Status report and Saurkraut Balls

• Shopping--not done
• Baking--not done
• Decorating--DONE and looks great if I say so myself
• Cleaning house--on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a 2. The bathroom rugs are actually in the dryer but the contents of my silverware and utensil drawers are on my counter. Don't ask.
• Laundry--you can see the floor of the laundry room. And that my friends is truly a Good Thing
• General Health and Wellbeing--Remarkably upbeat and happy, even after having my second cold in less than two months on my birthday,but could change in a heartbeat if Sam tears anything else apart--so far we're in the putting back together mode.
• Technical Issues--New wireless internet connection at home for my birthday from Mom (thanks Mom!) kicks me off every 60 seconds so have to keep re-connecting. Previous bulleted point sorely tested over this situation but should be resolved tomorrow. Probably deserves its own post as we've been working on getting DSL for over a month now. There was even trenching involved. And a totally new phone line. And the realization that for the past three weeks we haven't been receiving  any local phone calls: "software issue" they called it. Umm, this subject is making me cranky, lets get back to the reason for this post.

So, because my friend Barb needs this recipe, I'm going to publish another favorite from the family cookbook, Louise's Saurkraut Balls. Denise, Lukas and I made a quadruple batch of these after Thanksgiving when there was still grease in the turkey fryer (well...technically the grease is still in there..after the 10 inches of snow...wait..focus...recipe) Anyway, I now have a stash of these in the freezer ready for a yummy hot appetizer. They are messy and tedious to make but sooo worth it. We deep fried ours but they can also be baked in the oven.  We like them with a mustard dip--I'll be back to post that in a few minutes.

Sam took a picture as I was packing them up for the freezer--if I had the time I should crop out the counter clutter and the burnt balls to the far right. But as my friend Pioneer Woman says, "just keepin' it real"

Louise is Sam's mom. She still uses a typewriter.Grease spots and all, here you go.