Sausage Balls

This is the Sausage Ball recipe that The Harris Sisters family made growing up. If you look up "Sausage Balls Recipe" today, you'll find many different variations of this savory appetizer recipe, including ingredients like pimento cheese, cream cheese, onions, and all sorts of spices. 

But the recipe we used was made with only these three simple ingredients: Bisquick, cheddar cheese, and sausage, and those sausage balls were a hit every time.

We usually made this recipe at Christmas time, but this Southern snack food is also perfect for game day, wedding or baby showers, or breakfast or brunch potlucks.

Sausage Balls

3 scant cups Original Bisquick Pancake and Baking Mix*

1 pound pork sausage* at room temperature

16 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded* (4 cups)

1. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl then mix by hand* until all ingredients are evenly combined.
2. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and place one inch apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom.
4. Serve sausage balls warm or at room temperature.

Notes:

To measure a scant cup of flour, scoop the flour into the cup using a spoon. Scant means almost a full cup, but not quite. Do not use the cup to scoop the flour and level it as you would normally do with baking, or you will use too much flour for this recipe.

We use Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage.

Make sure to shred your own cheese for this recipe versus using bagged cheese. Bagged cheese is drier than freshly shredded cheese and will contribute to a drier sausage ball.

The dough for this recipe is very stiff, which may make mixing it difficult to do with a spoon. You may have the most success kneading the dough with your hands as you would with bread dough.

The original back-of-box recipe (shown below) also includes the addition of Parmesan cheese, milk, and herbs, as well as sauces for dipping. We have never included those in our recipe. However, if after mixing your dough, it seems dry, you may want to add a splash of milk to help incorporate the ingredients.

Recipe makes approximately 4 dozen sausage balls.

How to Host a Pumpkin Carving Party

A Pumpkin Carving Party is a Halloween tradition your family can start this fall season! This easy-to-host event is a great way to gather together with friends and family in the days before Halloween.

My husband and I have been hosting some version of a Pumpkin Carving Party for 20+ years now, so I wanted to share all of my tips for making your own party a success.

1. When to Host a Pumpkin Carving Party

This may seem obvious, but if you've never thrown a Pumpkin Carving Party before, how would you know the best day to have one? This will (of course) depend on what day Halloween falls on the calendar. We usually try to schedule our party for the weekend day closest to Halloween. This way, your jack-o'-lanterns have the best shot of making it all the way to Halloween.

Plan to invite everyone over around dinner time for dinner or party food. Then let the carving begin!

Some people prefer to start their parties early in the afternoon, but I find that not everyone has carved a pumpkin before OR people want to carve elaborate designs. And that takes time. If you go this route, people will tend to want to hang out to see what the last few folks carving are doing. 

So, make sure you leave plenty of time for the carving portion of the evening if you want to begin before dinner, as it's not always a quick task. And if you want to add any other activities to your evening (like a scary movie afterward) make sure to account for that too. Plan for the carving portion of the party to take about 2 hours.

2. Bring Your Own Pumpkin - BYOP

We have hosted so many Pumpkin Carving Parties (both adults-only, kids-only, and mixed groups). We usually specify on the invitations to BYOP - bring your own pumpkin. That way, everyone who participates is sure to be happy with the pumpkin they're carving. However, make sure to have a few extra pumpkins on hand in case someone forgets to bring their pumpkin and wants to participate. 

A lot of times, if you visit farms or pumpkin patches in the fall season, they will let kiddos of a certain age leave with a free small pumpkin (about the size of the one Aidyn is holding in the photo shown below). You can either let your own kids carve these (if they are old enough), or keep these as "extras" for anyone who may need a pumpkin the night of your party. 

3. What to Wear to a Pumpkin Carving Party

Unlike other Halloween parties, I usually don't encourage costumes for this particular party because of all of the pumpkin guts, which can get messy. When you send out invitations, you may want to specify "costumes not encouraged" so that anyone who has not attended a pumpkin carving party will know not to come in costume. 

Our family usually wears our Halloween finery in the form of Halloween colors or Halloween T-shirts to the party to keep with the spirit of the season. Here are two photos of my son Jaxon (one at his very first Pumpkin Carving Party in 2008 and then another in 2019 rocking his custom "One Cool Jax-O-Lantern" T-shirt).

