Apple Cheddar Sausage Balls

These sausage balls are an excellent addition to your holiday buffets! They are a wonderful combination of sweet and savory and with the addition of the grated apple are very tender and moist. I’ve made these for an appetizer as well as for brunch buffets and they are always a hit. If you’ve been making sausage balls with bisquick, those can’t even be compared with these. I’ve found the bisquick variety to be rather dry and without much flavor. After trying these, I guarantee you’ll never make those again!

Ingredients

16 oz. pkg. Bulk Breakfast Pork Sausage
1 egg — lightly beaten
1/2 cup fine bread crumbs
1/2 cup coarsely grated peeled tart baking apple
4 oz. grated sharp Cheddar cheese — (1 cup)
1/4 cup Dijon style mustard
1/4 cup tomato juice or tomato sauce
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1. Combine sausage, egg, bread crumbs, apple and cheese in large mixing bowl; stir well.
2. Shape into 4 dozen 1-inch balls.

Ready to brown

3. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook in batches of 12 or 24, turning frequently until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Drain if desired, then return to skillet.

Browning

4. In a small bowl, combine mustard, tomato juice, maple syrup and vinegar. Pour over sausage balls. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Dijon-Balsamic Sauce

5. Transfer to a chafing dish or slow cooker; serve hot with toothpicks.

Note: sausage balls may be prepared ahead and frozen uncooked; thaw in refrigerator before cooking as directed above.

Makes 4 dozen

Sausage Enchilada Breakfast Casserole

Have you ever wanted to break out of a food rut and try something new? Well, that’s how I’ve been feeling about my old standby breakfast casserole! It’s a good recipe and my whole family likes it but I simply wanted to try some new ones so I gave this one a whirl and loved it.

I made this to take to a brunch get-together with friends and it was a huge hit. It takes a little time to prepare but is definitely worth it since you can make it up the night before and just take it out of the refrigerator and bake in the morning. I’ll be making this for my family for our next holiday get-together. We’ll see if they like it as much as Ken and I and our friends did.

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs. of bulk breakfast sausage
1 onion, finely chopped
10 – 8 inch flour tortillas
2 3/4 C. grated cheddar cheese, divided
6 large eggs
1 T. flour
1 C. whole milk
1 C. light sour cream
1 can Rotel tomatoes, drained
1 can diced green chiles
1/2 t. seasoning salt
1 t. fresh ground black pepper
sour cream & salsa for garnish

1. Grease a 13 X 9 inch baking dish.
2. Brown the sausage and onions over medium-high heat crumbling the meat while its cooking. Drain and add the drained Rotel tomatoes and green chiles and cool completely.

Sausage & Rotel Tomato Mixture

3. Place about 1/3 C. of the cooked sausage mixture down the center of each tortilla.
4. Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of shredded cheese on top of sausage mixture.
5. Roll up each tortilla and place seam-side down in the casserole dish.

Filling the Flour Tortillas

6. Sprinkle any leftover sausage mixture over the top of the tortillas.
7. In a bowl, whisk together the flour with the eggs, milk, sour cream, seasoning salt, and black pepper until well combined.
8. Pour over the top of the filled tortillas.

Casserole with Egg Mixture

9. Sprinkle 1 1/2 C. grated cheddar cheese over the top and cover casserole with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least an hour or up to over night.
10. Remove from refrigerator 45 minutes before baking.
11. When ready to bake preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove plastic wrap and cover with foil. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Serves 8-10

Ready To Go In The Oven

Cherry Cream Cheese Danish Coffeecake

This is a festive looking coffeecake that is perfect for Christmas morning! The base of this coffeecake is a white cake mix so it is quick and easy to make with that classic combination of almond flavored cream cheese combined with cherry pie filling. The sliced almonds add just the right amount of crunch. I took this to our Christmas potluck breakfast at church the Sunday before Christmas and there was none leftover to take home, unfortunately!

Ingredients
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup water
3 eggs
1 package (18.25 size) white cake mix
1 can (21 oz. size) cherry pie filling
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 C. sugar
1 t. almond extract
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
3 drops vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 350. Generously grease and flour 15-1/2 X 10-1/2 jelly-roll pan.
2. Mix sour cream, water and eggs. Stir in cake mix until moistened. The batter will be lumpy. Spread into pan.
3. Mix the cream cheese, almond extract and sugar until well blended and creamy. Place a tablespoon size dollop evenly spaced three across and five the length of the pan so that you have fifteen dollops.

Batter with cream cheese mounds

4. Place tablespoon size dollops of pie filling over the top of the cream cheese. Sprinkle with the almonds.
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until cake tests done. Drizzle with glaze while still warm.

