Gone To Pot

Hello bloggers & friends. Today I'm going to talk about "gone to pot" & it's meaning as found in the Urban Dictionary. I thought this would be fun to blog about since my website is called Gone-ta-pott.com. Happy reading :)
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Definition of Gone to pot:
An item which is broken, defective or substandard. 2 explanations have been historically applied. The 1st is in olden times when food was scarce, people would leave the bones, fat and undesirable portions behind after eating their meal. These second-rate items would be used for soup the next day, so as such, the poor-quality leftovers would "go to pot".
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The second explanation is that in the days of the industrial revolution and early mass-production, assembly workers would occasionally find a defective or out-of-tolerance part which was not suitable for use. This part would be sent back to the smelting room to be melted down and re-cast a second time. Since the smelting was done in a giant pot, these defective parts had "gone to pot".
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In either case, the phrase gained popular use by the American homeowners who would occasionally wear out an item which would fail- often at an inconvenient time.
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Gone to pot is an idiom
If something has gone to pot, it has gone wrong or doesn't work anymore.
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Now what is an idiom ?
A phrase which has a meaning that is commonly understood by speakers of the language, but whose meaning is often different from the normal meaning of the words is called an idiom.
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You may also be interested in our article on "Bone Soup" at our website. It sounds spooky and mysterious doesn't it? Well guess what... it is! This was considered a potion many many years ago. paid photo licensed Paolo frangiolli / Dreamstime.com

What Does Autumn Mean To You

Autumn is here y'all and for me personally that means wonderful long walks in the leaves and trees so I can see what I can see. I can't pass it up. I can spends hours and hours just walking in the woods and listening to the dry leaves crunch under my feet, watching the squirrels at work in the trees and looking in amazement at all the orange, yellow and brown colors.


Building my yearly girl and boy scarecrows:
I love scarecrows and if I don't have time to make them myself you can bet I'll go out and buy them. A year doesn't go by that I don't have me a couple of Fall mascots to adorn my little cottage. I use to always just have a boy scarecrow but since it's became fashionable to have a girl... well I just go ahead a give the little guy a girlfriend. If you have to buy one your in luck because they are cheat to buy.


Always Pumpkins At My Place:
Fall just wouldn't be fall if I didn't have a couple of pumpkins around. Now that I think about it... I usually go through more than a couple of pumpkins during the fall season. I get a couple for decorating the door steps but we eat lots more of them! LOL! It's true- me and the hubby are crazy about baked squash and pumpkin and even pumpkin soup. He always cooks up a few pots of pumpkin soup for us with some crusty french bread. It's so good too. I usually bake a couple of pumpkin pies once the weather turns a bit nippy. I like to eat the pies with my coffee for breakfast on chillieee morning. I can't let the season go by with a pot of harvest stew either. It's stew made with chunks of pumpkin, root veggies and potatoes. Stick a few smoked sausage in it and your looking at a fall feast in a bowl for sure. LOL! Hummm.... maybe I should make a page with the recipe on it.


Decorating:
My decorating goes as far as pumpkins on my porch, a scarecrow or 2, a couple of bales of hay or straw that I put with my scarecrows, a few little orange twinkle lights around my front door and...... I can't leave out the seasonal wreath that hangs on my front door. I never buy the wreath. I mean what fun is that. I enjoy making a fall wreath for my door because I just love to glue things together. I get out the oh orange ribbon and yellow fake leaves and go to town. giggle~ I glue a few mixed varieties of nuts on and it's done. Nothing fancy just fallish. 


Fall also means Apples to me
Between pumpkins and apples you can't really get away from them can you. There everywhere! There everywhere because there in season. In fact apple season runs from September, October through November. You shouldn't have any problems finding them at the grocery store.


I know we blogged about National Apple Dumpling Day the other day but I love me some apple dumplings. For those that don't know what it is; it's a dessert; a apple wrapped up in dough and baked in the oven. The inside is full of sweet fall flavors of cinnamon and spice. I love it served hot with ice cream and during the fall it's traditional for me to eat lots-ah apple dumplings. It's not unusual for me to wrap up in my scarf and hat...... heat up my apple dumpling really hot...... and take myself outside and eat it under a tree while I watch the fall winds blow. Now That's "Living Like It's A Holiday" to me.


