Bisquick Sausage Snacks — Dale Knows How To Host

Me, cousin Sara, and sister Elisabeth hearing no evil, speaking no evil, and seeing no evil at Conesus Lake, NY. 1979?

I’m second from the left next to Mom. Here’s that terrible haircut I mention below. But, look how foxy mom is! Next to me is Aunt Jane, Grandma Reed, and Aunt Lisa. 1334 Watauga St. Kingsport, TN. Sometime in the late 70s/early 80s.

Mom and Dad rock out the New Year in the 80s. I always loved this photo because Mom is wearing this super cool Modern Times dress which I later inherited AND it looks like Dad is holding up a very festive cocktail! (It actually belongs to the guy next to him.)

Ron Stutts with his T-shirts (you’ll understand if you read the post). They had a different drawing and were light blue in the 70s. Same weirdo.

I’m not sure how old Dad during his phone escapades. But, this kid looks like he’s up to no good!

Grandma did NOT name the baby James. She had other ideas.

I signed off on my last post wishfully thinking that Carolina would beat Kansas in the NCAA tournament. Funny, because I haven’t watched basketball in years. It’s surprising to me that I cared at all. But, I managed to catch Carolina’s Final 4 win over Duke a few days before and that, along with the retirement of Duke’s Coach K, reinvigorated my interest in the ‘heels. The final victory was not to be had, alas. I watched the Kansas game at my next door neighbor’s house. (She, oddly, grew up in Durham, went to Carolina, and now lives 100 feet from me in Austin, Texas. Small world.) Watching that level of basketball playing is very anxiety inducing! I pay a lot of money to NOT feel that way!

Speaking of, yesterday my acupuncturist did the craziest needle pattern on me, it worked to release my inner and outer dragons. (That’s a metaphor, Dad, I can see your eyes rolling all the way from here.) If I remember correctly, your inner dragons are about negative self talk and hang ups you have about yourself, and your external dragons address how others place judgement on you and bring you down. Whether you believe in this or not, some weird stuff happened. During the inner dragon portion, there was a lot of stomach gurgling and I had a bunch of childhood flashback “stills” of me with a terrible short haircut, big front teeth, and 1970s short shorts. Good times. For the external dragon treatment I just passed out. HARD.

Midway through, I remembered the time that Mom surprised me on my birthday with a phone call from local Chapel Hill celebrity, WCHL deejay, Ron Stutts! These wake up calls were all the rage at Glenwood Elementary School. Ron would call you early in the morning and you would be “live” on the radio, groggy and confused. You’d stumble through some awkward conversation along the lines of “what do you want for your birthday?” and then ol’ Ron would wish you a happy one and would go on with his morning show (this was pre “Morning Zoo” days. I miss those.). A week or two later you would get a T-shirt in the mail with a drawing of Ron’s face and the tagline: “I Woke Up With Ron Stutts”. Creepy, no? Especially since this shirt was trending among the 8-10 year old girl demographic. So, my lovely Mom, Dale, put in a request to Ron for my 8th birthday. I can still see her poking her head around my door, beaming, and saying “Sarah, there’s a phone call for you!”. That was when we had the phone in the downstairs hall so I had to get up and trudge down there. Remember that? When you had to go to where the phone lived and then work within the radius of the cord? I’d stretch that thing to high heaven for a little privacy!

At some point Dad decided to buy me my own phone. It was Christmas. What a pleasant surprise! He got a wall mounted one from Radio Shack and strung an illegal wire down the side of our house from another phone outlet. Total MacGyver job. Bubblegum, duct tape, and all that jazz. Once I had a phone in my room, all bets were off. I loved that thing. I would listen to the radio (I had graduated from WCHL to G105) and frantically try to win things. My phone had a redial button which proved useful in “tickets will go to the 7th caller!” type of situations. I remember methodically hitting that button over and over again to win tickets to see the San Diego Chicken. What the hell? I didn’t even like the San Diego Chicken and someone would have to drive me if I won. But, the thrill of the hunt was exhilarating!

I always thought it was surprisingly cool of Dad to buy me this phone. Later I heard a story which brought things into perspective. Evidently, when my father was a child he hooked up a pirated phone in his bedroom and made international calls without his parents knowing. Grandma and Grandpa were contacted by the phone company saying something like, “did you know someone in your house is calling Belgium?”. THEY DID NOT. I can’t remember how this all got resolved but Dad’s calling spree came to an end. Perhaps him giving me a phone was in response to that? Who knows? Or else maybe it was just Christmas Eve, he didn’t have a gift, and Radio Shack was having a phone sale? Only John Reed will ever know the answer to that.

When trying to find a recipe for this Ron Stutts blog post I initially looked for cheese ball recipes (I mean….). However, I ultimately landed on sausage snacks. The theme works in my head. Mom had two Bisquick sausage recipes in her files, one an appetizer and one a breakfast. They’re kind of 1950s housewife sounding and probably totally delicious! Maybe I’ll make one for Easter.

BISQUICK SAUSAGE APPETIZERS

3 ½ cups Bisquick

10 oz. sharp cheese, grated (let sit at room temp)

1 lb hot sausage.

Mix all together. Roll into little balls. Bake at 350.

Freezes well.

BISQUICK SAUSAGE MUFFINS

1 cup Bisquick

1 lb. sausage, cooked

4 eggs, beaten

1 cup shreaded cheddar cheese

Pour into greased muffin tin and back at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Print

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