To make glaze: Mix powdered sugar, milk and vegetable oil. Stir in a few extra drops of milk if necessary. Stir until mixture is smooth and of a desired consistency. Place in a ziploc bag and cut a small hole in one corner in order to drizzle over the still warm cake.
Serves 15

Ziploc bag of icing

Fire Pot Fall Tablescape

I thought it’d be fun to do a bit of a recipe roundup for Thanksgiving and I wanted to share my fall tablescape as well! It is one of those ceramic firepots that burns a gel-type clean fuel so it can be burned indoors or out. I loved the colors of this one and just placed some greenery and fruit around the base for a simple but nice tablescape.

Many certainly have their Thanksgiving traditions . . . my family sure does. We always begin our day with poppyseed coffeecake that has now been made for several generations. In fact, this is the tradition for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter! It takes a little work but it sure is delicious!!

Poppyseed Coffeecakes

We also have to have our breakfast casserole. For years my family insisted on the same casserole, but last year I took a risk and tried a new one, Green Chile-Sausage Casserole. Surprisingly, it became the new breakfast casserole of choice. It just goes to show that some traditions can change!!

Green Chile Sausage Breakfast Casserole

Now, even though we eat twice as much breakfast as we normally do, we still have to have some snack food for munching while watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. In all fairness to the family, we don’t really have lunch and then have our big dinner at about 5:30. A must-have snack is the Zesty Ranch Pretzels. Even and the two and three year-olds love’em! They’re so easy and cheap to make, as well.

Zesty Ranch Pretzels

I have to confess that I do nothing fancy with the turkey. I stuff it with a few stalks of celery and an onion that have been cut into chunks, season it with Lawry’s Seasoning Salt & fresh ground pepper, throw it in one of those Reynolds cooking bags and follow the directions that come with the bags and that’s it! The turkey turns out golden brown, moist, and all the lovely juices remain from which to make a bunch of gravy. My family can never have too much gravy!

As far as side dishes go, we have the usual mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc. My son-in-law makes a great corn casserole that we always have, as well as, the standard green bean casserole. Depending on how many people we’re having, I also add another vegetable casserole or two. One of my favorites is the Cheesy Vegetable Bake.

Cheesy Vegetable Bake

Another favorite side dish is Sweet N’ Spicy Sweet Potato Casserole! It has just a touch of cayenne for a hint of spicy along with orange juice and other spices that are a great combination with the sweet potatoes and the crunch of pecans on top!

Sweet N' Spicy Sweet Potato Casserole

Last of all, is dessert! We have the standard assortment of pies with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream. This year my niece is bringing a berry pie and I just may make a pan of Pumpkin Bread Pudding along with Caramel Rum Sauce for drizzling!

Pumpkin Bread Pudding w/Caramel Rum Sauce

I hope that all of you have a Thanksgiving filled with family, fun, and friends! Blessings to all of you!!

Apple Streusel Bundt Cake

I still had some apples I needed to use up from our apple picking adventure with our three grandsons, so I volunteered to bring an apple dessert to our monthly Dining for Women meeting. I couldn’t find a recipe that I liked online. My biggest problem with most of them was the amount of oil, butter, or shortening used in the batter. Many of them had up to a cup and a half of fat in them which is totally unnecessary since apples provide so much moisture anyway. At any rate, this is what I came up with and it only has 1/2 cup of shortening in it! If you’re wanting an apple cake that isn’t a bundt cake, take a look at this Roman Apple Cake recipe.

Ingredients
1 1/2 C. sugar
1 C. whole wheat flour
2 C. white flour
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. ground cloves
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 C. shortening
3 eggs
1 C. milk
2 t. vanilla
3 C. peeled, cored, and chopped apples (about 3-4 medium)

1. Beat together the shortening, sugar, and eggs until creamy. Add the milk and vanilla.
2. In another bowl mix together the flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. Add in two or three batches to the egg mixture and mix until well blended.
3. Fold in the chopped apples.
4. Meanwhile, grease and flour a bundt pan and preheat oven to 350 degrees and make the streusel topping.

Topping
Crumble together:
1 1/2 T. melted butter
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 C. brown sugar
1 T. flour
3/4 C. chopped pecans
1/3 C. instant oatmeal or rolled oats

5. Spoon half the batter into the bundt cake pan.
6. Sprinkle half the topping on the batter.

Middle Layer of Streusel

7. Spoon the rest of the batter over the streusel layer and sprinkle the rest of the topping over the top of the batter.
8. Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Let cool for 15 minutes then remove from pan and finish cooling on a wire rack.
Serves 12-16

Peanut Butter Apple Crisp

We had the pleasure of going apple picking with our three grandsons on a perfect fall day! What fun!!! We got to ride on a hay wagon pulled by a John Deere, which all three of my them just loved. We picked golden delicious and Rome apples using those interesting apple pickers on a long pole. While walking from tree to tree I came upon a stand of milkweed that we had to stop and examine.

