Ham & Cheese Pockets

Okay, so the kids decided they wanted ham & cheese pockets instead of pizza pockets, so here we go:

First, we made the dough as the recipe here says (only we used pure white flour since I'm out of wheat for the moment).  Then I rolled them out and used my pie/empada maker to cut out circles:

Then I took one of the circles and put it on the pie/empada maker and filled the center indention with ham and cheese:

Then you fold the pie/empada maker in half and squeeze slightly to seal:

Open it up and TADA....a little pocket:

Place them on a pan and bake them for 15-20 minutes and you have perfect little pockets.

We made 22 of these and between all six of us, they were gone at the end of the meal.  VERY YUMMY!

Of course you can fill them with anything...pie fillings, pizza ingredients, taco ingredients, the options are endless.  I think these will be great to have for harvest time...now if I can only get some made up ahead of time and in the freezer!

My New Tupperware...

I'm so excited...I got my new tupperware order in today!  I've been looking EVERYWHERE for a container to store my loaves of bread in.  Currently I've been using large plastic bags, but honestly they don't work well in the refrigerator to keep the bread from getting squished...especially with kids.  

I have a Rubbermaid container that I use, but honestly it isn't tall enough and the lid is splitting because I keep trying to make it work!  So I measured my latest loaf of bread and went looking online for a container that would be BIG enough.  I found this one:

Plenty of room on top and at the ends

And even fits the overage on the sides...yay!

I also got some tumblers for picnics and the pie/empada makers and some new measuring spoons since my PC ones are falling apart from use.

 I think we are going to make pizza pockets for lunch, so I'll try to take pictures and show you what we came up with.

A Good Day of Fishing

Sunday afternoon, Marion decided it would be a good day to take the kids fishing and see if they could catch anything.  When the came back...this is what they had:

Daddy and the Boys getting ready to show off their catch

Daddy dumping some of the water so we could see them better!

The fish...Nathan actual caught the big one!
Marion caught the other one...
and Jonny & Abi unfortunately didn't catch any :0(

The kids decided that instead of eating these fish...they wanted to put them in the pond south of our house...so Marion let them do that.

Our New Screen Door

Several weeks ago, the kids were playing outside while I did some work in the house.  All of a sudden, I heard Abigail screaming bloody murder!  I rush to the front of the house to see what had happened...and what did I find?  The screen door on the west of the house was completely mangled!  So, what happened?

Well, I guess Abigail had wanted to come in the house from the front and being skinny enough, the screen door was able to shut behind her before she got the wood door open.  Then, she found out that the wood door was locked and the she couldn't get the old screen door open...panicking, she went through the screen on the door (which fortunately was open instead of having the glass closed).  Needless to say the damage to the door was more then what could be repaired easily, so Marion agreed to a new screen door (something I'v been wanting for years...lol).

So, we finally had a day to work on it and here we are:

Here are the instructions...this is where I started...Marion thought I was silly...
but eventually, he agreed we needed them...rofl!

drilling holes to install the hinges

Commercial break...lol...I took this picture because I really liked her hair that day...we put in two pony tails, then braided them and rolled them into buns on the top...it was really cute!

Now back to work:

Screwing in the hinges after the holes were drilled

drilling the holes for the hinge in the doorway

Installing the weather strip at the top...
if it doesn't fit exactly...just hit it a bit harder....lol!

And here we are again...if it doesn't fit right...just pound it some more!

TADA...the final door installed.
You can see one of my favorite features...the screen opens from the top.

Ethan loves to stand at the door and look out...always before I was concerned about the screen getting broken but now I can have the window open with the breeze and not worry about the screen!  It also has a much better locking mechanism and it twists open instead of pushes...which is easier for the kids.  

I am so VERY thankful for my new screen door!

What have we been up too...

It's been a while since I posted.

There's been alot going on and yet not anything really.

The kids are growing up WAY to fast:

Abigail can now snap her fingers, is reading Charlotte's Web, and often blows us away with her 'grown up' talk. Nathan is learning to read and built a ramp out of bricks and wood to jump his bike (of which he is getting very proficient at riding). Jonathan is learning to ride a big boys bike with training wheels and zooms around the yard after Nathan! And of course Ethan is walking up a storm - constantly on the move - and learning more words by the day.

They are all just growing up way too fast!


We got a new storm door on the west side of the house.  I'll try to post some pictures later with the story.

Last night/yesterday we got 3.40 in rain.  Marion is thrilled!

Last weekend we helped out at the church clean up day, and we've got a few showers coming up this next week for a couple girls in the church as well.  Other than that we've just been busy with regular household chores and finishing up school.

Oh ya...Abi finished school yesterday!  She is officially done.  We have a few reading lessons that we'll 'finish up' over the next few days but her official days of school for this year are done.  She is very excited!

Well, that is all I can come up with at the moment.  I have a few individual blog posts to put up but I'm not really in the blogging mood right now so I'll do them later.  Have a great day!

I made BAGELS....oh ya!

I would never have thought one could make bagels...but I can now say "I made honey wheat bagels". Now I know that 'someone' has to make bagels...but I never thought it would be me in my own kitchen!  The particular bagels that I made were 100% wheat and VERY yummy (the next time I might add in a bit of white just to see the difference) but for dinner I made Ham, Egg, and Cheese Bagels and Marion said he'd never had a better bagel sandwich!  

The only problem that I see so far is that they didn't last...lol!  I made them one day and the next they were GONE!

Have you ever made bagels?  They aren't really that hard....you should try it...look here for the recipe.

E-mail Fixed - Melanie

Dear Friends & Family,

 

I believe we have secured our e-mail once again.

