Pesto Ham Roll-ups

A few months ago my sister Lucy asked people to blog what yummy things they did with pesto. I blogged pesto grilled sandwiches. They were yummy. Well last night I had a Christmas party I had to take snack food to so I thought up these very yummy "Pesto Ham Roll-ups"
So Lucy these are for you.

You start with a pumpernickel tortilla. If you can’t find pumpernickel then try an other flavor like sun dried tomato. I mixed cream cheese and pesto about 2 to 1 ( 1 cup cheese ½ cup pesto).
Spread out the cheese/pesto mix evenly.

Place a layer of thin delli ham over the cheese.Use a pizza cutter to trim the sides to make the tortilla squarish. You could do this before you spread out the cheese and added the ham, but then you couldn't eat the scraps.

Lay a row of black olives about 1 inch from one of the edges. Then you fold the edge up over the olives and start rolling. Refrigerate for about 10 to 15 minutes. This will firm up the cheese and make them easier to slice.
Use a sharp serrated knife to saw the rolls into pin wheels. DO NOT press down. This will case the cheese to squish out the sides.

Plate them up and enjoy. And yes they were very very yummy!!

December Ice Storm of 2007

I can’t even call this the Ice Storm of 2007. It’s like a Blue Moon.
This is the 2nd ice storm of 2007.
This is a picture of behind my sister Anne’s house in Southern Missouri, taken in January 2007. She called it “Day After Tomorrow”. She said they had about an inch of ice on every thing. It makes for a beautiful picture but is miserable to live through. They were without power for over a week. My sister Lucy, my brother Sam and my parents were also without power for the same time but since they have a private well with an electric pump, they were also with out water. Just imagine no lights, heat or water for over a week.

In 2002 we here in Oklahoma had a bad ice storm. The rain kept coming for about 2 days. We were woken up in the night to what sounded like gun shots. It was our trees breaking. We lost 4 big old trees that year. We were without power for 10 days. I have really learned to be grateful for light.

Well the ice came this year early Sunday morning December 9, 2007. With the concern for people having to drive on the ice all church services were cancelled for the day. On Monday most schools in the state were closed because of the ice. Well not Oklahoma State University. My son Kit had his 1st final at 8:00 AM Monday morning. So we headed out an hour and 15 minutes early. We drove 35 to 45 miles an hour all the way to Stillwater. He did make it to his test on time but a 35 minute trip took us one hour. I took my camera with me because I knew there would be some great shots.

Well we didn’t get as much ice as I was fearing. Oklahoma City and Tulsa were hit much worse then we were. They still have places out of power a week latter. We got about 3/8 inch of ice and no power outages or tree damage. We were very blessed. They are saying this is the worst ice storm so far in the State, but I think it is because it hit the biggest cities in the state and more people have been left with out power for longer.

The following are a few of the pictures I took on the way home that day from Stillwater.

We stopped for Lunch at Arby's. Ice is covering every thing. Pretty but treacherous. I have a BIG bruse on my tush to prove it. (I also have new boots)

As a quilter I have always thought of the color of ice as blue. But after my first ice storm I learned that ice is the color things with a touch of silver. Looking out across this wheat field winter ice must always have green in it.

Some one went off the road. You can't tell from this angle that the SUV is at the bottom of a 45 degree drop off. It took my husband Brad a few minutes to realize that the SUV didn't cause the earth to crack but that it is a sky pond with a small stream running from it.

This tree has been a favorite for years. It has always been the best shaped tree winter or summer. The branch that is hanging down was caused by the 2002 ice storm. Before that storm this was a most perfectly formed tree.

This is a wonderful old stone house not far from the perfect tree. I don't know how old it is. No one has lived in it as long as I've lived in Oklahoma. Notice no windows or door. One day one of my kids and I got brave enough to go have a look inside it. Well the cows had been living in it. The floor is completely rotted out. I have always thought it would be a wonderful house to gut and redo. Great stone work.

Here is my kids car. the ice is about 3/8 inch thick. The other cars we thawed out twice on Sunday so they were not so bad on Monday when we had to go to work.

Close up of our grass. You can see we did have green grass before the ice came. Not any more. We now have snow. It snowed yesterday so we are officially into winter. Hopefully it will only last a few months. That’s the nice thing about living farther south. We'll have bad weather for a few weeks then it will warm up and then get cold again but usually by mid February we are starting to get Spring like weather.

The icicles do help to get us in the Holiday mood. I have been looking at some big realistic looking icicles that you can hang on your house but didn't want to pay what the store was asking for them. Well Mother Nature helped my out and I didn't need to buy any.

