Heirloom Wall Hanging Quilt

One of the things I like to encourage clients to do before I come to their home, is to clean out the attic, their closets, and cedar chest. Get out those things you have put away that are meaningful but that you thought you would never use and have everything in a central location so I can see them as I am decorating or I can give them new ideas on how they can decorate the room using these things. There are many ways you can incorporate keepsakes into the decor of your home that will reflect your personality, traditions, what your family is about and what you cherish.

It is becoming more prevalent now, but for years I have encouraged clients to make their home a reflection of who they are as well as making their home a sanctuary. It is very comforting to come home after a hard day and settle into your favorite chair and look around the room at pictures of people you love, objects that belong to love ones and to see things that bring you joy and happiness. It really can lift your spirits if your down.



The quilt that is pictured in this blog has an interesting story. This quilt describes what I want women to see about how something that didn't seem like much can be turned into something very meaningful. For years, my mother keep these quilt squares in her cedar chest. The squares were made by my great grandmother. It was just the plain square with the applique' there was no embroidery on it. After my mother's death, I took the squares and kept them in my cedar chest until about 4 years ago. My daughter's birthday was approaching and I wanted to do something special for her birthday so I took the squares and embroidered around each one. The square with the crochet dress was crocheted by my grandmother. The wall hanging is being quilted now but when it is finished it will hang in my daughter's kitchen. The quilt squares were made by her great great grandmother, the one square with the crocheted dress by her great grandmother, it was saved all those years by her grandmother, her mother embroidered it and put it together. Personally, I love things like that and my daughter does too. It will be something that she will always cherish. As I was writing this, I was thinking about how old the squares would be and they are close to 150 years old.

I will have more ideas coming soon on displaying keepsakes.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit Wednesday morning on learning about green houses as well as raising plants . I not only got a lot of information but made a new friend. Really kindred spirits in the area of gardening and loving flowers, veggies, and just growing things.

Ann was a wealth of information and I learned a lot. As I start on this new experience, I will step by step post what I'm doing, hopefully with pictures. I should be getting my seeds any day now.

I am going this morning to visit with a lady who is one of the suppliers for a large nursery in the city. She has 4 green houses. I will get to see first hand how to start plants from seeds, what's the best soil, how much water, fertilizer, light, heat etc. I also have a lot of questions regarding starting a green house. I have the frame but I want her opinion on what she would use to cover it. She also has a cold frame and I am looking forward to seeing how she constructed hers. We are eating so many different types of lettuce and spinach now that I want to be able to grow greens during the winter months.

Post my info later.

Mediterranean Salmon Wraps

I found this recipe in a Good Housekeeping Magazine. We all like this recipe. It's easy, healthy and when you make these make several extras and wrap them in saran wrap for lunch the next day.

2-5 oz. cans or pouches skinless, boneless salmon well drained.
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, 1/4 cup chopped red onion, 1/4 cup chopped pitted Kalamata olives, 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 teapsoon shredded lemon peel, 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. 12 leaves of romaine lettuce (remove rib, 4 large whole wheat tortillas, 1/2 cup bottled red sweet peppers, sliced, 1 large tomato halved and sliced.

In a medium bowl combine salmon, parsley, onion, olives, lemon peel, lemon juice and salt and pepper.
To make each wrap place 3 romaine lettuce leaves on a tortilla. On top of lettuce put a quarter of salmon salad, top with 3 or 4 slices of red pepper and then several slices of tomato. Fold the tortilla about an inch over on each end of the filling then roll up.

259 calories ea., 13 grams of fat, 22 carbs. FYI - Canned salmon is mainly from wild salmon
which is low in contaminates such as mercury
Instead of canned red peppers, I used 2 fresh red peppers and broiled them in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. Then put them in a zip lock bag for about an hour and the skins will come right off.

My love of herbs!

I love to garden but one of my favorite things is my herb garden. There is nothing like my herb garden in early morning when all the herbs are fresh and clean and I can't describe to you how it smells. It's wonderful! To walk through there and touch the different herbs and the unique smell that each one has is amazing. I just love it!

