October is Family History Month!

Do you know who your ancestors are?

The majority of us know our grandparents and some younger people have the privilege of knowing their great-grandparents. (What a blessing! What I wouldn't give to have had opportunity to know my great-grandparents!) But, who else do you know?

I have traced my family name back to the late 1600's. Three of my four grandparents came from German fathers and Irish mothers! The other one was pure Italian! (I have traced her line back to the mid 1700's.) 

I even have a Great Great-Grandmother named Kate! I didn't know that growing up, but I am very glad I know it now! Knowing my ancestor's connects me to them. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of them. I am very thankful that they sacrificed and endured the trip to America to give me the opportunity to be born here.

Tracing your ancestors is easy! You don't need a fancy subscription service to find them. You can do it for FREE! (Well, you do need a computer and internet service, but you already have that or you would not be reading this post.) 

Go to www.familysearch.org. You don't even need to create a free account to search for your ancestors, just click on the Search button at the top of the page. If you want to save the information you find, you can either print it out, or create a free account and save it to the cloud.

Enter all the information you know about your ancestor in the search fields. Not sure of a date? Put in a range. I have put ranges up to 10 years and still found people in my family!

Give it a try!  I KNOW you will be introduced to a family member you didn't know about!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a FREE web site that you can use to help you locate your ancestors: www.familysearch.org. This web site has all sorts of tutorials and on-line help if you don't know where to start. It has records from all over the world! Anyone, from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection, can access this site to search for their deceased family members. If you want even more help, stop by the family history center at your local church. You do not have to be a church member to use the local family history center. There are family history centers in almost every country in the world!

I Am Speaking In Church This Sunday!

And I am very excited about it! What am I speaking on? Why, Family History of course! In my Church, we don't have a professional clergy. Members of the Priesthood takes turns on leading the ward (congregation). For speakers each week, we all take turns! My topic is The Blessings of Doing Family History Work.

I also have other Church news! Our ward is hosting an Emergency Preparedness Fair in September and I am in charge of a display of Food Storage, and Home Preparations. Home Preparations include Gardening, Home Canning, and Alternative Methods of Cooking in an Emergency. WOW! Am I excited! As you all know, these are some of my favorite topics here on this blog.

I will be sure to keep you updated on the Emergency Preparedness Fair as I work on it and I will take pictures of the actual event. 

Skills Your Great-Grandparents Had

I often post about the unique skills our Great-Grandparents had. I believe many of those skills are important to relearn to lead a self sufficient life. I often long for the slower paced, simple life my ancestors had and I try to emulate that where possible in today's world. I have succeeded in certain areas, and need much more work in others!

To help with those skills I lack, I often read about what life was like in past generations. I feel, it brings me closer to my family history.  I really believe I was born in the wrong century and I would have been much more at home in a century of the past!  

If you feel likewise, you may enjoy this article I found! Since my church gave me a free membership to Ancestry.com, I have been spending time there in search of ancestors I do not know. One of those searches led me to this article!

11 Skills Your Great Grandparents Had That You Don't

I hope you enjoy it!

Seeking Out the Names of Your Ancestors

I post about family history regularly on this blog. That is because it is a subject near and dear to me. I believe it is important for everyone (especially children) to know about their family and where they came from. My Church is very involved in creating convenient, easy ways you can find your ancestors. Unlike Ancestry.com, Find My Past.com or My Heritage.com, access to all records stored by the church are free. So, where do you go to find this information? Why, www.familysearch.org, of course! 

Click on the Search drop down menu at the top of the page and select Records. Enter the name(s) of the ancestors you know to find the ones you don't. Marriage records are a big help here. Most states (and countries) require the names of parents for anyone asking for a marriage license. This is a great way to find new people you didn't know about!

If you have been to the web site before and were unable to locate anyone, let me assure you new records are added all the time! If you haven't been to the web site in a few months, then millions more records have been added. 

Let me give you an example. Last Monday, Family Search wanted to break a record by having over 50,000 people index records in one day. (Indexing is taking digital images of paper records and then keying the information from those records into a database.) I participated in this record breaking event! I am thrilled to say that so did  66,510 other people. We all helped to break the old record of 49,025 indexers participating on one day. The best part of this news is that over 4 million new records have been added to the database. That is 4 million records in one day! Millions and millions of new records are added each year!

