Mountain Musings

Girls in the Garden

You would think this post might be categorized under Gardening, wouldn't you? Well, since it's not quite springtime yet, you won't find us in the garden today...so I'm going to label it under crafts. Huh?

Pat Sloan, quilter extraordinaire, recently completed her Girls in the Garden blog hop with some of her newest and wonderful seasonal patterns. Take a look:

                    (photo credit: Pat Sloan's blog)

I enjoyed hopping from blog to blog looking at all the wonderful creations made from Pat's patterns--wallhangings, table runners, pillows, etc.

I love the coneflowers, but look at those red birds in the winter pattern. I'm not sure which one I'll make first! I was one of the winners of a complete set of these patterns!! And I can't wait for them to arrive! Thank you, Pat!

If you'd like to order your own, check out Pat's Webstore here.

~Deb

An Evening of Hymns & Music

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing." ~ Psalm 100:1-2

One Sunday evening recently we invited our friends from Heartland Harvest over for a meal and an evening of singing...such a grand time! Seeing as they've had us in their home on several occasions, it was about time we had them over!

Here's a picture of the whole family taken at the end of the evening just before they signed the guest book and left for home:

And here are some pictures of us all making a joyful noise unto the Lord:

We "gathered together" around the fireplace for many familiar hymns:

They can strum, too!

Mandolins, guitars, harmonica, bass, and violin all joined in:

Then all the siblings sang one last song for us, harmonizing together on The Lord's Prayer:

We even captured it on video:

 

 What a wonderful evening! I wish you could have joined us!

~Deb

Cherry Coke Pulled Pork

Jonathan came home one day not long ago telling us about a barbeque recipe we should try. It turns out that the wife of a friend of his at work had started a new blog and had posted a Cherry Coke Pulled Pork recipe. 

So...off I go to get the ingredients. Here's my only photo and here's April's recipe below. You can see the finished product over at her blog.

Cherry Coke Pulled Pork

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 pork bottom or shoulder (about 4 lbs)
• 1 bottle Cherry Coke, enough to cover pork
• 2 jars Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce

Set on low for 6 - 8 hours. Remove pork, shred with fork, and add bbq sauce.

To be honest, I wasn't sure that I wanted to waste a Cherry Coke in this recipe. Would we really be able to taste the difference? The only change I made is lowering the brown sugar to a scant 1/2 cup. We thought it would be quite sweet enough!

Jonathan assured me he could tell Cherry Coke was in it for sure! And he loved it!

So we invited Matt and April over for a meal with us so we could meet them one evening recently. What a fun time! Thanks, April, for a new recipe that I'm sure Jonathan will be begging me to fix again soon!

If you give this a try, let us know what you think of the Cherry Coke in it!

~Deb

I Ain't Fancy ~ Take Me to Smoking Roosters

Often on weekends I'll write a post and ask what's happening in your neck of the woods on Saturday. It's always interesting for me to read what others are doing all across the country on one given day.

Well, here's what happened in my woods: Tom asked me out on a date for lunch! Yes, I'll go!

Where to go though? Something simple, not fancy, something quick but good...did someone suggest Smoking Roosters?

There she is in all her glory ~ Smoking Roosters! Come on...follow me inside. I've never been here.

As soon as we entered we could smell the smoke of the bbq fires a'burning. At least that's what we guessed, but we didn't see smoke outside like you would think an authentic bbq place would have.

There were only two tables. No wait, a third that was sort of a mini table for two by the door:

I have to admit that I wasn't sure about that picture staring down at us as we ate. The caption said, "My faith got me here."

Just a few feet across from our table was a counter and some bar stools. Empty. We were there at noon and were the only customers, although I think they're probably busier on weekdays at lunchtime.

There's a Caribbean section on the menu that featured curried goat (no, thank you), tofu (no, thank you), shrimp (not for me), jerk steak (maybe), ox tail (no, thank you), and brown stew (what's this?). But we ordered one of the regular specials for Saturdays: Pulled chicken with fries and sweet tea for $5.

The only mishap occurred when the waiter set down my plate and spilled my pepsi all over the table and in my lap! After quickly cleaning up the mess, we prayed and started eating. Plum good! The minced pulled chicken was absolutely delicious but was messy enough to use a fork to eat the sandwich to prevent spills. Where's my bib when I need it?

Oh, I forgot to mention that the waiter was generous and brought us a mac and cheese sample, on the house, since we were first-timers. And maybe, too, because I was wearing my pepsi. :)

Here's Tom after he paid for our food. All the cookin' went on somewhere behind those back doors.

Okay, time to call it a date and head home. Here's Tom with a take-home box of mac and cheese for Sarah, the mac and cheese lover at our house:

So now you know what I did. What was your Saturday like?

~Deb

UFO-ing at the Friday Night Sew-In

I guess this post qualifies for two buttons! I'm a Little Green Quilter over at Blackberry Creek, and I'm participating in tonight's Friday Night Sew-In over at Handmade by Heidi.

