Thanksgiving Week

So Monday was just a normal day had breakfast, made pie crust and did some grocery shopping then about 3pm the power went out!  We are pretty sure that the 50 to 70 mph winds had something to do with the power outage. This is the first time this has happened since we have been here so it was kinda fun I guess. We had fun relaxing by the fire, made sure we didn't open the fridge and freezer too much and had a blast playing rummy by headlamp. Down here in the county you never now how log the power will be off, luckily it was only off for about 10 hours so we didn't have to worry about emptying the freezer or how I was going to start prepping for Thanksgiving with no electricity.

Tuesday we woke up and we had power but the best part was waking up to beautiful white fluffy stuff known as SNOW falling from the sky! I love snow and you will probably read that at least 100 more time this winter but I really do love snow! So of course we went out and admired the beauty of the new fresh snow.  Mountain Man does't catch snowflakes on his tongue, he does it with the beard!

As I was starting to prep for Thanksgiving Mountain Man walked in and said "whats your favorite Frozen song" and I said "Let it Go" he said "no the other one" and I got all excited and said "Do you wanna build a snowman" then turned off the oven and went to get my snow stuff and we went out to build a snowman!!

So after our fun of building a snowman I came in to warm up and to get started cooking. I made a pecan pie, 2 pumpkin pies, put the green bean casserole together in the pan for cooking and made cranberry sauce. 

On Thursday we woke up around 7am Mountain Man and his dad got the fire going for the turkey to go on and his mom and I cooked a breakfast of bacon, biscuits and gravy. I seasoned the turkey with salt, pepper, garlic, and onion and it wen on the stick at 9:30 over a nice hot fire. I made my phone calls to friends and family back in Illinois wishing them a Happy Thanksgiving.

They were so awesome for braving the 20 to 30 degree temp to tend to the turkey. They also had to cut some trees and chop wood to keep it going for the 8 hours it took to cook and smoke over the fire.

While the turkey was roasting I had fun finishing the rest of Thanksgiving Dinner. I made dinner rolls, a wonderful mashed sweet potato and banana casserole with pecan topping, mashed potatoes. Mountain Man's mom made the stuffing and gravy. The turkey came off around 4:45pm and we let it sit for an hour while we finished up cooking all the side dishes.

We carved the turkey and sat down to have an awesome Thanksgiving Meal! 

Hopefully you and yours had a

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Being Crafty

 For about the last year I have been brainstorming on how I wanted to decorate the house and the room that I am set on and have all kinds of ideas is the kitchen. I have always loved yellow for a kitchen, growing up my grandma always had a yellow kitchen and just makes me remember her so much, so I decided I had to have a yellow kitchen with grey cabinets. Then started the search for the perfect fabrics because I am making curtains and other accessories. So I found these fun stripes and was so excited to make the curtains. Then my birthday came around and I got this awesome clock and just had to figure out away to mix it in the kitchen!! So off to the fabric store to see if I could find something that would tie it all together.

Unfortunately I haven't made the curtains yet but I have been working on some wall art. I made a stencil of the flower and bought a 12x24 canvas and let my creativity take it from there! 

I started with arranging the flowers on the canvas and then painted them the blueish green colors.

I love the flowers and decided to start on the rest of it, I did the stripes form the original fabric and added our initials!! I love it but thought it needed a little more because the wall they are going on is very large.

So I got 2 more 12x12 canvases to add to the bigger one, I did the same background but added some new silhouettes of a teapot and a kitchen-aid mixer.

I am so excited of how they turned out and I can't wait to see them up with everything else, hopefully I can get the walls painted in the spring. Hopefully I can get to the curtains in the next few days and I can hang them up for Thanksgiving!! Probably wishful thinking! lol

Something Old & Something New

So the last few days Mountain Man and I have been a little bit under the weather, we woke up Tuesday and did not feel well at all, we were all stuffed up, coughing and feeling yucky. Thankfully I had made some chicken noodle soup on Monday with the leftover chicken on a stick and homemade chicken broth. We relaxed most of the morning and then made a trip to town to get some groceries and more meds! On Wednesday we still felt yucky so just hung out at home, I started feeling a little better in the afternoon. I got enough energy to make some pizza rolls and an awesome Peanut Butter-Fudge Cheesecake from my favorite blog Brown Eyed Baker. I absolutely love this blog, it is my go to for any recipe, I always check there for a recipe before looking elsewhere. Having never made a cheesecake so this was a new experience for me, overall it wasn't too bad to make. The best part of the day was that Mountain Man jumped in and helped me with the pizza rolls and the cheesecake. I taught him how to form the pizza rolls, he did all the heavy lifting of the food processor and the Kitchen Aid, he also helped me decide when the cheesecake was done. 

