spring at last...at least, one would hope so...

The weather seems to have finally started a shift away from cold and wet and towards a drier, warmer space - it was 67F on my ride home from work on Monday, and over 50F when I rode to work yesterday morning.  Of course, now a new storm has wandered our way and it was about 36F on my way in today, but I will firmly cling to hope that we are finally moving towards spring.  After all, we've had less rain than the weather forecasters have called for over the past few days, so maybe we're getting there!

Curzon continues to be his own awesome self, completely oblivious to any surgery, pain, or rehab that happened just mere weeks ago.  The photo above was taken last week at eight weeks post-op, and really there's nothing more to say beyond "it's like it never happened."  His mentality, behavior, mannerisms, and even his fur (well, almost) are just as they were before that fateful day when I found a lump on his rib.  Right now I think he's frustrated with us because we're being cautious about his return to flyball, as even though he'll be competing at the May 5/6 tournament we haven't let him hit the flyball box yet.  That will come this weekend, however, as he did more jumping drills last week as well as some wall work and passed both with flying colors.

Chris has been gone on a business trip for a while, and while he's been away I've been having one of the dogs sleep with me at night on a blanket on his side of the bed.  I need to wash the duvet anyway, so I figure it's fair enough.  I'm sleeping much better since I started doing that, as I know that whichever of the two dogs who sleep with me (Curzon on weekdays, Ezri on the weekend) will wake up and alert me if something happens.  I'm a very deep sleeper, so I think I was subconsciously keeping myself almost-awake the night or two that I slept without one of the dogs, which meant the next day was pretty rough.  I took the 9 weeks post-op picture above on the blanket that Curzon's been sleeping on - he makes funny faces when I try to take pictures of him before breakfast.

Last Sunday, April 1, was the day we've chosen as Jadzia's birthday - and this year that marked her tenth birthday.  Despite aging and developing a few extra special border collie tics, namely anxiety and possibly a touch of dementia already, Jadzia is still a lovely dog to have around the house and a wonderful pet.  She is the reason we ended up playing flyball and with Curzon and Ezri, so no matter what I will always be grateful to her for bringing me down this road.  Happy 10th birthday, babydoll - Jadzia HIC CGC NDD-R TFE-II FGDCh50k.

On Saturday I took Curzon and Ezri to the nearby dog pool, where they get to jump into the water and swim for their tennis balls.  Curzon was much happier to be here this time, instead of the boring old therapy pool where I make him swim in circles without much jumping!

With Chris gone, I've been having quite a few gluten-filled meals since I don't have to worry about cooking for him as well.  This is the most adorable chicken pot pie I bought from the farmers' market last weekend, which I baked for dinner last night.  It is delicious, and is full of all kinds of things, plus it has a tiny chicken cutout in the crust - what's not to like?  I'm looking forward to having the rest of it for dinner tonight.

On Saturday my friend Michael came over and we cooked dinner together, with him choosing and making a recipe of pork chops in a red wine and garlic reduction and me making mashed potatoes and asparagus to go along with it.  The pork chops were absolutely delightful...yum...I will have to make them again for Chris to enjoy at some point.

This weekend I am traveling with Ezri and friends to Victoria island for a UFLI flyball tournament.  This will be the last time I get to run with Ezri's sister Indigo, so it will be both fun and sad for me.  I'm really looking forward to it, however, despite the way-too-early start we have to make on Friday to make the ferry from Anacortes!

creating and recovering

Curzon came home from his surgery on Thursday afternoon, and he's been recovering steadily with improvement every day.  On last Monday afternoon, before he went in for surgery, I took him over to Artis to have a photo shoot done by my friend Amy, and the photos are just wonderful.  We did a selection of indoor and outdoor photos, and this one was the one we chose to enter in their Senior Dog Contest, where the photo with the most "likes" on Facebook by the end of February will win a prize.  So if you're on Facebook and want to vote for Curzon, click here!

