Mountain Musings

Blueberry Sour Cream Pie

Yesterday I tried out a new recipe from my Recipe Hall of Fame Dessert cookbook, and although I had a few problems, it turned out yummy in the end. The recipe calls for fresh blueberries, and we only had frozen. I tried to thaw them a little, but they must have still just been really cold, because the pie took much longer than 25 minutes to set. I didn't even keep track of how many times I had to set the oven timer back another 10 minutes! :) And then when getting out all the topping ingredients, I discovered that there was absolutely no butter in the kitchen. In a streusel topping, butter isn't really replaceable, but I tried to substitute shortening anyway. It didn't have the same flavor, but it worked in a pinch.

It was served still warm, and it was nice and creamy and delicious. It's still good cold today for lunch, too. :)

Blueberry Sour Cream Pie

1 ready made pie crust (or homemade)

1 cup sour cream

3/4 cup sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons flour

1 egg, beaten

3/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Topping:

6 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup chilled butter, cut into pieces

1/3 cup chopped pecans

2 tablespoons sugar

Place pie crust in 9-inch pie plate. Fold edge under, crimp, freeze 10 minutes. Prick with fork. Bake until sides are set, about 12 minutes. Mix next 6 ingredients in medium bowl. Mix in blueberries. Spoon into crust. Bake at 350 until filling is just set, about 25 minutes. For topping, using fingertips, mix flour and butter in medium bowl until small clumps form. Mix in pecans and sugar. Spoon topping over pie. Bake until topping browns lightly, about 12 minutes. Cool pie at room temperature.

~Sarah

Sunday Morning

We're experiencing a beautiful, sunshiny, and slightly breezy morning here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia after Hurricane Irene passed our coast last evening. Unlike others east of us, we only received rain most of Saturday from the storm and never lost power.

Thankfully, Jonathan made it back to Virginia on Friday from a work trip to Kansas before any airline cancellations were in effect in D.C. Whew! PTL!

But, in other news, Tom packed his bags and left Saturday for who-knows-how-long down in the Hampton Roads--Tidewater area to start getting power back on from all the outages caused by the storm--tons of folks are without electricity.

We all here at home are praying for the crews to work efficiently so people can get back to normal and so Dad can come home before the Labor Day weekend begins!

Here's a picture to share...taken this past week at Smith Mountain Lake--the same afternoon of the earthquake here in Virginia. This photo was taken from The Virginia Dare which we were on for an anniversary luncheon cruise. We never felt the earthquake, and thankfully, everyone was safe back here at home.
We continue to pray for the families experiencing the storm this morning. May your Sunday be one of thanking the Lord for His blessings.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. ~ Isaiah 43:2

~ Deb

Hymns and Hiking at Humpback

We had an enjoyable visit with the Hynes family as they were traveling in the area; one activity was an excursion on the Blue Ridge Parkway to do some hiking at Humpback Rocks. It was a blessing to spend time in fellowship with their family.

I'm pressing on the upward way,
New heights I'm gaining every day;
Still praying as I onward bound,
"Lord, plant my feet on higher ground."

Lord, lift me up, and let me stand
By faith on Canaan's tableland;
A higher plane than I have found,
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. ~Psalm 61:2

This is the beautiful view that awaited us at the top of the trail, looking west across the Shenandoah Valley. As has become our tradition when taking families hiking here, we sang hymns for half an hour as we rested on the rocks looking out at the majestic scenery.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand...

Standing on the promises I shall not fall,
List'ning every moment to the Spirit's call.
Resting in my Savior as my All in all,
Standing on the promises of God.

Be to me a rock of habitation to which I may continually come;
You have given commandment to save me, for You are my rock and my fortress. ~Psalm 71:3

~Hannah

Curds and Whey

"He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good." ~Isaiah 7:15

We recently had the chance to attend a dairy workshop with several other families. There were demonstrations on dairy products such as mozzarella, ricotta, cream cheese, yogurt, and butter; we even sampled homemade ice cream made from farm-fresh milk.

Arielle is the cheese-making expert for her family and has the task of using up all the milk they get from their cow. She shared her knowledge by showing us the process for each type of dairy product.

Here she is draining the mozzarella curd before we all helped stretch the cheese as the final step.

Saturday Sampler Quilt Block

Sarah and I headed to Patchwork Plus this past weekend for our monthly Saturday Sampler quilt class. It's always a special time for the two of us to be together...plus we get to drool over all the new fabric and samples in the shop. Here's Sarah's block all finished for this month:

In other sewing news, my Marti Mitchell templates just arrived in the mail so now I have no excuse to delay starting on my Farmer's Wife quilt blocks--my goal is to begin after Labor Day. So stay tuned...

