Quinoa Salad...light and lovely!

1 C quinoa cooked 15 minuets in 2 C water or broth (I used vegetable broth)

Cook and cool quinoa in refrigerator.

Chop these veggies(I didn't really measure these...just eyeball or use more of what you like most):

1/2 C English
cucumber (the long skinny ones although you could probably use regular)
1  tomato
1/2 small red onion, diced
2-3 green onions, sliced
2-3 T chopped cilantro (or use basil if you hate cilantro)
1 t chopped jalapeno (I used the jalapeno paste in a tube from Safeway...add a little more if you like it zippy)


Stir these into the cooled quinoa and dress with:

3 T olive oil
1 T fresh lemon juice (I used a whole lemon...a little tangier...or try using a lime)

This serves 4...

 Sweet Potato Black Bean Burgers

These take a bit of time, especially if you chop the ginger and garlic...but you get 12 patties; they can be refrigerated (or frozen) and used for a quick lunch or dinner. They have a much softer texture than a meat hamburger but....no fat, lots of fiber and lots of spicy flavor!

First step is to mix up most of the ingredients in a food processor:

1 1/2 lbs cooked yams...about 2 really big ones or 3 medium sized (I cooked mine in the microwave, then peeled them)
1 C black beans (more than half of a 15 oz can, drained and rinsed)
2 T natural peanut butter
4 large cloves garlic, minced (or ready minced garlic from a jar)
1 heaping tablespoon minced ginger root  (I actually used about 2 T....you could also substitute 1 t ground ginger for each table spoon fresh)
2 t ground cumin
1 t paprika(I used smoked paprika)
fresh ground black pepper
1/4 t ground cardamom (or leave it out if you don't have it)
salt? It called or 1 t ...but I forgot to put it in
1/2-1 t cayenne pepper (I used 1/2 t)

Then blend up in food processor...I added about 1/4 C water to help it along. If you cooked the yams in water in a pot on the stove, they'd probably be moister and you might not need any water....

 Then dump the mixture into another bowl (sorry, you have to get two bowls dirty for this recipe)
Add:
another 1 C black beans ( the rest of the can or a bit more if you've cooked your own...I opened another can and used part of it too)
1/2-3/4 C chopped onion
1/2-1 chopped green pepper
1/2 C uncooked old fashioned oats
1/4 C gluten flour (or you could probably just use real flour?)

Mix well.

Scoop out 1/2 C portions on lined cookie sheets (sprayed with Pam); flatten to 1/2 inch
Bake at 425 for 15 minutes; carefully flip over with spatula and continue cooking another 15 minutes. These firm up  a little as they cool...and when you reheat them in the microwave. If you bake them much longer they can burn!


Serve on buns with lettuce, tomato, avocado, etc. Yummmm....

Nancy Drew Genealogy...John Leslie Walter

So I thought I would describe some of my genealogical wanderings here....so I can remember! and it may be of interest to any of you researching more on these family names...
First my search for John Leslie Walters (Grandma Janiece's biological father).... he is here on my tree...I don't know if you can view it by following the link if you don't have a subscription....let me know.
http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/15680020/person/298500385
This is one of the few pictures we have of him as Grandma Della divorced him when mom(Janiece) was 4 years old...in 1930.....more interesting stories about him to follow.

So I found John Leslie Walters in the 1940 Census. It wasn't exactly like I didn't know where he was because I had his WWII "old man" draft ....showing he was living in Muncie Indiana in 1942 with his 3rd wife, Leona. On the 1940 census Leona was listed as Leona Grant Walters.
 At first I thought her maiden name was Grant, and so I started searching for a Leona Grant born in 1893 in Ohio (from other info on the 1940 census)...you may ask why research her at all...well, what I'd really like to find out is John Leslie Walters death date/place...and also considering he is my biological grandfather, I am pretty interested in just finding out a little more about him....anyway I was interested in this Leona Grant. So in searching for her on Ancestry I came up with a lot of city directory listings for her...and came to find out that Grant was her married name...she was first married to a William L Grant, a doctor in Muncie Indiana....her maiden name was Dumar(from Ohio Birth Index)...so also found her parents...you can see her here on FindAGrave

This was all I found for a while...note someone posted her gravesite in 2011...but at the time I first looked at this last year, her husband's grave (John Leslie Walters) had not been added.
But earlier this year as I revisited this info, I rechecked FindAGrave and "voila!"...someone had posted his site with a full obituary!
So this finally gave me his death date and location. He didn't die until 1965...Grandma Janiece really wanted to find her father (although i'm sure Grandma Eck did NOT)...too bad we didn't have the resources to track him down before she died...although I'm sure he didn't want to be tracked down!