Chris ordered a new thick comfy bed with heat-keeping material in it for Curzon to use during recovery, and he's a fan.  One of our flyball friends brought us an antler chew for him, and he thinks that's pretty cool too.  And of course all the extra food and attention he's getting is fantastic, although he's really not a fan of being carried up and down the stairs and not being allowed to play with his little sister...

On Saturday I took off the t-shirt he's been wearing to check over his incisions, and the bandage over the incision for the chest tube was falling off so I cut that one off entirely - and now I can't find where that incision was, he's healed so quickly!  Hopefully this is a good sign for his health and happiness - just look at how his fur is already growing back, he's much less "white skin" than he was just on Wednesday.

And of course we've had the most wonderful and supportive friends, both near and far, those who have met Curzon and those who only know him from internet photos.  One of my favorite things is this photoshopped picture of the evening I brought Curzon home from the vet, where the group commented that the combo of the shirt and coat made him look like Superman...

Over the past few weeks I've also made two new recipes, although sadly for Chris they were both full of gluten so he could not enjoy them.  The first is the biscuit recipe from the Homesick Texan blog which my friend Christy found and shared with me.  The biscuits come out really nice and tasty, plus you get to whack the dough viciously with a rolling pin while you make them, so what's not to like?

I've also made two batchs of pain de mie using a recipe from food.com as the basis, and then substituting with what I have on hand.  I used the King Arthur Ancient Grains flour mix in place of the potato flour, 1/3 cup of fresh triticale flour and the rest AP flour in place of the white whole wheat, and a regular loaf pan with a casserole dish on top in place of the recommended pullman pan.  This bread is *wonderful* and is tender, slices well once cool, and is a little bit sweet.  It baked up well both in the pan with a casserole dish on top (just grease the dish!) as well as the leftover dough left to bake as a round in the pan.  The sliced bread also freezes very well, which works out great for me since I'm the only one eating it around my house.  Yum!

Finally, as a surprise to nobody who knows me, I ended up making a blanket for Curzon before he had his surgery last week.  My friend got me a charm pack of the new Kate Spain fabric line "Good Fortune," thinking that I did indeed need some good fortune in my life, and I used the entire pack to create a simple 6x7 layout of the 5" finished blocks, which was then backed with some flannel that I had in my stash.  I used no batting, so as to be lighter and less likely to be chewed up by a bored border collie, and finished it by sewing right sides together and flipping the blanket out through an opening.  I did a few lines of stitch-in-the-ditch quilting to help keep the blanket together, and topstitched the edges, and I'm very pleased with how it came out.  This is the blanket in the contest photo at the top of this post, and Curzon's spent a lot of time sleeping with it since he came home.

end of holiday wrapup

Since I did not post in December, I never posted any pictures of our Christmas decorations.  This year I decided to go completely LED for outside lights, which caused a minor kerfuffle as it turns out that there were three different types of LED icicle lights, and finding enough sets of my chosen color took several hours and three stores.  We persevered, however, and now all lights outside except the rope lights outlining the sidewalk are LED, which gives a very pretty and "icy" effect.  This picture was taken the night we put up the Christmas lights, just after Thanksgiving was over.

 

We went to get a tree the second Friday in December, as we're always gone the first weekend to a flyball tournament.  This year we chose to go to a cut-your-own tree place in Woodinville, which is much closer than the farm out on I-90 we've used in the past.  The tree we got was very pretty, and the back of the truck still smells like fresh pine needles, which is a welcome change from the smell of stale tennis balls!

I did not buy any new ornaments this year, but we got two cute ones that are clear globes filled with "snow," tennis balls, and bones from the Christmas tournament.  And my best friend bought me the 2011 Swarovski ornament for my present - I am so thrilled, as I've always wanted to get one of these.  It's so pretty that I decided not to pack it away with the rest of the ornaments, but instead got a suction cup hook and hung it on the window in my office so I can enjoy it for the entire year.

