A Mother's Love- Part 2

My quilt is finally done.  It took time and love on grandma's part and it is absolutely beautiful!  

The blocks were embroidered by my mom and great grandma.  See A Mother's Love- Part 1 for the back story.  
 

Grandma allowed me to design how I wanted the quilt to look.  I envisioned a garden.  The embroidered blocks I wanted surrounded by a stain glass inspired gate in memory of grandpa.  I wanted a wandering chain of flowers between the inner gate and outer border. When grandma completed the quilt, she had a local lady machine quilt it before sewing the binding on.

It was quite the project.  But I am so thankful that I have something to keep my mom, grandpa, and great grandma in my memories.  And one day when grandma goes to join them, I will also remember her love in creating this beautiful quilt.

A Mother's Love

Many years ago my mom decided to make a quilt.  She embroidered six of the twelve blocks, then life got busy.  So my great grandmother finished embroidering the last six blocks.  That quilt never got made.  My grandma pulled out the blocks last year and gave half to my sister and half to me.  She asked us to figure out what type of quilt we would like to make with the blocks we were given and she would make the quilts to the best of her ability.

My sister's quilt is officially done.  Grandma pieced it and took it locally to be machine quilted.  Then grandma bound it.  It is a beautiful queen sized quilt. We didn't realize until we looked at it laying on my grandma's bed that the embroidered blocks form two large circles in the center of the quilt.

My quilt on the other hand is still a work in progress.  I wanted it to be like a flower garden with fences and playful flowers along the perimeter.  The type of piecing that I wanted for the fences also reminds me the stained glass windows that grandpa use to make.  Anyway, grandma has the center of the quilt pieced.  

Right now she is working on the white edge adornments- vines and flowers.  It is seeming to be quite a challenge, but to me plants are wild and unpredictable.  So I do not expect it to be prefect, or balanced, or to a set pattern.  Once the flowers and vines are in place, then an outside border that mimics the inside fences will be put on.  I believe that grandma is arranging for the ladies at our church to quilt it so it will hold even more significance and sentimental value for me.  I should be pleasantly surprised none the less and look forward to its completion.  I will make sure to post a picture when it is finished, although I am sure that it is months away.  

So as you can see, mom's simple project has encompassed four generations.  Mom and grandpa have been gone for two and half years now (today would of been grandpa's birthday), and last week was the nineteen year anniversary of great-grandma death.  I hope that mom, grandpa, and great grandma will look down at us and say "What beautiful quilts!  What beautiful memories!" 

Cookie Time!

Earlier this week we had our annual family cookie making day at grandma's house.  It was my sister, grandma and I making our Christmas treats.

This year our day had an interesting twist with the oven deciding not to open and keeping the lemonade cookies that my sister was baking inside.  The repairman was able to free the cookies the next day and the birds got a special treat.  It ended up that the motor went out on the auto-clean feature (which grandma has never used) and the oven automatically locked the door.  The auto clean has been permanently disconnected to prevent a reoccurence of the problem.  So we were able to make about half of the cookies that day.  I also had to take one chilled recipe home to bake in my non-automatic oven.

Here are the two recipes that I chose this year!

Melting Snowman Cookie Balls from Kraft Foods 

(click on highlighted recipe name for direct link)

Ingredients:  

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
24 NUTTER BUTTER Cookies, finely crushed (about 3 cups)
2 pkg. (6 squares each) BAKER'S White Chocolate, melted
48 Mini OREO Bite Size Cookies
2 Tbsp. decorating icing

Instructions: 

MIX cream cheese and cookie crumbs until well blended. SHAPE into 48 (1-inch) balls; place in single layer in shallow pan. Freeze 10 min. Dip balls in melted chocolate (use two forks to coat & transfer); place in shallow waxed paper-lined pan, allowing excess chocolate to pool at bottom of each ball and place oreo on top for hat. REFRIGERATE 1 hour or until firm. Decorate with faces. Keep refrigerated.

Notes:  Well our cookie balls had a tan color from the 1/4 cup peanut butter that was mixed into the chocolate per the original recipe instructions.  I just visited the kraft website and they have removed the peanut butter from the recipe.  Next time we will just use white chocolate only for the coating.  We may also play with replacing the nutter butter cookies with oreo cookies and see how that works out.  Either way, these were very delicious. 

My Great-Grandma's Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup margarine

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

1cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon cream of tarter

1 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

Cream vegetable oil, butter and both sugars.  Add vanilla, lemon extract and eggs.  Sift dry ingredients, then stir and blend all together.  Chill one hour.   Roll a teaspoon of soft dough into a ball, flaten down a little on greased cookie sheet and sprinkle with sugar (I use the bottom of a drinking glass that has been dipped in sugar between each cookie).  Bake approximately 12 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  Makes 8 dozen.