Hay Rides!
I've always had a fondness for them since I was a little kid. It's the simplest thing in the world but the glorious thing in the world too. I don't mind hay sticking to all my clothes and being stuck in my hair. That's part of the fun of a hayride. Every body will look the same. If you go on one for the first time just make sure to wear your bluejeans. ( How-to enjoy a hayride ) 


Fall is my favorite time of year. Even the yard work makes me happy. I would love to hear if it's your favorite time of year too. Happy Fall Y'all, Pam


Photo: Licensed under RF-LL terms / AUTUMN LEAVES ON ROCK © Joy Fera | Dreamstime.com
P.S. I don't mean to do all this double spacing. Some like to double space but I don't care for it myself. The blogger is doing it automatically in the html stuff and I haven't figured out how to correct it yet.

Southern People Eat BBQ for Breakfast!

BBQ for Breakfast? Your kidding right?

Nope I'm not.  :) It's no secret that southern people eat barbecue for breakfast all the time. It tastes wonderful with eggs and buttermilk biscuits, I kid you not.


This photo by CC Chapman / flickr is a picture of a restaurant meal but is a prime example of how southerners are known to eat a BBQ breakfast at home. The star of the show is the meat and although we eat all kinds of meat, the most popular pick is "pulled pork." Pulled pork is happily plopped on top of eggs with lots-ah barbecue sauce for many-ah-meal.


Look at this smoked pork loan roast. 
Now wouldn't you love to sink your teeth into that for breakfast? Pic description: "I smoked this roast in the new smoker for about 2 1/2 hours. I had opened it up before starting to cook and put a few green onions in along with some garlic and olive oil. I tied it back together with butchers twine then covered it with a rub of salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.


When southerners grill out 

When southerners grill out, say the day before; if there's any meat left at all... you can bet your bottom dollar that that barbecue meat is gonna hit the table the next morning. No freezing or giving that meat away at all. Nope it's saved for breakfast the next morning. Some like it with no sauce at all while others like me have to have sauce. I actually prefer the sauce cooked on the meat so it caramelizes and chars. Yummm don't that sound good. Either way.... I slice open a homemade buttermilk biscuit, slather it down with white butter and pile in the meat. Talk about hog heave!


Yeah I know what your gonna say... You thought we ate fried chicken every day for breakfast. Maybe you were thinking about the newest craze of chicken-N-waffles. Nope we do give the chicken a break sometimes ya know. We eat barbecue meat too. giggle~


Fun Food Facts:
According to estimates, prior to the American Civil War Southerners ate around five pound of pork for every one pound of beef they consumed.
In hard times of the past, wild hog hunts were popular. Pig slaughtering became a time for celebration, and the neighborhood would be invited to share in the largesses. These feasts are sometimes called 'pig-pickin's. The traditional Southern barbecue grew out of these gatherings." wiki

• See Barbecue for Breakfast

Holidays To Remember:  See our website for holiday facts.

May is National Barbecue Month
September is National Breakfast Month
List of breakfast holidays

It's The Way Of Nature

We call this section of our blog "Catsville."


My day didn't start out like I wanted it to. I had big plans for some great articles that were just busting to be put down on paper but my cat Rocco had other ideas. 


You see this big boy is beautiful, bold and a visious hunter. (this is a pic of my hubby holding him) And even though he is an indoor cat and only has access to a large closed in pen... that goes outside.... he still manages to catch something like he did today.


Squirrels sometimes wonder near the pen and his sneaky arms reaches out and grab them. This was one of those sad days that it happened. He grabbed the little girl squirrel and before I knew it he was running with her all over the place. I chased him (along with my other cats who wanted a piece of the action) all over the pen and all over the house knocking down everything. I had busted plant planters, flipped over chairs, lap top in the floor and desk papers everywhere. I tried to get the little girl out of his mouth before he killed her but I just wasn't fast enough. By the time I got my hands on him and held the little squirrel in my hands it was to late. I watched her take her last breath. It broke my heart :(


I burried the little squirrel under the tall oak tree in the back yard. :(
I really do hate to see things like this happen. I love all Gods creatures and even though it's a natural thing for a cat to do.... I still don't like it. 

French Toast Recipe

This post is in honor of National Breakfast Month. 
A food holiday celebrated the month of September.

In honor of September being "breakfast month" I thought I would take a picture of a dish of french toast that I ate for supper the other night and blog a bit about it. Yes I know Breakfast Month is about eating a good breakfast at the start of your day but I actually enjoy breakfast for supper so french toast it was.

The recipe was just the easy version. No bells or whistles; just plain old fashion french toast fried in a cast iron skillet and covered with lots-ah-golden eagle syrup. ....With my trusty kitty cat cup in hand (my favorite coffee cup) and full of coffee, It was a match made in heaven. I devoured it all while watching the cooking channel.

