What do you get with one half pound of sauasge?

You get dinner for six.  Well ok you get the sausage in our gravy for dinner.  We had sausage gravy over biscuits for dinner.  This was easily under five dollars to feed us all.  I don't have the cost break down as I used left over frozen sausage I had in the freeze.  And I tried a new big biscuit recipe which you can find here.  These were very good but huge. One goes a long way.  I cheat and just use my cookie cutter and cut them into squares instead of rounds this way I handle the dough less.  These turned out to be about 1.5 - 2 inches high they started at an inch high.  I highly suggest you at least try them.  I did make a few changes, I used butter instead of shortening.  And I used 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 unbleached AP flour (I have this premixed at in my flour container on the counter so everything is made with 1/2 WW flour).  Other than that it's all the same.

Excuse my cookie sheet it's a cheapie from the dollar store it does the job.

Then I just made a basic sausage gravy with sage, and peppers and onions since that was mixed in with my pre cooked sausage.  It's simple cook your meat,  once it's cooked if you have a lot of fat drain some off but you want some to use to make the rue.  (is that the right spelling?) cook that a little bit and then add some milk and your spices.  Let thicken and serve over yummy biscuits.

Now just add I nice side of fruit salad or some other nice fresh fruit or veggies and you have a great meal in our house.  It's a great way to feed a lot of people with a little bit of meat.  What is your favorite breakfast for dinner item?

It's Tradition!

It's tradition to start decorating for the holidays the Friday after Thanksgiving.  So I started with my blog.  Please tell me what you think.   I was aiming for something that I could leave up most of the winter.  There will be more changes to come too!  Happy Holidays everyone.

A wonderful Thankful meal

I hope that you had a wonderful holiday meal as we did.  Our day was spent watching movies, playing and just having fun spending time together.  I didn't go crazy over our meal this year but made some favorites and excluded some.  I can't believe the amount of food that is normal for our holiday meal blended from my husband's family and my own.  Thing we thought we had to have but this year we cut it back and I am glad the work was less but the meal still great.

We had bought a 20 pound turkey for the day and for the six of us.  Now I know that's a huge bird but we have plans to make it last.  We are already on day two of it and it's not even half way gone.  And I hot this turkey at a great deal.  I was .79 a pound but I had a coupon from this store for a free turkey up to 12 pounds or the credit for a 12 turkey off you bill so in the end my turkey cost me 6.92ish for the whole bird.  And honest I am sure I did the whole meal for about $20 with enough for two days of meals and more with the turkey.

But by far my favorite thing to make was my stuffing.  I make my own bread with all the spices and herbs in it so it tastes like stuffing.  I will be making more tomorrow for sandwiches with the left over turkey.  I am telling you this is a great way to have thanksgiving later in the year when you want that taste.  So I thought I would share my recipe with you.

Ingredients

4 cups flour (1 cup whole wheat, 3 cups ap is what I used)

2 packets of yeast

1 tsp fine sea salt

1 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning

1 tbsp sage (we love this flavor in our stuffing please add as much or as little as you like)

1 1/2 tsp rosemary

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups warm to hot water (start with 1 1/4 and add more should you need it depends on a lot of factors with your flour and who dry your home is if you need more than the 1 1/2 add it slowly with buy one tbsp at a time)

1 tsp sugar 

The herbs used are what I use in my stuffing so use what you like it doesn't have to be the same as  mine.  And please share if you change it up and what you used.  

 Add Salt to the bowl

 Add your spices, herbs, and seasonings to the salt

 Add your flour and make a well

 Add your sugar and cover with yeast

 Add water next

 Cover with plastic wrap and let the yeast do it's happy dance.

 About five minutes later it's happy time to mix

 Knead until it's smooth

 Place in an oiled bowl and oil the dough ball.

 Recover with the plastic wrap you used earlier and let rise until doubled in size.  Punch down and form into your loaf (what ever style you like) bake about 20 minutes at 425 until golden brown on top.  I top it with melted butter when it comes out.

 Mmm....yummy bread.  I don't think you can see the herbs and everything but it's there and it smells like stuffing.