Note: I use parchment paper on my baking sheets and that cuts the baking time down to about 6 minutes, so keep an eye on the first batch to get the proper timing down.  These are a favorite of mine since I was a little kid.  I remember visiting my great-grandma (whom lived several hours away) and she would pull these cookies out of her freezer and we would decorate them with colored icing before eating them.  Enjoy!!!

My sister chose lemonade cookies and a turtle treat (which has yet to be made, darn oven).  Grandma make a chocolate cookie bar and was going to make another oven requiring treat.  I think they may be finishing the rest of the cookies this coming week.

What treats are you making this Christmas season???

Birthday Delight

It is amazing what a difference a year makes! 

Last year my birthday was filled with deep sadness with the loss of my mom just days before.  I was still numb and a lot of friends and acquaintance just did not know what to say so . . . they said nothing at all.  Last year my birthday was filled with funeral plans and trips to the funeral home.  My brother, sister, and their spouses bought me a bouquet of flowers and a card, but that was about the extent of my birthday.  It felt like my birthday never existed last year.

This year is remarkable different.  I received oodles of wishes over the internet, cards from family, text messages, and phone calls.  My hubby woke up at 5:30 a.m., went out in the rain, and brought home some fancy bagels and cream cheese that I really like.  Then told me to eat my breakfast before waking the kids up.  What a sweetheart!  

While he was gone, I thought I heard him outside.  "Hoo Hoo HooHoo, Hoo Hoo HooHoo"  this phrase was repeated several time.  I thought may be my husband needed some help coming back into the house, so I went to the kitchen and turned on the light.  No noise, no husband, then I started laughing.  It had to be a barred owl hanging out in the tree outside our bedroom.  Sometimes when we are shopping and can not find each other in the store, we will hoot like barred owls until we find the other person.  Barred owls sound like they are saying "Who cooks for you?  Who cooks for you alllll?"

For lunch my hubby met up with me and a few friends from work.  He came bearing a beautiful bouquet of flowers and bought me lunch at a local burger joint.  I got my chocolate cherry coke!  Yummy!!!!  We had a great meal with some good company.

Later in the day when the kids and I got home, I discovered that a birthday elf had broken into my house!  That table was definitely not the way I left it, but a whole lot better!  The tablecloth had transformed into a beautiful burnt orange with heavenly cream colored cloth napkins.  In the center of the table was a naturistic looking pumpkin decoration.  The birthday elf had left a calling card and I'm thankful to report that it was from my little sister and her husband.

My family usually celebrates birthdays with a birthday dinner.  The birthday person gets to pick the menu.  I usually ask for the same thing every year, although last year there was no birthday dinner.  I ask for my all-time favorite entree my great-great-great grandma's cabbage rolls.  I remember my great grandma making them from time to time when I was growing up.  The recipe has been past down from generation to generation.  Grandma says that the recipe came over from Austria.  Anyway I digress,  this year for birthday dinner we also had cinnamon apples, deviled eggs, and creamed potatoes and peas.  Dessert was peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream.  Yes, I did say peach cobbler.  I am not a cake person, I prefer pies and cobbler.  So every year, I request peach cobbler instead of a birthday cake.

Needless to say this year's birthday was amazing!  I'm so thankful for all of my family, friends, and blessings!

Memories & Recipes

For Christmas my grandma had given all of us grandchildren a cookbook.  Of course it is not just any cookbook, one of my mom's cousins had created the book in the memory of my great grandma.  My great grandma was a truly remarkable woman and even to this day I think of her as a role model.  I was so blessed when my mom gave me my great grandma's wedding band to have as my own wedding band.  So in essence, I always have a piece of my great grandma with me.

My great grandma (left) and one of her sisters

Anyway, the cookbook was sixteen years in the making and the recipes came from recipes that she had given family and then her own treasure trove of recipes.  I remember when I was high school, just a year or two before great grandma past on.  She came for a visit and taught me how to make chocolate pudding from scratch.  She sat next to me as I wrote out the recipe card, which I still have in my recipe trove.  I am so thankful that I have some of my great grandma's treasured recipes that I can share with my children.  

It did get me thinking, I really do not have many of the recipes that my mom cooked while we were growing up.  Of course, it is way too late to ask my mom for them, but I figure that I can ensure that my children have the recipes that I cherish and love.  So last week, I decided  that each week I will try to jot down one recipe for both of my kids.  Hopefully by the time they get married, they will have a treasure trove of cherish family recipes to share with children.