DeAnna Lee is a dirt road girl from Arkansas and a country radio personality that lives in Seattle. You can hear her on Seattle's KMPS and Idaho Falls KUPI. She loves cowboy boots, country music, line dancing, and cooking adventures. DeAnna is also the coach and choreographer of Seattle's Line Dance Team, the Boot Boogie Babes and the proud owner of the cutest lil' French Bulldog ever...Miss Dixie Bell.
When I met my fiance he told me all about his mother's potato sausage. Ms. Sue has been making her famous Swedish sausage every year at Christmas for years, and she started making it out of necessity. The store where her mother bought it when she was a child stopped selling it. Ms. Sue knew that she could figure out how to make it herself, and so this delicious Swedish family tradition began. At most family gatherings, you will typically find me in the kitchen offering to help. This year I was offered an official position in the famous family sausage making process. Weeee!!! The first thing you have to do is find yourself a party bucket! I mean get yourself a REALLY large one. Big enough you could probably let a small child go for a swim in it. Then you're ready to get down to business. Potatis Korv - Swedish Potato Sausage 3 lbs. ground chuck 3 lbs. ground pork 12 large red or yukon gold potatoes 3 medium onions 3 tbsp. salt 2 tbsp. pepper 10 feet of 4 1/2 inch pig casings Pour all of your ground meat into the party bucket.
Grind potatoes in a potato grinder. Drain excess water and add to your party bucket.
Add onions to food processor and chop fine. Add to the party bucket. Do you see a theme here? Allow me to introduce the genius behind this yummy sausage...Ms. Sue who is adding the onions to the mixture.
Add salt and pepper. Now get in there and make everybody get to know each other! This part was a lot of fun! I felt like a human mixer.
Ok maybe I was having a little too much fun with this, but hey it IS a party bucket after all!
Ms. Sue had the casings frozen in salt water. She put them in the sink with warm water to defrost them. Then she rinsed water through them. She referred to this part as "making balloon animals". Will you make me a reindeer please?
Now time to assemble your sausage maker. Fill the sausage stuffer with your meat mixture. Do not fill too full! I found if you do this it will come out the top when you start to make the sausage. That's how you learn right?
Take the reindeer balloon, uh I mean casing and push the entire thing up onto the stem of the sausage stuffer.
This is a two person job. One person has to crank the sausage stuffer, and the other has to catch the sausage coming out the end and hold onto it as it enters the casing. You can control how big the sausage forms by applying pressure against the sausage as it comes out. This is the part I'm gonna need a lot of practice to perfect. But as you can see Ms. Sue is an expert.
Cut the casing with scissors, then tie off the end of the sausage in a knot. Put the sausage link into water. Then you can start another link. Ms. Sue let me try the sausage shaping part of the process.
Before the sausage stuffer Ms. Sue used to make the sausage by hand. Can you believe she made yards of sausage with THIS tiny little contraption? And she did this for years before deciding to invest in a sausage maker. What once used to take her all day, now only takes a couple of hours.
Isn't she cute? Ms. Sue now jokes that she's going to pass down this archaic sausage stuffer to me so I can make my own sausage.
Keep the sausage in cold water until you cook it so the potatoes don't turn brown.
Put sausage links into a pot of water and bring to a boil.
Boil the sausage for one hour, and while it boils poke each sausage with a sharp object to keep it from exploding. You can see that one has exploded already. I'm pretty sure that's the one that Ms. Sue let me make. That's what you get with a sausage making rookie in the kitchen. But no worries! We made enough to feed the entire neighborhood!
You can tell it's Sausage Time! The Sweds are hovering...
Here is the finished Potatis Korv.
It is served with Swedish Meatballs, fresh vegetables, and bread.
All in all I think I did ok for my first time making Swedish potato sausage. But the proof is in the puddin' as they say...
An empty pan is all that's left. AND... I got an official thumbs up from the queen of Swedish potato sausage.