We love these pizza rolls or pepperoni roll, they are so so good, you can eat them hot or cold. They are good no matter what. I just made a batch of these this last weekend for us to much on down at Panther and they were gone by Sunday morning! I like them with pepperoni, black olives and cheese, Mountain Man likes them with everything, pepperoni, black olives, onions, cheese, and mushrooms. 

Then it was onto the cheesecake, this is something that I have wanted to make for awhile but I was very intimidated by them. So I decided it was time put on my big girl panties and just do it. I headed over to my favorite blog to see what she has to offer and of course something amazing Peanut Butter-Fudge Cheesecake!! So I started with the Oreo curst which was really easy, I froze that for 10 mins and then made the fudge and froze that for 10 mins, then sprinkled on chopped peanut butter cups, that to start with sounds awesome! I froze the base while I made the peanut butter cheesecake, poured that in and then baked the cheesecake. Sadly I had to put it in the fridge over night before I could try it. This Morning I made the ganache on the top and let that set before I cut it and took half to a friend. 

It truly was very yummy but the verdict is that it is very rich and possible could have cooked a little longer. Overall I will so try it again.

Weekend in Panther

So we had an amazing weekend!!! Thursday I spent most of the day baking, I made Chocolate Walnut Bran Muffins, Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars, and baked Dylan's birthday cake. On Friday I finished the cake and made some awesome pepperoni rolls that everyone loved. Friday night we headed down to Mountain Mans moms for dinner and to wait for his sister Rae, her hubby Bill and our nephew Dylan!! After they arrived Bill and Dylan headed to his moms of the evening so food could be prepared for the next day!! We had dinner talked, laughed, watched tv and prepped. On Saturday I got up really early and set the pepperoni rolls out so they could come to room temp and rise a bit before I baked them to take down. After they were baked we worked on loading the car so we could head to Panther, we had so much stuff to take cake, presents, our clothes, and stuff to make chili Sunday. We were loaded up and on the road by 10am, made a stop at Goodson's for some tomato paste and then down the road. We arrived about 5 mins before Rae and Mountain Mans mom and 10 mins before Bill, Dylan and his mom, so we all had good timing. We all hung out and talked either in the house or out by the fire because it was beautiful day! For lunch we had a mixture of awesome food, there is no worry of a food shortage in this family. Watching Dylan open presents was a blast other than I think the adults had more fun with some of his toys than he did! LOL He got new boots, nerf guns(the adults loved these), and a drum set from Nana(Rae and Mountain Mans mom), a basketball hoop from Grandma(Bill's mom) and the awesome gift I made, I made him a tie blanket and pillow and a stuffed snake. He loved all of his gifts and had a blast trying them all out over the weekend.

After gifts we sand Happy Birthday to him, he blew out his candles and enjoyed his Lion cake! 

We had so much fun hanging out and just enjoying each others company. After the excitement of the day was over Rae and I relaxed in the house, cleaned up and played cards. Mountain Man, his mom and dad, Bill and Dylan hung outside by the fire! Sunday morning we got up and had breakfast and I headed down the hollow to visit someone very dear to me, our cousin Judy!! She is so much fun to hang out with and talk to. I'm so glad I am closer so I can visit her more often.

The fist picture was taken in August at the reunion and the other one Sunday when I went to visit her!

When I got back to the Papa's house in Panther things were in full swing, chickens where on a stick over the fire and laughter was flowing. Chickens take between 4 and 5 hours so there was plenty of time to hang out and just relax. When chickens were done we ate till we were full and then we got things cleaned up and loaded up because we headed up to our house in Anawalt. Anawalt is about an hour and a half closer to home for Rae and Bill. Mountain Man and I left a little before them so we could get to the house, get it warmed up and so I could get beds made for everyone. Rae, her mom, Bill and Dylan showed up about an hour after we did, everyone got relaxed and settled down for some zzzzzz's. Dylan of course was asleep by the time he got to our house so we put him on the couch and he slept there for a while, then around 12am Mountain Man went to go check on little man and he was nowhere near the couch. He had gotten hot and moved to Mountain Mans chair and feel asleep there!! It was the cutest thing ever, LOVE this Little Man!!

On Monday morning we got up and had a HUGE breakfast of biscuits, gravy, fried potatoes, and bacon, so yummy! Sadly tho Rae, Bill & Little Man had to head home but before they left Uncle Mountain Man made sure and wore out Little Man so he would sleep most of the way home, which he did! They ran around and around the house, played hide and seek and laughed so hard! He also had to trick Little Man to hiding in the car so they could leave, he did not want to leave. We said our Goodbyes and See Ya Soon's, our Mountain Home went back to its quiet and peaceful self!

Dylan!!