The Christmas/holiday cards that we received this year were taped on the fridge, where they were easy to see and enjoy for the holiday.  They're still up there, as a matter of fact, although I will probably take them down this weekend.  The furthest-traveled card was from my college roommate who lives in Finland!  I do like sending out cards and letters every year, but this year we sent out about 60 cards and only received about 1, so that does make me a little sad.  I may trim down the list that we use next year to those who reciprocate or at least indicate that they have received and enjoy the cards.  There's quite a few families that I send cards to every year that we haven't heard from in several years, so maybe it's time for us to stop sending them cards as well.

Random question of the day - what on earth is causing my new(ish) smartwool socks to not only fade in the wash,  but to turn PURPLE??  The three pairs below all started the same color, the pale spring green of the top pair (anklets, so I haven't worn them since it's cold outside).  The second pair is showing some fading, but the third pair came out of the laundry purple this week!  Nothing else in the laundry was purple, and nothing is showing any sort of dye effect, so I think this is some weird chemical reaction with the dye.  I'm not particularly thrilled about it, though, it's not even a particularly nice shade of purple.

I made another egg pie this week, using up the last of the broccoli from the holiday food stash, along with some thick-cut bacon, local heavy cream, Tillamook cheese, and various seasonings.  This was the first time I'd tried broiling bacon in the oven, and it worked surprisingly well, although the cooking seems to speed up at the end so I ended up with some burned bits on my bacon.  No worries, however, as I had plenty for the pie and the dogs got to have burned bacon bits with their own dinner, so really everyone was happy.

Finally, there have been some really lovely sunrises the past few days, which I see every morning at work since I'm here before dawn pretty much all year.  The colors yesterday were especially pretty, although my cell phone isn't the greatest at trying to zoom in to frame a good shot.

early January miscellany

 

Last night was the first fancy-ish sort of wing-it dinner I've made this year.  I took two pork chops (excellent meat from Skagit River Ranch that's been in the freezer for a while), and some carrots and baby potatoes that I also had in the fridge (the latter from the farmers' market as well).  I seared the chops on high heat in the Dutch oven with a little canola oil, and then set them aside (this made somewhat of a mess...glad I used the oven for that!).  Next I turned down the heat, added some olive oil, and sauteed a yellow onion and some garlic (also from the farmers' market), adding a bit of white wine that was in the fridge to deglaze a bit.  When the onions/garlic mix was done, I turned off the heat and set aside most of the mix to use on top of the pork chops.  Then it was just a simple layering of the chopped potatoes and carrots, already mixed with olive oil, salt basil, rosemary, sage, and garlic powder, followed by the pork chops on top (seasoned with salt) that were then covered with the onion/garlic mix.  I popped the whole thing in the oven at 350F for 45 minutes, and it came out great - the pork was a bit dry, but not bad, and that could be minimized by adding it in 15 minutes after the potatoes were started.  Plus there was only one pot and two cutting boards to use for cleanup!

 

On Sunday I finished knitting the first ball of yarn for my first knitting project - a scarf made from some lovely purple merino wool.  The dimensions at this point are 9" wide by 9" long, so that points to a finished length of 36" which is fine with me.  Last night I started knitting with the second ball of yarn, and after a mis-start where I was knitting with the tail and not the new ball (necessitating quickly learning how to un-knit!), it's moving along nicely again.  I loosely knotted the two tails for now, as I'll need to get someone to teach me how to weave in the ends, although it seems odd that will work since I have to pull on the ends pretty hard to get the knit stitches on the ends to tighten up properly.  Presumably whoever I find to teach me this skill will be able to explain it!

 

Last week Windstone put up a very small limited production run of silver Spectral Dragons, and after looking at my plans for my current bit of stock option money, I bought one.  He arrived yesterday, and he's gorgeous - just look at that reflective eye!  It looks purple in this picture with the camera flash, but it shows green, blue, purple, and other colors depending on the angle and the lighting.  I think he's absolutely gorgeous and I'm thrilled to add him to my collection!

