Sausage Pinwheels

I recently (okay, I admit...last month) put out a request to my recipe sharing friends for new food ideas. I have been bored with all the usuals'.

I present to you sausage pinwheels:


1/2 pound sausage, 1 tube crescent rolls, shredded cheese
Spread crescent roll dough out, pinching the seams together. Spread uncooked sausage over top. Sprinkle with shredded cheese. Roll up from long side and slice into pinwheels. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.

I have made this 2 times now. Once for family, once for daycare. Both groups were pleased.
The first time, I misread the recipe and used the whole pound of sausage. I let it cook a little longer to make sure all that sausage was done.
On the second attempt, I did it as the recipe directed. It was good too. On the second try, I used one of the 'recipe creations' crescent roll tubes. It is not perforated, as it is a solid sheet of crescent dough. Or, supposed to be. When my can opened, there were a few rips as it came out of the tube. I thought I would try a shortcut...but at a about 10 cents more per can, I won't be buying this again! I'm sticking to regular crescent rolls...I can pinch ;) Pinch pennies, too!

cute PTA moment

Cinderella singing with her kindergarten class at a recent PTA meeting.

So cute :)

One thing left

I have one assignment left to do for my college class this semester. It is to post on the discussion board our 'final analysis' of the class. So far, I have hesitated to post my feedback. Why? Because every other person has posted only postivie remarks. This class has seriously stunk...and this professor has been the most scattered and unorganized I've ever had. It is an online class, and so I only know one person from my class 'in real life'. Her experience has not been good either.

One problem has been the due dates. They have changed several times during the semester. When I've emailed her with questions, she pretty much sends the exact copy of the assignment information, without clarification. I have turned assignments in and she has not given us any feedback about how we did, other than a number grade. I have had to remind her to post grades for some of my work, and for others I have had grades come up on the chart for things I had not turned in yet. Major projects had components posted in 3 or 4 different places, with the details varying from place to place. I am concerned that if I put the truth out there, some of my grades might disappear or change, or I will get a bad grade on this assignment, which could be the difference between an A or B for me.

So, are all these other people lying? Should I only look for the positive? We have an anonymous survey that we turn in to administration at the end of the semester, so I have an avenue to give that feedback. What to do?

November 30

It is the last day of November. I cannot believe how fast this year has gone! I have so much left to accomplish before this year leaves me behind!

We are home from our Thanksgiving travel. I love to go see my friends, but leaving home is hard work. The neatest thing happened on our drive home. We had to travel major interstate near Charlotte, NC. There was a cool parade of planes coming in to land. These weren't any little mosquito planes like I am used to seeing at home. Every minute or so, a large plane would pass across, and you could see 3 to 4 more following in the same flight path. This kept up for about 10-15 minutes, until we had passed the airport, and couldn't see them anymore. (I'm sure the planes kept it up, as this was Sunday...all those Thnaksgving travellers flying home, right?)

Now, the crunch is on to get things ready for Christmas! I am excited for Christmas, as usual...but I feel totally unprepared for this years' season. I want to do some major cookie baking, I need to do some major housecleaning (yuck!). I also have some other crafty fun projects to accomplish. I need to make a list!

Getting ready

My family is getting ready to travel a bit for the Thanksgiving holiday. I get to stay over at my friend Heather's home. I am excited to go, but why does it have to be so dog-gone hard to get everyone here ready to go? I wanted to have the house somewhat tidy before we leave...it makes it so much nicer to come home to...you know? Anyway, I wrote up a short list of things to get done. You would think that I introduced my family to a firing squad. Their reactions put me in a bad mood...which didn't help their moods any. So, today I am choosing to be thankful that we have a home, even if the inhabitants don't take care of it.

After the coupon guilt passed..

a little bit of redemption. (hee hee) coupon redemption, that is! I went to CVS and made a pretty good bargain, I think. I needed a foundation. I usually use Mary Kay foundation, but I couldn't pass up trying the Cover Girl deal at CVS. There was a special on Simply Ageless foundation and blush. buy one of each($13 and $10, $23 total), and you get $10 extrabucks. Not too shabby. But, when paired up with the buy one cover girl ageless foundation, get another cover girl face product free...I couldn't stop myself! I also had a $1.00 off any cover girl product coupon. Since I was 'buying' two products, I could use two coupons. Sweet, right?

So I checked out that transaction, then since I needed a few other things, I bought them using my extrabucks.

Here's what I got overall:
foundation
blush
3 boxes kleenex (.99 each on sale, plus .50/3 coupon)
refill pads for princess leia's face washer (7.99 regular price, CVS coupon for $2.00 off)
tic tacs

all for 14.59. Regular retail price would have been over $40.
I think that was a pretty good deal.

Coupon Guilt

I am feeling some guilt over my wastefulness. In other words: What not to do with your coupons! I get the Sunday paper, and each week I put the coupon insert into a notebook I have designated for the purpose. Usually, I go through them and cut out & plan for each shopping trip. I have gotten WAY out of the habit this summer, when my local Harris Teeter does not have any triple coupon events. I finally sat down recently to sort & purge my coupon stash. I found piles and piles of coupon inserts that I had never touched. Some of the circulars dated from late May. I did not realize how long it had really been since I had used coupons! Now, I have a huge pile of waste :(