The purrfect cup of coffee? Inside Madrid’s cat café By Bárbara Sánchez Ramos

A cup of coffee at La Gatoteca costs €4 – not cheap, but then you also have to consider your drink comes with your own cat to stroke for the next half hour or so. The first, and so far only, cat café in the Spanish capital – next door to the Reina Sofía art museum on Argumosa street – opened its doors a year ago, providing an imaginative solution as to how to bring abandoned cats in touch with potential adoptive families. On EL PAÍS's visit the two-floor space is occupied by 14 felines, who seem to have made themselves at home and, when not curled up asleep, make their way between the tables, perhaps in the hope of persuading one of the customers to take them home. Over the last year, Aznar says she has been able to place 24 felines. La Gatoteca owner Eva Aznar says she got the idea from Japan, where there are around 200 cat cafés. EL PAÍS English

How big of a country music fan are you?

Want to see how well you know today's country music hits? Take our quiz and see how you score. The CMA Awards begins at 7 p.m. CST, Wednesday at Bridgestone Arena. The Tennessean

Fresh ways to doctor stuffing mix

Let’s be clear about something... When making stuffing, it’s always better to slice and dry your own bread cubes. Hands down, the taste and texture are better. But let’s also be realistic. In the chaos of getting the many components of Thanksgiving dinner on the table in a timely manner, many of us won’t have the time to make that happen. It’s all good. Truth is, you can make a pretty respectable stuffing using those bagged stuffing mixes. Fresh Ways With Stuffing Mix: Start with a 12-ounce bag of stuffing mix, flavor of your choice. Prepare according to package directions, but add one of the following combinations before baking the stuffing. • Cherry-berry nut: Add 1 cup chopped dried cherries, 1 cup chopped dried cranberries, 1 cup chopped toasted pecans and the zest of 2 oranges. • Double onion: Caramelize 2 thinly sliced onions in a bit of butter over medium heat for 20 minutes, or until well browned. Add to the stuffing mixture and proceed as directed, also stirring in 2 bunches chopped scallions. • Forest mushroom and rice: Saute 8 ounces of mixed mushrooms in butter until well browned. Add the mushrooms and 1 cup cooked wild rice to the stuffing mixture. • Orchard ginger: Add 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger, 1 diced large apple and 1 diced large pear. South Bend Tribune I make stuffing by sautéing yellow onions and apples, raisins (sometimes dried cherries), dried bread and oregano until moist. Adding a lil powdered bouillon, salt, and pepper. Then I add to the pan crushed walnuts. I stuff the turkey to the rim and the result is spectacular.

Play to Stay: Sour Patch Kids Opens Brooklyn House for Touring Bands By Max Willens

Artists Can Stay at the 'Brooklyn Patch' in Exchange For Content. Bands and touring musicians looking for sweet relief from their touring schedules may soon start dreaming about Sour Patch Kids. A couple weeks ago, the Mondelez-owned candy brand opened up a house in Brooklyn where touring bands can recover from the rigors of the road. It's called the Brooklyn Patch, and according to Mondelez marketing director Farrah Bezner, the Patch represents a long-term investment in indie music culture. "We wanted to be able to contribute," Ms. Bezner said, pointing out that the Patch is meant to start long-term relationships with indie music artists and their fans. When one gets down to brass tacks, the overall goal is to drive awareness and regard for the Sour Patch Kids brand among a specific demographic. "Our target consumer," Ms. Bezner said, "is teenagers." The four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom house is in a historic landmark building on a quiet street in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn; Ms. Bezner asked that the address be kept private. The NUE Agency is serving as lead agency, while the Participation Agency handled its design and experiential elements. "We want people to feel at home," Ms. Bezner said. Quid Pro Quo Nevertheless, there is a quid pro quo associated with staying at the Patch. Artists who stay at the house are expected to create some content that Sour Patch Kids can share across a number of digital channels, which include a Brooklyn Patch-branded Tumblr as well as the brand's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Ms. Bezner said it is also exploring the possibility of adding further amplification partners. Even though it's too early to tell if the Patch will bear any fruit, Ms. Bezner and her agency partners have already started planting additional seeds. An Austin Patch should be ready in time for SXSW in 2015. Advertising Age

Raglans

White Lightening

Record British strawberry season 'to last until December' By Dan Hyde

It is a record year for strawberries, with 150 million punnets already produced – and more than a month of picking still to go. Fruit farms will still be picking British strawberries in December for the first in history, after the long summer and mild autumn produced a record crop. The British Summer Fruits Association said "ideal" growing conditions had yielded sweet, plump fruits for longer than usual. Strawberries have benefited from high levels of sunshine, low humidity, warm temperatures and cooler nights, experts said. This year 98 in every 100 strawberries sold in Britain over the summer were grown in the UK. Strawberry farming had also been "transformed" by the use of glasshouses which were originally built for crops such as salads and flowers, Mr Olins said. The glasshouses provide a "controlled environment", allowing berries to benefit from constant temperatures and humidity throughout the entire. Mr Olins added: "We have produced the biggest crop of the nation’s favourite berry this year – the British strawberry is a remarkable success story." The Telegraph

Duet with son highlight for Streisand: 'I had to sing with him'

Within just a few weeks of the 50th anniversary of Barbra Streisand's first No. 1 album, "People," which topped the charts in October 1964, Streisand has set a new record with her 10th No. 1 album — becoming the only artist to have had a No. 1 album in each of the past six decades. This new album, "Partners," features duets with some of the world's greatest vocalists — Babyface, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, Billy Joel, John Legend, John Mayer, Lionel Richie, Blake Shelton, Stevie Wonder, even Elvis Presley. And yet, for Streisand, perhaps the most thrilling part of this creative work was recording a duet with her son, Jason Gould. Several years ago, Gould came to Streisand and said, “You know, I think I'm going to sing.” When she later heard a recording he made, “I nearly fell off my chair, how beautiful his voice is. His musicianship ... he just floored me so I had to sing with him. ... He played me 'How Deep Is the Ocean.' I said I have to sing that song with you, because it's perfect lyric for a mother and a child.” Mother and son performed together live in 2012 and 2013, and their duet of "How Deep Is the Ocean" now makes its appearance on "Partners." Rounding out the album are some of Streisand's best-known tunes: "People" with Stevie Wonder, "The Way We Were" with Lionel Richie and "Evergreen" with Babyface. Ironically, Streisand — the Oscar-winning, Emmy-winning, Grammy-winning and Tony-winning performer who has sold 245 million albums worldwide — claims she doesn't love to sing, at least not in front of other people. “I love to sing in a recording studio,” she told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric. “It's just because there's nobody watching.” Then, it can be just her and the music. Still, this notoriously private person isn't afraid to go public on issues she cares about, whether it's gay rights or politics or women's heart health. In recent years, cardiac disease in women has become a major focus of her philanthropy, including personal contributions of $10 million to endow the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. We'll have lots more on that, and some exclusive glimpses of her new campaign, in the coming weeks. Yahoo! News