My Most Requested Appetizer Recipe (Very Easy)

     It is Friday and that means it is time to see all those great recipes once again. Please visit Michael at Designs by Gollum for links to some of the best food you will ever see.

     I have discovered something since I started this blog. I've tried to post the recipes that are family favorites, requested by my kids and asked for when I offer to bring a dish somewhere. Believe it or not, I really can cook. I can cook the fancy stuff, with crab, brie cheese and desserts that require several steps. What I realize as I write the blog is that people really like my simple recipes. My most requested things are the easiest and don't necessarily include the fancy ingredients. The following recipe is definitely one of the easy ones.

At our house we call them Pitty-Pats, although I think they have various names in different locations. Men really love this appetizer, but so do their wives. You only need 4 ingredients and the recipe is so simple you will have it memorized. A pound, a pound and a pound.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:

1 pound of sausage (I use mild, if you like spice go for the medium or hot)

1 pound of ground beef

1 pound of Velveeta Cheese (I never buy Velveeta except for this and 2 other recipes)

1 loaf of the small cocktail bread (we like the rye, you can use the sour dough if you want) 

In a large saucepan, brown the sausage and the ground beef together until done. Drain.

Cut the Velveeta into chunks and add to the drained meat, put back on the heat on low. Stir occasionally until the cheese melts.

     I do realize it looks like the dog got sick, but it does taste really good. On a cookie sheet, place rows of the small bread slices and top each slice with a generous portion of the meat mixture.

     Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes until the cheese mixture bubbles and the bread is turning lightly brown on the edges. I have been known to stick these under the broiler to cook them faster...watch them closely. The meat/cheese mixture freezes beautifully. Sometimes we make this and use it on regular bread and call it dinner. Enjoy!

My First Cloche...Holiday Cloche Party!

When I started blogging the end of August, I didn't know what a cloche was. Well, I thought it was a type of hat, and it is. It is also a wonderful decorating concept. I have seen such darling cloche arrangements in the past few months. I know that I will see many wonderful ideas during Marty's Cloche Party today. Please visit Marty @ A Stroll Thru Life where you will find the links to all the participants.

I didn't own a cloche so I went on a search over the past month. I thought I had found something that would work, it was a jar with a lid. Then I found a covered cake stand at a local thrift store and it just had to come home with me. I tried several things inside of it, but I wasn't happy with any of them. This is harder than it looks! So, I opted to get out my two small boxes of ornaments that had belonged to my grandmothers and make my cloche in their memory.

I decided to use some holiday fabric on the table because it really pulled out the colors in the old ornaments. The ice frosted wreath fit perfectly around the base of my cake stand.

Cardinals and Gifts From Friends, Tablescape Thursday

This week came around very quickly! I read something today where someone said that when she was a child, it seemed such a long time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now, she feels as if she is just finishing off the turkey soup as she is putting the first Christmas cookies in the oven. Why is that? Even when my children were small it did seem as if we had more time between the two holidays. I think the fact the stores start putting out Christmas things long before Halloween is probably a factor.

Our hostess for Tablescape Thursday is Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch. Click on her blog and follow the links to get some wonderful ideas for your holiday and winter tables.

This week I'm going to start with my salad plates. Aren't they beautiful? They are perfect for all winter long...not just for Christmas. They were a birthday gift from 3 very special friends who realize that I have become obsessed with setting my table. They also got me some fun Halloween plates, but you will have to wait a few months to see those.

I started this table setting with an antique quilt that belonged to my grandmother. I love to use it at Christmas. They just don't make new quilts the way the old ones were made.

The place settings start with a round mat from Kmart. They are actually vinyl, which I don't usually like, but I didn't want to use anything that might fade off red on the quilt. I also thought that these almost look like a charger. The dinner plates are my white Wal-Mart dishes, the crystal is antique, the flatware is the gold I've had for years. I added red napkins with a few berries wrapped around in place of napkin rings.