That sounds impressive...but my UFO-ing and sewing have been mighty sparse...well, okay, almost non-existent this year. But tonight I plan to work on two things:

First, I'm going to be putting painter's tape--for quilting a straight line--on the still-hanging-around postage stamp quilt that's been spread across Granny's bed ever since she left for SC. It's a good place for it--out of sight, out of mind--no, wait, what am I saying? Not really! I need to finish this quilt!

For the Sew-In tonight I'm going to be starting on my January Saturday Sampler block (the last one for this quilt!) which Sarah, of course, has already finished...I'm posting a picture of hers so you can see what my completed project will look like tonight, hopefully!

I'm getting ready this afternoon to soak my fabric and iron it dry, figure out the pattern, and be ready to begin actual sewing this evening. The next Saturday Sampler class begins a new year in March, and, yes, after much debating I decided to join again. I could not resist! (Note to Julie S.: I'm in the 10:00 class!)

Updated to add: block completed!

In some non-crafty news, today Tom and I are celebrating our 32nd Proposal Anniversary. Maybe we can reminisce together a bit while I'm sewing tonight.

Have a great weekend, everyone! We're expecting to be snowed in with 5 - 8 inches on Sunday...our first real snow this year!

~Deb

Caesar Salad, Chocolate Bowls, Flavored Butters

When my night to cook fell on February 14, I decided to try some new special recipes. But the first step was to don my red vintage apron Granny surprised me with for Christmas. Thank you, Granny! I wore it most of the day, not just in the kitchen.

(Camera strap cover made by and won from Quilty Girl.)

The idea for these chocolate bowls for our ice cream dessert came from Bakerella via Pinterest.

Here is the final product, filled with Honey Vanilla ice cream, strawberries from last summer, and served on Granny's pink depression-glassware that I stole from my hope chest closet shelf.

Then I made a huge Caesar salad with the homemade dressing found at this food blog.

Along with our Tomato Corn Chowder (found in the Stuffed Cougar cookbook and of which we did not get a photo), we had dinner rolls with cinnamon and strawberry whipped butters. The rolls were warmed and served in a vintage enamelware tray.

This is our family dinner table all set.

 We had a delightful evening!

~Hannah

Valentine Central

It's been correspondence crazy-time around here this week...stamps, stickers, addresses, oh, my!

I've always loved letterwriting...but now I do a lot of writing on the computer--making copies on brightly colored paper, stuffing long letters or cards into envelopes with lots of heart stickers, and hoping my friends will receive the snail mail in their mailbox with just as much excitement as I sent it!

Valentine's Day gives me a good excuse to write to friends far and near. But I would tell anyone they don't need an excuse to write to me--just write!

This antique cherry secretary desk belonged to my Aunt Bunny, and now it sits in the corner of my bedroom. I actually don't sit here to write letters although I should...it's a delightful spot to pen a note.

There are several antique milk bottles on the windowsill, a purple mug from my sister that says I {heart} Purple, and Vicki's wonderful knitted bird's nest on the corner of the desk.

Do you spy the antique wooden stamp holder in the center cubby of the desk? It holds rolls of stamps which I don't normally use because I love using colorful commemoratives.

Actually, I didn't purchase these newest LOVE stamps...yet. The last of the Christmas stamps were stuck on these Valentine envelopes...I hope my friends don't mind.

Tomorrow I'll be doing more of the same. Happy Valentine's weekend to you all!

~ Deb

Recipe Organization

A few months ago, I was looking through our recipe box. It was pretty hard to find the different sections because our divider cards had just about had it. The tabs on top were torn off or almost unreadable.

 

Finally, I said to myself, "Self, why have we put up with this for months? How ridiculous....just make new ones already!" Out came the cardstock, paper cutter and contact paper, and this time I made sure to reinforce the tab part that we would be grabbing a lot.

Notice that I tried to match the color of the divider to the category. At least in my mind they kinda do. :) Now we have to figure out what to do with all the recipes that we've printed out from the computer. Those are building up in the back of the box, and we need to put them in a binder or something. But then would that be able to stay on the counter with the rest of the recipes? Dilemmas, dilemmas.

How does everyone else organize their recipes? Do you have a box? Just cookbooks? Discuss. :)

~Sarah

Whistle While You Work

Yesterday was such a beautiful day here! Sunny, breezy, and in the mid 60s - not your typical January weather in Virginia. I took advantage of it, opened the windows to get some fresh air, and scrubbed the kitchen floor. Naturally, I also put on a CD to sing and whistle along with to make the work go faster. :)

It just so happens that I have gotten into a tradition of always playing a John Marshall Family CD while I scrub. I'd Do It All Again, Just For A Moment, and Peace are the three that we have.

I have gotten attached to the Mulfinger CDs when we're taking down all the Christmas decorations and cleaning up from the holidays, and Adagio Trio CDs when we're getting ready for company. Now when I hear that music, it instantly brings those occasions to mind. :)

Does anyone else have favorite music to work to?

~Sarah