And speaking of dragons, one of my friends put this up on my Facebook wall the other day.  I am highly amused, and totally in agreement with the awesomeist.

new year, new stuff

So anyone who knows me for more than a few days knows that I collect dragons.  My husband gave me two lovely display cases for my 30th birthday, and they are both very full at this point with a few sculptures too large for them sitting on a small filing cabinet.  The other day, as I ordered a new Windstone dragon, it occurred to me that those sculptures are heavy and that I was starting to acquire a lot of them.  So I looked up the weight limitation on my cabinet - only 13lbs per shelf!  I was already over that for sure, let alone when my new one arrived, so off to IKEA I went on Saturday to pick up a new display case.  It is much sturdier than my original ones, has one more shelf (two if you count the wire shelf below the glass case), has a lock, and has a weight limit of 55lbs per shelf.  Excellent.

You can see the new case on the left and one of the original cases on the right in this picture, with my filing cabinet in the middle.  I'm very pleased with how nice it looks, and the bonus feature of having a lock is wonderful.  And it's definitely sturdier - nothing is moving when the dogs run in/out of the room, as opposed to the original case where I was about to start taping things down to avoid movement from vibrations.  The case that this one replaced will go downstairs to hold glassware for the bar, allowing my husband to put more booze in the built-in cabinets.

Close-up view of the top two shelves, showing my Windstone collection on the top shelf, and my smaller collections of Harmony Kingdom dragons and Pocket Dragons on the second shelf.  Also on the second shelf is a dragon bust made for me by a forum friend, a Welsh dragon sent to me as part of a sekrit santa exchange on that same forum a few years back, my Onyxia whelpling FigurePrint from WoW, and my Chinese chop dragon that my best friend brought back from China for me.

Also on the new front is a new shock for my motorcycle, which was installed Friday night and I was able to pick up the bike on Saturday afternoon.  Even better, the shop washed my bike for me while it was in for the service!  The bright purple coil just amuses me to no end, especially since I'll be getting a new seat for the bike (also in purple) next weekend.  And obviously the ride is much nicer, especially given that the old shock lost all of its oil when it was in for service in November, so I'm really looking forward to better rides now!

Another new thing is eggs!  My best friend and I have communal chickens, a tiny flock of three hens that live in a coop in her yard and that we got from a friend of hers who is leaving to join the Peace Corps.  We moved them back in December, and we weren't expecting eggs for at least another month or two...but yesterday when she opened the henhouse to clean it out, she found eggs!  Luckily it's been cool the last few days, and the sink/float test showed they were all good, so we are super excited.  And there was one more egg this morning, so it's not just a fluke!  I just got a dozen eggs at the farmer's market yesterday, but now I'm hopeful that we'll both have our "own" eggs from now on.

Finally, while I was at IKEA yesterday I found these duvet/pillowcase sets on clearance for less than $30.  I picked up this one in blue dots and set it up in my guest room - much more cheerful than the unrelieved plain black that was in there previously!  Perhaps I will get new curtains to match...we'll see!

new recipe for me, conditioning for the border collies

At both the Maple Ridge and Salem tournaments in July, Ezri was running a bit slower than I expected, more in the 4.0's instead of the 3.8's / 3.9's that she was putting down in May and June. I figure this is because of the crummy weather we've had most of the spring and early summer, which has limited my desire to actually exercise the dogs on a regular basis. So beginning the Monday after Maple Ridge, I started a conditioning program for miss Ezri consisting of exercise every day. After all, we're going all the way to Gridley, CA in September and this will be our one shot at trying to break 16, and darn it I won't let her be the weak link! I've been primarily running the dogs in the backyard, which for Ezri means a hard sprint across the yard, a leap over the dry water right-of-way, and a hard sprint up the hill to wait for her tennis ball. I keep her moving constantly, while throwing for the other three in between her runs, and after ten minutes I end up with flat melty dog, as seen at left. It's been almost three weeks of this workout program, and Ezri is definitely improving in the stamina department, so hopefully this will pay off in the way that I want next month! It's also helped keep the other dogs calm, as tired dogs are good dogs, and even Phoebe has been almost reasonable around the house the past two weeks.

