Saturday Stuff

Here's one more recipe I made on Christmas Day along with Sandi's fudge and Kat's meatballs. This one is from my BFF Paula's Christmas Cookbook and it's a keeper. It's so easy to make and if you are having company over for New Years they will eat it up fast. It only has two ingredients, so what could be easier then that?



~ Sausage Swirls~



Two 8 ounce refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

1 pound ground sausage, mild for kids, hot for adults or sage if you prefer



1) Separate 1 can of dough into 4 rectangles. Firmly press the perorations to seal. Take the uncooked sausage and cut it into 8 chunks. Using 4 chunks of the sausage, spread each of the rectangles with a thin layer(about 1/8 inch thick). Starting at the short end, roll each rectangle tightly into a cylinder. Repeat with the other can of dough and remaining sausage. Place on a plate, cover with plastic wrap, and chill until firm, about 30 minutes, then cut each roll into 4 slices.

2) When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375. Place the sausage swirls 1/2 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until golden brown and sausage is thoroughly cooked.

Paula said you can cook these ahead of time and reheat them in the oven. I hope Paula didn't mind but I added a little something to the recipe. Take a jar of your favorite marinara sauce and heat it up and serve it along side of the sausage rolls as a dipping sauce. Everyone loved dipping these little sausage rolls in the marinara sauce. Anyway I'll put this recipe on Leah's Recipe Exchange . I also have a link to Leahs on my sidebar so check it out for more good recipes. I have a really good recipe for cucumber sandwiches and hot artichoke dip,on the exchange so check them out also. If you serve all of these things at your New Years Party along with some pink champagne, your party will be a hit. Yes, I admit I love pink champagne, not only is it pretty but it's good. Are you really surprised that I would drink something pink? LOL Anyway, I really am not much of a cook but I seemed to do well with finger foods. Just a few ideas I thought I would share.

And just because I love this photo of Maddie. I just had to post it. She loves looking out the window and yesterday I got this shot and her reflection in the glass while she was watching out the window. Can you see her reflection in the window? I thought it was cool. Irene from Our piece of the world has been giving me pointers on working the camera. I know that not using the flash is best but my hands are not very steady and you need steady hands or a tripod when not using a flash. Anyway, check out her blog and see how good she's becoming with her camera. Longer post than I intended but have a great weekend!

What season is it???

We've had no rain and it's been really hot in Southwest Ohio. This big tree in my backyard is usually a beautiful rainbow of yellow and orange by now but the leaves are just turning brown and falling off. If you click on it, you can see they are brown. I think we might not have a pretty Fall this year in Ohio.




And this little Magnolia tree grows right in between my decks, which will be coming down next Spring. I hope we can save this little tree when the decks come down because when it does bloom, it's so pretty in the Spring. If you also click on this picture you can see it is starting to bud again, it's probably so confused as to what season it is.




Let's say you were Rip Van Winkle and you just woke up today and went outside of my house and took a look. Honestly, old Rip would think it was August 8th instead of October 8th! Yesterday I got in my car and it said it was 91 degrees outside and we are suppose to hit that again today. You guys know I like summer, right Kari? But I think I'm ready for a change. My daughter, Melissa wants me to go with her and Maddie to the local pumpkin patch but it's really hard to get into hot chocolate and caramel apples when it feels like you should be grilling hamburgers and hot dogs and swimming. They are telling us that these are record heat temps. No kidding! I guess I should be thankful it's not record cold temps. The record cold for Cincinnati for October 8th was 29 degrees in 1952. I put away all my summer clothes before I left for Alaska so now I'm dragging out my capris and tees. My sandals stay out year round, I ignore all the rules of fashion on the subject of sandals. I am a die hard sandal wearer, if there's no snow on the ground I'll wear my sandals till Christmas. My sweetie wants to wear his shorts at our Christmas party on Christmas Day, I told him to wear whatever will make him happy.

This post is longer than I originally intended but I wanted to give a shout out to two of my new blogging friends. I just love making new friends in blogging and these two girls are great. The first one is Julie from Nunnies Attic. First I just love the name of her blog and she has a really great blog. She always pays me a nice visit and leaves a kind word. Thanks Julie!

The next blog is Irene from Our little piece of the world. She's a young mom with three beautiful little girls. She's new to the blogging world and I know she would appreciate you stopping by to visit.

Anyway, I've been real chatty here today. I guess you can tell I'm feeling better. Yesterday I had the pleasure of having both perimenopause symptoms and pms. I can't tell you what fun that is. And Kari, where's Menopause Monday? Don't you know it does my soul good to know I'm not the only one out here suffering with this stuff? LOL Well, off to do Monday stuff! Have a great Columbus Day and great Monday! And if you live in the midwest, remember it's really October and not August.

Picture Frame Addiction

The brand new picture frames I got from Hobby Lobby this week. Aren't they so cute? I just could not resist getting them.
I bought this table just to put all of my pictures on. My daughters think I should have a more uniformed look with my picture frames but I like to mix them up a bit. Though some of these frames are getting pretty old.

This table has just a few picture frames and that's only because it's so little.