We are so excited for this weekend!! Mountain Mans sister, her husband, and our AWESOME nephew Dylan!! We can't wait for them to get here so we can celebrate his 3rd birthday. I cannot believe the little stinker is 3 already, it just seems like the other day Rae called and told me she was prego!! So that means I have been and will be very busy till the party Saturday. So far this week I have made his awesome gift, sadly I can't post it yet cause I didn't tell Rae about it and want it to be a big surprise. Just know that I made the whole gift from scratch, love being crafty! Also I am making him a Lion birthday cake, pizza rolls to munch on, muffins for breakfast and chili for dinner Sunday. So I have lots of prep and cooking to do before we leave for Panther on Friday night or Saturday morning so we are down there by 11 Saturday, but I love every minute of it!!

So a week ago Rae sent me a pic of Dylan in his Captain America halloween costume with a look that I had seen before. So I went digging through my pics of a picture that I took a month ago when we went back to Illinois to visit. Then did a side by side comparison and figured out that there is no denying that they are related!!

This is why I love these two boys so much! I love seeing Dylan and his Uncle Bubby Monster as he calls him!! Its funny because I have showed people this and they think that Mountain posed for this pic, nope its well over a month old and Dylan's was just a couple weeks old!!!

These are from Dylan's 2nd Birthday last year!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DYLAN!!!!!

Learning Coal

Learning to keep a coal burning furnace has definitely been experience. First we had to clean out the furnace, clean the bonnet and clean the chimney. Having never seen this down before it was a neat experience to say the least. Mountain Man climbed on the roof with this wire brush with lots of extending poles and started sweeping the chimney till he reached the bottom, where his dad was shoveling out the soot in the basement at the base of the chimney.

You have to make sure you have enough hot coals to burn the coal so Mountain Man started with a nice hot wood fire and then adds coal when that is nice and hot. We only have to start a fresh fire a couple times a season when we have to clean the whole furnace. It has also been a journey figuring how much airflow it needs to make it warm or to let it cool down. This furnace has no thermostat, just a fan that starts blowing when the temp in the furnace reaches 250 degrees and then shuts off when it gets down to 150!! So when its hot, it's hot, we have had to open the doors because it got to 85 degrees in the house. 

Mountain Mans dad says that it should take about 3 tons of coal and right now coal is going for $70 a ton.  So no too bad when our electric bills in Illinois ran about $100 a month from November till about March. I really do enjoy poking around at the fire and adding coal when its needed, however it isn't much fun getting up in the middle of the night or early in the morning to check it. We will get the hang of it soon and maybe won't be checking it as much! 

Mountain Adventures & More!

Upper Peeled Chestnut
There are so many things that you can do in the wonderful mountains of West Virginia, my favorite of all is just taking a nice relaxing 4 wheel ride through the woods. Its so much fun seeing new places and seeing how things have changed since you were up there last and if you are really lucky than you may get to see some awesome wildlife!
My favorite place to go is on the old mining road above our house, there are so many beautiful tree and fun mud holes to go thru! We found this awesome rock fall, there are some huge pieces that have fallen off and are so much fun to climb on and explore.

This is a little creek that runs under the road and down the mountain to our house. We also got to see where they are doing some logging on top of the mountain.

WVU Marching Band

On August 28th we went to Riverview HS in Bradshaw, WV and saw the West Virginia Mountaineers  Marching Band preform they are called the Pride of West Virginia! This was the first time they had been in McDowell County in 26 years. As a former bando and lover of marching bands it was so awesome to see them preform.

They played some really fun songs, made the state of West Virginia and played the songs from the different branches of the US Military. I do feel bad for the band because there is only one set of bleachers at the field so half the time the band members were looking at a rock wall. 

On the way to Illinois

My Mountain Man and I took a trip back to Illinois to pick up our other car. We took the train and weren't quite sure where it was so we left pretty early that day to make sure we found it and we did. So with about 5 hours to waste we decided to go the the New River Gorge and check it out. We went to the gorge out look and walked to the lower part with the best view of the bridge.

Love the view and the beautiful Rhododendron!! Then with time to spare we decided to take this cool one way road under the bridge, it took about 30 mins to drive to the other side. 

 It was so neat to see the bridge from another perspective before then I had just seen the side and top views. The under view is so cool because you get to see how massive the pieces to build the bridge are. Then we headed toward the train station where we found this cool little pull off where you can access the New River where Mountain Mans dad did a little fishing and Mountain Man and I watched and had fun taking pics!

Maybe a little too much fun!!

Then it was too the train station in Prince, WV where there is NOTHING! just a train station in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing on 5 miles of side of the station. Our train was about an hour and a half late but made up time during our ride.

Then we jumped on the train around 7:30pm, found out seat and then the lounge car. Sadly this was the only beer we each had because they were $5 a can, A CAN!! So we stuck with the drinks and snacks we brought with us. We were on the train all night and arrived in Crawfordsville, IN around 7:00am. My mom picked us up and we spent a fun week in Illinois where we were able to see my family and friends.