Carter, Tristan, and Tyler checking out the milkweed

After picking all those apples I just had to make some apple crisp. I adapted a recipe from The More-With-Less Cookbook and just love the addition of peanut butter. It really adds a richness to the crisp topping. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Ingredients
6 C. peeled and sliced apples (5-6 medium apples)
2 T. flour
1/2 C. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. salt
2 T. water
3/4 C. rolled oats
1/4 t. salt
3 T. butter
3 T. peanut butter
1/3 C. + 3 T. packed brown sugar

1. Grease a large casserole dish and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon, 1/4 t. salt, and water in a large bowl. Place in the greased casserole dish.
3. Cut together with a pastry blender (or your fingers) the rolled oats, 1/4 t. salt, butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar until crumbly. Sprinkle over the top of the apple mixture.
4. Bake for 45-50 minutes until the crisp is simmering around the edges and the apples are tender when pierced with a fork.
Serves 10-12

Pumpkin Bread Pudding w/Caramel Rum Sauce

Now that the weather has become cooler and the trees are changing color, I’ve been craving anything pumpkin! I’ve made pumpkin dip, savory toasted pepitas, and now this pumpkin bread pudding. I had a bunch of people over to my house recently and we had a pumpkin fest with all these dishes served plus pumpkin bread. I eat bread pudding for breakfast as well as for dessert so try it for breakfast. It’s great with a cup of coffee and the addition of pumpkin adds fiber and vitamins so how can you go wrong?

Ingredients
4 C. milk
1 – 15 oz. can pumpkin
1/2 C. sugar
1/2 C. packed brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground cloves
1/4 t. ground ginger
1 1/2 t. vanilla
8 C. white bread, cubed
1/2 C. craisins or raisins

Caramel Rum Sauce Ingredients
1/2 C. packed brown sugar
1/4 C. butter
1/4 C. whipping cream
1 – 2 T. rum (depending how rummy you like your sauce)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the cubed bread in a greased 9X13 inch pan. Sprinkle with craisins or raisins.

Cubed Bread w/Craisins

3. Whisk the milk, pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, spices, and vanilla in a medium bowl to blend.

Mixing Pumpkin & Eggs

4. Pour the pumpkin-egg mixture over the bread cubes. Press the bread cubes into the pumpkin mixture so the bread absorbs it. Let stand for 15 minutes (or overnight).
5. Bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40-50 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and cool.
7. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

While the bread pudding is baking make the caramel sauce.
8. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Whisk in the brown sugar until dissolved.
9. Whisk in the whipping cream and bring to a boil. Simmer for 2 minutes and remove from heat.
10. Whisk in the rum sauce and cool.

To serve, cut the bread pudding into squares and place on dessert plate. Drizzle with the caramel rum sauce.

Serves 10-12

Lemony Blueberry Bread

Lemon and blueberries are such a great combination that I had to try them together in a quick bread. I love making quick breads because they are so easy and they always turn out nice and moist. Since blueberries are plentiful in my part of the world and this recipe works well with frozen blueberries, I thought I’d let all of you in on this great recipe. I’ll be making this for some family events and who knows, maybe it will take over the lead from banana bread as the family favorite!! This recipe is the result of looking at a bunch of different recipes and mixing and matching parts of several to make this one.

Ingredients

1 C. butter
2 C. granulated sugar
3 eggs
3 C. flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
2/3 C. buttermilk
2 T. fresh lemon grated lemon zest, (from 2 large lemons)
2 T. fresh lemon juice
2 C. fresh or frozen blueberries

Glaze
1/2 C. sugar
1/4 C. fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Grease and flour two loaf pans or one bundt cake pan
3. Cream softened butter and sugar
4. Add eggs and beat until smooth
5. Add buttermilk
6. Mix dry ingredients together and add them to the buttermilk mixture
7. Mix well
8. Mix in lemon juice and zest
9. Gently fold in blueberries and only mix until incorporated
10. Pour batter into two loaf pans or a bundt cake pan
11. Bake for about an hour. Insert toothpick in center of loaf and if it comes out clean the bread is done.
Meanwhile, while the bread is baking mix together the sugar and fresh lemon juice until the sugar is dissolved. When bread is taken out of the oven punch holes in it all over with a toothpick or wooden skewer and brush with half of the glaze. Let the bread cool for 30 minutes and remove from pan. Poke wholes in what is now the top of the cake and brush with the second half of the glaze. Let cool thoroughly before slicing.
Serves 16

I have to tell you all about my trip to Ireland . . . it was fabulous!! I’m going to focus on the food in this post and will do another one on the Irish countryside and possibly a third on the towns we visited. But first the food!