Unfortunately, running in the yard is really our main option right now. The park nearby that has a creek is running strangely this summer and has no space for swimming, just a long run through about 6" of water that's no challenge at all. The park with actual swimming is a 20-minute drive away, so that's not an option for most evenings after work. I hope to take Ezri out this weekend for swimming, and next weekend I'm taking her to an agility fun match just to play on our own on the equipment.

On the flip side, I've picked up a new recipe for my repertoire - spoonbread. It falls in the same category as the frittata / egg pie recipe that I posted back in May, being that it can be a side dish or a main course depending on what you put into it. The original recipe that I have modified slightly to post below was originally posted on the King Arthur Flour blog a few weeks ago, and that's definitely worth a read as well.

Cornmeal Spoonbread Recipe
serves 4-6

Basic Ingredients
2/3 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 cups 2% milk
2 eggs
Splash of heavy cream or half-and-half
1 cup shredded cheese, plus extra for the top
Butter (for buttering the baking dish)

Instructions
1) Preheat the oven to 400F, and heavily butter your baking dish or pan. The original recipe calls for a 9" square baking dish, but I've used an 8" square baking pan and a 10.5" x 7" baking dish, both with good results.
2) In a skillet/saucepan (I used a 12" nonstick skillet) over medium heat, combine the cornmeal, milk, and salt. Keep stirring the mixture as it cooks up in order to keep it from sticking or burning on the bottom, I find that a silicone spatula works really well for this.
3) When the cornmeal mush is cooked all the way through, which can be tested by moving the spatula around and seeing if the mixture fills back in the space left by the spatula, take the pan off the heat and let it rest for about five minutes.
4) While the mush is resting, beat your two eggs well with some heavy cream (or half and half, or milk, any would work fine), and measure out your shredded or chopped cheese. Prepare any additional add-ins at this time - chop up some bacon, shred some spinach, mix up some spices, and so on.
5) In the skillet with the cornmeal mush, combine the eggs, cheese, and additional add-ins and mix it up thoroughly with your spatula. Once the mixture is homogeneous, pour it into your buttered baking dish and smooth out the top. Sprinkle the top with additional shredded cheese if you prefer.
6) Bake at 400F for about 40 minutes, or until you can insert a knife into the spoonbread and pull it out again cleanly. It won't "set up" like baked cornbread, but it will cook up thoroughly.
7) Serve warm and enjoy! The spoonbread stays well in the fridge, and reheats nicely both in the microwave or in the oven at 250F.

Now, for my pictures of this process!!

First, I mixed blue cornmeal, milk, and salt in the skillet for cooking.

I keep the burner set to just below middle for this process. In this picture, the cornmeal is cooking along nicely but isn't quite done yet - you can see trails left by the spatula, but they are still filling in and the cooked mush is still very soft and squishy.

Completed mixture put into pan, and halfway covered with additional cheese. For this version, I used some chopped spinach and medium Tillamook cheddar (with a bit of leftover Tillamook mozzarella) for the mix-ins, and topped it off with the remainder of the sharp shredded Tillamook cheddar that I had on hand. I really like putting a bit of sharp cheddar on top of these sorts of dishes - it gives a nice crust and bite on top.