What a wonderful time we had today. I will treasure this memory all year until we get a chance to do it again next Christmas. Thank you Ms. Sue for allowing this sausage rookie to get my hands in the party bucket and help you whip up a batch of your famous sausage. I had a blast! Follow DeAnna Lee on Facebook-> DeAnna Lee Twitter-> DeAnnaLeeDance Instagram-> DeAnnaLeeDance
Meatloaf is an American classic. My mom made it at least once a week in our house growing up with the traditional ketchup based topping that gets slightly browned when it bakes. I love meatloaf, but I do not cook with red meat very often. I typically use ground chicken or turkey. So I'm always experimenting with the flavor profiles. I've made Pad Thai meatloaf, Buffalo Blue Cheese Chicken meatloaf, and meatloaf stuffed with spinach and feta cheese. Yeah I get off the traditional grid when it comes to whipping up a nice loaf of meat! This time I wondered what it would be like to put Tabouli inside a meatloaf and top it with Tzatziki sauce! To my delight, it turned out delicious! Plus this recipe is really simple if you have a Trader Joes near you to get pre-made ingredients. If not, you can prepare them yourself.
I love Trader Joes! You can get fresh, organic ingredients and use a few short cuts in your cooking saving yourself time and money! Here's what I did: Mediterranean Meatloaf with Tzatziki Sauce 1 lb. ground turkey 1 container fresh Tabouli salad = 1 1/2 cups (or make your own using this recipe-> Tabouli Salad) 1 egg 1 cup bread crumbs 1 cup mozzarella cheese (you can leave this out) 2 - 3 tbsp. Tzatziki sauce for topping (or make your own using this recipe--> Tzatziki Sauce) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In large bowl mix everything together except for the Tzatziki.
Form into large loaf on baking sheet and bake 45 minutes.
Let rest for 5 minutes.
Slice and serve with desired amount of Tzatziki sauce on top! I also served the meatloaf with roasted cauliflower. This dish is very healthy and packed full of flavor! Like my Facebook Fan page--> DeAnna Lee Twitter--> DeAnna Lee Dance
I started a DeAnnaLeeDance Youtube page dedicated to Line Dance instruction a few years ago. It was an idea given to me by my FBP (Favorite Bass Player) who is now my fiance. Thanks honey! Anyway, it has turned out to be a very useful resource for those who take a lesson from me then need a "refresher" on what they learned afterwards. It's also very helpful if you want to take a lesson, but you are nervous about what the dances may be like and you want to get a jump on everything. The DeAnnaLeeDance Youtube page is also being used as a "work out" resource for some who just want to have a quick burst of country calorie burning. However you want to use the videos, I am glad that you are watching and finding it useful. I have a lot of fun creating and sharing them with you. Here is one of the easier dances we do. Everybody loves this one, because it's danced to Luke Bryan's Country Girl (Shake It For Me).
Stomping, clapping, and making any kind of noise when you're line dancing is so much fun! Here's another dance I choreographed where we get to do both! It's called "Pickin' Peaches" and danced to Lauren Alaina's "Georgia Peaches".
I just taught THIS dance at Bourbon Jacks this past Friday night. It is a more advanced dance, and I choreographed it to Darius Rucker "Radio". We also dance it to "Johnny Cash" by Jason Aldean which is a little faster. This is called "Fake Out".
To see more videos or to subscribe to DeAnnaLeeDance Youtube page click the link below: DeAnnaLeeDance Youtube Page
On Friday when I got to Bourbon Jacks, I noticed a lot of "my" dancers were there. I refer to them as mine, because I helped hand picked them at try outs, then I trained them, coached them, and pushed them to become the best dancers they could be over the last year. This dance team and our chapter together will always be one of my fondest memories!
The dance team were all there for a reason... to surprise me!
Last August after concert season was over, I had this idea to have the BST perform at the Hometown Holiday concert. I choreographed a special performance routine, and I began to push my dancers harder. I am a professional partner-style dance instructor too, and I decided to teach them east coast swing and jitterbug incorporating some fun swing elements into the routine. We rehearsed for the next three months straight, and I was ALMOST done teaching them the entire routine. We were gonna wow everyone at Hometown Holiday! But November 1st came, and the lives of "my" dancers and the big moment we had all been working so hard towards was changed forever. The team was left to keep going without me. BST showed up on Friday night to remind me that with them my legacy is alive and dancing. They told me how much they miss my coaching and expertise, and they will all be thinking of me when they perform my routine on Monday.
