(hey Son! what happened to the) sausage balls?
1 lb. hot sausage
2 c. grated sharp Cheddar cheese
3 c. Bisquick (biscuit mix)
allow cheese to come to room temperature.
combine all ingredients (just get your hands dirty, it’s easier).
roll into 1 inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.
bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
serve immediately (or keep them under lock and key until ready to serve).
makes 40-50 sausage balls when served immediately.
makes 3 sausage balls if served later (if you’re lucky).
(hey Son, what happened to the) sausage balls? (print friendly version)
mom’s pumpkin soup
FirstHusband makes his momma’s soup every Thanksgiving (except when we go visit for Thanksgiving and she makes it!)
1 cup butter (we use Smart Balance)
1 cup onion (chopped)
1 clove garlic (minced)
1 scant tsp curry powder
½ tsp salt
1/8 tsp coriander
½ tsp red pepper
3 cups chicken broth
1 16 oz can pumkin (or 16 ounces of jack-o-lantern puree)
1 cup half/half (or ½ cup evaporated skim and ½ cup skim)
sour cream
chives
melt butter, saute onion and garlic.
add spices and cook one minute.
add broth and simmer uncovered 15 to 20 minutes.
add pumpkin and milk and cook 5 minutes.
puree in blender. (BE CAREFUL. Start on a slow speed. It has a tendency to burst/explode out of the top even when you are holding the lid. It’s HOT and it BURNS. REALLY. Start Slow!)
garnish with sour cream and chives.
Serves 6
Stealth Birthday Streamers
This simple tradition is so easy (and inexpensive) and it makes my kids feel very special.
In our house, when a kid has a birthday, they wake up to a room which has been lovingly “T.P.’d” in colored paper streamers. The night before, after the kiddo falls asleep, my husband and I sneak in and run paper streamers all over the bedroom – from one corner to another, all over the ceiling fan, from the curtains, the bed and any protruding toy on a shelf. We stumble in the dark, say “shhhhhh” way too loudly and make confusing gestures at each other in the dark, trying to convey directions. You would not believe how loud tissue paper is when you unroll it in a quiet room! Despite all that, we’ve never had a kid wake up in the middle of the sneaky decorating and catch us!
The next morning, the kid wakes up to a maze of bright, colorful streamers. In the beginning, there would be a balloon or two as well. Not anymore. We can’t seem remember that part until we’re actually streaming the room and we will NOT drive to a 24 hour store in the middle of the night to buy balloons. We love our kids. But not enough to go out and buy balloons at midnight.
We usually leave the streamers up for a week – sometimes two. Lately, we take down all the streamers on the ceiling fan except for the ones draped over the blades. Then we can turn the fan on low and the streamers will twirl and drive the cats nuts.
Last night, putting my 6 (soon to be 7) year old daughter to bed, I said, “hmmmm. We’re going to have a hard time putting streamers in this room tonight. It’s so messy we can barely walk in here.
“Oh my goodness! I need to get out of this bed and get my hiney cleaning up this room!”
(If I knew that’s all it took to get her to clean her room without nagging, I would definitely have been T.P.ing the room more than once a year!)
Pink Girl’s Six Year Old Soup
This was invented by my daughter one lazy Sunday afternoon :
Saute chopped mushrooms and minced garlic in olive oil
Add some diced ham
Season with Mrs. Dash Basil, Tomato and Oregano
Add 1 can of tomatoes and juice
Cook for a while, stirring occasionally
Add three cups chicken broth
Add two cups water
Add ½ can of chick peas
Puree the other half of the chick peas and stir it in.
Add one can drained peas
Add cooked pasta
cook for a while.
Top with shredded cheese.
mmmmmmmmm.
put the book down. it’s okay. really.
I started a book recently. And decided not to finish it. And I’m okay with that.
really.
It was “Running with Scissors.” Great reviews. “So funny!”
I hated it.
HATED IT. (it’s VERY different from the movie)
H A T E D I T! (did I mention I hated it?)
And I don’t have to read stuff I hate. I’m a grown up and I get to choose. There was a time I wouldn’t have been comfortable with the idea of abandoning a book mid-read. I was taught to finish what I start. That not finishing was . . . failure.