4. Get Your Pumpkin Carving Supplies Ready

Some common supplies that you might want to have on hand for your Pumpkin Carving Party are:

• extra trash bags (to spread on tables and for collecting pumpkin seeds and guts / these are easier to find nowadays than newspapers)
• Ziploc bags (for pumpkin seeds, if anyone wants to take theirs home)
• Clorox wipes or Clorox spray & paper towels (for cleaning the outside of pumpkins & for general cleanup)
• candles & lighter or battery operated jack-o-lantern lights (one for each pumpkin)
• knives, large metal spoons & metal ice cream scoops
• pumpkin carving kit with tools & patterns
• markers (for freehanding patterns on pumpkins)
• alcohol or nail polish remover (for removing marker from pumpkins)

And, if you've got any little kids coming to your party, you might want to have some mini pumpkins and Halloween stickers and washable markers (or other craft supplies) that they can use to decorate pumpkins without carving them.

If everyone at your party is young (or parents with young kids), think about hosting a Pumpkin Decorating Party instead. Here are a few creative no carve pumpkin ideas:

• Pumpkin Decorating Party
• Pumpkin Decorating Party 2015

5. What Music Can I Play at My Pumpkin Carving Party?

Set the mood for your party by spinning some Halloween tunes! Choose from songs on these two Halloween playlists to get started:

• What Music Can I Play at My Halloween Party (Besides The Monster Mash)? (includes 26 songs)
• The Only Country Halloween Playlist You'll Need (includes 16 songs)

6. Pumpkin Carving Party Menu

My best tip for the menu is to keep it simple. For our Pumpkin Carving Parties, we usually serve party foods. This way, if guests offer to bring an appetizer or a dessert, you can take them up on their offer to help fill out your party menu. 

And, this time of year, there are lots of seasonal items in stores. So if you don't have time to make individual recipes, it's easy to fill out the menu with purchased seasonal items (for example, pumpkin spice cupcakes from the bakery section, caramel popcorn, etc.). 

Here are some popular party recipes that we serve from year-to-year at our Pumpkin Carving Party.

• Buffalo Chicken Dip
• Pepper Jelly (served over cream cheese with crackers)
• Black Bean Salsa (served with corn chips)
• Pineapple Marmalade Brie (served with bread)
• Spicy Chex Mix
• Butter Cookies with Sprinkles
• Holiday M&M Cookie Bars
• Pumpkin Crunch Cake
• Crockpot Witch's Brew (spiced Apple Cider)
• Non-Alcoholic Party Punch (we always make grape for Halloween)

Butter Cookies with Sprinkles

Another route to go for your Pumpkin Carving Party would be to make an easy meal that serves a big crowd. Any of these recipes would fit the bill.

• Kicking Butt and Taking Names Chili (meat recipe)
• Crockpot Vegan Chili (vegan/vegetarian recipe)
• Taco Soup (includes both vegetarian and meat recipes)
• Sloppy Joes (meat recipe)
• Crockpot Vegetarian Sloppy Joes (vegetarian recipe)

Sloppy Joes

Whichever type of menu you choose, make sure people know that your party is low-key and that people are welcome to serve themselves at any time during the party. For example, that they don't have to wait until everyone is finished carving pumpkins to grab a bite to eat!

7. Light Up the Pumpkins and Make Sure to Take Photos

When everyone is finished carving their pumpkins, make sure to light the pumpkins and take photos. You'll enjoy seeing not only the carved creations from year-to-year, but how the party-goers (especially kids) change! Here are some of our pumpkin carving party photos through the years:

If you follow these 7 tips, your Pumpkin Carving Party will be a success. But don't forget that the biggest tip of all is just to HAVE FUN! 

Some Other Ideas for Halloween Fun:

• Taking Halloween Photos with Jack-O-Lantern Smoke Bombs
• 20 Halloween Activities for Teenagers
• Wine and Candy Tasting Halloween Party

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Taking Halloween Photos with Jack-o-Lantern Smoke Bombs

Smoke bombs have been around for a while.  They are commonly used for gender reveal parties and photographers use them for all sorts of fun effects.  But have you ever considered using one inside a carved jack-o-lantern for the perfect Halloween photo?  Well, the Harris Sisters recently did just that and have all the info you might need to recreate these magical photos for yourself at home.  Keep reading for all the details. 

