Mountain Musings

"From Heav'n He Came and Sought Her"

We are happy to announce to you all that, as of Friday evening, Hannah and Christopher F, a godly, thoughtful, and earnest young man from Michigan, are now engaged to be married! 

In the Lord's providence, our two families met at a Bible conference last May, and we enjoyed a meal, a hike, and other times of fellowship together there. About a month later my phone rang, and there was Christopher! He (bravely and respectfully) told me he had an interest in getting to know Hannah and asked if that would be agreeable to us.

So, in the ensuing months we got to know one another in a family context, and then Hannah and Christopher sought the Lord's wisdom in a courtship relationship -- many many phone calls, several long-haul personal visits both ways between MI and VA, video calls, emails, texts, etc.  They really stretched their virtual technology and wore out the asphalt between VA, WV, OH, IN, & MI!  Then, after getting the blessing of his father and me (Tom), Christopher came for a visit this past weekend; took Hannah for a long walk around the property; and proposed to her on the front porch. And she said Yes, she would be honored! :)

And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. 

(Hos 2:19)

Here are our two families rejoicing for them...

Happy hearts as they visit at church...

Please pray for them as they seek to glorify the Lord during this time and their future marriage!

 

"I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

(John 14:2-3)

~ Tom and Deb, with Hannah

*Title from the hymn The Church's One Foundation

Beautifying the Church Flower Beds

Our family was commissioned with the task of sprucing up the front of our church building by revamping the old flower bed. So after researching and planning which plants would work best for the spot, we made a trip to some local greenhouses to find what I had in mind. Even though it was a bit on the early side for a full selection, I was pleased with what we eventually decided on.

Weeds had already begun to take over, so it was high time to get the beds looking nicer just in time for spring. BEFORE:

Mom was the excellent watering lady for our project:

The shrubs we chose for foundation planting were holly and abelia:

After clearing the 5' x 30' section of weeds, we tilled, raked, dug holes, and laid down landscape fabric. In additon to the bushes, I wanted to focus on perennials so the plants would be long-lasting and come back each year. Chosen flowers were coreopsis, gaillardia, dianthus, sedum, and some annual marigolds for a pop of immediate color.

After everything was in, we tried to beat the approaching rain as we surrounded the plants with bagged mulch.

Several hours later, we had a finished product! AFTER:

The transformed flower bed is no longer weedy, with much team effort!

I'm looking forward to watching these plants grow and blossom as they get established.

"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” Isaiah 40:8

~Hannah

Doughnut Cupcakes

Having a grandmother with the maiden name of O'Connor, and a sister who is a big holiday celebrator (but no longer lives here to make her festive desserts), I couldn't pass up the chance to make some green-tinted treats today for the family.

Adapting this recipe for Doughnut Muffins, I colored the batter green and added some green glaze dipped and drizzled on top.

Sprinkles and chocolate chunks completed the cake-doughnut style muffin. This bird is ready to try one - and for springtime!

~Hannah

Valentine's Week cooking

It's about time for a recipe post! If you've followed our blog for awhile, you know that when February rolls around, there might be a special cooking week with lots of new dishes happening. Valentine's week was my (Hannah's) chance to plan, shop for and make our supper meals for the family and give Mom a complete break.

Follow along for photos and links of what I chose to make! Various ethnicities were featured on each night. Everyone seemed to think the new recipes tried were a success, to varying degrees of likeability.

Monday's meal on Valentine's Day was Asian-inspired and full of red berries:

Strawberry Balsamic Chicken Meatballs over Rice

Strawberry Cucumber Salad and Roasted Broccoli

Strawberry Limeade (idea from a favorite past meal of Sarah's)

Raspberry Velvet Tart

Tuesday's meal featured a Cajun main dish:

Blackened Tilapia

Asparagus and Salad

Baked Cinnamon Sweet Potatoes (Granny's specialty)

Wednesday's meal was Italian-themed, and everyone here thought it was tasty to definitely make again sometime.

Beef and Pasta Soup

Seeded Focaccia

Thursday we had leftovers, and Friday we enjoyed the following:

Chicken Fajita Pasta

Apple Cinnamon Whoopie Pies (at Jonathan's request)

The pasta could be topped with lettuce, tomato, and/or avocado:

On Saturday, my final night, I decided to try out the new pizza peel and pizza stone given to me for my birthday.