They also surprised me with a Christmas present filled with all kinds of goodies including a 2013 BST Scrapbook!
I love the line in this scrapbook, "We put our hats on, boots up, and dance our hearts out"!
I cried like a baby! They were tears of joy knowing that someone else may have taken away my ability to coach this team through their big performance and this particular chapter, but they can never take away the bond and impression we all left on one another's hearts and boots!
We all still dance with see each other at Bourbon Jacks. Friends that dance together STAY together!
We had so much fun this past year!
To "my" dancers: Y'all are the most spirited dancers I've ever had the honor of coaching! Ever country calorie we burned together is etched into my memory and will always be there. Your "Boot-A-Bility" is amazing, and I know y'all won't be "itchin' or twitchin'" ;)-. You'll be turnin' those Boots Loose! Get out there and show them what you can do! You are going to nail it, and everyone is going to love it!
To those of you going to Hometown Holiday, make sure you get there in time to see them perform. If you DO get to see them do their boot thang', will you hoot and holler for me PLEASE? I'm not attending, but oh how I wish I could see this performance! Maybe take some video or a picture or two and post it to my Facebook page? Pretty please? DeAnna Lee's Facebook Page God bless you dancers! And Merry Merry Christmas!
You probably think I'm crazy for saying this, BUT all you have to do is eat this soup and you can lose weight. Trust me, this is a miracle weight loss recipe all in one pot! It's been colder in Seattle than it has in over 15 years, so you know dadgum good and well I ain't been ridin' my bike. So I've been able to see the difference on the scale. You may remember that I lost 20 lbs. this past summer eating right, riding my bike, and dancing. I did it the old fashioned way, and it felt great. I've since lost another 5 lbs, and I want to keep this weight off. So with less exercise (I'm still dancing) and Christmas goodies on the way, I'm pulling out every weight loss recipe in the recipe journal. I made Stuffed Cabbage Soup a few days ago, and I've been eating it at least once a day. Y'all I stepped on the scale today, and I lost 2 lbs. NO JOKE! All I did was eat this stuff, and I lost weight! It's a MIRACLE FAT BURNER! Give it a whirl! What have you got to lose? HA! Stuffed Cabbage Soup
1 lb ground beef 1 head cabbage 1 onion 4 carrot stalks 4 ribs celery 4 cloves garlic 2 boxes of low sodium beef stock (love to get organic if they have it too) 1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes 1/2 small can of tomato paste 4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme 1 bunch of parsley 2 bay leaves 1 package of Italian seasoning (next to Taco/Chili seasonings in grocery) 1 package of Lipton Onion soup mix
In a large soup pot, brown the ground beef. Then remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. In same pot, saute roughly chopped onion, carrot, and celery. DO NOT SALT. You can open the Italian seasonings packet and use some of this to season as you go. Add the garlic and let saute for about a minute. Add the fresh thyme and bay leaves. Add the tomato paste and stir until it incorporates with all of the vegetables.
Add beef stock and deglaze the pot scraping up all the beefy bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the ground beef back to the pot, then the whole tomatoes and both seasoning packets (Italian and onion soup mix).
Finally add the thinly sliced cabbage. And turn up the heat on the soup pot to medium high and let the soup come to a boil. Then turn the heat down and let the soup simmer for 10 - 15 minutes.
At the very end, chop the parsley and add to the pot.
I serve this with crusty whole wheat bread. It's VERY healthy, but yet it's filling.
Remember, it's an "Eat TWO bowls and NOT feel guilty" kinda meal! ground beef.