We have overnight guests arriving tonight so my machine has been put away, and all threads and scraps have been vacuumed up...and hiking shoes have been readied for the Humpback Rock climb.

See you back on the blog at the end of the week...

~Deb

UFO Progress Report ~ Mother's Journal

For those of you who read the anniversary trip post, you might remember I mentioned that while Tom was fishing I was working on a UFO project.

Of course, I had to pack something small that I could work on while traveling, so I decided to bring my Mother's Journals that I've mentioned in past UFO reports. I've kept up writing in them here and there, and I'm pleased with the number of pages I finished on our trip.

Basically, I'm copying from one book to another...it's not all that exciting but something that just needs doing, and I can only do so much at one sitting.

It was a beautiful day for fishing with no one else around. I guess I could have gotten out of the car, but have you ever tried sitting on those concrete picnic tables?

I'm joining Susan's UFO progress report today over at Blackberry Creek. Check out other Little Green Quilters working on the challenge here.

~Deb

Quilt Shops and Country Stores

Since some of you wanted to hear more about the quilt shops I visited while on our anniversary trip, I thought this post would be fun!

Well...the googling started before the trip began, and I came up with a list of places I wanted to scout out while we were in the Wytheville and Abingdon areas.

The first shop was in Radford--Sew Biz--so we stopped there before we continued on down the road to our real destination...actually, in my mind this quilt shop was a pretty good destination!

This was my favorite of the three quilt shops we visited on our trip. The storefront was along a side street in Radford and looked to be quite an older building that went forever in the back once we were inside. Lots of new fabric lines were displayed...I had my eye on some of Kate Spain's Terrain--jelly rolls, layer cakes, and charm packs. Oooh, so tempting!

And I also spotted Julie Herman's (Jaybird Quilts) Hugs and Kisses quilt pattern and carried it around with me for a good while before deciding to wait on buying it...mainly because the pattern called for using more than one layer cake, and the shop didn't have Terrain yardage available to purchase.

The only negative was how dark it was inside the shop with only the front windows to bring in light. I felt a little closed in. I love bright lights, and this shop definitely needed some brightness to put the customer in a buying frame of mind.

Money $pent: Zero    Fun Quotient: Lots of Fun

The next stop was Sew What Fabrics & Batiks Etcetera in Wytheville--a vintage home turned into a quilt shop.

Sew What was located along East Main Street across from a country store that was piping Appalachian Mountain style music out into the street...calling customers to come on over! I have to say I was having a grand time hopping from shop to shop to shop...all located on East Main.

Sew What was a crowded little business with an entire front room dedicated to hundreds of bolts of batik fabric. A narrow little hallway led to the main room in back. I really didn't see anything to buy here, although I'm sure they had some great fabric. I did spot some charm packs of modern fabric.

Money $pent: Zero    Fun Quotient: Interesting for one visit

Here's a quick glimpse of Crockett's Country Store directly across from Sew What Fabrics:

I loved the navy milk cans on the front steps...this reminded me that I have two milk cans that need refurbishing and setting out. This shop specializes in primitive decor, and I enjoyed looking around at everything country--which is definitely my style!

Money $pent: Zero    Fun Quotient: Lots of Fun

Here's the last quilt shop we visited, and it's located in Abingdon. Tom actually scouted out this one, and according to the reviewers online it seemed like a nice shop...

In this shop I stood in one spot and just looked around as I could tell they carried mostly older fabrics.

When I asked about pre-cuts, the older lady at the counter (maybe Jeannine herself) didn't seem to understand what I meant. Then when I described them as layer cakes and jelly rolls, she immediately said they didn't carry them...as if that wouldn't be the fabric of choice for traditional quilters. Okay...

Money $pent: Zero    Fun Quotient: None, sorry

Moving on...next is Big Walker Mountain Country Store located at the top of a long-winding road up the mountain.

This was one of those touristy type places good for a rest stop. This wasn't anything like Crockett's Country Store...but who knew until we got there? It was a good try, plus the first photo I posted of the mountains on the anniversary post was taken here. Great scenery overlook.

Money $pent: Zero    Fun Quotient: Interesting

Let's go to the local yarn shop located in the heart of Abingdon called A Likely Yarn.

I loved the flowers all around this yarn shop as much as the yarn inside! This shop was adorable and carried lots of yarn choices. Their Encore yarn was on sale for the month of August and came with a free scarf pattern. Tempting, and I carried a skein around with me as I browsed.

Money $pent: Zero    Fun Quotient: Lots of fun!

The last adventure I'll share is another country store--Parks Mill Barbecue--waaay out in the country! In fact, we wondered how a business could survive out on a country road in the middle of nowhere!