Christmas Ornaments

My sister Lucy Posted about my mother's Christmas ornament tradition. It was they posted by Future Girl who is the maker of the pattern. Both have written wonderful things about my Mother. She started making handmade ornaments for her grandchildren just after my second daughter was born. She only had about 8 grandchildren at the time. She realized 2 things: 1 she would soon have a lot of grand children, and 2 that she wouldn’t be able to buy each of them a present. She also realized that as we children where getting married and moving out our 1st Christmases were a little skimpy on the decorations. She decided that she would start making hand made ornaments for her grandchildren so that as they moved out on their own they would be able to take some of there Christmas traditions with them. Each of my children has gotten a box of Christmas traditions to start their own homes with.

My niece Angelic, who is the oldest grandchild, has made this great picture collection of all the ornaments. That my mother has made. She is missing the spider of 2002, but you can see it on one of my close-ups of my trees latter in this post.

My daughters posted this to Future Girl,

Alisa said...
I am one of the lucky grandchildren. And my granmother really is amazing. She has raised a large (LARGE) family who all respect and love creating. We are all in her debt for the handmade legacy she has given us.

Laura Orr said...
I am one of the 99 grandchildren that loves her grandma so very much. I am 28 years old and I have an ornament on my tree for each Christmas since I was about 3 years old. Every year I carefully place the ornaments on my tree and remember the excitment I felt when we got Grandama's package in the mail and how our eyes grew as we opened it. My Chrstmas tree truly bares the mark of unconditional love. Thank you grandma for such a wonderful gift, and thank you for helping get the pattern available to my grandma and posting such a wonderful story about her. -

Rachel Hatch said...
I am one of Lenore's grand daughters. I have about 25 years of ornaments. Every year I long for the new ornament. It is my favorite tradition. My mother (Lenore's daughter) has now started making ornaments for her grandchildren. I'm so happy my grandmother started this tradition & I look forward to making ornaments for my grandchildren. ~

With only 2 children unmarried I don’t have a lot of my mother’s ornaments left at my house. I decided that I would continue the tradition with my own children and grand children.

In this Picture you can see one of the felt stars I made last year. It had silver thread embroidery and glass beads that catch the light. You can also see the beaded Icicles that I made in 2005. I like the idea of having things that catch and reflect the light. Christmas is about sharing the light of Christ in our lives.

On the left hand side of the tree there is a macramé snowflake. This was the very first Christmas ornament I made after I was married in 1976. I always meant to make more then one but I took a long time to make and every year after that I had babies to take care of. Now I don’t know where the pattern is.

Here is a close up of one of this years orniments. I am making beaded snowflakes. You can also see the spider ornament that my mother made.

Pay It Forward

My Niece Angelic told me about this wonderful pay it forward Christmas craft swap. (I don't know if it is limited to a Christmas craft, but I love the idea, so...) It's over at S'wonderfully Ordinary.

Anyway, here's how it goes:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay it forward exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

So, if you're one of the first 3 people to comment, copy and paste the above paragraph on your blog and share the crafty love!....of course, the challenge being, are there even enough people that read this blog to post?

So the race is on! First 3 people to post AND link on their blog that they are also doing the Pay it forward craft swap, I will mail you a Christmas wonderful!

THANKS!!

There is still one spot open!
Don't be shy.

New Blog---Jeanne's Food

My Children are always calling me to get a recipe. Not once, not twice, but every Holiday they can’t fine the recipe so they call. I love them all and love talking with all of them but some times I can’t find the recipe either. Sooo, I decided to make a new blog and post them all here as I think of them and as they are needed. So enjoy all!

Here is just a tempting example of what is in store for you at Jeanne's Food

The Bizarre and Yummy

We love Halloween at out house.
It is a great time for dressing up and having a really fun time.

One thing I have learned over the years is to make Halloween dinner easy and nutritious because it is that last good thing your kids will eat for days.

I had planned on fixing this dish on Halloween but then realized

that our church was having a "Chili Cook Off" that night.

So I saved it for the following Sunday dinner.

It is very easy and yummy.

First I started with this Black spaghetti I found at Target.

It is Target's store brand, I find that most “Archer Farm's"

things are pretty good quality.

Cook according to the directions on the package.

If you are wondering the black color comes from squid ink.

It tasted like regular spagetti.

I made the sauce the day before and left it in the crock pot for half a day.
I used meat balls. (eye balls)
Italian sausage cooked in the skins then sliced and browned
(One of my daughters calls these pig snouts)
Slices of pepperoni
Sautéed mushrooms
Sliced Olives
A jar of your favorite pasta sauce

(I like the no sugar added with garlic and basil)

Drain and rinse the spaghetti.
If you add a little olive oil to the water

it helps to keep your spaghetti from sticking

Plate up the spagetti. Add your sauce. You now have a meal fit for Halloween.

I also made this Apple Crown cake for dessert.