 To use in stuffing I just cut it up into cubes and then make your stuffing as normal. I made mine with apples, sage, my bread, sage sausage (we like sage this time of year LOL) carrots, celery, onions and turkey stock.  Salt and pepper as needed.  It's about one third bread, one third veggies and apple, and one third meat (this is really under about one third)

 Apples, celery, carrots, onion Cook them in evoo and butter with salt and pepper and other seasonings.  I like a bite to our carrots so I don't cook them down like the celery and the onion, the apples I leave with a bit of bite too.

 Sage sausage browning in the same pan I cooked me veggies in.

 Once the sausage is cooked I add back the veggies and apple.

 Then I add them to the bread crumbs which after cubing I baked at 325 for about 20 minutes. or until dry.

 Add turkey stock that I made last month

 Mix add more stock if needed.

 Added to your turkey (if you stuff) or to a baking pan and cover bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, remove foil and bake another 5-10 minutes for a crunchy top.  (the pic above was taken before I added more stock but we like our stuffing not as wet as many out there so add what you need and want to get it how you like it)

 My plate of food it was too much but worth it. LOL

So who was your Thanksgiving?  Did you try anything new?  And if you try my stuffing bread please let me know and give me feedback and don't be afraid to ask any questions should you need them I am not in the habit of writing recipes so if I made a mistake please point it out.  And now the last questions....Did you go shopping today?  What is the deal you were seeking out?

My Wild Girl Turns 3!

Autumn Lily is my wild child and only daughter.  She turned three last weekend and I am just now getting around to sharing her pictures.  We did a simple party at home.  We made cupcakes and she got a few presents that's it.  It's prefect for us.  We also had one of her favorite meals.  I cheated and used a box mix and frosting. She got pirate cupcake wrappers because she is a pirate kick now but we made the frosting purple because she is also a princess.  I wish I had gotten a picture of her with her head band on when she was saying I princess.  I wish more I had gotten pictures when she put it on daddy and said he was princess and the same with her big brother.  I didn't get pictures of her gifts but Daddy took her shopping which she loves and got her a dolly, stuffed horse, and a ball all for under ten bucks LOL.  I wanted to give something I had picked up for Christmas or Yule but Daddy wanted to take her shopping.

Well here are the pictures, please excuse the mess and her wild hair no matter how much I brush it, it looks this way five minutes later.

 Pirate princess cupcake lite

Blowing out the candle.

I know it's fuzzy it was hard to get.

 Can't we do it again mama?

 Yay! Time to eat!

 Yumm!

 Alen, your turn!

 Mmm

 Ricky, get your own

 Hiding from her puppy.

 Frosting is her favorite part.

LOL I know so many are the same it took for ever to get the one shot I wanted and then when I looked at them all I liked them.  Happy Birthday my Pirate Princess I hope it's just one of many that brings you joy!

On Turkey how many meals, 6 in total, quick catch up plus Thanksgiving turkey leftover ideas

So I am not a great blogger LOL.  I got two more meals out of the turkey a pot pie and a soup.  I also got a few lunches as well.  That's not counting all the meals that the stock will go into.  One 12-14 pound turkey is a great source of meat for a family of 6, and if you plan your meals out right and watch the portions, you can get a lot out of it.  Now this turkey cost me about 21.00 so we will use 20 as a middle number and for six meals for the meat alone that is 3.33 a meal, that is not counting in the savings from making my own stock and the meals it will go into and the lunches that were made from left overs or the meat itself.

With thanks giving around the corner so many people are going to have lefts overs and wonder what they can do with them so I thought I would share what my ideas are.

• salad, you can use it like chicken on top of a salad
• home made hot pockets with broccoli and cheese
• you can use it in pasta sauces
• take a jar of bbq sauce and make pulled bbq turkey sandwiches
• pot pie
• so many soups
• I like to bake it into eggs with spinach and feta and veggies
• you can use it with beans and taco mix for tacos
• pretty much I use it like I would chicken
• Chili

I know that this isn't a lot of ideas but it's some.  This year for thanksgiving we got a 20+ pound turkey, and I can't wait to cook it up for the holiday nor can I wait to play with the left overs I have so many ideas that I am not sure if they will work or not but I am planning on that bird to feed us for a week.

I have also decided I will post my Thanksgiving meal, the prep and what not.  Now I know I am not the best cook out there but I am sure going to try and have one yummy meal.  I am finalizing the menu in the morning and I will post it then.