Hi Janine,
Congratulations on a couple of fronts - first, you obviously have received your binoculars and you have started giving them a work out! Second, you have learned one of the most important attributes of an amateur astronomer - flexibility. If it's too cloudy to observe at 7:30, go out and try again at another time! Mother Nature often likes to throw a spanner in the works of our best laid plans!
The instructions I gave you are still relevant for 7:30 pm looking to the West so, if the clouds clear, have a look a look at the area of Scorpius - there are some great objects for binoculars!
From your description, you are looking to the east at around midnight - the 'saucepan' is actually part of the constellation Orion. For a star map or planisphere to make sense you will need to know your compass directions - that is, where north, south, east and west are. A cheap magnetic compass can help here. Alternatively, you can use the stars to tell direction. If you look at the saucepan at around midnight the direction you are looking is roughly east. North, then, is to your left, south to your right, and west is behind you.
It's very hard to tell exactly what you are looking at from your description - this is because there are a lot of bright stars in this region at the moment, including Mars. For this area of the sky I will adopt the same strategy as I did last time - I will encourage you to download the latest sky map from skymaps.com - there is now a November map. A good reason for doing this is that I know we are looking at the same thing.
Looking at the November sky map you will see, around the outside of the map, the compass directions (north, south, east, and west). Look on the side of the map labelled East. This is roughly the view you are seeing at about midnight. Part way up from the horizon is the constellation Orion - notice that there are three bright stars in a row in the middle of the constellation of Orion - this is the bottom of the 'Saucepan'. If you look up from these three stars to the part of the 'saucepan' where the 'handle' starts you will see that the label on the star map says M42. This is the Orion Nebula - you will want to have a look at this in your binoculars - it is one of the best nebulas in the sky.
Looking to the left (North) of Orion you will see the constellation Taurus. The brightest star in this constellation is Aldebaran - a bright reddish star. Surrounding Aldebaran is a very large star cluster called the Hyades - it is one of the closest star clusters to us. Looking left (North) again is a beautiful star cluster for binoculars called the Pleiades - to the naked eye there are about 6 or 7 stars, in binoculars there are many more! (This may have been the beautiful cluster you saw) Looking above the Pleiades you will see a very bright orange 'star'. This is Mars, very close to Opposition now, when it appears at its brightest.
Again, once you can get your bearings by learning a few bright constellations the rest become easier.
Please feel free to ask any question in this forum - that's why it's here! There are plenty of people who can help. Let us know how you go and if you run into any problems be sure to post a question.
Adam
ffice
Regards, L. 