A week earlyer when I was gone my son Kit, had made a cake that turned out pretty well but it being from scratch is was only at its best that 1st day. So no one wanted to finish it up after the 2 day. Well Sunday morning EM looked undre the cake safe thinking to see the old cake and low and behold there was this new cake. She wondered where Martha was. Now I don't clame to be Martha but this is a really yummy cake and not so hard to make.

EM suggested that I make a Carmelly sauce to put on it.
I know it kind of looks like gravy but believe me it doesn't taste like it.I wanted to show this close up of the cake so you can see the layers of cake and apples.
Also notice Kit ready to dig into his piece. When the kids were little we started a habit that no one takes a bite of desert till the one who made it takes a bite first. Just a polite thing. That way Mom gets to taste it before everyone is done eating it. So you see Kit ready and waiting for me to stop taking pictures and take a bite.
YES it was that good!!

Quilt for Madi

I wanted to post this before Madi was born but I didn’t want her mom to see it because it was a surprise. So I am now posting it

Here is the front. This Quilt pattern is called Kansas Troubles.

Madi’s dad is a cowboy from Montana. His mom still lives on the Ranch she raised her children on. Carson would love to move back up there and have a place of his own. I knew that one day Madi will be a cowgirl her self so I wanted to make her a cowgirl quilt. So I collected a lot of pink and brown fabric.
I hunted in several quilt stores to find the novelty cowgirl prints but it was worth it. They really make the quilt. I fussy cut them into about 5 ½ inch squares.

I sewed triangles to all 4 corners. I cut the triangles big enough that I could float the squares. This gives you the illusion of great piecing because you don’t cut off any corners.

I sewed pink fabric on to the brown novelty print and brown on to the light print.

Then I cut strips of both brown and pink. The brown went on the pink and the pink on the brown.

Here I was trying to decide if I would try and put small fussy cuts in the corners.

I nixed this idea and went with the half square triangles.
I really liked the effect better. Close up of the quilting.

For the backing of the quilt I didn't want to go and buy more fabric. (I was in a hurry to get this done; Rachel was trying to have the baby early) So I used up all the left over fabric and unused fabrics. Note the pink fabric with the saddles that didn't make it into the front.

Well Rachel was suspecting a quilt. What can I say her mother is a quilter.

But she loved it and that makes it all worth it.

It was very fun to make and now

Madi will be encercled with love from her Grammie.

The Call

My son Kit just received a mission call to serve in Sacramento California for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He will be teaching the Spanish speaking people there. We are very pleased with his decision to serve a 2 year mission. He has been a wonderful boy to raise, but now he is a man and is doing the right thing. I am so grateful for the honor I have had as being his Mom. It will be hard to have him gone for 2 years. I don’t think I like the idea of an empty nest. EM is still here but we almost never see her any more. We want our children to grow up and go out into the world and be successful but we sure do miss them when they do. I have found with raising 7 children that once they lHave left home once they are never really home after that. They may come home to visit, or even to live for a while. But they have changed and are more like a roommate and less like a child.

So Kit we are very pleased with you and are glad you have made this choice.

“Remember Who You Are” and

“Return with Honor”.

Madi

I have a new little Grandbaby.

Her name is Madilyn Avery Hatch.

She was born October 20th 2007

9 lbs, 1 oz

19 inches long

(2 days later she was 21 inches long)

EM and I drove 17 hours to stay with Rachel after Madi came.
It was very wonderful to be able to spend a whole week holding Madi
and helping Rachel get used to being a new mom. Madi is her 1st baby

New babies come into the world so inocent, wounderful and wrinckley!

Since Madi was such a big baby she was a very good baby. I have found that big babies are less fussy, they eat well, and sleep well. Their little tummy's are bigger and can hold more so they are satisfied longer.

All I can say is that she was wonderful.

Welcom to the world Madi!

Madi's Mom wanted to have her 3 weeks early and called to tell me that she was hurting so bad and had been walking all day to try to get the baby to come and was at the hospital cuz this had to be labor. I wished her well and told her to call me if they decided to keep her there.
After I got off the phone I remembered that Kit was scheduled to get his wisdom teeth out that Friday. So I called Rachel back and told her that she was just going to have to go home and wait because I could only take care of 1 sick kid at a time and Kit was scheduled 1st.
Well they kept her at the hospital for a few hours and then told her to go home and get some rest. They gave her a sleeping pill. I thought that was nice of Madi to wait so that I could come and help out after she was born.

Kit after the Wisdom teeth came out.

He has a great Rice Bag made by his Aunt Lucy of My Byrd House. It is a long bag made of cotten fabric filled with rice. It is in a fun slip case (like a pillow case) that can be removed easly and washed. You put the rice bag in the microwave for 2 minutes and that it makes a great heat pack. Kit lived it and it really helped to reduce the swelling.