Now, lest you think these records are all from the US, let me assure you they are not! Recently, records have been added from Mexico, Argentina, Japan, Canada, Croatia, Peru, Poland, Brazil, England, Germany, Isle of Man, Netherlands, and the United States. Current indexing projects include records from Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Columbia, Ecuador, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, Honduras, Italy, Mexico, Hungary, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Sir Lanka, Sweden, England, Uruguay, Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. WOW! When I say billions of records are currently available, I really mean it!

All of this is done for free. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints will never charge money for you to see any of this work. No matter your religious affiliation, the Church wants everyone to know who their ancestors are! Take some time this week to get to know yours!


The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a FREE web site that you can use to help you locate your ancestors: www.familysearch.org. This web site has all sorts of tutorials and on-line help if you don't know where to start. It has records from all over the world! Anyone, from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection, can access this site to search for their deceased family members. If you want even more help, stop by the family history center at your local church. You do not have to be a church member to use your local family history center. There are family history centers in almost every country in the world!

Sleeping Like Your Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandparents Did!

Are you an insomniac? Do you ever wonder why you wake up at 2:00 am everyday or almost everyday? 

Here is an interesting article I found that may help you to rethink what an insomniac really is!

Even if it won't help you cope the morning after those sleepless nights, I hope you will find some solace in the fact that this is the way your ancestors slept too!

Your Ancestors Didn't Sleep Like You

What Would My Great-Grandmothers Do?

I ask myself that question all the time! Anytime I have a task that must be accomplish, my preference is to approach it the same way my great-grandmothers or great-great-grandmothers did.

I am sure everyone knows, you have four great-grandmothers. (Two grandmothers, four great-grandmothers, eight great- great-grandmothers, etc.) For most of my life, I knew about three of my great-grandmothers. My mother talked about her grandmother all the time, (on her mother's side). My father's mother talked about her mother, grandmother and mother-in-law as well. The great-grandmother I never had the opportunity to hear about was my mother's grandmother on her father's side. She didn't get to grow up with her father, hence she didn't know very much about him or his ancestors. I only had the opportunity to visit with him a few times. The few stories he told me about his family were very general in nature. I never even knew his mother's name!

All that changed when my church gave me a free subscription to Ancestry.com! (All LDS church members in good standing are getting a one year subscription to Ancestry.com for free this year!) It took a few weeks, (and prayers asking for help), but I found her!

Let me introduce you to Mary Walsh! I found her in the 1915 New York State Census. Although she was born in New York, her parents emigrated here from Canada when her older sister Anna was a baby. Her ancestry is Irish. From what my grandfather told me, she married a man who ancestry is from Austria. I don't know his name yet, when the family moved from Austria, they changed their name to Howard. I am not sure what they changed it from. In the 1915 census record shown above, Mary was a widow. I haven't found her marriage records yet.

I cannot describe how thrilled I am that I found my great-grandmother! Working on my mother's line of ancestry has been difficult, to say the least.  Her relatives have very common names! I must pour through thousands of records to find the right ones! However, our Heavenly Father has promised blessing to those that do family history work, so I know it is all worth it!

Take some time to get to know your ancestors. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a FREE web site that you can use to help you locate your ancestors: www.familysearch.org. This web site has all sorts of tutorials, on-line help, and live customer service representatives available to help if you don't know where to start. You can access records from all over the world! Anyone, from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection, can access this site to search for their deceased family members. If you want even more help, stop by the family history center at your local church. You do not have to be a church member to use your local family history center. 

Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day!

Do you come from Irish ancestry? Well, today it doesn't matter because everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day!

I have been teaching a family history class at Church these past few Sunday's and so ancestry is on my mind a lot lately! With that in mind, I must tell you about some of the new features you can find on the LDS FamilySearch website. As always, FamilySearch is a free website for anyone to use!

• Billions of new records have been added from every country in the world!
• New help tutorials have been added for all skill levels. You can find relevant topics whether you are a beginner or an expert!
• Are you still stumped on what to do? Call a Family History Consultant and ask for help! The call is toll free! AND you can call from almost anywhere in the world! (There is a Call Us link on the Home Help Page that lists all the numbers available from around the world.) Here is a screenshot of some of the numbers on that page. I would give you a direct link but the list of phone numbers is a pop up.