My new Le Crueset baking dish, in purple of course! I got this yesterday as a second choice to the covered 8" square baker that I originally wanted to buy, and this turned out really well for this purpose. I'm pleased. :)

And in closing for today, a picture of the new iPad sleeve that I'm making for myself to replace my first version made in March. It's going along pretty well, although I am getting some non-straight seams somehow (and no, the strips are not cut on the bias), so I may need to do some pinning to fix that. It looks pretty good, however, and it's reasonably non-obvious until you put a ruler onto the seams to check for linearity. I am especially pleased with the sashing I put in of purple and black stripes, set so the purple frames the grey/white fabric and the black frames the purple fabric. I'm hopefully going to finish the strip stitching on this tonight, and then I'll cut it down and assemble it tomorrow - with border collie fabric for the lining!

I have also finally finished the mini baby quilt that I was working on for a friend whose son was born in early June, and it's even labeled, washed, and ready to go! As soon as I've given that to my friend I will be posting pictures of it - I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

urban homesteading and you

This is my first attempt at a quiche/frittata type of dish, and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I got the recipe from an awesome book I picked up a few weeks ago, The Urban Homestead, which is full of fascinating information about skills that are largely unknown in American city society. The book covers topics from cleaning (vinegar and baking soda) to growing food (from microgreens in the window to full-on food gardens) to keeping worms and chickens. It also covers various food preservation methods, including canning, making butter, drying, and so on. While I'm passingly familiar with many of the concepts, I'm not at all familiar with how they are executed and it is really neat to have a book that explains all of this sort of thing to my citified self. And possibly even more importantly, the book is written with enthusiasm but not with disdain, as so many "eco-friendly" books often are, so I came away from reading it excited and inspired to try new things and not dejected and morose that I'll never be cool enough or eco-friendly enough to be acceptable. The recipe for this "crustless quiche" came from the book, and I modified it slightly to make it gluten-free so that Chris could enjoy it as well.

Recipe: Crustless Quiche (from The Urban Homestead, modified to be Gluten-Free by me)
Ingredients:
4 eggs
~1 cup of soft cheese
1 cup of milk
3/4 cup of gluten-free flour
1 tsp of salt (or more to taste)
ground pepper (to taste)
additives (bacon, ham, onions, garlic, spinach, etc.)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9" pie pan, and put the pie pan on top of another pan or cookie sheet in case of spills.
2. Prepare any additives that need it, such as sauteeing garlic/onions/spinach in olive oil, cooking bacon and crumbling it, chopping up ham, etc. All mix-in items should be diced, chopped, or crumbled to be small, like 1/4" - 1/2" with smaller pieces better. Also cut up the cheese at this point and set it aside - again, 1/2" cubes is a good plan.
3. Mix flour, salt, and pepper together. If you want to add any additional seasonings, this is the time to do it.
3. Beat the eggs together in a largeish bowl. Add in the milk and mix thoroughly.
4. Add the flour a bit at a time, mixing well with each addition, until all of it is incorporated and you have something that looks kinda like pancake batter. Gluten-free flour is particularly picky about being mixed in, so just do your best - mine still has some small blobs of unmixed flour even after several minutes of beating.
5. Add in the cheese cubes and stir, then add in the rest of your additives.
6. Mix everything well and pour into your pie pan, possibly giving it a bit of a stir to redistribute the additives after pouring. Top with extra grated cheese if you like.
7. Pop into the oven for 45 minutes. The quiche is done when a knife stuck in the middle comes out clean.

The flour in the mixture, at least with my gluten-free version, will settle a little bit during baking and make its own sort of psuedo-crust in the pan. You can kind of see this in the photo to the right. I've made this recipe twice so far, and the important attributes seem to be the size and amount of additives, and the type of cheese used. My first one was made with queso fresco from the farmers' market, which is a slightly squishy and low density cheese, and it came out much better than the second one which I made with fresh mozzarella which I think was both too dense and too damp for the dish. The original recipe suggested feta, and I'm thinking of trying cheese curds as well. Shredded cheese would probably be great as well, but I did really like the taste and texture I got when using the queso fresco. The second version I made I used sliced ham that I cut into about 3/4" squares, and they were too big and didn't stay well distributed in the pan, though that might be because I also used a lot of ham. The second one was still edible and pretty good, even with the damp cheese and too much ham, so this is a pretty forgiving recipe over all. And it's pretty quick to put together, especially if you pre-chop everything in advance. The one recipe gave enough for two meals for the two of us, and it reheats nicely - I just foil-wrapped the pan, and then popped it into the oven at 250F for about twenty minutes the next evening.