I had not really thought about the fact that Ireland is basically a big island and therefore most of the major cities seaports. This in itself was a pleasure since I live in land-locked Kansas City. I love being by the ocean, listening to the surf, and always being able to catch a nice breeze. The weather was just the right temperature for sightseeing and was perfect for sampling all the different seafood chowders made with really fresh seafood. The first chowder we tried, pictured above, was enjoyed in the little seaside town of Howth at the end of the high speed train line out of Dublin. This is where our bed & breakfast was located, Anne’s of Howth. This chowder was absolutely loaded with seafood caught that day and had just a touch of fresh dill which brightened the flavor of the very creamy broth. Eaten with fresh whole grain Irish soda bread and a pint of Guinness it made a meal in itself. We tried two other seafood chowders over the course of our trip each with its own particular and unique twist. One had fresh mussels in the shell which added an additional light layer of ocean delight to the flavor. The third one we tried was flavored with star anise. The star anise was quite unexpected but added a delightful flavor. If good fresh seafood was available in Kansas City, I would sure be experimenting with recipes to duplicate what we had in Ireland!

After spending a couple of days in the Dublin metro area, we headed across Ireland to the Dingle Peninsula. There we stayed at the Milestone Bed & Breakfast in Dingle. The proprietors, Barbara and Michael, were fabulous hosts and treated everyone like honored guests going out of there way to share tips for sightseeing and eating on the peninsula. Their traditional Irish breakfast was fantastic, especially Michael’s Irish soda bread. Babara shared the recipes for white and whole grain soda bread as well as Guinness brisket so watch for those recipes in future posts. Included in the breakfast along with the soda bread, were eggs cooked to order, bacon, sausage, broiled tomato, an assortment of fruit juices and cereals, fresh fruit salad, stewed rhubarb, and coffee and tea. We always left for sightseeing well fortified to meet the day. I highly recommend staying at the Milestone if you’re making a trip to Dingle!!

While in Dingle we ate a several pubs where I had the best fish & chips and crab cakes that I’ve ever had! One of the special restaurants we enjoyed was “Out of the Blue” which was a small place right on the main street that runs along the harbor front. I had the grilled monk fish and Ken enjoyed the seafood chowder with star anise. The monk fish was cooked through just right so it was still very moist and flavorful. The little side dish of freshly grated carrots with poppy seeds and toasted sesame oil was really delightful and one that I hope to duplicate at home. It is a great example of a very simple combination of fresh flavors that creates a winning and fresh little side dish!

Last of all, one of the things I like to do is check out restaurant chains the countries I’m visiting even though we have those chains at home. They always offer menu items that aren’t found on the menus here in the US. We also simply need a diet coke with ice every now and then as well! At any rate, we tried the cheese crisps with sweet chili dipping sauce which we have not seen on the menu at Kansas City area McDonald’s. They were actually quite good and a nice little snack with our diet coke!

Stay tuned for the next installment of our trip to Ireland!

Well, I did it again! I forgot to take a picture of this dish before it was all eaten. So many people have requested this, though, that I decided to post without a picture. You’ll just have to settle for a pic of blueberries instead! This is another great breakfast dish that can be made the night before and simply baked after getting up in the morning. The blueberry sauce is great drizzled over this rich casserole but if you’re short on berries, maple syrup is just fine as well. I used fresh blueberries when I made this.

Casserole Ingredients
12 slices white bread, crust removed and cubed
16 oz. cream cheese
1 1/2 C. fresh or frozen blueberries, thawed & drained
12 eggs
2 C. milk
1/2 C. maple syrup

Blueberry Sauce
1/2 C. sugar
1 T. cornstarch
1/2 C. water
2 C. fresh or frozen blueberries
1 T. butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place half of the cubed bread in a greased 9 X 13 inch pan. Top with chunks of cream cheese, blueberries, and remaining bread.
2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the milk and maple syrup and whisk together until blended.
3. Pour the egg mixture over the bread mixture. Cover and chill overnight.
4. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover; bake 25-30 minutes more or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

To Make the Sauce
1. In a sauce pan, combine sugar and cornstarch; add water. Bring to boil over medium heat; boil 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
2. Stir in blueberries; reduce heat.
3. Simmer for 8-10 minutes or until berries have burst.
4. Stir in butter until melted. Serve with the French toast.
Serves 6-8