This obituary was pretty fascinating (to me, at least) as it listed his children by his first marriage (to Helen Gould) but made absolutely no reference to his children by Della...I really wonder if he told his 3rd wife, Leona, about the 2nd wife! I don't think he told Grandma Della when he married her that he was divorced and had 3 kids! Della was 19 and he was 33!
Anyway, from this obituary I found out the married name of his daughter, Jane, by his first wife...she married a Leo Hardy and they had a son named Roger who lived in Los Angeles.  His sons by his first wife, John Leslie and Richard, lived in Hemet, Riverside, CA...not far from Fresno where Gma Eck lived with Uncle Les.

Word of Wisdom Chiasm...Kind of Cool

Our Sunday School lesson last week on Section 89 made me think of this interesting insight on the Word of Wisdom....it is a very complex chiasm (Hebrew form of poetry).... to see one complete analysis go here...but here's a very simplified diagram I used in Seminary...

Word of Wisdom Chiasm (Section 89)

A   Word of Wisdom: A Principle with a PROMISE (v.3)
      B  For the Saints, the "don'ts, (commandments) (v.3, 5-9)
            C  Wholesome herbs & fruits (v.10-11)
                  D Flesh sparingly, times of famine (v. 12-13)
                        E Grain the staff of LIFE (v 14) (also, Christ the Bread of Life, our Center)
                  D  Beasts, in times of famine (v.15)
             C  Grain is good, also fruits (v.16-17)
        B  And all Saints obedient to Commandments (v.18)
A   Receive this PROMISE (v.18-21)

        The Promise: Health, Marrow, Wisdom, Treasures of Knowledge, Hidden Treasures, Run & Walk, Destroying angel will pass them by....

Mother's Day Pictures...Christian, Alec, Sadie, Lindi

 Every Mother's Day, Amber's gift is that her children cooperate with having family  pictures taken...when they were small she took them to Kiddy Candids I think, until they closed....now she take their pictures herself and does a great job....usually she has individuals of each of them, plus shots of the two brothers and two sisters and a group shot....of course this year Christian is on his mission in Colombia....but he had someone take a nice photo of him and emailed it to mom...then Alec used his photo editing skills to put himself in the picture! Next year Alec will be on his mission...we'll see who can create that shot next Mother's Day....aren't they fine looking young men and women?

Sewing with Lindi

So Lindi and I also made this skirt while I was here...Lindi did almost all of the sewing! Side seams, hems, gathering stitches (LOTS of gathering stitches)...It's very twirly!

Grandma "Genius"?....Extend-a-Dress

 Lindi was having to get rid of a lot of her favorite dresses since she is (of course) growing taller....and shopping for new dresses was a bit discouraging too because most we found(if we were lucky) would barely come to her knee....so enter a little creative grandmothering....

I used a half slip she already had....then bought 1 yard of lacy eyelet fabric and a couple yards of light weight velcro...
I cut the fabric into 4 strips, 1/4 yd each and sewed the short edges together into a cylinder , then gathered the top edge...(and hemmed the bottom edge)

  

At this point I could have just sewn it to the bottom edge of the slip....but here's the genius part....I sewed some velcro to the under edge of the slip, then the other part of the velcro to the top edge of the ruffle... so it attaches to the slip with velcro...this is because we plan to make a couple more ruffles (black, yellow, etc.) that can be switched for specific dresses...

 Here's happy Lindi with a dress that was approaching uncomfortable shortness...we'll make a black ruffle that would look good with it too..

 And this was a dress she had two years ago for Kaity's wedding and hated to send to DI...

So many sundresses become much more wearable now...

Isn't this a cute one???

This is a navy/white dress

This will look good with the black ruffle...

Happy (modest) Lindi.....what a fun (grandma) project!