Finding Smoke Bombs

Once you decide to give these smoke bomb photos a go, the first step is finding smoke bombs to purchase.  They are available online from a variety of vendors.  We purchased ours from Smoke Effect.  What I liked about their smoke bombs is that they come in a variety of sizes and colors.  And they are all activated with a simple pull-ring, meaning you don't have to light them.  The smallest smoke bombs burn for about 30 seconds, while the largest ones burn for about 90 seconds.  I purchased a few small ones to use as testers and then several 90 second smoke bombs to use in our actual photos.  The Smoke Effect has a smoke quiz you can take to tell you exactly what you will need to produce your desired effect, and they offer a 10 percent discount to new customers.  Just make sure you order your smoke bombs far enough in advance to account for shipping time.  Mine arrived quickly once they shipped. But since we are approaching Halloween time, now would be the time to purchase them if you are wanting to try your hand at smoke bomb jack-o-lantern photos. 

Prepping for Your Photos

For Jack-o-lantern smoke bombs photos, you will to first need to carve a pumpkin.  It needs to be a real pumpkin, not a foam one, since you will be putting the smoke bomb inside.  Whatever design you choose, make sure it has large openings that the smoke can escape from.  

You will absolutely need to take these photos outside.  Smoke bombs produce quite a bit of smoke, and some smell as well.  Since you will be taking these photos outside, you will want to check your weather conditions first.  Windy days would probably make taking these photos more difficult.  We chose a mostly sunny and fairly calm day to take these pics.  And we waited until the early evening so it wasn't quite so bright out- making the smoke the star of the show. 

What to Wear for a Jack-o-lantern Photo Shoot

The sky is the limit here.  If you have a Halloween costume ready to go, that would be a great place to start! Or if you want to be a little more subtle, you could opt to wear something in traditional Halloween colors or patterns.  From what I read before taking these photos, a few people mentioned being careful about what you chose to wear in case the colored smoke stained your clothing.  However, we didn't find that to be an issue.  Even still, I probably wouldn't wear my most prized possessions, just in case. 

Ready, Set, Shoot

Once you are all set and ready to start taking your photos, I would recommend that you have a few extra hands on deck.  We had one person hold the pumpkin with the lid off, while a second person activated the smoke bomb and sat it inside the pumpkin.  The first person quickly put the lid of the jack-o-lantern back in place (This step is essential, so the smoke is forced out of the carved openings on the front of the jack-o-lantern, and doesn't just escape through the top), and a third person started taking photos.  We used a couple 30 second smoke bombs to test this process and make sure we knew what we were doing before we started into taking our "real" photos.  Once we had the rhythm down, we used our first 90 second smoke bomb for our first set of actual photos. 

As soon as the smoke bomb is activated, things will happen quickly.  I would highly recommend that you set your camera to a high speed continuous shoot setting.  That way you can just click away and capture everything.  Ninety seconds is actually much longer than it sounds like.  You have more than a plenty time to get photos.  So don't worry if the smoke isn't cooperating the entire time.  Have the person holding the pumpkin gently move it around, and the smoke will move with it.  The photographer should be the one moving and let the subject mostly stay in one position. 

Other Helpful Tips

As a precaution, we kept water close at hand just in case we needed to douse our smoking pumpkin at any point.  We actually didn't need to, and we didn't think we would.  But it doesn't hurt to be careful.  These smoke bombs are a step or two up from sparklers.  They create a really dramatic effect but they are pretty harmless.   We did use a pair of tongs to take the used smoke bombs out of the pumpkin before inserting a new one. 

We used the same jack-o-lantern several times with several different smoke colors.  If you are doing the same, we would recommend that you start with your lightest color smoke first and move to darker smokes, until you end with your darkest.  The smoke bombs will stain the pumpkin, which actually creates a pretty cool effect itself.  But if you want to be able to see each color smoke properly, you would definitely want to start with your lightest.  

Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by how easy of a process this turned out to be.  And we ended up with some pretty cool pictures, and some pretty funny outtakes too.  If you decide to try this photo trend, please let us know.  We would love to see how your photos turn out too! 

Happy Halloween from The Harris Sisters