Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas!




Hope your holidays are filled with lots of food, family, and fun!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Sausage Balls


In my mind, no Thanksgiving or Christmas would be complete without sausage balls.  Both my mom and Grammy make them and they are a staple of breakfast, lunch, and dinner for days surrounding the holidays.

I'm not a huge meat fan, but these can't be beat.  Now, there's a bit of a discrepancy, because when my mom gave me the recipe, I forgot to write down the part about browning the sausage before mixing up the balls.  So I just mixed them raw.  Turns out, no one died, and they were actually quite good (no offense, mom!).  My version of the recipe thus includes no precooking of everyone's second favorite pork product (bacon is #1, duh).  But if that really grosses you out, you could go old school and cook em like mom does. 


Holiday Sausage Balls
- 1 pound package of ground sausage
- 3 cups Bisquick
- 4 cups grated sharp cheddar
- Seasonings to taste: pepper, garlic, Italian seasoning, onion powder, onion flakes, etc

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Spray a baking sheet with spray
3. Combine all ingredients in a big bowl
4. Mix well with fingers
5. Form into 1" balls by rolling.
6. Bake for 18-20 mins until browned (flip them halfway for even cooking).



Easy enough, right?  Well, it is.  However, please see #4.  That's gonna take you like 20 minutes.  Make sure you don't do arms at the gym the week you're making them.  You will get plenty of workout just mixing these little suckers up.  Um, and I won't go into it, but make sure to take off your rings first.  Nothing like burying your hands wrist-deep in raw sausage. 

The sausage isn't quite moist enough to absorb the Bisquick and cheese quickly if you don't precook it - but in my opinion, the finished product is moister and not as dry if you don't precook the sausage.  So keep mixing.  It's totally worth it!

The recipe can easily be double and makes a TON.  They last really well and make for great leftovers.  Yum!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Holiday How-To

How to make a gingerbread house (courtesy of Kacy):



How not to make a gingerbread house (anonymous creator....certainly not me...):


If said gingerbread houses were in competition, which do you think would win?  :)



Moral of the story:  Read box instructions and wait 15 minutes after icing-gluing down the roof.  And don't let your husband help.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Lighting the Night



Christmas is this week - how weird is that?  Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't feel like Christmas at all.  I've wrapped all my presents, been listening to festive music for a month, and our house is all decorated... but still, it doesn't feel very Christmassy.  I'm going to just assume it's an off year for me, and go at Christmas full-force next year (which brings me to another point - how weird is it that it's 2010?  I can remember the whole Y2K business like it was only a few years ago!).


Anyway...it's become a Christmas tradition to go see the Christmas lights display that the Gaddy family puts up on their property each year in Fayetteville.  I talked about this display here last year, but it's so awesome I'm posting about it again...  And because I'm bored at work... And because I took an irrational amount of pictures of the lights and need to put them somewhere.

No, the lights don't synch to music or play rockband, but they are a good old fashioned southern lights display - complete with American flag, lots of baby Jesuses, and penguins riding tractors.

So turn up the Christmas tunes and enjoy:

























Maybe next year I will have a camera that can capture the fabulousness of them all!

Monday, December 14, 2009

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Decking The Halls

Our little version of Christmas Cheer:










Notice something new in our living room?  It's our fancy new bookcase!  Luckily I had mountains of Christmas stuff to stick on it - but there will be a whole separate post on decorating that beauty once the holidays are over -- it will be quite blank until I get some new things!  I already love how cozy it makes the room seem.

Also, I'm kinda in love with the front porch ornaments.  They really look better in the light of day, but I leave and come home under cover of darkness, so this is the best you get!

Happy holiday season.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Halfway to 50...Quarter of a Century...Old.

So, I'm 25.  Officially on the downhill slide to thirty.  I just don't feel old enough to 25!  Not that the age itself really bothers me, it's just that I remember being a kid and thinking 25 was SO old and grown up and "adult" ... and I'm not sure I feel like any of those yet!

I'm not the type to mope over getting older (besides, as my dear mother puts it "getting older is better than the alternative" -- get it... death... good one mom). 


I told Tony I wanted to take a small trip instead of him getting me something.  We decided to head up to Asheville (thanks to some free Biltmore tickets I weaseled from work) and Greenville.  Tony took the initiative to plan everything himself.  And he gets 1,000 husband bonus points because when we went to check into our hotel in Asheville, we entered the room and my whole family was there!  Mom, Dad, Court, Cait, Courtney's bf Byron, Grammy, and even their dogs! 


(my dad is glowing...)

Tony had organized it with them to come meet us for the day and evening.  I love my family so much and hate the fact that I only see them every few months or so, so this was a great treat.  It's always crazy and loud when there are 9 of us, but I love it (in small doses, of course!).  Growing up in a big-ish family makes me cherish those times together.



It even snowed, although it didn't stick.  We froze to death and ate too much food, and topped the evening off with cupcakes. 



My family headed home and Tony and I went to the Biltmore - which I had been to, just not during Christmas.  Everything is a million times more enjoyable when decorated for Christmas.  The hands down best part of the house was the live 30 ft tall tree in their dining room (dining hall is a better word) that was covered in old-fashioned ornaments with real-sized presents hanging from it - apparently the family's presents for the servents were displayed this way when they really lived there. 



We spent some time in Greenville as well, mostly napping in the gloriously huge bed. Nothing to do but relax.
 Great birthday.  Sure beats the alternative. 

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Photo Cards - On Sale! Woo!

I ordered our holiday cards today!  I will post them once I actually send them out, because they are quite cute!

I opted not to arrange to take a photo, mostly because time is running out, and the thought of trying to make the dogs sit still for a photo makes me tired.  Instead I used a cute picture of Tony and I from a few months ago (back when we were still kinda tan!)

I held off on ordering the cards, because I figured a sale/deal would come up sooner or later.  Sure enough, today only Snapfish has 40% off cards.  I had the card in my shopping cart ready to go, just waiting for an offer like this to come through.  40 cards and envelopes for around $20 (including shipping and tax).  Not too bad!
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