In the center of the table is an antique cut glass compote with a few green ornaments nested into some red and green trim (also from my girlfriends). The mercury glass ball is from Crate and Barrel. I added a few sparkly branches in green, with a little bird that came with my dishes. Those girls know what I need to set a table don't they?

I love antique cut glass. I was very lucky many years ago to come across a man who was selling his wife's lifelong collection. She had passed away and he only wanted to sell the pieces to people who would treasure it. I bought several pieces. It is well loved.

Of course we have to have a picture after dark. Everything looks better by candlelight. Thank you for visiting me!

I Won! Thank You Michelle!

     I am not a person who wins things, even if the odds are in my favor. So, imagine my surprise when my friend Michelle @ Maddycakes Muse had a giveaway and I won one of the prizes. You really have to go visit Michelle. She has an interesting story. She was an active duty Marine Corps officer for 21 years and then  became a party planner! Two years ago she became a mommy to a precious little girl and now she plans children's parties and events. The best part is that she does it in a frugal way. She is always willing to answer questions and help if you are trying to plan something. She has some wonderful suggestions for great parties of all kinds. You really have to check out her inexpensive craft projects. Best of all, she is a great blogger friend. Thank you Michelle!

You Asked For It...Tree Topper Instructions

I have had several people ask me about my tree topper. In fact, I was told to take close-up pictures and "tell us how to do it"! My tree topper always gets attention and I guess that is because I think outside of the box when it comes to topping off the tree. We have 9 foot ceilings in our home. Our tree is probably 7 ft. My tree topper measures 24 inches from the very top to just below the center of the bow. For me, the secret to an interesting topper is to find something unusual to feature in it. You can see last years tree topper here.

This year I bought a few things I would use for the tree, the topper and the wreath (a post about the wreath is coming). I bought the two tall curly things on the left for the base of the topper. I got them at Hobby Lobby in the floral department, not the Christmas department. The two branches that loop (on the right) ended up in my the wreath.

I tried some white and gold twigs with the curly stuff and it just didn't work for me. So, I took one of the three bronze/brown poinsettias (2 on the wreath) and a branch with glittered balls and tried that. I also had a few short glittered picks that almost look like grapes. I put one of those at the bottom to balance the larger twig. Much better, don't you think?

Yes, I was working on the top of an ornament tub, trying to keep from getting stuff all over my carpet. Obviously from the above photo, you can see that my carpet got messy anyway. In the above photo you can see that I have added a bow. I show you how to make a bow here. What I can't show you is that at this point I have left all the long stems on the various floral branches. Once I had them the way I wanted them, I wired them together with thin, flexible wire. After I made the bow, I attached it with wire to the stems. We are almost done.

Before putting the topper on the tree, I used heavy wire cutters and trimmed the bottom of the stems from the branches to about 10 inches or so long. I put the topper at the front of the top of the tree and insert the stems down into the center of the tree for added support. Then, I wire it to the top branches of the tree. Don't try to put this on that one lone stem that sticks up from the top of a fake tree, you need to move it down far enough that you are wiring it to a group of stems so that it will stand up straight. There are a couple more tricks that finish it off. You can see in the above photo that once I had it up, I added 2 more bunches of the "grapes" to even things out. One is just below the center of the bow, the other to the right of center. They aren't attached to anything, I just stuck them in the tree.

I always make 2 more bows, the same size as the one on the front of the topper (3 if the back of your tree shows). I wire them to the side of the top of the tree so that they blend in with the front bow. You can see both sides of my tree in the above photos. This gives the tree topper the look of actually covering the entire top of the tree, instead of simply propped on the front. This is really a good finishing touch no matter what kind to topper you put on your tree.

It also completes the look if you match your wrapping paper to the theme of the tree. This year I was using paper I already had, but luckily it worked. I am using the brown bows on packages that are going to one part of the family, gold on the ones that are going to the other. It makes it so much easier when it is time to sort the gifts.

I hope this helps. I will be happy to answer questions. If I'd known I was going to do a tutorial, I would have taken more detailed pictures. It really isn't a difficult project, I promise.