• Different ways to display your family tree. FamilySearch now offers 3 different ways you can display your family tree.
• If you have your family tree recorded in Ancestry.com (or another commercial service), you can import your information to FamilySearch! (Save the monthly fees you spend at those other services! How frugal is that!)

I have found over 550 people using the tools at FamilySearch. Remember, this has all been done while sitting on the couch in my family room!  No need to go to the library or anywhere else for that matter! My husband's tree goes back to the 1100's! I haven't broken past 1700 on my side yet, but I am working on it! It is a bit of a challenge to search for records in another language from your computer at home, but it isn't impossible! There are lots of tutorials on the help page geared towards searching in specific countries!

As always, you do not need to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to use the FamilySearch website. You don't even need to create a login account if you don't want to! You can still use the Search screen to find your ancestors and then record the information you find on paper or any other software program.

I highly encourage everyone to cruise the pages at FamilySearch and try your hand at finding your own ancestors!

Christmas Victorian Style

Whenever a holiday comes around, my thoughts always go to my ancestors. This is especially true at Christmas. I want to know: How did they celebrate Christmas? What did they ask Santa to bring them when they were children? What did they eat to celebrate the day? What was the conversation like around the dinner table? What Christmas carols did they sing?

While I will never know for sure (until I meet them in Heaven and get the opportunity to ask!), I can get an idea of what Christmas was like in the 1800's by visiting websites & reading books that offer that information. So, to that end, here are some websites that describe how our ancestors celebrated Christmas:

Victorian Christmas Dinner Menu
A Victorian Christmas
The History of Christmas in the 19th Century
The History of Christmas in America
Old West Legends: A Pioneer Christmas
Christmas in the 1800's

Do You Know Who Your Ancestors Are?

This is a topic that is very close to my heart. However, I have neglected writing about it for quite some time now! Certainly long enough to tell you that there have been many, many exciting updates made to the FamilySearch.org website! All of these updates were made to make it easier for you to find your ancestors!

Imagine that your ancestors came here from another country (that includes about all of us here in the US). How would you get to see birth certificates or marriage certificates from the 1700's? Well in the past, unless you traveled to that country, or hired someone to travel there for you, you would never know who these people are!

While Ancestry.com, and other websites like it, have been around for a few years now, they are expensive. FamilySearch has them all beat because it is FREE! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints wants everyone to know who their ancestors are. It really is true that you can't know where you are going if you don't know where you came from. Church members volunteer their time to enter this data by Indexing records. They are then available for everyone in the world to see. I know you can find information about your ancestors too! As an example, here is the marriage certificate for one of my great-great-great-great grandparents.

It is important to remember that you can access this website from anywhere in the world, no matter where you live. Let me give you some information on the new features that were recently added:

• You can add photos and memorable stories to each ancestor you add to your family tree. The best part about this is these stories are available in Google search results so others can see what you wrote. What a wonderful way to connect with other people who share an ancestor with you!
• Just in the past 6 months, 200 million new records have been added from the following countries (listed in no particular order):
• Italy
• Canada
• Russia
• England
• Wales
• Argentina
• Denmark
• Germany
• Brazil
• Columbia
• Spain
• Mexico
• Switzerland
• Czech Republic
• Hungary
• Poland
• United States
• plus many more!
• If you need help, there is now live support to help you! These people volunteer their time to answer your questions over the phone or via chat. How cool is that! 

I strongly encourage you to spend some time looking for your ancestors. I can't think of a better gift to give your family this holiday season. All it takes is a few moments of your time!

It is quite rewarding to find the people who made you who you are. I can honestly tell you that I feel so blessed because I know who my ancestors are. I think about them every day! And, I look forward to meeting them someday!

Cooking with Apples: Great-Great-Grandmother Style

I am almost finished processing apples for the year.  I should end up with about 50 pints of applesauce, 25 pints of apple pie filling and a few gallons of apple juice. In the meantime, I am looking at what is left of the remaining bushel and thinking what would my great-great-grandmother do with all these apples? She would make apple tansy!

While it is called a 'pudding', it isn't a sweet dish. It does have a bit of sugar in it, but it is very easy to substitute stevia or splenda. Also, if you use sweet apples, you can omit the sugar. In addition, this recipe calls for rose water. Rose water was used a lot in recipes before vanilla flavoring became known to people living in America. (Vanilla was brought back to America by Thomas Jefferson upon his return from France in 1789.)  Rose water is still very popular in Middle Eastern cooking today and you can find it in ethnic food stores. You may also be able to find it at a place like Whole Foods or a more upscale grocery store (in the ethnic foods section).