 

We have not been receiving the hijacked e-mails since we corrected the issue with Ruraltel, and we have not had any reports of illicit or spammed e-mails. 

 

Thank you for your help and endurance during this time, and please let us know if you do ever get suspicious e-mails from us.

 

Respectfully,

 

M&M Schlatter

 

Greetings from the M&M Farm located in North Central Kansas.

Keep updated at www.mmfarmlife.blogspot.com.

 

A Few Recent Projects

In an effort to clear off my dining room table (again) I decided to tackle a few of the projects that were sitting around waiting for me to get to them.  The first project I did was another t-shirt dress for Abigail.  It is so exciting to be able to make a new outfit out of material that cost us NOTHING!

You can see the small strip of green that I added. You can't really see it unless the tail of the shirt is lifted.

The next project I did was to convert a pair of Capri pants into a skirt.  I wanted to see how hard this would be.   And it wasn't that hard, but I do think I needed to go up higher in the crotch to make it lay better.

The fabric looks really black here, but it is a green that matches the butterflies pretty well.

See the pretty butterflies...I just had to try to save these!

And my last project I did today was the basket liner.  I had read how it was terrible on baby's tummy's to have all that string laying around and I have to admit that I don't like to have Ethan around all the strings and stuff, so I bought a basket and made a liner like what Ashley from Make it and Love it does here.  My basket had handles so I had to make inserts for them, and I wanted my basket to have some elastic to keep it on.

You can see it is already being put to good use!

I've still got a jumper to alter, and a skirt to make for me, and a jumper dress to design for Abi.  Then my table will be all cleaned off.  We'll see how far I get over the next few days.  I've also been working on the flower bed out front, but I can only do that for so long before I need a break inside!  lol

My Mother's Day Gift

Marion learned years ago that Mother's Day is NOT the day to take me out to eat!  Therefore, this year we headed home after church where he proceeded to make lunch for us all while I got to kick back & relax.  After lunch, the kids and I took a nap while Marion worked on his reading sermon for that night.  It was a very relaxing and enjoyable Mother's Day for me, and I'm so appreciative to my husband and kids.

For my gift, I requested a new pan this year.  The old family skillet I had was really getting beat up and the interior was peeling - making it a real pain to clean - things would stick and it was hard to determine if it was cooked food that needed 'scrubbed' off or the peeling insides of the pan....YUCK!

Anyway, after looking around awhile, I found this Everyday Pan from Cuisinart.  I'm really liking Cuisinart!  (thanks K for introducing me).  The thing I love about this pan is that it is big enough for my family, but it doesn't have that really long handle to stick out from my stove top!  And it can go in the oven too...so I can make the same dishes as I was before...and all at the fraction of the price.  How can a girl beat that?

Thanks Hubby...I love my new pan!

A beautiful day at the Park...

So, I decided that it was such a beautiful day that I'd take the kids to the park and have a picnic with them there!  It was so much fun!  Several other families were also at the park and the kids had a great time.  

Here are a few fun pictures we got.  Please excuse the messy faces...I'll go back in and 'clean them up' later for my printed copies...but I thought they added a bit of character..lol...actually, I just wanted to post them and didn't want to take the time to clean them right now...lol!

I LOVE this one!

Progress is being made...

Well, it is going slow, but progress is being made on the flower beds out front.  

You can see that I haven't gotten to the back border yet.  I thought I'd try to start with the front first and then work my way back around.  But I"m getting mulch down and weed preventer and I've moved a few flowers around so that they weren't so crowded with bare spots in between.  When the daffodils die down a bit, I'll be separating them out as they are VERY thick!  You can see I tried to do a few but I'm afraid I killed those ones.  I guess we'll see if they come up next year or not.

One dilemma that I'm having is that I installed that black border a LONG time ago when I first put in the flower bed...well...when I put in the rock border I actually placed the stones ON TOP of the black border.  Now that I'm trying to set the stones into the ground a bit, I have to put the rock border on one side or the other of that black border and the black border does not go straight!  I may just rip out the black border so I can put the rocks straight...but I haven't fully decided yet.

Really on the MOVE...

Ethan is REALLY on the move now...and he loves to play ball!  It's kind of funny as you play fetch with a 1 year old...sometimes you loose sight of what you are fetching.  Anyway, this video gives you a better glimpse of his walking abilities!

Homemade Poptarts...

So I tried another Heavenly Homemaker recipe, poptarts!  Now, once again, I didn't have everything in the recipe but thought I'd try it anyway.  Her recipe calls for yogurt and I didn't have any plain, but several of the comments indicated you could use milk instead.  I also saw a comment about using 1/2 flax seed-1/2 butter so I tried that since I had some flax seed in the fridge that needed to be used.  They were good, but I think next time I'll try the whole butter to compare.  I also learned that I need to put in alot more 'stuff' in the inside. You couldn't taste the Peanut Butter at all!

So here is the dough...

Then I kneaded it and rolled it out real thin...
I don't have alot of 'space' to do this, so I did the best I could.
Then I cut it into squarish rectangles.

Added the Peanut Butter and Jelly on half the pieces.

Matched tops and bottoms the best I could.

Scored the edges with a fork...I did both sides.

Put them on the pan to bake.

And Wahla...PB&J poptarts! 

I made about 16 of these and they were all gone before Marion had a chance to even have ONE!  I do have to say, I don't think they came out as 'flaky' as Laura's because of the flax seed (or the lack of butter), but I know they were healthier than the store processed stuff!  Later this week, I might try making the dough again and making pizza pockets...another thing she does with this recipe!