That Recipe & Another Dusty Day

Thanks for the reminder Lin....here's that recipe I promised:

Sausage Rolls

3 sheets Pampas puff pastry, thawed  (you can use the cheap brands but won't be as nice!)

500g sausage mince

1 apple grated

1 carrot grated

1 onion grated or finely chopped

1/2 cup grated cheese (optional)

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (optional)

chopped parsely

Firstly, instead of grating the apple, carrot and onion (brings tears to the eyes!) - I peel, core, etc and chuck all of them in the food processor for a whizz.

In a big bowl mix the sausage mince, whizzed up vegies, garlic, cheese and parsley - mushing it all up with your hands is the only way to go (I wear a disposable glove so its not as gross), then prepare your pastry...

Cut each sheet in half to give you 6 rectangles.  Spoon a line of sausage mixture along the middle of each, brush each long edge with a bit of milk, roll up nice and firmly.  Cut into your desired size (I usually cut into 4, but even smaller if doing them for a kids party or finger food), place join-side-down on trays lined with baking paper, brush tops with more milk and prick a couple of times with a fork.

Bake in a hot oven (200 degrees) for 30 mins.  Keep checking and turn trays if needed for even browning.

Tasty little morsels enjoyed hot or cold with your sauce of choice!

Hey, you could get really creative with these and add any filling, seasoning or flavouring you wanted...there's a challenge for you!

I have no picture to show you  - they didn't stay on the plate long enough I'm afraid!

But here's another - the view from my front verandah on Wednesday.  One good thing about dust storms - they show up all your cobwebs!  Lucky for me, I didn't have time to wash the car, clean up the house, etc this week - cos another blanket of dust enveloped us again today! 

I could update you on all the happenings of the past week - but there were too many and I am too tired right now!  But I will tell you I finished Twilight....not the best book in the universe, no, but intriguing enough for me to want to read the next instalment in the series....

If you're bored tomorrow, or stuck inside due to the dust, pop over to the Scrap A While cybercrop - some nice easy challenges caught my eye...

Ta ta for now. xxx

While I have the chance...

This week is going to be so hectic and I know I won't get back to this chair....so here's a quick summary of our weekend while I have the chance.

Such glorious weather!!!  We enjoyed a lovely stroll along the beautiful river bank at the markets.  The girls made a beeline for the jewelery lady....as you do.  Beth and Mia happily sacrificed their hard-earned pocket money for a "Pandora" style bracelet each (just like their big sister's), then all three chose some beads from the rainbow of sparkling pretties laid out before them - heaven!

I finally decided to find out what all the fuss is about, and opened my copy of "Twilight"....after the first 3 chapters I was seriously regretting it....please tell me it gets better!  Well....I'm more than half way through now and I've hardly put it down!

The girls are luckily very good at amusing themselves.....among other things, they had fun on their Jumping Jax...

...and sang their little hearts out on Singstar, while I had my nose stuck in my book and Tim caught up on some much needed zzzzzzzz's.

We all went down to the oat paddock in the hope it was grown enough to let the cows in....Tim, Kate and Digger inspected the crop....

...while Beth and Mia swung on the gate, looking picturesque....

....the decision was made so we called up the cows. 

The inquisitive babies hung around the gate to check us out.....

....while their mums ran in from all directions to go from their regular paddock....

to the gourmet one......

....you could almost hear them say "yummy" as they munched away.

Is that rain???? Yippeeeee!  It IS rain!  Woo hoo!  Oh I do hope it lasts.....phooey to the washing I just hung out!

Well, I'm off to make some sausage rolls - would you like the recipe?  But before I do I'll show you my latest scrapbook page....

It's my fave of the month!

Have a good week, thanks for stopping by, and see you soon.

xxx

H...E..L...L...L...L...L...O...O...O...O...

Speaking to you reeeeaaaallly slooooowwwwllllyyy tonight because my broadband connection is woeful....we have been "shaped" after only 2 weeks into our month!  I am blaming Moshi Monsters which my 3 girls have recently discovered and are totally addicted to.  It's pretty cool...you adopt a monster of your choice and then do daily puzzles and challenges to earn points so you can buy stuff for your monster...but it chews up so much download allowance it's not funny!!!

How has your day been?  I wanted to pop on to share my latest layout...

which I've just emailed to Pencil Lines...it's last weeks sketch Number 151.  What a fun little project to do!

Also I needed to show you what I gave Mum for her birthday...

...how adorable is it!  This delicious little fabric tea set, complete with tea bags, was hand made by the very clever Brenda.  Click on the link to order one for yourself.  Btw, she also does the cutest  little cookies and cupcakes.  Awwwww....

