Mountain Musings

Arlene's Rice Krispies Cookies

Here are the delicious Rice Krispies Cookies Sarah made this week. I doubt you will find this recipe on any of the healthy baking sites, but if you like coconut, you will love these cookies!

I'm actually re-naming them Arlene's Rice Krispies Cookies because...after Sarah told me she was baking them I thought she meant those famous Rice Krispy Squares with gooey marshmallows. When these coconut cookies came out of the oven, I was thrilled I had been wrong. "Oh good, they're Arlene's cookies!"

So who's Arlene? Arlene is a very nice older lady, a friend of Aunt Bunny's, who often visited her in the hospital and rehab last summer. And she brought cookies! These wonderful rice krispy coconut cookies are ones that I will always associate with her. Here's the recipe, and I think you will like them, too.

• 2 cups Rice Krispies
• 2 cups oatmeal
• 2 cups coconut
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt

Mix soft shortening and sugars, and then all other ingredients. Bake for 9 minutes on 350 degrees.

~Deb

Pockets, gussets, and snaps, oh my!

Lately I've had what some people may call an odd obsession - cloth diapers. So consider yourself warned about the following post, in which I expound upon my obsession. :)

The idea of cloth diapers first entered my head a few years ago, when Crystal of Biblical Womanhood mentioned that they used Fuzzi Bunz on their baby. I went to the Fuzzi Bunz website and really liked what I saw - those are not the cloth diapers of yesteryear! The thought of saving a lot of money over the long run, by purchasing reusable diapers instead of disposables, appealed to me.

We bought some diapers for a baby shower a few years ago; I couldn't believe the price, and they were ON SALE! Thinking about how many packages you would have to buy for just ONE baby made me choke! :) Since I'm hoping to have many babies in the future, you would have to multiply that price per child. Wow. Time to research more seriously about cloth!

Post continued on another page to spare those who don't want to read the details. :)

Valentine's Paper-Crafting

Kelli was hosting "Paper-crafting Thursday" last week, but I was too busy working on some paper-crafting of my own to post about it until now! So today I thought I'd show you some of what I created over the last several days. These are some hearts/love/valentine/friendship themed cards, since February is rolling around. I think Mom has passed on to me her enjoyment of keeping in touch with and doing special things for girlfriends young and old, especially for Valentine's Day.

The card above I calligraphed with words from 1 Corinthians 13 and embellished with mulberry paper, rubber stamps, and inked edges.

These two stamped cards I created with an attached removable bookmark. I love the sweet little cherry stamp (an oldie of Mom's) that says, "The Love of God Sweet to My Soul."

This is a coordinating set I made from a set of Stampin' Up! cutesy character stamps.

These cold January afternoons have been perfect for getting in some card-making and for adding a few items to my website. The following cards can all be found for purchase at Graceful Designs. Go look also at the other entries to Paper-crafting Thursday.

~Hannah

Saturday in our Neck of the Woods

I love the way the branches of this old tree along our driveway reach for the sun each morning.

Sarah and I headed out bright and early to Patchwork Plus to her final machine guide class she's taking to learn all the ins and outs of her new Bernina. She's learned a lot and is looking forward to sewing lots of things, including diapers and cloth baby wipes!

Here's Sarah arriving in class and setting up her machine.

I browsed while she was in class and bought some muslin and a permanent marker I needed for the Siggy Swap '09 that Connie over at Cootie Bug is organizing. I joined in at the last minute!

Each of the participants will end up sewing and swapping 60 quilt blocks with quilters from all over the world. I have never done a Swap before, so I'm very excited!

I also decided to join the A Tisket, A Tasket, 12 Months of Baskets, a free block-of-the-month mystery project by Bunny Hill Designs. I purchased some fabric for the first month today. I think I'm a little late starting the January block but should catch up with no problem.

Swinging by Costco before coming home, I picked up a big bag of dried apricots to make the Apricot Muffin recipe Becka posted earlier this week. I'm looking forward to trying them.

Our church fellowship meets here at our house tomorrow, so after arriving home from our outing I started putting together the Spicy Vegetable Soup that we will serve. The flavors are better when made a day before needed, and it sure helps not to have to rush on Sunday morning in the kitchen.

Tomorrow is Soupy Sunday, and another family will bring a different soup to add to the table. A third family will supply the bread and dessert. As chilly as the temps are predicted overnight, I think it will be warm and cozy worshipping and fellowshipping inside tomorrow.

So what happened in your neck of the woods today?

