MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

The birds are starting to come in to the feeders now.  Different ones than we get in the winter.  They make such a joyful sound to the Lord.  As soon as I get up in the morning, they are already singing.  I go hang clothes on the line, their music fills the air.  Such blessings the Lord gives.

Our weekend weather was a little different.  It started to rain about 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning.  It rained all day Saturday, all night Saturday night and most of the day Sunday.  All our little creeks were overflowing.  Several places the creek was running across the road when we came back from church Sunday afternoon.  Then it started to ice, then it snowed some and finally it got bitter cold.  When we came out from church last night, the side doors to the van were frozen shut.  Julie and Grace had to get in the the front doors.  We had some fierce wind so I guess that made the doors freeze.  This morning it was 20 degrees when we got up.  The wind has slowed down to a more manageable breeze, the sun is shining and hopefully it will get warmer.  I just checked and it is 32 degrees now.  I already have 2 loads of clothes on the line and another load ready to go out.  I love clothes dried outside.

We finished our study of II Corinthians last night.  Next week we will begin in Galatians.  Our supper menu last night was pigs in a blanket, mashed potatoes, corn, baked beans, cornbread and a sour creme pound cake for dessert.  I tell you, we sure do eat good.  Our pastor says if you like to eat and shoot this is the church for you.  As you may remember, our church does a lot of clay shoots as a men’s outreach.  Lots of the women shoot too.  We certainly have a lot of fun at our church.  Hopefully, I haven’t made it sound like a social club.  We are very dedicated to worshipping and serving the Lord.  We just believe the Lord wants us to have fun too.

Well, it is time for school.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

So here are the other pictures I could not get to load yesterday. 

Today we are getting much needed rain.  The fog has already come in so it promises to be a dreary day here in Floyd, a good day for a inside project. Temperature is about 35 degrees.  Hopefully, this will all be rain.   I am hoping next week to get some outside work done here.  All the trees and bushes need trimming, along with the grapevines.   We also need to do some cleanup in the blackberries.  Not my favorite job.  The thorns are hard to work with but it has to be done if we want to enjoy the berries.   I love outside work.  In my opinion, so much more fun than cleaning house.   I am already looking forward to enjoying  fresh fruit and veggies. 

I added a little bit to my menu  last night.  One of our favorite things to eat in the spring is wilted lettuce and green onions.   Hubby likes pinto beans with his.  So I purchased some fresh baby greens at the store, put a little chopped onion on top.  Then I heated olive oil  (shameful but I did not have bacon grease).  Next step is to pour some of the hot oil on top of the greens and onions, then top it off with pinto beans.  A big chunk of cornbread finished it up.    It was not as good as it would have been fresh from our garden but it definitely was good.  

Enjoy your weekend and God bless.

Fishing.   Such great fun for two little boys on a warm Sunday afternoon.   Temperatures here today are amazing.  Mid 50′s.  The sun is shining beautifully.  The mother of these two boys had called while we were at church.  She wanted to know if she could bring the boys to fish for a while.    They had a great time. 

I fixed a new recipe for lunch today.  I got it from a blogger friend.   It is called Amish 13 Bean and Sausage Chowder. 

2 cups of 13 Bean Blend
1 qt. fresh water
2 tsp. butter
1 tsp. lemon juice
4 tsp chicken broth
4 cups potatoes (diced)
2 cups onions (diced)
1 1/2 cups celery (sliced with leaves)
1 can (15oz) yellow corn
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp sage
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 qt whole milk
1 cup light cream
1 egg
3 Tbsp. Corn Starch
2 Tbsp. Flour
2 lbs of smoked sausage (sliced 3/8″)

1. Soak Bean in water overnight and drain.
2. Simmer the first 5 ingredients together in a heavy kettle for 30 minutes
3. Add the next 5 ingredients and cook another 15 minutes till potatoes are tender. (Do not stir much)
4. Add garlic salt, sage, black pepper & milk (Do not let boil)
5. Blend light cream, egg, corn starch & flour together in a bowl with a whip till smooth.
6. Slowly add the step #5 mixture and heat gently to thicken. Add sausage and Serve.

