Nothing Brings a Family Together Like a Plate of....Balls! (Sausage Balls That Is)

I've been in pursuit of the perfect recipe for sausage balls for a long time. Sausage balls are great for the holidays, or any party! They also spark lots of funny jokes (as you can imagine). How do my balls taste? Your balls are so cute? These balls are so yummy! Best balls ever! (Okay, you get the idea!)

I recently saw a recipe on pinterest that looked super yummy, so I thought I would give it a try. The recipe called for one ingredient I never use when I make sausage balls.... cream cheese! I have to say that this ingredient made a huge difference in the recipe! The sausage balls stay moist, even after being reheated. (insert another joke here if you would like)

Here is the recipe posted by Plain Chicken: 

1 lb hot sausage

8 oz. cream cheese (softened)

1 1/4 cups Bisquick

4 oz. cheddar cheese (shredded)

Bake a 400 F for 20-25 mins.

I changed the recipe up just a little bit:

Rachel's Spicy Sausage Balls:

1 lb. hot sausage

2 shakes of crushed red pepper

8 oz. cream cheese (it does make a difference! So yummy)

1 1/4 cups of Bisquick 

2 oz of cheddar cheese (shredded)

2 oz of parmesan cheese (shredded) ( I like the mixture of the two different cheeses in this recipe) 

All you do is mix everything together in a bowl. I use my hands.... ! (Make sure to take off your rings). 

After everything is mixed well, just start rolling little balls (about 2 inches) and place them on a greased cookie sheet. I usually fill  up two large cookies sheets, so there will be plenty of balls for everyone!  

Bake a 350 F for 20-25 minutes. 

If I am not serving them right away, I usually just place them in a ziplock bag and keep them in the fridge. You can reheat them in the oven when you are ready to serve, or if you are super lazy, they taste great after a quick go in the microwave for about 15-30 seconds. 

Here is a picture of the end result! Tasty, scrumptious balls for everyone to enjoy! 

Eggs in Muffin Tins (my new obsession)

I am no stranger to the kitchen and different tricks, but I have to admit that eggs in muffin tins had NOT crossed my mind.  Shocking, I know.  On Pinterest I saw these egg/english muffin sandwiches (yes, like that one place that your kids always want to go to because of those stupid toys).

Three things stuck out after reading the original recipe at Macheesmo. 
1.  The eggs were cooked in muffin tins in the oven! 
2.  You cooked a dozen at one time!  12 healthy breakfasts cooked at one time and ready to go for the busy week - brilliant!
3.  Tillamook cheese - need I say more? 

On a Sunday afternoon I decided to whip up a batch of these.  There are three ingredients: eggs, english muffins, and cheese.  Easy peasy.

I sprayed the tins with cooking spray and broke an egg into each muffin cup.  Baked them for about 20 minutes.  I toasted the muffins while the eggs were finishing up and shredded the cheese.  After the eggs were finished, I assembled. 

The original poster recommended putting the sandwiches in the freezer uncovered for about an hour, then to wrap them individually.  This was perfect! 

Delicious fresh and delicious after being frozen!  And, even better, the breakfast dilemma for a week - solved!

Our Hands Make Leaves...well sorta.

First Pinterest crafty attempt - semi fail.  BUT, the fault lies with me and me alone (and maybe the baby because he would NOT cooperate with the handprint). 

While shirking my housecleaning browsing Pinterest one afternoon I saw this adorable family handprint tree and figured that I could feasibly get most of the fam to cooperate with the hands and the paint.  I was a little concerned about the drawing of the tree part, but I figured with my Pinot's Palette experience that it'd be no problem so I grabbed a bottle glass of wine and set to work. 

Before I give you my picture, a few disclaimers...
1.  I am not an artist (repeat over and over again - although the tree turned out decently)
2.  I plan, but when I decide to do something, I kind of just jump in without maybe planning a little more which would have been helpful with this project.
3.  My husband's hands - freakishly huge.  No clue since he's not overly large.  He (or rather his hands) led to the semi-demise of the handprint tree.
4.  The baby LOVED the paint, but did NOT love opening his hand.  He has five little fingers, not a mashed up clump of flesh which is what you'd infer from looking at his handprint. 

So here's the picture.

I cut off the other half of the tree, because, well that was my side and it was perfect.  And, our family info is on there and no offense, but don't want to give out personal information for the Pinterest stalkers that are out there (not you, of course).  When I'm less lazy, I'll blur out the other parts so you can see the whole masterpiece.  

But, doesn't matter.  You can see why I gave this a semi-fail.  With hubby's handprint on the side, it made our tree very lopsided.  

I just wrote our family name, year, and individual names in a fat sharpie on the canvas (I'm sure a paint pen would be fabulous also).  That worked out well.  The original person wrote a cute little quote, but I prefered the names...

These were for our mothers for Christmas, so they were all excited about paint and handprints.  "Only a mother could love..."

So, maybe back to the recipes again.  Plenty of those!

Krissy

Pumpkin Cupcakes? Yes, please!

When I first saw the recipe for these Pumpkin Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream I was intrigued!  I am a pumpkin fiend and salted caramel seems to be all the rage lately, so I whipped up a batch.  In the past, my from scratch cupcakes tended to be a bit dense, so I was curious to see how these turned out. 

They are divine!  The canned pumpkin keeps the cupcakes moist with a surprising bit of fluffiness that I wasn't expecting.  Together with the salted caramel...ahhhhh...Maaaazing (in the words of Penny from Happy Endings).

The salted caramel was surprisingly easy.  I've never made candy or caramel before, never watched for color change, or learned the difference between soft ball and whatever other terminology there is in the candy world.  It took me two tries to get the caramel right.  It's not difficult, you just have to watch it and I had to run off and chase the baby who had hijacked a present from under the tree.  I think the tip is to not let it get too dark; it will still cook a bit after you take it off the heat and add the cream and vanilla. 

I've made these a few times now and last night was the most recent.  I didn't have salted butter on hand, so I upped the salt in the recipe (I used some Himalayan salt I'd bought in Dubai) and tasted it to make sure it was right.  Best batch by FAR!  The salty to sweet ratio was perfect!  Unfortunately, that batch was sent to work with my husband. 

Verdict - DEFINITELY a yes!

 

Krissy

S'mores bars - GIVE ME MORE!

After seeing these yummy little hunks of goodness on Pinterest I decided that they would make perfect treats to complete my neighbor food gift trays.  I followed the recipe exactly as The Hungry Mouse detailed.  My only issue (and this was stated) was that the dough was a bit sticky and difficult to put on the top.  I added a bit of flour and rolled it on my Silpat thinking I could just flip it onto the top of the marshmallow cream.  No dice.  I ended up having to scrape it off and pat it on top.  The result, however, was just fine.

These were literally gone in a day!  Everyone kept cutting off little corners as the bars cooled and many excuses were found to pop into the kitchen for little morsels.  My poor neighbors only got two small squares each because I couldn't bear to part with them!  I meant to take a picture after they baked, but as you can see, I wasn't quick enough! 

**This is the first blog about ideas I found on Pinterest.  I will always give credit to the original source in my blog.  I will also have other contributors add experiences from their Pinterest attempts. 

Krissy