So what changed my mind? A book, what else?
I read the book, “So Many Books, So Little Time” by Sara Nelson. In it, Sara chronicled her reading for an entire year. She had a reading list and a plan. A plan she didn’t stick to. She had books on her reading list she never got around to, books she hadn’t planned on reading, but devoured and (this is the revelation for me) a book or two she didn’t finish.
She didn’t finish a book.
And she was okay with that. She didn’t feel like she failed, was too ignorant or uncultured to understand or appreciate something or that she left something incomplete. She gave herself permission to put the book down and never look back.
Ahhhhh. My to do list just got so much lighter. Guilt is heavy. What I never realized before was that I actually did feel guilty when I didn’t finish reading a book. (If you think “Atlas Shrugged” is a heavy book, you can imagine how heavy the “still haven’t finished it” guilt is.)
Maybe it’s a book I’m not into. Why should I keep reading something I don’t like? Why? My discretionary time is so limited! Why should I spend it doing things I don’t like?
Maybe I do like a book, but it doesn’t reach in and touch me at this time in my life. I may LOVE it later. But not now. I can always read it later. If I want to. There have been spans of time in my life where I find great meaning and am edified by reading “My Utmost from His Highest” by Oswald Chambers and other times in my life where the book gathers dust on the shelf. Maybe I will finish Atlas Shrugged, but it’s not meaningful for me at this time in my life. Right now, I just don’t give a flip about John Gault.
So I’ll keep my leather bound copy of My Utmost for His Highest and my big, giant 40 pound copy of Atlas Shrugged and as I return Running with Scissors to the library, I’ll be thankful that I didn’t actually pay money for it.
be consistent
When my son was a baby, I still worked full-time. I found a wonderful care-giver, who we called “Miss Pat.” After my 3 month maternity leave was over, I took him to her house where she watched 4 other babies – all under 18 months old. After 18 months, they “graduated” and were cared for by her neighbor (coincidentally, also a “Miss Pat”).
In Miss Pat’s house the living room was the only place the babies were allowed to go on their own steam. She could carry them down the hall and put them in a crib for a nap, but they didn’t crawl down the hall on their own. They stopped at the doorway.
Her living room, which was carpeted, opened up into her kitchen, which was tiled. When she was in the kitchen, the babies would line up on the edge of the carpet, but never crawl onto the tile.
I was amazed. Babies less than 18 months old. Only crawling where they were allowed – the only “baby proofed” room in the house. How in the world did those babies know? I had to ask. She said, “I’m consistent.”
“What?”
She said, “When these little ones start to crawl, and they start over the edges of the living room, I pick them up and put them back.”
“That’s it?”
“Well, I don’t just do it once, honey. I do it about a hundred times a day for at least a week, maybe two. After being put back in the living room that many times, the babies get tired of it and spend their time playing instead of trying to get into the kitchen.”
Miss Pat taught me a lot, but this was key: “Training a child is exhausting.”
But worth it.
Today, my son is 12 and my daughter is almost 7. She has a habit of crying when things don’t go her way. It is so tempting to give in. When I’m tired and she’s tired and she’s crying and I feel like joining her . . . I don’t. I have this thing I say, which sometimes infuriates her, sometimes works like a charm:
“Solve your problem.”
Sounds easy to say, right? I don’t just say it once, honey. I say it about a hundred times a day and it’s been WAY longer than a few weeks and sometimes she still cries when something doesn’t go her way. The difference is that she doesn’t do it as often as she used to. More importantly, she doesn’t do it as often as she would if I sometimes gave her what she wanted when she cries.
It is the simplest advice. But it is exhausting. It tests your patience to the furthest limit. But if you give in – even once – that seed is planted “I wonder if she’ll give in this time?”
Don’t do it. Decide what’s important and then be strong.
Be consistent.
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Fitness Log: April
April Totals as of 4/3
HIIT Incline Days: 2
HIIT Incline Miles: 7.5
HIIT Incline Hours: 2.5
Strength Training/Yoga Days: 1
Forearm Planks: 2Recent Comments
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