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (I used 1/4 teaspoon)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 slices of white bread

Directions

• Beat together egg, milk, cinnamon, vanilla & salt.
• Heat a lightly oiled & buttered skillet over medium heat.
• Soak bread slices in egg mixture for about... 15 seconds on each side, until coated.
• Cook bread until both sides are lightly brown and crisp.
• You gotta serve it hot!

118 Recipes
Now you would think that french toast was a simple little recipe but you would not believe the many different french toast recipes that's out there. Wow was I surprised when I went to Allrecipe.com and found a long list of over 118 french toast recipes. Yep I said it! It was over 118 of them. If your a french toast lover then you have to check this list out. My personal favorite is fench toast stuffed with sweetened cream cheese and peaches.

You may like to go to our website and read about the holiday 
National_breakfast_month

Do You Blog In Your Bloomers?

Madeleine mini bloomers
Originally uploaded by Britt Willis

Well what are bloomers?
Wikipedia defines it the best. It's women's garments for the lower body!

Women's baggy underpants fastened to just below or above the knee are also known as "bloomers" (or as "knickers" or "directoire knickers"). They were most popular in the 1910s and 1920s but continued to be worn by older women for several decades thereafter. Often the term "bloomers" has been used interchangeably with the pantalettes worn by women and girls in the mid 19th century and the open leg knee length drawers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The original bloomers...
were an article of women's clothing invented by Elizabeth Smith Miller of Peterboro, New York an early pioneer of the vulcanized rubber girdle, but popularized by Amelia Bloomer in the early 1850s (hence the name, a shortening of "Bloomer suit"). They were long baggy pants narrowing to a cuff at the ankles (worn below a skirt), intended to preserve Victorian decency while being less of a hindrance to women's activities than the long full skirts of the period (see Victorian dress reform).

Did you know there's even a "National Underwear Day", holiday?  I blogged it here


Well back to the question.
Do you blog in your bloomers? Well it looks like 99% of us do. We surf the Internet in our undies, socialize on facebook in them, read the news with them, blog on bloggers and tweet on twitter...all in our undies. :) Giggle~ Come on now be honest... Do you blog in your bloomers?

Resources & Outside Links

• scrapyardfabrication.blogspot.com/madeleine-mini-bloomers-pattern-review.html If you've read any sewing blogs the last few days, you've likely heard Colette Patterns released a mini bloomers pattern that is free to download. 
• Here's a picture of anticue long bloomers - flickr.com

Pound Cake Tips

cream cheese pound cake
Originally uploaded by Lex in the City

Have your ingredients at room temperature before you start.

The size of sugar crystals can make a cake a winner or a dud. If your pound cake turns out perfect then you better make note of what type of sugar you used and use the same crystal size the next time you bake pound cakes. If your cake is soft in the middle, the size of the sugar that you used could be the reasons why.

One of the most common mistakes in baking cakes is to over beat the batter after adding the flour.

Don't wing it. You must measure the ingredients.

Don't leave out the baking soda if your recipe calls for it. You need the baking soda to help the cake rise and create the little bubbles that lighten the texture of the cake.

If you are using a salted butter you won’t need to add salt to your batter.

Try using Cake Flour for a better textured cake. Two different kinds of flours are used in pound cake recipes - cake flour and all purpose flour. Cake flour is milled from soft wheat flour and yields a soft, fine texture. All purpose flour is milled from both hard and soft wheat and yields a taller, firmer cake.

The most important step in pound cake making is creaming the butter or shortening with the electric mixer. The air whipped into the cake during the creaming process makes the cake rise during baking.

Greasing and flouring the pan prevents the cake from sticking. Use solid shortening for greasing rather than butter, margarine, or cooking spray.

Cool the cake right side up on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes. This gives the cake time to firm up and prevents it from breaking.

Troubleshooting:
Batter Overflows:
Overmixing, or too much batter in pan

Sticky Crust :
Too much sugar

Damp Cake: C
ooled too long in pan, or underbaking

Tough Crust:
Overmixing, or not enough sugar, fat, or leavening

Sinking in Center:
*Underbaking, or removed from pan too soon
*Exposed to draft during baking or cooling
*Too much liquid, leavening, or sugar

Heavy Texture:
Not enough leavening, or overmixing
Old baking powder or baking soda
Too much fat, sugar, or liquid

Crust too brown on bottom:
Use of dark baking pan
Pan too low in oven

Cake Falls:
Insufficient baking time
Oven temperature too low (check with oven thermometer)
Removed from pan too soon

Outside Links & Resources for Making the Best Pound Cakes
catsue.wordpress.com/lemon-poppy-seed-pound-cake
sippitysup.com/perfect-lemon-poppy-seed-tips-techniques
southernliving.com/tips-for-baking-a-perfect-pound-cake

Old-Fashioned Apple Dumpling Recipe

Old-Fashioned Apple Dumplings
Originally uploaded by Daily Bungalow

Never leave cream sitting on the table.

