Barbecued Sausage Bites

 

Are you as eager for the baseball season as I am? And when I say eager, what I really mean is a combination of excitement and nausea. If you have a favorite team, you know what I’m talking about. I don’t go to the stadium too much anymore, largely because most of the people with whom I used to attend baseball games are now attending baseball games in the sky. As a consequence, I make my own baseball snacks. I’m already plotting and planning for opening day, and I think these barbecued sausage bites are going to be on the list.  They are super simple to make because they’re baked. Spear yourself a small stack and enjoy.Barbecued Sausage Bites

Adapted from sweetteaandsprinkles.com

 2-3 lbs. Kielbasa

2 c. BBQ Sauce*

1 t. Liquid Smoke

1 t. garlic powder

1 t. onion powder

½ t. freshly ground black pepper

¼ c. brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Spray the bottom of a 1.5-quart casserole with PAM.

Slice the kielbasa sausages into ½ inch round slices and places in the prepared dish. 

In a medium bowl combine BBQ sauce, liquid smoke, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Pour mixture over sausages, and sprinkle the brown sugar all over the top.

Bake for 20-15 minutes until bubbling and sticky and the sauce has caramelized. Broil for 2-3 minutes on high to get burnt ends.

*Use your favorite

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My 2022 Christmas Card

  It has become a bit of a tradition here on the blog to share my annual Christmas card. I have been making my own for the past five years now. If you’d like to take a look at what I’ve done in the past, here are cards from 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. I always try to use a picture on the front that is personal. I like to share a little bit of personal information on the inside whether it’s about my home and lifestyle, or a recipe. The back always has a picture of something memorable from the current year, or those past.

 This year’s card features a picture from the blog of one of my favorite tablescapes. At the time I was taking the pictures I had it in the back of my mind that one of them would make an excellent Christmas card, and I believe I was right. This is not the first time that I have used a blog post photo on a greeting card. You can find my Chinese New Year card from 2019 here where I did it for the first time and really liked the results.

 A popular side dish that I serve at Thanksgiving and Christmas is my Sugarplum Fairy Salad, so I decided to share the recipe in this year's card. As a consequence, I thought “Eat drink and be merry” would be the perfect inside sentiment.

  Stanley takes part this year in advising us to rest and not get stressed out over the holidays.

 Merry Christmas to all!

Welcome to the Conservatory

In June 2017 I introduced you to the first of many building projects that I've had done on my home. I decided life was too short to not live my way, and I turned a small 12’ x 12’ deck into a beautiful 16’ x 16’ screened-in lanai with a 16’ x 10’ open deck attached. You can read about that here.

It was wonderful fun watching that project come into being, and I had a delightful time furnishing it. But, as it turned out, as much as I loved it, considering the intense heat and humidity that we have in this part of the country during the summer I realized that, at best, I could only use it three months out of the year.

I loved that room because it was bright and airy, and I could be outside of the house without really being outside of the house, if you know what I mean. So last year I decided to have it torn down and a four-season room built with two giant skylights. This has become my favorite room in the house. Let me introduce you to my sanctum sanctorum, the conservatory.

A lot of thought went into this room. I wanted to be able to spend a lot of time here. I wanted it to be an extension of the house. No more did I want to open up a door to step into the room, so a wall was knocked down to make the transition easy. I wanted as much light as I could get, so had two of the largest skylights I could find installed.

  The tray ceiling that my faithful builder, Joe Rogers, used in the deck, he rebuilt in the conservatory. I decided to get a bit more creative this time and have the square at top painted a different color than the ceiling. I also decided to opt for a fan without a light fixture, but quite different from the tropical design I had before in this windmill style.

A room isn’t a room without a pile of books, so I had twin bookcases built on either side of the door that leads to the deck where I grow citrus, flowers, herbs, and vegetables.

Decorating this room was a lot of fun, and despite its newness, went through a couple of transitions.  Because this was built during the pandemic and lock-down, I did a lot of my work in this room and initially used had a desk as a work table. Last weekend that came down and was replaced with this charming table for two. This is where I enjoy all my meals including morning coffee, afternoon tea, and a nightcap amidst the glow of candlelight.

As you can see, this room is as beautiful by night as it is by day.

 All of my favorite things are in here, as well as the very beginnings of a rather bohemian dollhouse.

The furniture is comfortable, the plants are plentiful, and when the citrus trees are in bloom the fragrance is heady.

Keep an eye on this space and watch as the plants grow, fruit ripens (The tall tree behind the couch is a Key Lime.), and this table for two transitions from one theme to another as seasons change.

I hope you love this room as much as I do.

 This post is shared on Metamorphosis Monday.