While I forgot to get a photo of the finished baked pizza, I'm sure you can imagine what it looked like. There was a learning curve to handling the peel and stone, but the delicious crusty results were worth the effort.

Hope you enjoyed this tour for your tastebuds!

~Hannah

Theology of the Family conference

Our annual trip to Asheville, NC took place in May instead of October this time, and spring was another beautiful time of year to visit Ridgecrest Conference Center:

Our lodgings looked out on the rolling hills near Black Mountain:

Since Mom stayed behind at home with Granny, we tried to send her plenty of pictures so she would feel somewhat included in our days:

Mom always loves catching up with various friends who also are attending this conference, so that was a part she was sad to miss. We ran into many familiar faces and met several new ones, too.

These 2 Jonathans caught up on each other's lives:

We heard tales of these young ladies' exciting travels and business ventures:

Our first evening's session was delivered by Paul Washer, who spoke about Fallen Families...a very sobering but encouraging message to start off the weekend:

Meanwhile, Mom back at home picked our quickly-ripening strawberries for me:

During lunch in the dining hall, we chatted with a sibling group from MI and got to know them better:

Free time one afternoon allowed for several of us to drive off-campus to enjoy a short hike together:

Catawba Falls had an upper and lower falls, and we spent some time exploring and relaxing:

My friend Hannah and I, who is also participating in the Spring100 challenge, added some miles to our totals.

As the conference came to a close, we said goodbye to various friends old and new:

2 brothers took a break from their Army duties to spend the weekend with their family:

We made dinner plans with friends from TN and found a local recommended BBQ restaurant.

It was an enjoyable time sharing conversation and a meal together.

When we returned to the conference center, the rest of the night was spent in fellowship with different groups of people who had gathered for an evening of music and talking.

These young men joined in piano and voice for a new version of "Only Trust Him", which was a fitting closing for the event:

We arrived back home to Virginia and regaled Mom and Granny with stories of our time away.

What is our hope in life and death?
Christ alone, Christ alone
What is our only confidence?
That our souls to him belong
Who holds our days within his hand?
What comes, apart from his command?
And what will keep us to the end?
The love of Christ, in which we stand.

~Hannah

Back-to-back Soapmaking Classes

This month has been full for me with getting our garden in and planning for hosting a few soapmaking classes. Our first set of ladies came on a Friday afternoon, after trying to coordinate a visit for over a year! With windy weather in the forecast, I held this smaller class indoors in our cozy kitchen once we got to know each other over lunch.

They donned their aprons, and we got to work! Each person took turns weighing and mixing the ingredients for our batch of soap.

Blending the soap batter and personalizing our individual molds with scents and botanical decorations was everyone's favorite part of the process. I enjoyed showing these ladies how I make soap and helping them make their very own to take home with them.

Granny was happy to show off her handmade baskets, too!

The following day, I had 4 more ladies arrive for a morning and afternoon set of classes, beginner and advanced soap-making. This mother and daughter trio took time out of their busy schedules to rendezvous for a Saturday of soaping together!

My additional participant drove all the way from NC to join us for the all-day class. She was an eager learner and helped with setup and cleanup, too!

Another windy day made for an interesting time dealing with our lye mixtures outdoors. Everyone was a good sport, and any fears about dealing with this caustic substance were calmed as we handled it with caution.

Our table of molds, scents, colors, and tools was a busy location of much creativity...

..and lovely aromas!

A finished recipe of soap:

Last weekend an 11 year-old girl came with her family for a private soap-making lesson. It was a beautiful day for spreading out on our back deck for our soaping fun!

She was one of my youngest students so far, but she jumped right in and carefully completed each step as it was explained.

Her mom was also an excellent pupil, and they even brought their own goat's milk from their animals to use in their batch of soap.

Her little brothers looked on with interest as she mixed up her scented soap:

They will need to have patience until their finished molds of soap are ready to use in 4-6 weeks!

Meanwhile, they got to try cutting some finished soap I had made in advance. It looked good enough to eat!

The classes were an overall success, and I'm grateful for each person who came from a distance to take part!

~Hannah

Mid-Winter Vittles

Isn't it spring, you ask? When it comes to my (Hannah's) blogging habits, better late than never! This post will chronicle my week of cooking back in February, so you'll notice snowmen and hearts sprinkled throughout the photos. However, I did repeat a couple of these menus in late March, as they were hits originally, and we wanted to serve them again when my Aunt Bet visited for her birthday recently. So, enjoy the photos and recipe links!