And last but not least, a photo of some special ladies...Kate and Beth with Mum (Martha) on Tuesday morning just before leaving to go home after her visit with us.  We miss you already Marthy!

See you soonishly!

xxx

Our week in pictures

A busy, yet fun week for the Hackneys...but first a layout share...

Love this photo of Kate concentrating intently on playing her clarinet.  She only started learning at the start of the year and is reading music fluently, mastering the difficult fingering and even wrote her own little tune...she performs in the Eistedfodd in a couple of weeks time.  A shout out to Leeann Pearce and her gorgeous blooms that appear on this layout!

First of all, a certain someone turned TEN - double digits...another big milestone for my dearest first born princess.  We have a big party for her every year and this year, as she is getting so grown up and all...we decided, instead of having a party at home with the regular old pass-the-parcel, etc, that we would take 3 special friends to the movies to see "Coraline"...

then to the park afterwards for fish and chips and a juicy big choc-overload cake...

...here she is, my beautiful Kate, happy and relaxed, enjoying the glorious sunshine and writing in the cool "All About Me" scrapbook she was given by Lilly for her birthday...

Mid-week there was big excitement...Book Week...one of our fave annual school activities.  Costumes this year were nice and simple...only a bit of sewing involved (Dora's backpack, Miss Muffet's skirt and Mousie's tail) everything else was recycled out of the dress up box...the most time consuming part was putting Kate's hair in rags the night before to create ringlets...but well worth it I think!

Introducing....Dora the Explorer....the mouse from the Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat nursery rhyme....and Little Miss Muffet...

We had the final soccer match of the season on Saturday...a fun day with a couple of short games then a presentation.  Martha (the name my girl's give my Mum) is here visiting from the coast so was lucky enough to get to watch Bessie in action.  A very proud girl with her trophy...

We had the funnest time last night with a little celebration for Kate and Mum (their birthdays are 5 days apart)...our good friends the Rolfes came over...I cooked Stuffed Chicken Wings - a very time consuming and complicated dish I learnt this week at Thai cooking class...the kids played the Wii...and entertainment was provided by Tim, my little brother who is an absolute genius on the electric guitar.  Finally another yummy cake and Happy Birthday song for the birthday girls...

That was our week!  Hope yours was just as fabulous...

XXX

WINNERS!

With the help of my two lovely assistants this morning, two lucky winners were picked from a hat.....

The first name drawn was......

who has won this fun pack of paper-pieced embellishments hand drawn by moi.....

....the very same house that stars in my brand new blog banner (did anyone notice?)

The second name drawn was.....

....and she wins this pack - another Penny original created especially for this giveaway....

Your parcels will go in the post asap.....hope you have fun with them!  I'd love to see how you use them, so make sure you email me your creations!

Thanks to all you lovely people who left me a comment - you know I love 'em!

Have a happy day! xxx

September Workshop & a Leeann Pearce Surprise

You thought I was going to announce the winners of my 5000 visits prize didn't you! You will have to wait one more day I'm sorry.....I've been FLAT out this week with scrapbook classes, Thai cooking classes, work and sick children.....but I promise I will do the draw tomorrow.

In the meantime....I will share with you a little RAK surprise I won myself the other day from a very inspiring lady - Leeann Pearce....you know the one I raved about a few posts ago in my SM mag round up? Anyhow, she is one clever thing...even has her own line of embellishments...and this is what she sent me...


What a pretty parcel! And this is what was inside...



Gorgeous flowers and chipboard buttons handmade by the clever lady herself. Lucky aren't I! Of course, I immediately wanted to plonk some of these lovelies on a page....so I did:


I used Sketch 149 - last week's Pencil Lines sketch and some old-ish pics of our cute Mimi digging in the sand at Woolgoolga Beach.

Last night I had a ball running my workshop for September. Here is the layout we did using Kaisercraft Sweets papers and their new Child's Play stamp set, some gesso and a touch of glitter...


And here the girls with their beautiful pages to show off...

Rosalee

Rhonda

Meleah

Katrina & Deb

Jenny with a "y"

Jennie with an "ie"

Gloria

Chris & Lee

I can't offer any kits as Classes-in-a-Box again this month - I have about 20 regulars who either come to the class or buy the kit if they can't make it....and not being set up to buy wholesale, it is difficult for me to get hold of large quantities. But maybe, if anyone is interested and I can work out how to do it, I could add the instructions for the layout as a pdf download here on my blog. Stay tuned...

Good night....sleep tight....thanks for dropping in....see you 2morro! xxx