3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

You are here: Home / Home

Day 83/365: Egg and Sausage Breakfast Casserole

by

Day 83: Breakfast Egg Casserole
Day 83: Breakfast Egg Casserole

I don’t know why I procrastinate in posting to my 365 Blog, I really do take pictures everyday. But, I seem to wait until the end of the week and post everything at once and try and catch up. This leaves me with an empty blog for several days and my statistics crash and burn.  Since I’m goal oriented and like to challenge myself the decrease in viewing numbers is not a pretty site.  So now I’m going to spread out the posts to just once a day and do a better job of twitter updates and lets see how that works.

Today is another recipe. I had teenage boys over for an Xbox Black Ops party last weekend, which means they stayed up until 4 am, something like that. It also means they slept until almost noon. To help wake them up I prepared an breakfast egg and sausage casserole. Not only is this is easy to make, but it’s a great way to use stale Italian/French bread and there are so many variations that you can create your own variety every time.

I used a silicon pan, just got this last year, haven’t decided whether I like them or not. I’m a traditionalist and silicon cookware doesn’t have the rigidity of metal. But there are benefits, as I learned from the Shakin N’ Bakin blog, silicon bakeware doesn’t need to be greased or oiled and it cools down quickly after being taken out of the oven. It’s also not supposed to stain, but mine did. I do have a few other pieces I’m going to try out. I’ll let you know how I like them.

Egg and Sausage Breakfast CasseroleRecipe

Ingredients

  • Sausage (ground, link, or patties, ham can also be used)
  • Bread (I used Italian, but stale bread works best)
  • 1 cup cheese
  • 8 Large Eggs
  • 1/2 Cup Milk
  • Dried Mustard
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Onions (other veggies can be added, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms)
  • Sweet Basil (optional, I like sweet basil on everything)

Directions

Cube the bread and place in the bottom of a casserole dish, layer the sausage pieces, cheese, and vegetables, until ingredients are gone. Sprinkle each layer with salt, pepper, dried mustard, and sweet basil.  Scramble the eggs and milk in a bowl. Slowly pour over the layered ingredients making sure to soak the pieces of bread. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for approximately 25 minutes or until the eggs are set.

Photoshop Notes: general layers and resizing, brightened and added slight contrast. Biggest edit was cleaning my stove on the computer. Thought it was clean, but had grease splatters from cooking the sausage, so I cloned out the spots.

Day 82/365: The Story of A Puppy Mill Chihuahua

by

Day 82: Hallee in her new coat

Here is my friend Hallee, isn’t she just the cutest little Chihuahua? Her Mom is a friend of mine in Lincoln Nebraska who has been so helpful in many ways this past year. Evie lost her beloved Boxer Princess the past year and Hallee came to fill that hole in her heart.

Seems that Halee’s life didn’t start too well, she was a result of finding an ad in a newspaper and when Evie and her friend went in late October to pick her out the place was a puppy mill.  Hallee and her litter mates were in an outdoor pen without shelter, she weighed less than two pounds. Supposedly Hallee was 6 weeks old at the time, the bones in her head hadn’t even begun to fuse yet.

Hallee was scooped up and the two friends stormed out of there and immediately reported the breeder. Hallee then became the most pampered pooch. She got a clean bill of health from the veterinarian and started accompanying her neighbor chihuahua friend Prissy to assisted swimming.

Because she was so tiny, insecure, and young she spent the next few weeks swaddled in a blanket cuddled up with Evie for security. As she grew she started to explore her surroundings, play with toys and become socialized. But she was still young, uncoordinated, and afraid of people. She would stay glued to Evie’s feet, hiding under her housecoat.

After much love and guidance from Evie, Hallee  is a bundle of energy who loves to zip around the room, chase tennis balls, play with toys, and gives puppy kisses to just about anyone who comes to visit. She’s about four and a half months old now and it’s been so fun to watch her grow and develop.

By the way, the cute little jacket I picked up for Hallee at my favorite thrift store, Bits and Pieces. Only $4.00 and it was part of the Elmwood-Murdock High School FBLA consignment booth. There was a small collection of dog clothes, along with the homemade doggy biscuits and treats, and I thought this one was perfect for Hallee.

Photoshop Notes: After the standard actions of layers and resizing the only thing I did was clone out a toothbrush that Hallee was standing over that distracted from the picture.

Top Gun: Dangerzone Theme Song

by

Something a little extra for your listening enjoyment. The music Danger Zone from Top Gun. Both my son and daughter play in the Elmwood-Murdock High School band and tonight was their annual fundraiser.

Over 600 people attended the spaghetti dinner and listened to the various bands from the elementary, junior high, jazz band and high school band. Jen plays percussion, in this song the timpani, which is awesome! My senior plays the trumpet.

If you have been following this blog you might remember that both communities together have a population of about 1000 people, so to say we had a good turnout is an understatement. A lot of this is due to our band director Michael Hanson. When he arrived the band had dwindled from a strong group of over 60 students to the low twenties. In just a few years his leadership has encouraged students to once again pursue music and strive to be the best.

During the fall the students compete in marching band competitions including the Apple Jack Festival (1st place the past three years) and in 2010 won 1st place in their division and third overall at the Harvest of Harmony parade in Grand Island Nebraska. This festival hosts over 100 high school marching bands  in one of the oldest high school marching band competitions in the Midwest, now going on 70 years.

Last year they were invited to march in the Washington DC, Memorial Day parade. It was quite the experience.

More videos on the band and choir can be viewed on my YouTube Channel, including their other piece The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, A Symphonic Suite

Day 81/365: Antique Buttons Under Glass

by

Day 81: Buttons in a Jar

In my continuing Photoshop CS2 theme here is my latest experimentation. The original shot of antique button in canning jars was blurry, but I really liked the composition. So I decided to play with it to salvage my photo of the day. The other pictures I took today were glorified snapshots and I’m trying to push the envelope when I have the time.

Once again this photo location was Bit’s and Pieces thrift store (Elmwood, NE) in the antique consignment area. If I ever run out of ideas for photos this is where I will head. There is an never ending supply of interesting objects that will satisfy my creativity.

Photoshop CS2 notes: Action (Standard adjustment layers), desaturated about 25%, increased the red, green, blue, +43 , +36,  +78 in Color Adjustment and Added a Crosshatch Filter Brushstroke filter

365 Extras: Experimenting with Photoshop CS2

by

Ok, I couldn’t resist. I just tried some black and white effects with some past photos and absolutely love the result. I’ve been so hesitant to work with black and white but Bonnie’s image of a classic car on her 365 Blog has inspired me tonight. So here goes. Hints and tips are welcome!

My daughter at age 13

I decreased the saturation, added a soft light posterization, and used the Burn tool on the shadows setting at 10% and touched up her hair. Sharpened the eyes which I think made them pop a little.

Color Optimized version

Below is the original for a comparison. I like the black and white better.

Before images: w/o post production