One more note about this recipe. It cooks sort of 'omelet like' and you will need to flip it. If you don't use a deep, flat sided skillet, it should flip relatively easy. 

This recipe came from the book The Martha Washington Cookbook.  This is a collection of recipes from her family cookbook. The recipe for apple tansy is on page 172. Some of the recipes in this book go back to 1706! Most foods back then were highly seasoned; meats were cooked in wine, nutmeg and ginger were commonly used, and rose water was used in almost all puddings, cakes and creams.

With that introduction, here is the recipe.

Apple Tansy
Whites of 6 eggs
Yolks of 3 eggs  (I used three whole eggs and then used meringue powder & water for the other 3 egg whites)
2 TBS rose water (I never made it to the grocery store to buy this, so I used a tsp of vanilla instead.)
Juice of 1/2 lemon ( My bottle of lemon juice says the juice of 1/2 lemon is equal to 1 1/2 tablespoons so that is what I used.)
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 TBS sugar
6 apples
2 TBS butter (You can omit this and use Pam if you would like.)

I started with the three eggs and the meringue powder & water. Beat it well. I used a whisk.

Add the sugar, nutmeg, lemon juice and rose water or vanilla. Mix well.

Peel and chop four apples. The recipe said to chop the apples very fine. I used my Victorio Apple Peeler. It took about 1 minute to peel, core, slice and chop all four apples. (I do so love this tool! If you would like to own one, you can use my link on the left side of the blog to purchase it from Amazon.)

Add the apples to the egg mixture and set aside. Now, core the other two apples and slice thinly. Put 1 tablespoon of butter in the skillet and add the apples. Fry them till they are brown. I sliced one apple in half first and the other one I left whole.

Mine didn't turn golden brown but did turn translucent so I took them out of the pan. Set aside when done. 

The recipe said to keep them hot. I didn't want to turn on the oven, or setup the Sun Oven to keep them hot so I left them on the stove until I needed them. Then, to reheat, I put them in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Add the other tablespoon of butter to the skillet and add the apple mixture. Put the skillet on low heat and let it cook. Mine took 15 minutes.

Check the sides to be sure it is done. It should be cooked throughout. Now you can flip it. (This is just to brown the other side.) To flip, slide it out of the skillet on to a plate. Then, put another plate over it and flip it. Slide it off the plate and back into the pan. 

Next time I will do it a bit slower to keep the edges looking nice. When it is brown on the bottom, move it to a plate and add the fried apples to the top. At this point I decided that the half apples made a better presentation and so I cut them all in half. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired and serve. 

It has a unique flavor. The nutmeg really stands out! I liked it. My husband said it was so-so.  I think it would make a nice breakfast dish. Definitely a change from boring breakfast cereal, toast or even french toast! 

On the web, I found another version of apple tansy that uses less eggs and a bit of cream. You can see that one here . I also found additional web sites that have other 18th and 19th century (and early 20th century) apple recipes:

Apple Salad
Dried Apple Cake
Apple Dumplings
Apple Cream

If you wish to try additional recipes our ancestors served their families, I highly recommend The Martha Washington Cookbook!

Happy Pioneer Day!

Today is Pioneer Day for all Latter-Day Saints. It is also a state holiday in Utah. There is usually a big parade in Salt Lake City. (You can watch the parade on BYU TV if you get that channel.)

Pioneer Day is the day the first Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. The first company (all wagon trains were organized into groups called 'companies') consisted of 143 men chosen on the basis of ability and need. There were blacksmiths, wagon makers, carpenters, millwrights, stonemasons, hunters and surveyors.  All of them had farming skills. The purpose of the first company was to determine the best trail west and plant crops so there would be food enough for everyone who followed. 

One of the characteristics of the land was the fact that it was isolated. This was what the Church was looking for so they could be left alone to build a community and establish the city of Zion. 

For anyone who has been to Salt Lake City, you also know how dry it is there. The Saints had to dig irrigation ditches to get the water to the crops. By 1850 the Saints had irrigated over 16,000 acres of land yielding over 120,000 bushels of grain and 45,000 bushels of potatoes. The President of the Church at the time was Brigham Young and it was his skills as a logistician that made it possible for Salt Lake City to grow and prosper!

Happy Pioneer Day to you!