Early this morning about 6:00 am -I was enjoying a relaxed morning at my computer checking emails and reading my favorite blogs. The hot coffee pot was brewing and the smell of the deep dark roast was filling the house full of that soothing morning coffee smell. The real cream and the coconut creamer neatly sitting beside the coffee pot waiting to be pored in the coffee. 


While I was waiting for the brewing to finish, I settled back into my computer and was well on my way at typing when all of a sudden I heard it. crashhhhh! bangggg! bam! crack! I ran to the kitchen and....... I should of known. I should of known not to leave the real cream sitting on the kitchen counter unattended especially when you have cats. 


Nothing attracts a cat more than milk does and you guessed it. While Batman the cat was trying to get to the cream he knocked off a canister above the sink and it fell right on the breakfast dishes that I had ready to serve up breakfast on. The canister was so heavy that it busted 2 of my sea shell design dishes that I loved so much. ^$^$#%#$%#*(& 


Ok I was mad for a brief moment.... But who could stay mad at such a sweet face. He ran right up his cat tree and lay his head down as to say... I'm sorry.

• In honor of National Cat Holidays 
• We call this section of our blog "Catsville."

Ittie Bitie has been sad

In honor of all National Cat Holidays
we made a section just for cats!
We call this section of our blog "Catsville."


Ittie Bittie the cat has been sad 
for several weeks now because he finally ripped to pieces his favorite gray toy mouse. It's been so funny watching him drag the tail to the body and drop it... then drag the head of the mouse over to the tail and body and drop it. He just stands over them as if by magic they are going to put themselves back together again. He taps on the head and meows..... he taps on the tail and meows. Then he sadly walks away.
We have search high and low for weeks trying to find another gray furry mouse but with no success. We buy other mice for him but he turns his head away sadly as if his best friend left him forever.


Up-Date 
Wellllll I'm happy to say that Ittie Bittie the cat is now happy happy happy because we finally found a gray furry mouse just like his old one and brought it home to him. He has been playing with it for hours and he is now tuckered out and sleeping. And yes you guessed it.... his favorite gray mouse is sleeping by his side. (or should we say... it's under him)

• Shop Cat Toys

I'm Back To Blog! Personal Comments:

I've done very little blogging over the last 12 months. Just couldn't find the time between my website, my Mother's sickness and the traveling I was doing from Florida to her home in Alabama. Spent weeks and months at 7 different hospitals (most in Birmingham)  sleeping in chairs and in the floor with a heavy heart. My dear sweet Mother lost her battle after fighting so hard for months and months to stay alive. After many surgeries her strength was gone and sadly she left us the week of Christmas. It's taken me this long to bring myself to blog about the love I have for holidays again.
But...... I'm back to blog!

National Play Doh Day

Did you ever play with play doh as a kid? I know I sure did. In fact it was a favorite toy for me. I had ever kind of play doh mold you could think of and every color you could buy too. Because today is National Play Doh Day, it gave me reason to think about when I was a little girl and remember how much I loved playing with play doh.

Did you play with it as a kid?

Events For September 2011

• Pledge Across America. See www.celebrationusa.org
• The Big E, West Springfield, MA (Sept 16-Oct 2). See www.thebige.com
• England: Harrogate Autumn Flower Show (Sept 16-18). See www.flowershow.org.uk
• Monterey Jazz Festival, Monterey, CA (Sept 16-18). See www.montereyjazzfestival.org
• Seven Sweets and Sours Festival, Intercourse, PA (Sept 16-17).
• International Coastal Cleanup. See www.coastalcleanup.org
• Virginia Peanut Festival, Emporia, VA (Sept 22-25). See www.thevirginiapeanutfestival.com
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It's Cream Filled Doughnut Day!

I love cream filled doughnuts!
Oh yesss! Give me deep fried doughnuts that are vanilla creamed filled. (I'll take chocolate too) In fact I can honestly say I eat them every chance I get... yes I admit it... I eat them once every week and today was no different. In fact I felt especially content to ride my bike to the doughnut shop down the road to celebrate National Cream Filled Doughnut Day. Yep I sure did. And in honor of this special day I ate 3! Ohhh yes I did! That's the downfall of living a bicycle ride from a doughnut shop. But at least the bike ride ate up a few calories. That's what I told myself when I bit into the 3rd one.  :)

Happy National Cream Filled Doughnut Day everyone!

• National Cream Filled Doughnut Day, the holiday
• Photo is from wikipedia