We liked it very much.  I am taking the rest of it tonight to church for our fellowship meal.  We will be having the soup, cornbread, pigs in a blanket, cake and ice cream.  We have 3 more weeks after tonight on our study of II Corinthians.  

Enjoy your evening and God bless.

Today has been a very pretty day here in Floyd. Beautiful sunshine and as you can see the sky is just amazing. Such a bright, vibrant blue. It is warmer than it has been. 25 degrees with very little wind. All in all, this makes for a fairly nice day.
I wanted to put a picture of my latest apron on, but for some reason I am having difficulties with my pictures. I think I will need some help, Dave.
Tonights menu will be pinto beans(cooked on the wood stove) Kielbasa with cabbage, cornbread and the buttermilk chocolate cake for dessert. Pintos cooked on the wood stove are just sooooo good. I guess they prefer slow cooking.
Enjoy your day and God bless.

Today we are getting back into the swing of school.  We had too many errands  yesterday to start.  We also visited some with the Horn’s yesterday.  For Christmas, the Horn girls had received a kit from Wal-Mart to make a little girl apron and a little doll apron.  I took some interfacing over and Vicki and I traced out the pattern.  So I now have a little doll apron pattern to make.  I want to make a mother, daughter, and doll apron to match. 

Temperatures here are much nicer than they have been however yesterday morning was pretty cold.  Temperature yesterday was 14 when we got up but it did warm up nicely with lots of sunshine.  Cloudy today though, of course, because I am home and could hang our clothes on the line today.  Oh well, thats how it goes.  Hubby worked on getting some more wood yesterday while the girls and I ran errands. 

Tonights menu is something I really don’t have a name for.  I brown hamburger meat, add onions, cabbage, and potatoes.  The options are limitless as to what you can add.   I sometimes add fresh peppers, zucchini, squash, mushrooms.  I like fresh baked cornbread with it.   I got some  cushaw from the freezer this morning.  I think I will make a pie for dessert. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

We have a slight breeze here in Floyd today.  Well, okay maybe more than a slight breeze but not a hard wind.  Just perfect for drying clothes on the line.  When the wind is blowing like this, the clothes are so soft when they get dry.  We had a busy weekend but lots of fun.  The girls and I went to Sam’s Club Saturday and picked up a few things.  Before that we went to one of our local malls and walked around, just looking.  This is something we never do, so that made it special.  They have already started putting up their Christmas stuff.  It was so much fun.  Yesterday was church day.  The pastors sermon was very good.  He compared being a soldier in the Armed Forces with being a soldier in God’s army.  He did a really good job.  Last nights menu was soup, pinto beans, cornbread, tator tot casserole, cooked apples and carrot cake.  Very good.

Today we are doing Grace’s birthday party.  We are going over to our friends the Horns to celebrate.  Vicki is making the cake and I am taking some homemade chicken noodle soup.  We are all looking forward to a great day.  I know I have said it before, but we are very blessed by the Lord to have the Horns in our life.  We so appreciate their friendship.

Well, I gotta go party.  Take care and God bless.

Last nights supper consisted of what we call mountain food.  Kraut and weiners, pinto beans, fried potatoes, and rolls.  Now for those of you who know true mountain food, the rolls should not have been on the menu.  The bread of choice of all mountain food is cornbread.  I already had the rolls though and decided not to take the time to make cornbread.  For dessert we had something new.  New for us anyway.  Pear Pie.  It was very good.  I got the recipe from a blogger friend of mine-Thanks Cheryl.  I made it just like you would make an apple pie.  I put a crumb topping on it and served it with whipped creme.  It was very good.

Today will be busy as usual for us.  We still have some pears to work up, then start on the apples.  We need to pick tomatoes, green beans and blackberries.   All that seems a little too ambitious but we’ll see.   I think today will be very HOT.  Temperature is already 70 and it is only 8:30. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Today has been kinda a resting day.  So much has been going on here lately, I thought the girls and I needed a day to rest.  Of course, as all you know there is no such thing as a completely resting day.  Especially during the week.  Anyway, I decided as I was resting to make a cherry pie.  I used the cherries we picked over the weekend.  I put about 3 cups of pitted cherries and about 1/2 cup sugar.  I brought this to a boil and let it boil down some.  Then I thickened it with 2 tbsp. cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp. water.