Most of this information was taken from the pamphlet, The Mormon Legacy: In the History of the American West. If you would like to read this pamphlet or learn more information about the Mormon migration west, you can do that here.

Happy Independence Day!

I hope it isn't going to rain where you live and that you have a great day of barbecue and fireworks! Please remember, freedom isn't free. Lots of wonderful people died to give you the freedom you have today! 

Let me tell you about one special fourth of July that I think about often. It happened in 1918. On that day, the street in Paris named 'Avenue du Trocadero' was renamed 'Avenue du President Wilson' on behalf of the United States joining the war effort. (BTW, before WWII, WWI was known as 'The Great War'.)

This fourth of July is special to me because my grandfather marched down the Avenue du President Wilson that day. Only a few hundred soldiers got to participate, my grandfather was one of them. He also bought this postcard as a souvenir to send to my grandmother.

On the back of it he wrote this note. Notice there isn't any stamp on this postcard. My grandfather wrote in the corner 'soldier's mail'. That is because it didn't cost anything for soldiers fighting overseas to mail letters home. Also, all mail had to be censored to make sure soldiers weren't sending home information that the enemy could use. You can see the censor stamp in the middle of the postcard. 

My grandmother lived at 1707 Melville Street in the Bronx. She and her family owned an Italian restaurant there and lived in an apartment above the restaurant. (Today, it is a laundromat ) My grandparents married one year later, when my grandfather came home from the war. I am blessed to have this postcard and I am very thankful my grandmother kept it!

It makes the fourth of July extra special to me!

The Big Event: The Trek!

Wow! Was it hot on the Trek! Well, that is what you get in June in the southeast! It was still a lot of fun. The actual Trek route had to be modified a bit because the river was too high to cross safely with the handcarts. Instead of crossing the river with a full handcart, the families got the option of taking the handcart across the river empty. Some families did. Other, just decided to go in the water to cool off!

Here are some pictures.

This picture was from the first night of the Trek. The families just left Nauvoo, but haven't really started the long walk yet. You can see some of the 5 gallon buckets each person got to hold all their belongings, as well as the fact that all teenagers are a bit messy!

Almost all of the journey was uphill or downhill! This is a picture of one of the few sections that was flat!  This picture was taken near the start of the journey on the first day.

Some sections were quite muddy! It took some planning to figure out how to get the carts through the mud.

There was also a steep uphill section that was a 'women's only' pull. This was to represent the time when all the men left the train to go fight in the Mexican-American war (1846 - 1847).  The only way the women (and children) made it was for all to stop and help wagon by wagon through the difficult sections. It really was a miracle that those women made it across the plains by themselves! This time period is known as 'The Mormon Battalion'. Here is a picture of our girls starting off at the bottom of the hill.

Here is the biscuit stop. We came out on the trail to handout the biscuits. In this picture, you can see a bit of my blue dress in the middle of the group.

Here is the river crossing. This picture was taken standing at the top of a hill. You can see the kids below getting ready to go into the water.

Just a few more pictures...

All I can say is it was such an amazing experience! This is something that you can read about in history books but honestly, the history books can't really put into words all the trials and hardships our ancestors had as they crossed this country. The only way to truly get even a small taste of what it was like, is to go yourself!

I feel very blessed to have had just a small part in such a wonderful experience! I know I will never forget it!

Welcome to Nauvoo, 1846!

It was the first day of the Trek and I was in Nauvoo! We recreated the entire town! The Trek families were divided into groups and every 30 minutes we did a round robin so all the families got to visit all the stops. We had speakers at each stop to talk a bit about what would happen there in a typical day. There was a gunsmith shop, blacksmith shop, wagon shop, bakery, mail office, general store, schoolhouse, personal homes, and even a jail! 

We recreated Carthage jail. Carthage is a small town about 20 mile southeast of Nauvoo. The prophet Joseph Smith was murdered in this jail in 1844. The 'actors' in the jail told this story. The entire day was a mix of history lessons about what life was like in 1846, as well as a stop in the bakery to gather food supplies and a trip to the wagon shop to pick up their handcarts! It was super fun!

I didn't get many pictures of the hussle and bussle of the day because I was busy! Most of the day I was in the general store with my quilt - teaching the kids how to tie it. The day was over before I knew it! I didn't even get to visit the gunsmith or blacksmith shop! (They were outdoors and had fires going.)

