Christmas brunch early this morning: grits this, grits that, and more grits. Never seen so much grits, and egg casseroles. There were 50 of us that attended.

My cranberry sausage balls were a hit and not a one left.

My favorite was the Panara bagle, awesome, with hazelnut cream cheese.

Dirty Santa was fun!

That was early so I stopped around 2 at Hamburger Heaven for a chili dog with kraut and ate it bunless.

Patti, sorry to hear you are not feeling well. Your dinner sounds good to me. We are having beef stew which hubby made while I decorated my second tree this afternoon. I am currently sitting in front of the fire with my sister and her dog while Tom fusses with the stew.

I sure hope you feel better soon Patti!!

I stopped off after shopping to see a friend of mine. She's Bosnian, and is always cooking/baking something.

She insisted I stay and try something she was going to make.
She made a dough (no yeast) and let it sit about 15 minutes. She then stretched it out,very delicately over a table cloth on her table. She pulled until it hung over the edges. She lined 2 edges with a hamburger/onion and potato mixture and used the tablecloth to roll the pastry and sausage mixture into a long sausage. She cut it in half and looped it into rings, like a sausage ring, and baked it.

It was like phyllo. It was tasty, and she sent a couple home with me. Talk about laborious though. It's called Burek.

I made tuna noodle casserole but with a 'twist'. When looking for different meatball recipes a couple of wks ago, I found one using tuna fish. I made them today, then after they'd firmed up some from baking, I carefully folded them into the rest of the casserole and baked. Not something terrific, but okay enough. They were at least something a little different. Had buttered bread to go with it.

I hope you get lots better, Patti, and quickly.

Shirley

Glenda--so many grits! I'd be happy, since I love them. Sounds like a fun day. That was a big party! I have your cranberry meatball recipe from when you posted it--was just looking at it the other day.

Pam--wow! What a guy your DH is!! Haven't done anything about the tree or decorating yet. I feel like I'm on a treadmill--and you know how far that gets you.

Shirley, nice take on the tuna casserole. Sounds delicious!

Thanks, friends. I felt really good this morning and about 2:00 I started feeling bad again. Took a nap but that didn't help. :-(

We went to Costco today after which we stopped at Outback Steakhouse for lunch. DH has been bugging me for weeks to go since they just started serving lunch. Big hamburger so tonight will just be some butternut squash soup. I'm busy cooking for tomorrow night. Our neighborhood is having a Christmas dinner for 17. It's not at my house but somehow I got voted to do the main course. We're having roast loin of pork (not to be confused with pork tenderloin) which I have marinating with herbs, and now I'm making some applesauce to go with it. Personally, I would have rather had beef tenderloin because I think the men would enjoy that more, but they voted for the pork.

Feel better, Patti.

patti, I changed up the recipe to suit me so here tis:

My version of cranberry sausage balls

l pkg Maple Flavor Jimmy Dean Pork Sausage
2 cups all purpose baking mix
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 tsp ground allspice **I made my own: 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves, 1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup or less of chopped dried sweetened cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts/pecans
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix the baking mix, cheddar cheese and ground allspice first, then with your hands mix in the sausage, cranberries, pecans. It takes a while to work in the cranberries and pecans.

Shape into 1 inch balls.
Place on ungreased baking sheet, ***I use parchment paper and recommend your using.
They baked in my oven 20 minutes and came out perfect. Bottoms will be browner than the rest.
Note: Cheese Balls may be prepared ahead and frozen uncooked. To bake from frozen: thaw on cookie sheet 15 minutes; bake in preheated oven 20 to 25 minutes

Glenda, I've been making the Jimmy Dean sausage balls for years but have not tried this newer version. Did you like them better than the original? I was going to make them for Friday.

They were delicious in their unusual way. The maple sausage and the allspice is what made it extra good.

In comparison with the regular sausage balls, all I can say is they are different.

You get more of a sausagie taste with the regular one, but I would make these again in a heartbeat.

Evertyone today was talking about the cranberry balls even the men and one man gave me a pat on the back as he was tasting one.

Watch the baking, you want them not brown on the top as they will be dry. I did that in a trial run last night, and lowered the temp from 375 to 350 and they turned out perfect this morning.

I make Jimmy Dean's sweet potato sausage balls last year and they were a hit. One gal reminded me, today, how much she enjoyed those. I used the maple sausage in those as well.

We were out shopping so stopped for Mexican it was great but now I am miserable, stuffed. But I am just about done shopping. Hit the big Kohls sale big savings Got my sisters the prettiest Vera Wang pajamas.

Sorry you are ill Patti.Feel better soon