Brunch Treats

Today was one of my mom's group's Christmas craft workshop. We got to sit around, eat yummy food and make some really fun things all while our children were in the care of some awesome people. BLISS!!!! I had signed up to bring something for the amazing food spread. I wanted to share with you what I made because both items were oh so yummy!

I had put my name under "Egg Casserole" when I signed up and I wanted to make something a little different from the normal breakfast casserole. After scouring Pioneer Woman's breakfast recipes, I came across Eggs Florentine Casserole. It was scrumptious and different from the norm. It makes a 9 x 13" dish of casserole and I came home with two tiny corner pieces left. That's always a good sign.

I used frozen hasbrowns...DO NOT TELL PIONEER WOMAN! It's just so much easier than grating potatoes and it tasted good anyways. I also used a 1 lb. package of breakfast sausage and fried it up while crumbling it.

I absolutely LOVE Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Magazine. It is my favorite recipe magazine. I always learn something and find recipes that I want to make. I treated myself to buying the December issue since I usually just check it out at the library. I found another recipe that I wanted to make to take to my mom's group also.

Sausage-Cheddar Balls

45 sausage balls

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups grated cheddar

1 lb bulk breakfast sausage

1/2 large yellow onion, grated on large holes of a box grater

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, ground pepper, cayenne pepper and baking powder. Add grated cheddar and toss to coat. Add sausage, grated onion and melted butter.

3. With your hands, mix until well blended and roll mixture into 1-inch balls. Place balls, 1/2 inch apart, on baking sheet. Bake until balls are golden and cooked through about 25 minutes. Serve warm.

***I chopped my onion finely instead of grating it but next time might grate it to get even smaller pieces. I would also use just a little bit less of the cayenne. They had a good kick to them but were still so very yummy!

Pillowcase Dresses

I have been in love with pillowcase dresses for a long time. I have a beautiful vintage pillowcase just waiting to be made into a summer dress for my oldest daughter. Alas I kept procrastinating and/or forgetting. The other day I was in JoAnne's and decided my girls needed matching Christmas pillowcase dresses and it was time for me to do it! So I picked out some fabric. It wasn't exactly what I wanted but it works and they turned out cute.

I used the tutorial found HERE on Naptime Crafts. I added a trim to the bottom of their dresses to set them off. Between the main dress fabric and the trim fabric I sewed on a red pom-pom trim which really added to the dresses, I think.

I am happy with how they turned out. I especially LOVE seeing my girls in something I made for them. Obviously since it is winter and blustery out we added the red leggings and white turtlenecks.

Felted Sweater Garland

A few weeks ago I was able to get together with a really sweet friend who loves to make crafts. She had a really sweet project started that we got to finish together. (A friend, a craft, yummy food, awesome conversation and lots of laughs equates bliss.) She had bought some wool sweaters and felted them. (Washing in hot water and drying.) Then she cut out mitten, heart, and star shapes and glued matching sweater pairs together with fabric glue except for one small hole where she stuffed the shapes with stuffing.

This was what she had done already. Then together we stitched all the way around the edges with black embroidery thread. We stitched some small hearts onto some of the shapes and added button and rafia. To finish we strung all of our shapes onto twine to make a garland. At home I tied on strips of Homespun fabric for a finishing touch. The garland is hanging in my kitchen entry. I love how it turned out.

To give it a homey look I used clothespins to hang it. I attached those sticky removable strips to the clothespins and tied the twine to the two end clothespins then hung it from the wall.

Cranberry Pork

I discovered this recipe on a Facebook friend's page and have made it several times since. We LOVE it. It is probably our family favorite right now.

Cranberry Pork Roast
1 (3 lb.) boneless pork loin roast, trimmed ***See note below
2 cans jellied whole-berry cranberry sauce
1/2 c. steak sauce
2 T. brown sugar
2 t. prepared mustard
4 T. water
4 T. cornstarch

Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; place over medium high heat. Add roast; cook until browned on all sides. Place roast in 4-5 qt. electric slow cooker coated with cooking spray. Combine cranberry sauce, steak sauce, brown sugar, and mustard; pour over roast. Cover and cook on low heat for 8 hours or high heat 4-5 hours. Remove roast from sauce, cover and keep warm. Combine water and cornstarch, stirring until smooth. Slowly stir cornstarch mixture into sauce in slow cooker. Pour mixture (very carefully) into a 1 quart microwave safe glass dish. Microwave at high heat for 2 minutes, stirring after one minute. Serve roast with cranberry sauce.

***I have been using pork loin chops instead of the roast because they have been on sale and they were wonderfully in the recipe. I also never have steak sauce so I just mix up some ketchup and Worcestershire sauce to make a 1/2 cup mixture.

You really need to make this. It is so easy and the flavor is AMAZING! It is really good served with a side of couscous and a vegetable like sauteed spinach with fresh mushrooms, onions and balsamic vinegar.

A Little Sweet Treat

This past Wednesday we had a couple friends over to decorate cookies. I wanted to make a little snack for us and wanted it to be easy after making bunches of sugar cookies. I found this little gem in my recipe box and decided to finally try it. Super easy, super good!

Honey Cream Filled Crescents
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 T. honey
1/4 c. sliced almonds
1 pkg. crescent roll

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix cream cheese and 2 T. honey; stir in almonds. Unroll crescent roll dough; separate into 8 triangles. Spread 1 rounded T. of the cream cheese mixture onto each triangle; roll each up loosely. Place rolls on ungreased baking sheet; curve each into crescent shape. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Serve rolls warm, drizzled with remaining honey.

The Best Part of the Thanksgiving Meal

In my opinion the very best part of the Thanksgiving meal is the dressing, stuffing...whichever you call it. My great aunt shared with me her recipe for the dressing many yearer recipe for the dressing many years back and it is what I use every year. It has never failed me and is always, always, always delicious and continues to be my favorite part of the meal. It also is really nice because it is cooked in the crock-pot making for one less thing to have to cram into the oven.

Crockpot Dressing
1 c. butter
2 c. chopped onion
2 c. chopped celery
1/4 c. parsley
2 cans mushrooms, drained (8 oz. cans)
12-13 c. bread cubes
2 well beaten eggs
1 t. poultry seasoning
1 1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. sage
1 t. thyme
1/2 t. pepper
3 1/2 - 4 1/2 c. broth

Melt the butter in a saucepan and sautee the celery and onion until tender. Add in the mushrooms. Add in the parsley, poultry seasoning, salt, sage, thyme and pepper. Pour over bread cubes. Toss well. Pour in broth to moisten. Add eggs. Mix well. Pack lightly into crockpot. Cover. Set on high for 45 minutes. Reduce to low and cook 4-8 hours.

Birthday Gifts

My girls were invited to a birthday party a couple of weeks ago. Our budget is pretty tight with Daddy in school so I decided to make a couple of things to give to the birthday girl. I made her a little cupcake fabric apron to use when she helps her mommy in the kitchen.

I like to make the neck loop a little big so they can grow into the apron. I just knot the excess so it fits better.

I also made her a little crayon roll out of the same fabric. I am not really that great of a seamstress when it comes to following a pattern. I like to think through the project and just kind of do it my own way and that is what I did here. My mother-in-law had made my oldest daughter one a few years ago so I just looked hers over well and came up with my own design.

I was so happy with how it turned out and it was really pretty easy.

There is something about a handmade gift that is so fun to give and to receive. These two gifts didn't take much fabric so I was able to use things I had on hand. They also really didn't take alot of time to make. Handmade is great!