Then I made my pie crust.  The recipe I use is:  1/4 tsp. salt, 1/3 cup milk, 1/2 cup oil.  Mix all this together, then add 2 1/3 cups sifted all purpose flour.

Then I divide the dough into 2 parts for the bottom crust and the top.   I must warn you though this next picture is not too pretty.  I have never been good at rolling out pie crust.  I want to be, so I keep trying.  Maybe someday.

The finished product.  I know it doesn’t look too good but I believe it will taste great.  Especially with that homemade vanilla ice cream I’m making.  We are also having pork tenderloin, pinto beans and mashed potatoes. I think I will have  cornbread with this.  Today for lunch I had my first batch of wilted lettuce and green onions, so I had to bake cornbread to go with it.  Now, where I from they would have said a “mess” of lettuce and onions but I didn’t want to confuse those of you who do not understand mountain talk.  For you all who don’t know what this is, I’ll explain. First pick the lettuce and onion, fry some bacon.  Then you wilt down the lettuce and onion with the hot bacon grease.  Add a little salt and enjoy with cornbread.  Hubby likes pinto beans with his. Anyway you fix it, it is good!  My ice cream maker is finished, so I must go.  Take care and God bless.

We have a new car.  Well, new to us.  It is a 1991 Ford Taurus and seems to be in excellent condition.  It gets really good gas mileage.  We took it down to Jessica’s yesterday and got about 27 mpg.  This sounds great to us as “ol Red” only gets about 8 mpg.  Please don’t get me wrong, we are very thankful for ol Red.  It is just not exactly a family vehicle.   The girls and I used ol Red as our vehicle to ride into town for piano and other things.   We have had to use the van (Hubby’s work vehicle) for work and leisure.  Not a lot of fun.  We had to unload all the tools when we were going somewhere, then reload them back when we got home.  Times have been hard.  These are choices you make in order to make ends meet.  But now by the grace of God we have another car.  Paid for-no payments.  Thank you, Lord.  Tonight’s menu at church is Ham loaf, deviled eggs, corn, green beans, cole slaw and corn bread.  I am bringing the green beans (home canned) and the corn bread.  I use my grinder and grind corn to make the corn meal.  It is baking in the oven now and smells soooooo good.  I also cut up some fresh strawberries from yesterday.  We are having pound cake with strawberries and ice cream for dessert.  It all sound delicious!  It has been very windy here today.  I wanted to work on my bible study outside but it was just too windy.  The girls say God is blow drying the earth when the wind blows like this.  I guess that’s as good a description as any.  Smells like my cornbread is done.  I better get it out of the oven.  Take care and God bless.

I guess this is why I always gain weight in the winter.  There’s just something about winter that makes me want to bake and try out new recipes.  This pumpkin cake and cream cheese frosting recipe came from my (and Jessica’s) favorite cookbook.  Mennonite Country-Style Recipes and Kitchen Secrets.  If you get an opportunity to own the cookbook, it is fantastic.  I don’t think I’ve made anything from it that was bad.  All has been good.  I made 15 bean soup for church last night.  It turned out really good.  I basically follow the instructions on the bag except  I add some browned sausage and hamburger to the recipe.  Also instead of canned tomatoes, I use spaghetti sauce.  It is a very affordable soup.  If I didn’t miss count anything, it will feed about 20 people for about .50 cents a serving.  Pretty good huh.  I’m always looking for ways to feed my family inexpensively but healthy.  Sometimes these two words do not go together.  You know,  like at Wendys.  Do we buy the $1.00 chicken sandwich or the $5.00 salad?  Depends on the cash flow this week.  Honestly though we very seldom eat out, so the $1.00 chicken sandwich is a big treat for us all.   Well speaking of eating, time for me to cook supper.  Tonights menu-sauteed (fried) cabbage with hamburger, potatoes, onions, garlic, green peppers, and spinach.  It’s a one dish meal, inexpensive, healthy and delicious.  Of course a meal like this has to have cornbread with it.  Remember I grind my own corn to make the cornmeal, and of course for the dessert, the pumpkin cake.  Gotta go, I’m getting hungry.  God Bless.