First things first:

Cinnamon Roll Apple Pie, using the cinnamon roll dough recipe from my Hope's Table cookbook (signed by the author when Mom and I went to the Spring Creek Barn Sale) AND the inspiration to use it as an apple pie crust from @warmwinterwishes. Just mix up your favorite dough recipe, cut into pinwheels, flatten with a rolling pin to the size of a top crust, and place it over a pie dish of cooked apples. Bake until brown!

With the extra dough, I made regular cinnamon rolls for breakfast and to store in the freezer for later (which came in handy for my aunt's visit). Yum!

The pie was served after our main meal of Honey Coriander Salmon, Wild Rice and Charred Corn Salad (adapted), and steamed carrots.

The next meal was Firecracker Chicken Meatballs over rice, with steamed broccoli. We already love Cajun Chicken Meatballs and this spicy twist was also a winner.

A simple Instantpot meal I tried for the first time (well, all this week's meals were new to us) was Italian Beef Goulash, a one-bowl meal. Next time, I would add more seasoning to pump up the Italian flavor. With it we enjoyed a salad with Sweet Mango salad dressing and savory Rosemary Focaccia.

Since it was Valentines' week, these Chocolate Raspberry Linzer Cookies and Strawberry Sugar Cookies made it onto the menu at some point, to nibble on throughout the week.

For our special Valentines meal, the theme was "Outback Steakhouse." While it involved preparing many different components, I had a great time creating it all, and the family loved it.

Alice Springs Chicken (there are many copycat recipes out there):

Aussie Crunch Salad...the crunch being fried spaghetti and cinnamon pecans:

And Outback's signature Bloomin' Onion complete with dipping sauce:


This brown bread recipe I have made in the past, and it is a keeper, so soft and yummy:

For the Pineapple on the Barbie, I threaded chunks of the fruit on skewers and cooked them on this grill pan indoors.

Dessert was a brownie trifle with berries and pudding:

Another meal later in the week was this comforting combo of Creamy Chicken Parmesan Pasta Soup and Cheddar Chive Biscuits, served in mugs. Check out the biscuit recipe for an easy way to make biscuits without cutting in the butter.

Each day I made a new meal, it would get written on our menu chalkboard:

Blueberry Cobbler is a go-to year-round since our freezer is stocked full of garden blueberries:

My final meal, after leftovers of the previous choices, was the following:

Chili-Dijon Pork Tenderloin:

Brioche Rolls:

Thanks, Mom, for giving me free reign of the kitchen for a week, and everyone for eating my dishes! Let me know in the comments what sounds tasty to you and what your family might try.

~Hannah

None of Your Beeswax

Here in the soap studio lately, I've been experimenting with honeycomb from the hives at Monticello's gardens. If you get a chance to visit Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Charlottesville, VA, stop by their gift shop and find Pleasant View Soaps products created using their herbs and flowers...and soon, beeswax. 

 

Keep reading if you want to know about the process of including beeswax in soap! I was sent a sizable amount of raw honeycomb to render into wax. It was my first attempt at doing so, but it worked out just fine after a little bit of research. This is what the fresh jumbled honeycomb off the hives looks like before processing:

 

 

Bundled up tightly in cheesecloth (or a clean threadbare dishtowel, haha), the honeycomb is placed in simmering water to allow the wax to melt and to filter out any unwanted debris, such as bee parts or honey.

 

 

The wax melts and floats to the brim of the pot of water, leaving the "gunk" below and in the cheesecloth.

After leaving the wax to cool and harden, I could lift a disk of filtered beeswax off the top to then trim and use. I will likely take it through a second melting to further purify the wax. I thought the below round of beeswax looked like some kind of flan dessert with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top - not quite!

 

 

I then chopped and melted the pure beeswax to stir into a new soap recipe. Beeswax provides some hardness to a bar of soap when used in certain amounts.

 

I even swirled some Monticello honey into this test batch and created a honeycomb pattern on the top of the soaps....using bubble-wrap. It will be named Honeycomb soap and will be sold exclusively in the Monticello catalog, coming out next year!

 

 

If you're interested in a similar soap, visit my website for the Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey soap, an unscented and mild treat.

 

~Hannah

Kitchen Takeover

Recipe post ahead...as requested!

