Sunday, January 21, 2007
4:27 pm
Daniel J. Summers
We take a break from the normal political and social issue discussion to cover a very important topic - food! The dish named in the title above was served in Sunday School this morning, and so many people wanted the recipe that I thought I'd post it here. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
1 bag of Frozen Hashbrowns
1 lb. Sausage
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
8 oz. Sour Cream
1/2 stick Butter
2 cups (8 oz.) Medium or Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 small Onion
Salt
Pepper
Mixing Directions:
Melt the butter.
If the cheese is not shredded, shred it.
Peel and chop the onion. The smaller the pieces, the more even the flavor will be.
In a large bowl, mix the butter, soup, sour cream, and onion, adding salt and pepper to taste.
Fold in almost the entire bag of hashbrowns. The best way to do this is about a third at a time - mix them in, then add more. They may mix more easily if they have defrosted somewhat before this point. (Using the entire bag will make the casserole a little dry.)
Mix in 1 cup of shredded cheese, then mix in the sausage.
Spread the mix evenly into a 9x13 (or equivalent) baking dish.
At this point, the casserole may be put into the oven, if it has been pre-heated, or it may be refrigerated for later cooking. If the casserole sits uncooked in the refrigerator overnight, the flavors blend together more than they do if it is cooked immediately.
Cooking Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
Place the casserole in the oven, and cook for 45-60 minutes (depending on how frozen hashbrowns are and how oven cooks).
Remove the casserole from the oven, and add the remaining cup of shredded cheese evenly on the top.
Return to the oven for 5 minutes to melt the cheese.
Remove from oven, and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Friday, September 1, 2006
5:19 pm
Daniel J. Summers
Actually, it's not just bandwidth - I can't connect to this site at all from home. And, of course, authoring lengthy, high-quality blog posts is frowned upon from work. I'm not sure where the fault lies, though I'm pretty sure it's with the provider where I am. My apologies - look for more content beginning around the first of October.
I had originally planned to post something on the 4th of July, but that day came and passed with little time. So, a week later, I thought I would post it less as an Independence Day item and more of just a general item.
I am currently out of the county - have been for about two months, with another two months to go. In my day to day life, I tried to be appreciative of people and things, but this has given me a perspective that I didn't have. There are four or five of us that work together, and on the 4th, we were all down. We missed our families, and we missed our country. We didn't see any fireworks, no parades with American flags, no concerts, no cookouts, no little kids in cute, patriotic outfits.
I'm not looking for pity - I'm doing what I swore an oath to do, and am fortunate to have not had to do it before now. What I am saying, though, is to stop and think about the familiar things in your life. Do you hug or kiss your spouse before or after work? Do your kids shout “Daddy!” and come running to you, and almost knock you over because they're happy that you're home? Do you get to sit down at a table with your family and eat? Do you wear a t-shirt that has the American flag on it? Do you pick up the phone and call your friends? Do you go to church with your family on Sunday mornings?
These are all things that I would be doing this summer, were I still at home. And, they're also some of the things that I'm missing (though there are many, many other things as well). So, for my sake - make that hug or kiss count. Fall over and roll around in the floor and tickle those kids. Talk to those people sitting around the dinner table with you, and thank the Lord that you can display or even wear the flag without making yourself a target. Go to church, hang out with your friends, go to the grocery store, mow the grass, take a walk with your family - then ask yourself how you might feel if you could not do those things. I can tell you how I feel - it's not good, and it's the reason I'm taking the time to post this here.
Carpe diem is not just for intellectuals or party-hearty-ers. Enjoy the people in your life, and the things with which you have been blessed. Take that little extra time to take in the things you enjoy, and let the people who mean the most to you know that. You never know when you may not have the chance again.
Those of you who visit regularly may notice something different about this site. The last time I did a major upgrade, I upgraded to use something that I had written. There were still a lot of features that I wanted, but didn't have time to write. Finally, a few weeks ago, I was looking around at some of the packages offered by my hosting company, and it hit me - why waste time writing something when packages exist that will do what I want?
So, this is what I've got for now. I'm using an open-source blog generating tool to run the site, and it has all the features I was going to build - the ability to leave comments, a way to search all the posts, and a way to arrange the posts into categories. As far as the look, I was going to try to make it look the same, and just use this tool to manage it. I may still do that, but designing a theme for this package is more than I have time to tackle at the moment. Besides, I'd rather put my time into the content of the site. (This is my first post since mid-March…)
Another feature that this has is RSS feeds. These let you “subscribe” or make an “active bookmark”, then you're notified whenever there's a new post. There are feeds built in for the main blog itself, the comments, and each of the main and subcategories. I hope that this will allow me to write a bit more frequently, and this will keep you from having to check back if you're curious as to what I've said recently.
The old site still exists.(Edit: It's gone.) I will be importing the older posts as I have a chance - I've brought over a few, but they don't look quite the way I want them to, so it looks like I'll have some cleaning up to do.
The blog (and the other pages here on the site) were in need of a facelift, so I decided to give this look a shot. I tried to improve it without making it too busy, and still maintain a clean, professional look. What do you think? Let me know… (Especially if it's good!)
[tap] [tap] [tap] Is this thing on? ;)
Update: Link removed from this post; this way-old site no longer exists
Grateful to our founding fathers, and all those who have fought to ensure our continued freedom; I wish each of you a joyous and restful day. And to this great land, a hearty “Happy Birthday!”
Many disastrous mistakes, in both public and private life, are not due to people thinking stupidly but to their not bothering to think at all. If you don't stop and think, then it doesn't matter whether you are a genius or a moron.
I've begun an adventure in using Linux. Along the way, I was jotting some stuff down, and I decided to post my chronicles here. Just click on My Linux Adventure.
(Note - this has been moved to the tech blog. This link takes you to the first post, and you can click the titles at the bottom left of each post to view the next.)
Sunday, October 26, 2003
10:07 pm
Daniel J. Summers
I haven't disappeared - I guess I just don't have the time for a daily blog like some other folks do. :) I'm still around, and still have stuff to say, which I'll be saying here shortly. Sorry for the long delay…