I also have a funny Jadzia story to share today. I've realized this week that she has figured out how to tell me the water dish is empty - she waits until I'm filling my own water bottle at the fridge, and pats my leg. Every time she's done this in the past two weeks, her water dish has been empty. That's pretty good problem-solving, even for a border collie - she connected the water from the sink, the water from the fridge, her bowl, and my bottle together. I'm very entertained and kind of proud of her for that.

new year, new recipe!

This is a (slightly-out-of-focus) slice of gluten free breakfast casserole, one of two that I made over the holiday break. It is made of eggs, sausage, gluten-free bread, and cheese, and if you're interested in learning how to make one, just scroll down!

Recipe for Gluten-Free Breakfast Casserole
Serves 6

1lb ground sausage
4 pieces gluten-free bread
6 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
~1/2 cup 1% milk
shredded cheese (at least 1 cup total)
salt, pepper, garlic powder
butter

1) Brown sausage in a hot skillet, being sure to break it up so it is all in small crumbly bits. If there is a lot of fat left when the sausage is done cooking, drain the sausage. Turn off the heat and allow the sausage to cool down to room temperature.

2) Butter the bottom and sides of an 8"x8" cake pan or casserole dish. Place 4 pieces of gluten-free bread in the bottom of the pan, arranged to cover the bottom of the pan/dish. If need be, cut pieces and rearrange or add extra bread.

3) Sprinkle the bread with shredded cheese (I used Tillamook medium cheddar).

4) Spread the cooled sausage crumbles evenly across the bread.

5) Sprinkle the sausage with shredded cheese (I used mozzarella).

6) Crack all six eggs into one bowl and whisk thoroughly until they are completely combined. Add the heavy cream and mix, then add the milk to dilute it until it is thin enough to pour easily.

7) Add salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. I used about a teaspoon of salt, a few grinds of black pepper, and about a teaspoon of garlic powder. Mix thoroughly.

8) Pour egg mixture over the top of the sausage layer in the pan, being sure to cover the entire pan evenly. Some sausage will stick out of the top, which is fine, but most of the sausage should be covered.

9) Sprinkle shredded cheese on top (I used Tillamook sharp cheddar).

10) Preheat oven to 350F, and then bake the casserole for at least 30 minutes and up to 45 minutes (depending on your oven and pan/dish selection). The casserole is done when the center is cooked through (test with a toothpick - it should come out clean) and the cheese is lightly browned.

Browning sausage is fun! This was a full pound of Jimmy Dean maple breakfast sausage.

Bread and cheese placement is critical - the bread should cover the entire bottom of the pan, in order to provide a solid foundation for your casserole.


Sausage and the second cheese layer.


Egg mixture fully added - still an inch of clearance on the pan to avoid boilover, but nearly all of the sausage is covered.


Casserole is complete and ready to go into the oven.

Casserole is done baking and is ready to eat!

This recipe is pretty malleable and adjustable to your own taste - use a spicier sausage, use different types of cheese (just not fresh squishy cheese, it will have too much liquid), or add additional flavorings. I've also added toasted onions or freshly sauteed scallions and garlic, and adding in diced peppers would go well to make a spicier result. The recipe can be paused after Step 9 and put in the refrigerator overnight, so that the casserole can be made ahead and baked the next morning (remember to let the casserole warm to room temperature or add additional baking time). Finally, I doubled the recipe and used a 9"x13" casserole dish to make enough for 12 or more servings with ease.