As Mom mentioned in a previous writing, I (Hannah) was in charge of meals for a couple of weeks in February. The tradition continued of one of us girls choosing Valentine's week to cook. I enjoyed, as always, browsing recipe sites and coming up with mostly new recipes to try out on the family.

Overall, the family thought the meals were not only edible but delicious, with probably some do-over recipes in the mix. Interspersed in these two weeks' menu plans were several leftover nights, and the special desserts covered us for awhile, too.

Below are links if you'd like to try these menus yourself:

Tomato Bisque

Grilled Pastrami Sandwiches with Onion Marmalade

Instant Pot Beef Gyros (with these flatbreads)

Greek Potatoes

Strawberry Pretzel Dessert (adapted)

 

Maple Dijon Chicken Thighs

5 Cheese Macaroni and Cheese (adapted)

Sweet Potato Kale Salad (similar to this)

Our Valentine's Day menu was, like the other days, written on a chalkboard in our kitchen:

Italian Meatloaf Pinwheel

Caesar Salad

Pesto Breadsticks

Cheesy Italian Baked Beans

Red Velvet Cookies or Chocolate Nemesis Cake

Granny (2 weeks before her fall) awaits her cookies:

 

Personal Chicken Pot Pies

Salad

Canned Peaches

 

New Mexico Chile Stew

Dixie Cornbread

Raspberry White Chocolate Blondies

 

Sticky Garlic Chicken over Quinoa

Roasted Broccoli

 

Breakfast for Dinner of:

Waffles (from Hope's Table cookbook)

Oven-cooked Bacon

Scrambled Eggs

 

And...then when Granny was in the hospital and rehab, with Mom away for hours of the day advocating for her care, I once again handled meals for the family for another couple of weeks. While they weren't as planned out ahead of time, it filled a need, and I was glad to help in this way. So you get a few bonus pictures:

Chicken Pasta (using Trader Joe's Creamy Tomato Basil sauce)

Beef Barbecue Sandwiches

Have you tried anything new in the kitchen lately?

~Hannah

Dayton Days 2019

We had a beautiful fall-y day for the 40th annual Dayton Days craft show! So many people came out to this event and filled the streets of small-town Dayton:

Dad, Jonathan, and I (Hannah) drove our loaded-to-the-brim vehicles full of products, tents, and tables to begin set-up of our booth before sunrise:

This was Dad's debut appearance of his Pleasant View Woodworks furniture business, so we had vinyl banners printed and hung for the occasion, along with my various signs proclaiming SOAP was for sale, to catch a distant buyer's eye:

Here are Dad and I together, ready to start the long but enjoyable day of (hopefully) selling our handmade wares and gaining exposure with potential local customers:

Our completed 10' x 30' booth spread:

You can see quilt racks, cutting boards, and a poster advertising his other products available for ordering in this shot:

The beautiful arched wall mirror and Shaker-style end table had many admirers:

There were several styles of cutting boards on display, too:

My Pleasant View Soaps portion of our shared space was fun to arrange, and it all brought back memories of being a vendor at the farmers' market back in 2012-2015:

The many varied scents of soap wafted out to the passers-by and beckoned them to enter our stall!

Mom joined us part-way through the morning, and we all enjoyed chatting with folks who stopped by to visit:

Dad especially enjoyed explaining his wood-working processes to interested browsers:

And here is Granny's side of the equation! Her baskets made it to Dayton Days again after a few years' hiatus (read about past years here).

Mom brought Granny to the show during the morning so she could get in on the action. She has always been a saleswoman with her baskets and loves interacting with the customers:

No sooner had Granny arrived than we had surprise visitors. The pastor and his wife from Granny's hometown church found our booth since they were traveling in the area and had heard we would be at the show:

Granny had such a good time at her booth, she hated to leave when it was time! Mom wheeled her around the rest of the show before finding their parking spot.

Here is a bright garden scene they came upon as they strolled the residential streets of Dayton:

And another vendor was selling fresh-baked pumpkin rolls:

The field across from our booth was quite the popular location! The reason being it was a field full of sunflowers, and everyone was invited by the owner to pick for free....loads of people of all ages took him up on the offer, and sunflowers were the theme of the day! Almost everyone passing by throughout the day carried armfuls of the golden flowers.

Here is Granny, posing in the field with Mom's bouquet:

It was a full day of activity! We were thankful for the opportunity to participate again this year and share our talents with the public.

~Hannah