I did manage to take a few pictures before everyone arrived in 'town'. So here is a snapshot of what it looked like:

A corner of the schoolhouse.

 A corner of the general store.

In this picture of the bakery, I am looking out of the ordering window. The families came to the window to order their food supplies. (Everything was rationed, but they did get a few choices in what they wanted to eat.) There were also 'bakery displays' located around the room.

The bakery.

The post office.

The schoolhouse. 

In this picture of the general store, you can see my pink quilt sitting in the middle of the room.  That is where I was stationed. The tables in the back were for each family to have a practical exercise in gathering clothing and supplies from around the room. Once they picked what they thought was necessary for the trip, the items were weighted. The families were allowed 17 pounds per adult and 10 pounds per child. It was an eye opening exercise to show how very little the pioneers got to take with them. If their handcart weighed too much, they would not survive the grueling trip to Salt Lake City! (This wasn't their real clothing for the 3-day Trek -  just a history lesson. Each person got a list of what to bring with them beforehand. However, they were not allowed to bring anything that was not on the list! Everything they brought on the Trek had to fit in a 5 gallon bucket!)

The general store.

Overall, it was a wonderful day! Everyone had lots of fun and learned a bit about what life was like in 1846 before the pioneers left Nauvoo.

I am soooo glad I got to participate!

Cooking with Food Storage: Pioneer Biscuits

My deepest apologies for not posting in a week - I have been so busy with work and the rest of the Trek preparations. I did manage to make my apron after all, and the four loaves of bread. I finished all the quilt preparations as well. Now it is onto the Trek!

In the meantime, I thought I would show you how to make the biscuits we are baking for everyone on the Trek. We experimented quite a few times to make sure we got something everyone would love and would be quick and easy to make. This post is the recipe we decided on.

We used a premade mix that is available at the big box stores.

There is a biscuit recipe on the back of the box, and that is the reference point we started with. However, we modified it to save prep time.  The recipe on the box is really simple:

3 cups biscuit mix
1 cup milk

The directions state to moisten the mix and then roll it out and use a biscuit cutter to make the biscuits. We decided to turn this mix into drop biscuits. No rolling pins or biscuit cutters needed. So we changed the ingredients as follows:

3 cups biscuit mix
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups milk

Now we didn't use fresh milk from the store. We mainly used powdered milk (along with some ultra pasteurized milk that was about to expire). We reconstituted it before measuring  (normally, I just add the powder to the dry mix and then use water.) The reason I give a range for the milk is because we were looking for a certain consistency, and sometimes the batter only needed 1 1/4 cups milk and sometimes it needed 1 1/2 cups. With that in mind, lets make some biscuits! 

All the pictures below were taken at the house of my biscuit making partner. She doesn't have a four legged one standing in the kitchen, getting in the way trying to help!

Start with 3 cups of mix. Then add the milk. I only added 1 1/4 cups at first and then added the extra 1/4 cup if it was needed.

Mix it in quickly, however, don't over mix it. It can make the biscuits tough if you over mix it. To make drop biscuits, you need a dough that is more moist. It should have a 'sticky' look to it and not be a typical biscuit dough. Here is a picture of mine.

Drop the dough by a large spoon to make the size you want. We were looking for big biscuits - about 3 inches round. I dropped the dough in a circle that was about 2 1/2 inches round. The extra moisture in the dough made them spread to 3 inches. Be sure to place on a greased cookie sheet. I used Pam. Here is what they should look like.

Then I added a bit of shredded cheddar cheese to the top.

Bake them at 450 degrees for 11 minutes. When they come out of the oven, they should look like this.

We decided to make some honey butter to spread on them. No measuring involved here. We used softened butter and mixed it with honey to taste. We will cut them in half and butter them for the groups because they don't have time to stop and butter their own. We will serve them in big wicker baskets and let each person take what they want. Here is the final result.

Of course, we sampled all of our testing! They were delicious!!

Walking in Your Ancestor's Shoes: A Trek Update

Well, it is coming down to the wire here and I still have a lot to do before Trek starts! Last Sunday at Church, they passed around a new roster asking for additional baked goods to go into the bakery in Nauvoo. This is part of the food the families will take with them on the Trek. I signed up to bake four loaves of whole wheat bread. I am going to use the recipe I got from my friend Chef Tess' web site. I have made that recipe many times before and featured it on this blog, last year. If you are interested, you can see that recipe here.