This past summer after my dill formed it's flower head I saved all the seeds. In mid summer I scratched the surface of the dirt and planted a hand full of the dill seeds. Covered them with a little soil and slightly watered them. In a couple of weeks I had a an enormous amount of dill, I was shocked. It actually did better than the spring planting. But this is what was surprising to me. Before the first freeze, I picked a gallon zip lock bag full of the dill. It kept in my frig for 3 months. I also picked some thyme and it kept as well. I usually pick my herbs and use them that day or I will pick things like basil and parsley and stick the ends in a glass of water and they will keep a week in the frig. I was delighted to find out that these herbs would keep this long in the frig.

Just a little bit of advice. If you haven't planted dill before, it's easy to grow and doesn't take alot of special care. But you need to check it every day or every other day for the swallowtail butterfly (which is caterpillar). It will devour your dill over night. I keep them picked off but you can use bacillus thuringiensis to control them.

I feel it a waste of time to try and dry dill. It is so wonderful fresh and when it is dry it doesn't even taste the same. So I just enjoy it as long as I can while I can get it fresh.

Dill is a wonderful addition to homemade sauces, mayonnaise, and salad dressings and it also livens up cottage cheese. Try some in sour cream with a little horseradish to compliment slices of roast beef. Lemon-dill butter melted over grilled, baked or sauteed fish is exquisite! It's also great on steamed yellow squash. Boiled shrimp marinated in my dill vinaigrette then sauteed in butter and wine and garnished with fresh dill is very easy and makes an elegant presentation.

Through a health problem 20 years ago, I started learning about the body. An important thing that I learned at the time was God made our bodies to heal themselves. If you want a healthy body, eat healthy, take good supplements (I've always taken this one thing religiously "Barley Green"), exercise, drinks lots of water, and breath correctly. After all we are made up mostly of water and air. I wish I could say that for the last 20 years I have done everything I learned originally but I haven't. I have had my ups and downs. I did have one whole year without sugar. :)

Recently, my husband and our two sons attended a meeting. The last day of the meeting a man spoke on health. It really made an impact on them and they haven't been the same since. Great for me, because for the first time we are all on board regarding our convictions about what we eat. It makes life a lot easier.

So, one of the things I would like to do is share my healthy recipes and I would like to hear about yours. In 20 years, I only have one recipe for something sweet that is truly good and healthy. Everything else I have tried taste terrible (regarding sweets). I have a lot of good recipes that are wonderful, some bordering on healthy and some not so healthy but really good. I'll share those too.

This is a new recipe I came up with recently and we all love it.

Albacore Salad with Dill Vinaigrette

Mix greens (I used one head of Romaine, fresh spinach, one head of red leaf)
2 large cans of Albacore (drained)
4 medium sliced tomatoes
1 large cucumber diced
1 sweet onion (cut in half and sliced)

toss and add dill vinaigrette

Dill Vinaigrette
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar ( I didn't have tarragon the first time I made this and used champagne vinegar and it was great also).
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2-3 cloves of minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon of hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Shake well and cover. Will keep a week in frig.

This salad will feed 6 people.

If I had but two loaves of bread, I would sell one and buy flowers, for they would feed my soul.
How many times have I ooched into our grocery budget to buy flowers when I have stopped by a nursery. I can hardly contain myself when I stop by a nursery. I love it all! Trees, shrubs and flowers!

One of my favorite things to do this time of the year is to look through my new seed catalogs. One of my favorites arrived several weeks before Christmas. I spent the better part of yesterday looking through it and planning my garden for the spring. I can't wait to get out there and start working and planting.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds is at the top of my favorite list for seed catalogs. It was started by Jere Gettle a 17 year old homeschooled traditionalist from the Ozarks. It has now grown into the largest selection of heirloom and other unusual seeds from around the world. The catalog is packed full of great pictures, inspirational quotes and a lot of information regarding each seed.

Jere and his wife Emilee are true patriots. They are concerned about the preservation and quality of our food for they see that it is endangered.

They have created a quaint little town in Mansfield, Missouri called Bakersville Pioneer Village. They have Heritage Day Festivals year round. I hope to attend one in May. They have lots of vendors selling seeds, plants, crafts, food, wonderful folk music and lectures on gardening. Sounds like a great time. Also, Laura Engels Wilder's home is not far from Bakersville Pioneer Village.

One of my goals this year is to start my heirloom tomato plants from seed and then to save the seed from the tomatoes so I can plant them next year. This is all new for me so I will keep you posted on my progress.

Just think about this, if we plant heirloom seeds the tomatoes and other vegetables we see growing in our garden may have been the same ones growing in Thomas Jefferson's garden!