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