With the holidays here it is more important than ever to be diligent about eating healthy. Look we all know what is coming...Christmas and Momma's cookin'. Last year for me I was hypnotized by the homemade Pimento Cheese. I put it on every thing I ate, and you know where it ended up. Oh yeah, taped on the side of my hips. But I let myself indulge over the holidays, because on January 1st EVERY year I go on a very strict South Beach Phase 1 diet. If you wanna undo the damage you've done over Christmas, this will melt away the fat. If you want to know more about South Beach Phase 1, please ask me. I just want to make sure when I go into this "eating" holiday that I've done everything I can before it begins to eat as healthy as I can. One of my go to proteins to accomplish this is ground turkey. You can turn it into just about anything. Last night I had lemon and parsley on hand, so I grabbed the dijon mustard and got to work.
No Guilt Baked Lemon Dijon Turkey Burger 1 lb. ground turkey 1 lemon 1 1/2 tbsp. dijon mustard 1/2 onion 1 carrot 2 cloves garlic 1 cup parsley 1/2 cup bread crumbs 1 egg salt and pepper olive oil Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Saute onions and carrots until softened. Add garlic and saute one minute more. Squeeze juice of lemon into pan. Add dijon mustard and stir until incorporated. Pour this mixture into a large bowl. Add the turkey and remaining ingredients to the large bowl.
Mix together with your hands and form into four patties. Place on tin foil lined baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes. I serve this with my favorite roasted veggies and eat an absolutely guilt free meal!
It's not every day you get a call from the Air Force. When I did, my eyes filled up with tears at their request. They asked if I would like to be the Guest Master of Ceremonies for their JBLM 62d Operations Support Squadron Holiday Party! At the time I wasn't exactly sure what all that would entail, but I knew it was an opportunity to show my support for the local military that I respect and admire so much. They also asked if my FBP would like to attend the party! Believe it or not, this would be the first time that we dressed up for an event TOGETHER. I've seen my FBP dressed up for work events, and he's seen me do the same. But this was our first chance to get all gussied up and be together! The party was held at the Tradmark City Center in Tacoma, and the first person to greet me was Michelle Matern. She is part of the Squadron Intelligence team. Michelle and Juanita put this fun party together collecting all donations from local merchants for give aways. Isn't she beautiful? Michelle reminds me a movie star.
Then I got to see my FBP! He had to work, so we took separate vehicles. When he walked into the party, my heart skipped a beat. He looked so dapper!
Can you tell I was having fun hosting the party?
We had a delicious dinner and listened to Christmas music. And I had to get another pic or two of my fiance. He's so handsome!
One of the nicest people I met all night was Commander Col. Cooley and his wife Terese. At one point we played a Scavenger Hunt, and Col. Cooley did not have a "military coin" in his pocket which means he has to buy everyone a drink. A few moments later Col. Cooley let everyone know the bar was open! He was keeping his word, sticking with tradition and buying anyone who wanted a drink! What a great boss huh?! This is Col. Cooley with Michelle helping him give away the iPad mini. Notice his "Ugly Christmas Sweater"! You can't really tell in this picture, but the dadgum had blinking lights on it!
They also had a few of their airmen dress up as Santa and his elf. These costumes are hilarious! I love the hat on the lil' Elf!
This is the table where I got to sit with Col. Philipart and Col. Cooley and their wives. Everyone was so welcoming and nice to us. We felt right at home.
Check out my very own place card! They really made us feel special all night.
After we had dinner and gave away all the door prizes, I got a chance to socialize. These are some of the ladies that shared with me that they were fans and will be "following me to my next adventure...whatever that may be".
The hugs and the well wishes meant so much to me.
I've gotta get me some of these "Intel" glasses! They are so cool!
Of course I gotta get ONE more pic of my sweet fiance! He's just so cute sittin' there...all dressed up! I can't wait to marry this man!
Thank you to everyone in the 62d Operations Support Squadron at JBLM! You are a fantastic group of people who know how to have fun! Thank YOU for all that you do! We love you and pray for God to bless you and your families! Merry Christmas! Follow me on Facebook --> DeAnna Lee Twitter--> DeAnnaLeeDance