Normally, making bread is no big deal to me. I bake bread a lot. However, I was handed a new tight deadline at work on Wednesday and now I am wondering how I am going to get it all done! I think I am going to use the magic of electricity and bake the bread this weekend and then put them in the freezer. While I normally would not use electricity to make or keep bread (mine sits on the counter most of the time), when work overwhelms, sometimes you just don't have a choice! These four loaves of bread are in addition to the 200 biscuits I must make and the quilt I am donating. 

The lady who is helping me make the biscuits suggested we make many of them ahead of time and freeze them as well. I will spend some time today making some of the biscuits. (I'll post about how we make the biscuits next week.)  I will probably make the bread tomorrow.

Now for the quilt. I don't have an updated picture, but I did manage to finish the top, sew together the backing I wanted, and select the batting. I have not sandwiched them all together yet. I expect to complete that tomorrow night.

I have made the most progress on my dress. Here is a picture.

It still isn't finished but I did try it on for a fit. The fabric is a bit thin, but it was only $2.00 a yard at the big box store. I wasn't going to spend a fortune on a dress! Most of the women walking west didn't have any money for new clothes so I wasn't going to spend a lot either. It still needs a zipper in the back and hems at the bottom and on the sleeves. The neck isn't finished either but I am still unsure what I want to do. The pattern calls for a high collar and I don't know if I want that since I will be outside in the heat for 2 days. I have some extra eyelet lace so I may just use that for an edging. I haven't started on the bonnet yet. I may not get to the apron.

Between working on my new project at work and working on my all of my Trek chores, I expect it to be a very busy weekend!

Walking In Your Ancestor's Shoes: The Trek

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about an activity our church believes all youth should experience. It has to do with the ability to understand some of the hardships our ancestors went through to create a better future for us. (You can see the original post here.)

In that post I explained that my church believes this knowledge is so important, they want all youth to have a taste of what these hardships were like. Learning about the hardships is one thing, experiencing them for yourself is something you will never forget. So, as an organized activity, the teenagers of my church spend a few days recreating the march our pioneer ancestors took on the wagon trains west. Our stake recreates the 'Trek' in less than two weeks!

For the first Mormons traveling west, it really wasn't a pleasant experience. They were forced out of the town of Nauvoo, Illinois in February 1846. Can you imaging starting on this journey in the middle of winter? In addition, many of them lost their homes and many belongings in Nauvoo. They did not have time to sell them - mob violence forced them out. Many left without much money or personal possessions. Approximately 3,000 left that winter. Many others were preparing to leave later in the spring. They tried to sell their possessions but could not. No one would buy them knowing they would be abandoned soon and available for free.

The Mormons who fled Nauvoo set up a temporary camp across the Mississippi river in Iowa. It was severely cold.  For a few days beginning February 24th the temperature was so cold that the river froze. Many were able to cross the river on the ice and join the camp in Iowa. When the winter finally broke, the emigrants started their 300 mile trek across Iowa and then on to Salt Lake. They walked a total of 1,250 miles to reach Salt Lake City.

Obviously here in the southeast, in June, we won't have any cold weather. However we will recreate other hardships experienced a few years later on another trek. Some European converts to the church, who wanted to settle in Salt Lake, came to America with very little money. These people had to walk to Salt Lake pulling their belongings in hand carts. No one could afford any team animals to help pull the carts. In addition, the hand carts were not covered as many wagons were. There is one famous hand cart train that experienced extreme hardship on their journey west in 1856. That train was called the Willie Handcart Company and many people on that train did not survive the journey west.  Here is a picture of what the handcarts looked like. This memorial is on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

For our trek, this is the type of wagon the families will use. Notice there isn't any protection from the elements? We won't have any protection either! (In the cart, many pioneers did have tents to use at night.)

My role in in our re-creation of this experience is minor. I am making a quilt for the girls to tie together while they are in the 'city of Nauvoo' gathering their supplies for their journey. (We are making a mock up of the city of Nauvoo as the start point for their journey.) I will be in Nauvoo helping the families gather their supplies. Then, on day three, I will be in one of the 'camp stops' along the trail where the families will stop to eat and rest a bit. Along with other women, I will be making biscuits in the camp for everyone to eat.

So, I am responsible for making a quilt for the girls to tie together and a pioneer dress to wear in Nauvoo and at the camp. I have made progress on my quilt! Here is a picture of what I have done so far.

