Whoa! Where did the year go?

Time flies when you're having fun...we had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to the new year. The kids came over for dinner - they furnished a prime rib roast and I did all the fixings. Little Man was in very high spirits (!). We Toy Storyed him this year and he had a ball.

He got lots of stuff but the main event was a traveling Buzz Lightyear car that talked. Big Guy was too small to know what was going on, but he got a big blue frog with red feet that he kissed and hugged.

Dinner was very good - I tried to make pictures as I went, but SOMEBODY forgot to take pictures when the stuff came out of the oven. OOOOOPS! Daughter and I have a requirement for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals....stuffed mushrooms.  We have been making them for some time now, and they are improving every year. We change it a little every time, but they are always good.

Break the stems out of fresh mushrooms and chop finely.

Put the chopped stems in with a pound of raw breakfast sausage...we just use regular but you can use hot if you like.

To this, add shredded mozarella cheese and gorgonzola cheese crumbles. I usually add chopped green onions but I didn't have them, so I finely chopped regular onion and added that. Season with pepper, a little garlic powder and mix everything together.

Now. Here's where you have to use your imagination...at this point I got busy and didn't finish my pictures. I mix everything together with my hands. Use about a teaspoon or more of the filling to fill the hole in the mushroom cap. Mound it up a little so there is plenty of filling in each cap. Place the stuffed caps in a baking dish. If you have sausage mixture left after filling the caps, just make meatballs and place around the caps. Bake at 350 degrees until the sausage is done...it takes about 30 or 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and drain off any liquid. Grate fresh parmesean cheese over the hot mushrooms and meatballs. They are good hot or after they cool.

Last year I doubled the sausage mixture and froze the meatballs on a cookie sheet. When they were frozen solid I put them in a freezer bag. Hubby and I had them several times  - just pop however many you want in a small baking pan and bake frozen. You can use any kind of cheese, but we like the gorgonzola the best. If you don't have fresh parmesean you can sprinkle any kind of shredded cheese over them. They really are tasty.

I did manage to get a picture of my pumpkin cheesecake. I also made a pecan pie, coconut cream pie, hot rolls, greenbean bundles, corn pudding and scalloped potatoes.

The cheesecake couldn't have come out any more perfect. I had enough filling to bake the neighbor one too.

I hope everybody had a good Christmas...now we're thinking about a New Year's get together...black eyed peas, pork and turnips, greens and cornbread. It's gonna be chili tonight, it goes very well with 18 degree weather.

Have a great day!