Dressing vs Stuffing

What do you call it? There are lots of websites that discuss this, for instance, Serious Eats. Entertaining to say the least.

Our family calls it dressing. Mom's Sausage Dressing to be exact. Ambrosia. I have made the dressing for my family for the last several years without Mom to taste it. She will be here for Thanksgiving this year (yay!) but I am still going to make the dressing. Why? Because I can finally have her fine-tune my attempt. I want to KNOW how to make this dish.

The basics are easy peasy with a simple ratio of 1:1:1:1

Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage
large chopped onion
chopped celery bunch, including top
loaf of cheap bread, cubed
Cook sausage, add onion and celery, season with sage (lots!) and pepper and cook till done. Add to bread cubes in big bowl. Mix. Add chicken broth until all is moistened and combined really well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bake in oven at 350 for 45 minutes or surround turkey with dressing and bake. We then love to crisp it up in a pan, folding the crispy bits into the dressing over and over. And we add turkey juice and chunks of turkey or the giblets (not the liver!) to the crispy dressing. And the next day...forget about it!...even better. That is why I make a triple batch!

Enjoy your family this week...and your food!

Drumroll please...

Thanks to everyone for entering my Domino Clock giveaway! I put the names in a bucket and Mom pulled out the winner. It was very exciting!

The winner is Susan Gillmor! Congratulations.

And because we couldn't stop ourselves, we drew another name for another Domino Clock...Jeannie, come on down!

So, if you both could email me your contact information I will get your Domino Clocks in the mail.

Thank you to everyone who entered.

Colleen's Cupie

One of my favorite birthday traditions is Burger Day with Colleen, Judy and Beth. We gather at the Ranch Drive-In in Bothell; grab a Ranch burger; and ooh and aah over giftwrapping and gifts. It is so delightful to give to (and received from) these fabulous women. They 'get' the good stuff and the glittery stuff and the French stuff and the repurposed stuff and the rusty stuff.

Birthday Girl, Colleen with gifts to unwrap.
Wrap is as important as the gift with these girls!

This fall it took us months to finally celebrate Colleen's September birthday. Colds, surgeries, vacations all coincided (or collided!) to keep us apart. But yesterday we made it happen. It wasn't burgers, but pizza delivery to Colleen's because we just couldn't wait any longer! She called me bright and early Wednesday morning and said "Pizza at my house and bring my birthday present!" Yes, ma'am!

I had picked up a slightly imperfect Cupie doll awhile back and altered her ala Colleen. She turned out so ding dang cute (as Colleen likes to say!) From her tulle-covered jello-mold tuffet to her typewriter key crown this gal just exudes cuteness. And so does Colleen!

Thanks for your help, Delilah!

I had put together a little Halloween favor for everyone. Vintage crepe paper rolls complete with stickers that I had found in a Frederick & Nelson box at the Everett Goodwill Outlet. Score!

easy peasy wrapping and instant festivity

And then, Beth had treasures for us from France...oooh la la. I received a Lady of Lourdes picture in my home's warm colors, a fabulous champagne glass, gorgeous knife and a mystery wood item that is so sculptural. If anyone knows what it might be, please let me know.

I am blessed with great friends who love what I love, love to laugh

and it really can't get much better than that!

A 'Timely' Giveaway

The reason for this giveaway is two-fold.

The first reason is that I am so happy to have 'gained an hour' this weekend...Yeah, I know, it is all in my head...but that is where I spend most of my time anyway so that reason works for me.

The second is I am so grateful to all of you for your support of me and Lisa's Little House.

So, one of my homemade Domino Clocks seems appropriate. The photo was taken by Kate Baldwin and is from our book, The Salvage Studio, Sustainable Home Comforts to Organize, Entertain and Inspire. It is one of the 35 projects listed in the book. Your clock will vary slightly. I have two to choose from and I haven't decided yet!

And if you don't win, and don't have our book (!?), you can click here to see me on YouTube showing you how to make one. TaDa!

Oh yeah, here is how to enter the giveaway...

• Leave me a comment on this post with a link to a mention of this giveaway on your blog. Easy peasy!
• Bonus points if you are on FaceBook and 'like' my FaceBook page.
• You have until Midnight PST on Sunday, November 14 to comment. I will be announcing the winner on Monday, November 15, probably after I have my coffee!

But seriously, thank you for all your kind words and support! I really appreciate you.

A Farm Chicks Christmas

Serena of the Farm Chicks is hosting a booksigning at Chaps in Spokane AND a virtual online booksigning this Friday...I ordered my book to be signed by Serena and friends...have you?
Order The Farm Chicks Christmas book from her website here by 1pm on Friday and you too can be part of the celebration! And there is also a giveaway going on to boot...so be sure you check the posts for details.

Mom is here!

Vintage stitchery on our mantle...a picture (with words) is worth at least 1000 words!

Mom is here for the month of November...we are so excited!

Doug flew over there last week and helped Mom winterize the house. And then they drove over together.

Hopefully we can convince her to stay into December.

Keep your fingers crossed!