Thursday, May 19, 2011

Turkey Salami Wraps


I realize that it's been ages since I posted a new recipe, and believe me, it has been weighing heavy on my conscience. My excuse, and it is an excuse, is that I'm still just completely irritated with the Mac version of the Creative Memories digiscrapping software, and my jobsy wears me out. Whine, whine.

Never mind about that though, I snagged this amazing recipe from Smashley quite awhile ago, and I think you're going to like it. She brought these decadent little guys to a crop one night, and they were devoured in no time. 


Here are the basic ingredients, although you can change them up however you want: deli turkey (or whatever), hard salami, powdered ranch dressing, roasted red peppers, flour tortillas, cream cheese, and leafy green lettuce.

I know that bag of lettuce is upside down. It's bugging me too. It wouldn't stand up the other way though, so just pretend you're okay with it. I thought about Photoshopping the label out and rotating it, but my heart just wasn't in it. I've let it go.

See me letting it go.


Of course you have to wash and dry your lettuce, but you also have to remove the fibrous ribs. Basically that means remove the hard parts that won't allow the tortilla to roll up without tearing. That pretty much leaves the leafy green parts. Pun not intended.


Smashley's original recipe only calls for 8 ounces of cream cheese, but I ended up doubling that because I just couldn't stretch that amount of cream cheese out amongst ten tortillas. That, and I'm not afraid of cream cheese. Like butter, it's my BFF.


This is sort of time consuming, but it yields a lot so it's totally worth it. Trust me. After the cream cheese is on, start layering the rest of the ingredients. 


Roasted red peppers come next.


Then the pesky lettuce. I say pesky because the lettuce is what makes the rolling up part most difficult.


I'm spatially challenged, so I always have to concentrate when I'm getting ready to roll the tortillas up. You want the tortillas to have all the ingredients in every bite, so you need to start rolling parallel to the rows. It's easiest to watch the peppers because they form the tidiest line.


If all goes well, it should look like this when it's done. 


All the wraps need to be wrapped in plastic to keep the tortillas from drying out. Then they need to be refrigerated for at least a few hours to soften up a bit. Possibly there's another reason, but it sounds good to me.


See what I mean about a lot of wraps? Peanut Head and I take these in our lunches for days when I make them. They keep well. The girls love them too, and they're pretty picky.


If you're making them for an appetizer, you just slice them up (remove the plastic wrap, of course). Do I really need to say that?

Probably.


They are very pretty as an appetizer. You can't call them wraps after you cut them though. Once you cut them, you have to call them Roll-Ups. Smashley says.

She's very bossy.


You must try them.


And finally, a new recipe card. Enjoy!



Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The Life Cycle of a Spider and Other Zen-Like Ponderings


I've been wanting to get this picture scanned into my computer for months, but for some reason my computer has decided to unfriend my scanner. I would try to scan something and it would say "Scanner not found."

Then I'd yell at it "It's right there! On the desk next to you, you big bonehead. Would you like me to introduce you?!!!!"

It would politely decline thereby causing me to have an aneurysm. Much whining would ensue, Peanut Head would pointedly ignore the whining, and I would mutter under my breath and threaten to buy a new scanner.

I know, I'm such a problem solver. 

Peanut Head is my tech support, and he came through for me, finally. Thank you sweetie. Smooches. 

Something about having to reinstall the driver, blah blah, boring stuff, blah blah.

Anyway, this picture is Stinkerbell's masterpiece entitled "Life Cycle of a Spider." Ironically, this piece was created while sitting in church. Because The Stink is all about the peace and the love when she's supposed to be tranquil and pleasant.


I liked the Life Cycle picture so much that she has been cranking out multiple versions. This one made me smile because we get these creepy looking centipede bugs in our basement, and we always vacuum them up. The last frame is supposed to be a vacuum, but she knew it wasn't super identifiable, so she went ahead and labeled it. She's helpful like that.


Stinkerbell's teacher has the kids fill out these vocabulary charts for their vocabulary words every week, and I get a kick out of some of The Stink's pictures. Sometimes they're funny.


Like this one. I love it. It goes with the word "dispatch," and the stick guy is calling 911 because his house in on fire. The dispatch guy says "On it!"


This one is hard to see, but it's a muscle guy. She labeled the dude "mucle."


This is me. I'm thinking about changing my Facebook Profile picture to this and calling it "Split Personality."


In contrast, here are Zoe Bug's drawings. Drawings of unicorns and rainbows, not death.

Actually, not unicorns, but horses.


Here a horse, there a horse, everywhere a horse-horse.


I could go on and on, but I don't want to get hoarse.


Can you tell I've been working out?

I've been on this new workout routine called "21 Days to a Segmented Insect Body."  I think it's working.