I think I might have a picture frame problem. What I didn't show you are all the other picture frames I have all over the house. I have so many of them that I am running out of places to display them. I do love picture frames and I usually don't go for any particular style, there are so many different ones to pick from. I've never seen frames like the ones in the first picture before so I just had to have them. I actually was very excited when I saw them at Hobby Lobby the other day. So do any of you want to show how you display your pictures of family and friends? Maybe you can give me some ideas on how I can still display my pictures but not take up alot of room.

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New Hobbies & Magic Globe Update

Okay, first of all look at the last picture. The magic globe decided to fix itself. It's back on the same page as me. Thank goodness because trying to reprogram this thing is a nightmare. I find that is usually the case with gadgets, they are cool when they work but if something goes wrong it's very confusing to fix. Maybe my menopause moments are rubbing off on this gadget, do you think so Kari?

And I was suppose to start my knitting class tonight at our local high school but it was cancelled because not enough people signed up for it. The teacher is hoping enough people will sign up for her November class. In the meantime I have this book called knitting and crocheting for dummies and my supplies I needed for the class. So I am going to try and figure it out myself until I start classes next month. But first I have to figure out how to get the book out of the dummy proof plastic. Also if you want to see someone who really knows how to knit go here to Karolee's and see the sweet sweater she made for her daughter's baby doll. I might even check out Hobby Lobby and Micheal's to see if they offer any classes.

And while I was on the ship last week they offered a scrapbook class and my friend and I decided it would be fun to try this and guess what this is a fun hobby. That's the second picture. I am picking up my pictures today and getting to work on my Alaska scrapbook. I'm sure it's like any other thing, it just takes some time to get good at it. My sister Judy does this and she tells me it's alot of fun.
Well, that's it for know. I've been slowly getting to all of your blogs. You guys sure have been busy. Most of you have mastered alot of the blogging mysteries while I've been gone, like the signature thing and the changing of the backgrounds. Thanks Kari for your e-mails that will walk me through it. I've been looking at them and just haven't had time to work on it yet. But can't wait to try it.


Safe Travels,

Joan

The Clothes Blues

WANTED FOR TAKING THEIR MOTHER'S CLOTHES


IF YOU SEE THESE TWO, DO NOT APPREHEND OR YOU MAY BE MISSING SOME OF YOUR CLOTHING. BRING THAT LITTLE ONE TO GRANDMA BEFORE THEY TEACH HER THEIR WAYS!


Okay, girls do not get upset with me. I'm only kidding. These are my two girls and my granddaughter, my girls are in their mid to later 20's, so I thought my clothes would be safe from them. I really didn't think I was hip enough for them to wear but I guess I was wrong. As some of you know, I lost about 35 pounds on Weight Watchers last year and I've been slowly adding some new clothes to my closet. It is exciting to buy some clothes that I couldn't wear before but it seems my closet is their new store to shop in. For instance, a few weeks ago I was looking for my pair of white capris to wear to a party, in my mind I had my outfit all planned out for this party. White capris, black top, black sandals etc..., so I searched my closet and couldn't find them anywhere. So I'm thinking okay I've been having this menopausal brain fog lately so maybe I left them at the dry cleaners and forgot. So I go to the dry cleaners, ask the kid if he's seen them, he looks, can't find any and looks at me like I'm nuts. Which by that time I was beginning to wonder if I even had white capris, finally it dawns on me to ask my daughter if she has seen them. Oh yea, she says, she tried them on and didn't like them so they are in her room somehwere! UGH!!! And then the other day one of them(I won't say whom) came home with a very pretty purple cami on. And I'm thinking that cami looks just like the one I just bought to take with me with on my cruise to wear with the matching purple sweater. So I look at her and say, is that my purple cami? Oh yeah, she says......... Do you see a pattern here? By the way the purple cami still had the tags on it when she took it out of my closet! Again, I'm just teasing with you girls. I suppose I should be flattered that they want to "borrow" my clothes, but please tell me so I don't think I'm going crazy because that's not hard to do these days. And still bring the baby to Grandma, it's not too late for her, but now that I think of it she's been eyeing my pink cell phone.



Safe Travels,


Joan

My New Pink Vacuum

This is my new pink vacuum. For some reason, when I brought this baby home, my family started to laugh. A pink vacuum they said, how well will this work? Well, let me tell you, this little baby sucks up everything in it's way. All Cleo's pet hair, and that's alot of pet hair, doesn't stand a chance with my new pink machine. Okay, it was a little more than I wanted to spend on a vacuum but for some reason I am really hard on vacuums and every year I have to buy a new one because the cheap one I bought falls apart. So I decided to pay a little more for this Dyson and hopefully it will last many years. It does say on the package that it'll be the last vacuum you ever buy so I will trust them and see. It looks so pretty when I use it and it also benefits the breast cancer foundation and it's pink. How could you not like it? And by the way, that's not me in the pink skirt and heels vacuuming in the picture but I'll take that little dog.

Safe Travels,

Joan

No More House Cleaning

See this little thing, it's suppose to be "childproof." I am calling it "joanproof." I cannot get the thing to open, it has all my cleaning supplies in it. We put it there because Maddie's favorite form of entertainment when she comes to Grandma and Grandpa's is this. So I decided no more house cleaning. Sounds like a plan to me.

By the way, it's going to be 96 degrees here today in Ohio. Even for a summer person like me, it's a bit too much. Stay cool and have a great day!

Safe Travels,

Joan