The resulting casserole will keep nicely in the fridge and reheat easily in either the oven or the microwave for about two days, so for example the 6-serving version lasted Chris and I through three days. I wouldn't keep it much longer than that, however, due to the combination of egg and sausage present.

Let 2011 continue on this tasty course!

thanksgiving and the holidays!

Two weeks ago, it was Thanksgiving. Despite the wintry weather we had in the days leading up to the holiday, we had everything we needed for a great celebration. Our friends Jeremy, Christy, and Brian (from our D&D group) joined us for dinner, a movie, and Rock Band, and a good time was had by all. I enjoy making Thanksgiving dinner, perhaps because it is only once a year, and everything came out very well.

The turkeys came out very well, with their "before" shot to the left as they were prepped and ready to go into the oven. The long brining really affected the sweet-brined turkey that was wrapped in bacon, as between the two it came out tasting almost like ham! The savory-brined turkey was rubbed with olive oil and stuffed with sage, basil, rosemary, and garlic, and it was amazing as well. My mashed potatoes were a little off, as I cooked them a bit too early and left them in the pot, which caused them to absorb some water, but they were acceptable. The biscuit rolls also got a little worse for wear after being put into a warm crockpot after baking, I think they actually baked a little more while waiting for dinner, so I'll need to adjust that for next year. Everything else was great, however, and I even got some tasty flavored butters from one of the local creameries so I didn't have to make them myself. Yay for Thanksgiving dinner!

Thanksgiving also means I can use our lovely china service, which has been steadily building up since our wedding thanks to gifts from our parents, and my set of sterling silver which was given to me by my Nana as a wedding gift. The crystal goblets were an engagement gift from Chris' paternal grandparents, so nearly everything on the table is a family gift of some sort. Very appropriate to use them for Thanksgiving! I only wish I had a few more excuses to use them throughout the year, but the hand-washing and delicate nature make it not a good idea to use them every day.

Once Thanksgiving was over, it was time to decorate the house for Christmas. Not everything is up yet, but the lights went up on Saturday after Thanksgiving, complete with the annual "drat too many lights died let's race out to Target for more" trip. As usual I handled the lights up on the roof (white icicles with multicolored along the edge) and Chris handled the lights on the ground (green rope around the sidewalk and purple in the rock/plants). This year he expanded his plans and began running colored larger LED's in the bushes alongside the road, and they look great too. Eventually the colored lights might make it all the way out to the stop sign, but not this year!

Since we are traveling back to New Jersey for the actual Christmas holiday, we are not getting a real tree this year so as to not worry about it while we are gone. Instead we found an inexpensive pre-lit 5' tree at Home Depot that I set up in the window seat in the dining room. I decorated it last week with colored lights, a bow for the topper, a bit of bead garland, and as many ornaments as could fit on it. I was actually able to put nearly all of our unique ornaments on the tree, leaving off many of the fillers (glass orbs, metal icicles, etc.) although I did put plenty of our purple bells on the tree for tradition sake. I'm really pleased with how it came out! Yes, there are already presents under it - my mom sent most of them home with me when I saw her in Indiana in October. We will probably have a small "Christmas Morning" on the 23rd before we fly out to open these and any presents to/from each other that are too big to travel easily. I'm not a big fan of splitting up Christmas like that, but I also don't want to ship things two or three times, or end up with something that can't be used in New Jersey anyway. So I will look at the positive side - yay two Christmases!

And of course, no holiday is complete without embarrassing the dogs.

Ezri wants to know why do I do these things to her?

Curzon will do anything to be called a good boy!

No silly picture of Jadzia, as she was at work with Chris when I was taking these shots. :) Speaking of photos, we did a wonderful photo shoot with our friend Amy at Artis Photography on the 28th, and we get to go see our photos tonight! I can't wait - they take SUCH good action shots of the dogs!