After tasting their barbecue we now know why they have a lot of business...folks surely drive out there just to order the barbecue (and the hot sauce!), baked beans, potato salad, and banana pudding. I took the photo below standing near the steps of the General Store photo above and looking out towards the country road and entrance to Parks Mill. The flowers surrounding the large parking area were well kept and beautiful, and the quiet road and scenery leading into the restaurant very relaxing.
Money $pent: $20 for food only    Fun Quotient: Delicious and Enjoyable

And last...a picture of a patient husband waiting for his wife...

Thanks for coming along with us to some quilt shops and country stores on our trip! I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Do you think Tom was happy with the Zero Money I $pent? 

Yes, I think so!

~Deb

An Early Anniversary Get-Away

In just a couple of weeks Tom and I will celebrate our 31st wedding anniversary. So....

Last week we planned an early getaway and spent a few days in the southwestern part of our state and attended the Virginia Highlands Festival in Abingdon--very interesting area to visit and one we'd never traveled to before now.

Our agenda included stops at quilt shops (three of them), country stores (I lost count), antique shops (a couple), a yarn shop, eating at little out-of-the-way places, and attending a play at Barter Theater (below):

Tom went fishing one morning at Holston Lake...I watched him fish while working on one of my UFOs. Very relaxing.

This area is well known for hiking and biking the Virginia Creeper Trail. I had never heard of this trail and actually had no intention of getting on a bike...much less biking the 17-mile-downhill trail. Famous last words...

Tom rented us both bikes. Uh-oh.

We were shuttled to the top of Mount Rogers, and from Mile Marker 33 down to Mile Marker 16...we biked 17 miles...with many rest stops and many aches and pains between here and there.

Fortunately for all of us, there won't be pictures posted of me riding on the adult trike...thank you for asking though. :) Here's my favorite scene along the route:

On our last evening there we went on a guided historical walking tour of the city, and here's my favorite house below...the boyhood home (1820) of Rev. Robert Sheffey, "the Saint of the Wilderness."

Sheffey was a legendary, circuit-riding frontier preacher who gave up wealth and social position to spread the Word of God. We've seen the Sheffey film many times so this was very interesting to us.

We had a wonderful time! It's good to be back home though and settling into the routine again. Both my Bernina and my computer need dusting off so I can get back in the quilting and blogging business!

~Deb

Douthout State Park Craft Show

Early Saturday morning--with a slightly overloaded van smelling of chamomile orange blossom, blackberry sage, and mountain rain soaps--we all headed south down I-81 towards Douthout State Park located near Clifton Forge, Virginia.

The day was beautiful, and we envisioned lots of campers, hikers, and picnickers at the park making their way over to the arts and craft show checking out Granny's baskets and Hannah's soaps. If you remember, our last craft show in the spring at another location didn't turn out too well, and we hoped this effort would be worthwhile and encouraging.

Here's the entrance to the park's craft show area. We saw that many tents were up already and everyone was readying their booths for the day.

Here we are arriving and setting up in our assigned spot:

Jonathan's plan for the day included going fishing after he helped unload all the bags of baskets and boxes of soap! Here he is below going back for more while Hannah and Sarah start arranging our booth:

We know Granny would've loved to have been with us and gotten in on all the action-- she loves craft shows, talking to folks, and selling her baskets!  Below on the left is the basket table after setup and a portion of the soap on the right of the booth:

It was someone's brilliant idea (ahem...mine!) to hang those baskets from the tent roof to grab everyone's attention walking by. I wish we had a sale for every time we all managed to bump our heads into those things! Amazing how we all kept forgetting to duck!

Here's Hannah's side of the table arranged neatly and ready for customers:

We had to take a picture of our first customers--a mother and daughter whom we happened to recognize from Granny's hometown church back in South Boston. That was fun to spot a familiar face!

To give you an idea of some of the other vendors, here are some pictures below. The turkey caller seemed popular...at least we kept hearing turkey sounds all day!

And a lady was selling jewelry made from discarded soda cans:

The blacksmith was there selling his wares:

Below is a last photo that shows a view of the area before the 10 a.m. opening. Our tent is the middle one in the far distance...in the sun.

It was quite a warm day that ended early for us with rain at 2:30 in the afternoon that just wouldn't stop. All the vendors started packing up around 3, and we were packed, loaded up, and out of there by 3:45 and headed home.

Even with the rain, the day was a success! The soap sold very well, but only a couple of Granny's baskets sold this time. We were still encouraged by the turnout and sales and hope to participate in more craft shows this year.

Watch for Hannah and Granny at the 36th Annual Apple Days Craft Show in Waynesboro on October 1st and the Holiday Living Show in South Boston on November 12th.

~ Deb