~Deb

National Pie Day on Friday!

Friday, January 23, is National Pie Day. I'm posting this early enough so you'll have plenty of time to gather your recipes and bake some pies! (Check out the American Pie Council site for an interesting history of pies.)

I also enjoyed reading through this website which lists a Baker's Dozen ways to celebrate. Here are just a few:

• Bake your favorite homemade pie.
• Teach pie making or ask a grandparent to lend their expertise.
• Hold a pie night potluck and ask everyone to bring a pie.
• Talk about your favorite pie memories and pass along any family history behind them.

Here's a pie memory from my past: 

Growing up in a little southern town close to the Virginia/North Carolina border, we'd often frequent a little wayside country restaurant halfway between South Boston and Roxboro called Wilborn's Barbeque. Now, that was some good barbeque! The last time I was back home I noticed the restaurant was no longer operating--actually, it had probably closed years before--the passing of an era, and I didn't even know it.

Wilborn's was the kind of place with red and white checked cloths on the few tables scattered around a small room. I remember the counter at the register with several homemade pies just waiting to be served, and I always hoped the grownups wouldn't be too stuffed to ask if we all wanted to order a slice of pie after our meal.

German Chocolate. Coconut Cream. Lemon Chess. Apple. So many choices, such good pies! My favorite was German Chocolate, and I still remember over thirty years later that it was the best German Chocolate Pie I've ever eaten.

Sarah just made two pies...Apple Pie (which I requested) and her famous Chocolate Town Pie, which she makes quite frequently. I'm hoping there'll be at least a few slices left so we can celebrate on Friday!

Apple Pie Recipe

• 4 medium Granny Smith apples, sliced
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup flour
• dash of salt
• 1/2 tsp each nutmeg and cinnamon
• 2 tbsp butter

Mix together dry ingredients with sliced apples, place in your favorite crust recipe, dot with butter, and cover with second crust.

Bake 425 degrees for 45 - 50 minutes.

Do you have a special pie memory you'd like to share? And what's your favorite pie?

~Deb

Save 30% on Jubilee Collection

The winning films from the 2009 San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival are now on sale for a special reduced price, through January 28th.

This 6-DVD set includes the following titles:

• The Widow’s Might
• Fireproof
• The Terri Schiavo Story
• Binding Faith
• Noah’ s Ark: Thinking Outside the Box 
• The Prodigal Trilogy

In addition, this collection comes with two messages, A Biblical Worldview For Film and What Hollywood Teaches about Manhood. Click here to view excerpts from these films.

   

Michie Tavern at Night

Last night Tom and I drove over Afton Mountain to attend the sixth annual Sons of Confederate Veterans dinner and celebration of Lee/Jackson Day held at Historic Michie Tavern.

We were guests of our friends, Doug and Carla, who were dressed in period attire for the occasion. Carla's dress was beautiful--she sewed it herself!

Doug, as chaplain for the group, asked the Lord's blessing on the meal. Michie Tavern's famed home-style southern fare consisted of Country ham, fried chicken, black-eyed peas, mashed potatoes and gravy, baby beets, green beans, coleslaw, stewed tomatoes, biscuits, cornbread, and peach cobbler ala mode for dessert. Aaaah!

Here we are at our table enjoying fellowship after the meal. I love all the pewter plates, mugs, and serving ware that the Tavern uses. Sorry...no pictures of our full-of-food pewter plates!

We had a neat surprise also--the special pleasure of sitting with Dr. Davis (seated at Tom's right), who was Micah and Elizabeth's landlord the four years Micah attended medical school. Since grandson Ethan's picture was on my phone, it was a delight to have a chance to show it to Dr. Davis.

 "Professor and Mrs. Gibson" of Lexington provided musical entertainment for the evening, playing on antique period instruments such as harpsichord, banjo, and guitar.

The evening was very nice, and it was extra special to be invited to enjoy it with our friends. Thank you, Doug and Carla!

~Deb

Cleaning Old Linens

While going through Aunt Bunny's belongings, we found many old sheets and pillowcases. A majority were yellowed and spotted, and they didn't look in very good condition. Except for a few that weren't too badly stained, we put them in a box to either sell, give away, or throw away.

I picked out three old pillowcases that I liked...one with a beautiful lace edge and an embroidered "S" and a pair with colorful embroidered flowers. While they had some yellowing, it wasn't that bad, and I wanted to see if I could find out how to get rid of it. Last week I found a blog post about rescuing old, yellow linens - perfect! I decided to try it.