The inside squares and the pink border are sewn together. The outside squares are not, they are just lying on the floor in the correct order. I should get them assembled together this weekend. Then I will baste the layers together and it should be ready to go. This quilt will be given to charity after it is finished and the Trek is over.

I have not made as much progress on my dress. I did manage to get the fabric cut out. However, that is where it sits. It is a simple pattern so hopefully it won't take too long to put it together. After I make the dress, I will make an apron and bonnet. I expect to have more time next week so everything should come together before the journey starts.

I will post another update next week to show you my dress!


Take some time to get to know your ancestors. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a FREE web site that you can use to help you locate your ancestors: www.familysearch.org. This web site has all sorts of tutorials and on-line help if you don't know where to start. It has records from all over the world! Anyone, from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection, can access this site to search for their deceased family members. If you want even more help, stop by the family history center at your local church. You do not have to be a church member to use your local family history center. 

Put Yourself In Your Ancestor's Shoes

Is it possible to know the hardships your ancestors went through? What did they sacrifice so you can be here now? I often think about the kind of hardships my great-great-grandparents and great-grandparents must have experienced so I could have a better life here in America. This understanding can ground you in the knowledge of the enormous amount of love your family members had for their future grandchildren and great-grandchildren!

My Church believes this knowledge is so important, they want all children to have a taste of what these hardships were like. Learning about the hardships is one thing, experiencing them for yourself is something you will never forget. So as an organized activity, the teenagers of my Church spend a few days recreating the march our pioneer ancestors took on the wagon trains west.  Each Stake (a geographical grouping of congregations) organizes their own 'Trek' so the youth can experience some of what the early pioneers experienced as they walked out west to their new homes and new lives. Most Stakes recreate the Trek every four years or so. 

Now, the wagon train that is recreated is not just any wagon train heading west. The youth first learn of how the migration of over 60,000 Mormons defined the Intermountain West in Sunday School classes. Then, three months before the Trek, they make the clothes they will wear and memorize some of the favorite hymns that were sung during those long days of walking.

In many books on the history of America, the story of the Mormons may amount to a few sentences, if they are even mentioned at all. However, their settlement of the Great Basin in the western United States is a story of self-sacrifice just as much as those who walked the Oregon Trail or the California Trail.

In my opinion, I think it is more important because the Mormons had the added burden of fleeing persecution from their fellow Americans. All they wanted was to be left alone to worship God as they pleased. (Some of the same reasons the Puritans came to America 200 years earlier.)

So, why am I writing about this now? Well, our Stake is making the Trek this summer! I will talk a bit more about the history of the Mormon Trail in future posts, but for now I just want to tell everyone how excited I am that I am participating in this Trek! 

It is a three day event, that will start in a mock up of the town of Nauvoo, Illinois. This is where the families 'heading west' will pick up their supplies. Then, they will walk for two days, experiencing a small taste of the hardships their ancestors experienced. My role in all this is small. I will not be in a family 'heading west.'  First, I will be one of the residents of Nauvoo, helping the families get their supplies. While in Nauvoo, the girls will stop to help sew a quilt (given away to charity at the end of the Trek) so they can experience some of the normal, everyday activities of life in 1847. I have volunteered to make one of the quilt tops the girls will bind together. (They really aren't quilting it - for the sake of time, the quilt will be tied.) Then on day three, I will be in one of the 'camp stops' along the trail. That morning when they wake up, they will be told there is no food to eat for that day. They will walk for about two hours (or so) without any food and then stop at my camp. While there, they will be fed and given time to rest, clean up, and write their thoughts in their journal. 

I am quite excited about participating! In addition to the quilt, I need to make a dress and bonnet to wear in Nauvoo and at the camp.  I only have about six weeks to make both because we will go in mid-June!

I hope you will follow along as I make my 'Trek' so you too can experience some of what our ancestors did to give us the promise of a future!  I will be sure to post updates as I complete my Trek projects!


Take some time to get to know your ancestors. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a FREE web site that you can use to help you locate your ancestors: www.familysearch.org. This web site has all sorts of tutorials and on-line help if you don't know where to start. It has records from all over the world! Anyone, from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection, can access this site to search for their deceased family members. If you want even more help, stop by the family history center at your local church. You do not have to be a church member to use your local family history center.