Annies Sausage Roll Recipe... revealed

due to public outcry and demand... here is my recipe.

just remembering this is a 'bit of this' and a 'bit of that' type deal......

I get about 500 g of sausage meat- it does about 3 trays of sausage rolls - about 6 - 7 sheets of puff pastry.
1 onion,
2 carrots
parsley and basil - fresh if poss
1 stock cube
EITHER 2 cups breadcrumbs OR 1 cup or potato flour or 1 cup self raising flour
2 eggs
big sqeeze of tomato sauce - or a tiny tin of tom paste
- beaten egg for glazing
rock salt for top

In big bowl put the sausage meat - put on thin rubber gloves ( and don't think kinky thoughts....) - finely grate in 1 onion, 2 carrots, chop up basil and parsley - a few handfuls of them - and crumble in 1 stock cube ( chicken is good) squish that about alot and give it a good mix.

crack in 2 eggs and squish it about

I used to put in 2 cups of toasted bread crumbs - but with Age gluten intolerant - I now put in a cup of potato flour - but you can put in a cup of self raising if you like - or the bread crumbs.

Squeeze in tomato sauce - or put a tiny tin of tomato paste in.

now give it your final squish!

I like to make small sausage rolls for parties - 1 mouthful type deal - so cut a sheet of puff pastry into three lengths and separate.

In the middle of line - plop in sausage roll mix so it is evenly distributed along in a line - about 1 cm high - maybe more.

stretch one side a little and pull over the top of the meat and then roll underneath. cut into 4 pieces and mark on top with a cut.

you can sprinkle rock salt on top - or glaze with brushed egg.

put in oven 170 till they are brown - about 10 mins

for gluten free - I have used the mountain bread wraps which are made from gluten free grains. they need to be wet slightly on both sides before putting the meat into them - and then glazed with a little oil.

it makes a crunchy crusty roll - but if faced with NO sausage rolls or these - Adrian prefers these anytime.

Yuletide Dragon

Dear Uncle Max spent a great deal of time and creative energy constructing a Yuletide Dragon- which sadly was destroyed by mini monsters within moments of introducing them to it. Happily - its fate was simply to exist till such a time of destruction as it revealed greater treasures withing its gut... and arms.. and head.....

I think Max has missed his true calling - this was a brilliant piece of recycled artwork which gave the kids alot of pleasure looking at .. and ripping apart.

It was in fact holding a bed for our dog ( which we have not as yet gotten.... in January.......not that the date means anything to the kids other than its not NOW!)

the kids were so ferocious, the poor dragon had no chance....

heres a photo of it being held down and ripped to shreds..

Christmas Drinks

With the table only half lain with Xmas treats - all ready for our annual Christmas Drinks - something that we have done since we moved back to Brisbane in 2000 and bought our first house. It got us to thinking about parties in general....

Something we have noticed throughout the years is the decline in invitations to parties - just in general really. People just don't seem to 'do' parties any longer. I wonder if its because we are all just so 'buys' in our busyness - or just can't be bothered with other people in our houses? It was def like that in the UK - in the five years we lived there - regardless to work or friendhsip closeness, peopel didn't seem to invite you over or in.

We used to do themed dinner parties ( dress ups the whole thing) as well - but stopped - mainly as it was alot of trouble with two small kids and all our friends had no children ( so made it hard all round) - but also that we never seemed to get invited anywhere ( do I smell??)

I come from a long line of HUGE party throwers - the Mitchell Shed parties are something to be experienced.. My brother Jamie is legendary with his Halloween and new years parties. Adrians folks used to do very posh dinner parties.


anyways... heres to a new year shorlty - full of parties and fun... soomething we are going to start agian are our dress up themed parties and dinners.