 

The first step was to bring a pot of water to a boil. I then added a couple of spoonfuls of laundry detergent and also some borax. I read on another web site that borax might help whiten linens as well. Once the water was ready, the three pillowcases were added to the mix. After about 5 minutes, like the instructions said, I took them out of the then YELLOW water. I rinsed them thoroughly and held them up for inspection. While definitely better, there were still some visible yellow spots.  

After debating what to do, I decided to try it a second time, but this time adding a little Oxiclean to the water. A commenter on the other blog said she had used it with good results. So back to the stove I went, stirring the boiling pillowcases with our handy ladle. Note: I shouldn't have done this, as our nice ladle now seems to have a whitish film on it. Heh heh. 

After letting it boil, longer than 5 minutes this time, I took the pot off the heat and let it sit for a while. I can't remember if it was for thirty minutes or an hour...somewhere in there. :) After rinsing them out, I think they look great! Very nice and white--maybe not pure snow white, but very definitely usable. I don't think anybody would even know they were vintage pillowcases! 

They were hung out in the sun on our clothes rack to dry...at least for about 10 minutes when I had to bring them in because of the wind. In that short time, they had already frozen! They finished drying inside the warm house. 

The results of this experiment excited me so much, that I went burrowing into the stack of boxes in our garage full of Aunt Bunny's things to find the rest of the linens we had discarded. I selected another whole stack of pillowcases and doilies that we had thought were too far gone. One of them had a lacy edge that upon our closer inspection had the name "Eddy" worked into the pattern. It was my great-grandfather's pillowcase, most likely handmade by my great-grandmother! :)

With that large batch, I had to use our big canning pot to fit everything at once. The water was AWFUL after boiling for a few minutes! It smelled terrible and was a very dirty yellow. I changed the water and let them soak in the Oxiclean for over an hour. This time, I wasn't quite as pleased with the results, as some of the pillowcases are still on the yellow side. But considering their condition going in, they are so much better! 

I would recommend this as an idea to try if any of you have any vintage linens that need help.

~Sarah

Caring for an Antique Quilt

Every day the sun is shining we make sure this quilt is laid out on the south side of our front porch (backside up to prevent the sun from bleaching the front of the quilt). We've been doing this since Thanksgiving, and I think it may be aired out sufficiently now.

This quilt was found stored in Aunt Bunny's closet inside a large metal container...along with lots of mothballs! We have been researching how to air out, clean, and remove the chemical smell from an old quilt.

The information found so far discourages washing old quilts for fear of dyes running and also fear of the fragile fabric being destroyed. However, there was a section about washing...if you just hafta! I think I was encouraged by this section because I just can't see snuggling under a quilt or even hanging it over the back of a sofa knowing it was in contact with mothballs for years. I think it has to be carefully washed to be safe, and we will follow all the instructions here and vacuum it first.

The story behind this antique quilt? We have no idea. There are no records indicating who it belonged to...Aunt Bunny's mother or her grandmother? Who made it? And when?

As you can see, it's made in one of the Log Cabin variation patterns. I would love to know everything about it, but I don't think there's anyone to ask.

Our next step is to place it in the bathtub and let it soak in gentle laundry soap for a few days, swishing it occasionally. We'll dry it the way the article describes, and hopefully the quilt will be clean-smelling and still in great condition when all is finished!

Any experiences anyone has to share on caring for antique quilts?

~Deb

Word Lover

I've been a Scrabble lover for many years and enjoy playing the game whenever I can.

Here's the current game I'm playing against Erich found on the email version of Lexulous. The score is a little too close for comfort!

This is my first try at playing on the updated Lexulous board with the point blocks arranged differently and with a tray of 8 letters (instead of 7). I also found out the tiles have different point values from the regular Scrabble I'm used to--Zs and Qs equal 12 points each. It's enjoyable, although I'm tending to lean toward liking the regular Scrabble game setup better.

With Lexulous, you can play a "live" version with players all over the country or sign up for the "email" version which sends you an email each time your partner has played a word. This is most convenient, and you can play a new word occasionally rather than sitting down for an hour-long game.

My blogging friend, Ginny, another Scrabble lover, and I enjoyed an online game a couple of months ago before Lexulous was required to change the board for copyright reasons. My sister is trying to get me to join Facebook which has the real Scrabble board, but I've been holding out adding something else to my life.

I wrote about playing Scrabble a couple of years ago, here and here. If you check out Lexulous and would like to play sometime, give me a holler. I'm game.

~Deb