picking-Preparation Applesauce, How To Freeze Apples, etc.

Well...this is not Country N' More that is doing the picking of the apples, rather the harvesting of the Fuji apples from our apple tree in the back yard. Many of the apples have fallen victim to the local squirrels, while others have been victims of the codling moth. Despite these downfalls, we still had plenty of apples to pick. This year showed a bumper crop. The squirrels of course would go after the large apples. All in all, we still had plenty of apples to pick. I know for sure that the squirrels were not happy with us for taking the fruit. Every day we would see the remains of an apple enjoyed by the local squirrel, while other apples were knocked down on the ground.

This picture was taken several weeks ago:

 I was asked by a friend if I weighed the apples, because I mentioned that I thought that there was over 30 lbs. This made me think...."How many pounds of apples were left on the small tree out in the back?"  So...I weighed the smaller box, which was abundant in itself. The total weight of the apples in this 13 1/2" x 14 1/2" by 9 1/2" tall box was 24 lbs. This leaves the larger of the two boxes, which is about double the size of the smaller size. The total combined weight of the apples picked this year.  Drum roll please....65 lbs. Whoa! I am looking forward to using the apples to make apple pies, cake, apple pancakes, etc.

This large box is heaping with apples.

The very small ones will be made into juice. I have already started making home made applesauce. This year, I am going to try freezing apples. I don't know why I haven't thought of it before. I have canned apples, but never froze them. These apples are going to be sliced and frozen. There are still plenty of apples in the second box. I will post updates when I weigh the second box. All I can say, "It is heavy!"

Tip:  I poured lemon juice in a bowl. I add the slices to the lemon juice in the bowl. When ready to freeze, I just pick up a bunch of apple slices, shaking off any excess lemon juice. This works well for me. The apples are then vacuum sealed.

Making applesauce:

Below is a link to some great tips for preparing apples from UC Davis
http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/8229.pdf