Courtney is a sweet friend I met in Nashville several years ago. We bonded over the fact her husband’s family is from West Virginia. So they’re good people! I love her relationship with God and how they are raising their children to have a close relationship with Jesus. A few years ago, she was saying nighttime prayers with her youngest…Gabe. When he was finished he said that when they were in West Virginia visiting her husband’s parents he and his sister Della lost their Daddy, MawMaw, and big brother, Seth. Gabe said they were really scared, so they had to “yell for Jesus!”
Have you ever found yourself lost and don’t know where to turn? I sure have. Courtney said if she had only one piece of advice she could give, it would be this. Yell for Jesus. You can’t do this alone. I know I can’t. I’ve tried. I’ve dug in my heels and said no to God so many times I am astounded He can forgive me. But he did. When I started yelling for Jesus, that’s when I found my way through the darkness of anxiety and depression back into the light. I just thought I’d share that with you today.
Wild Blackberries showed up in the hedgerow this year.
Yesterday was a super productive day. We always take our time with breakfast. That’s our time to just sit and enjoy each other’s company before the day gets started. And we don’t start early. We’re night owls so we sometimes don’t finish the breakfast dishes till nearly noon! Such was the case yesterday. Mr. FixIt was fiddling with something and I headed out to finish mowing. At some point, he came out to meet me in his truck. He was on his way into town to show some plans to a fellow he’s going to do a little building for.
I continued mowing then put the trimmer and the loppers in the back of my truck and headed out to the hedgerow along the creek out front. There are monstrous sycamore trees out there and their low hanging branches get heavy with leaves. This makes me have to duck down when I’m mowing. Actually, that happens a lot all the way around so every once in a while, I have to get aggressive with the trimmers and try to keep this jungle from closing in on us.
I worked for a little bit, but I was soon realized this is the side that gets full afternoon sun and it was WAY too hot for such heavy labor. I gave up and went inside to cool down and rehydrate. Before long, I was ready for round two. I went out and sprayed off the tractor and got all the grass off the top of the mower deck then put everything away. Mr. FixIt got home about supper time…with a dozen pink roses, a little birthday cake, and a new floatie for the pool. He’s such a love!
When I was a little girl, we went out to the farm just about every weekend. That place has always been more of home to me that the one I lived in with my parents. Supper in the summer time was often a simple affair. The only sun that farmhouse gets is in the late afternoon and it gets too hot to cook. Grandma would get a couple of jars of canned tomatoes from the cellar house thicken it with a mixture of flour and milk with salt, pepper, and sugar. Then she served it over slices of bread or leftover biscuits. I haven’t made that for so long and all day when I was out there mowing, that’s all I could think about.
Our house gets really hot in the afternoon, too. The exterior is red brick and that west facing wall is always ten degrees hotter than the ambient temperature. The last thing I want to do was heat up the kitchen, but I really wanted biscuits with the tomato gravy. I was looking at the directions on the can of biscuits (yes…I bought canned biscuits. The Pillsbury Grands aren’t too bad!) I noticed directions for the air fryer and I remembered one of my readers telling me they make biscuits that way and it doesn’t heat up the house.
I was pleasantly surprised! The biscuits were perfect. And the tomato gravy came together fast. Here’s my recipe:
Ginny’s West Virginia Creamed Tomatoes (akaTomato Gravy)
2 12oz cans of diced tomatoes
1/2 can evaporated milk
1-1 1/2 T. Wondra Flour
1 T. Butter
1-2 T. granulated sugar
Salt and Pepper to taste
Pour the tomatoes, juice and all, in a medium saucepan. Add the butter, salt, pepper, and sugar to the pan and place over medium heat. Stir Wondra Flour into evaporated milk and add to the tomatoes in the pan. Stir well and bring to a boil stirring frequently. Turn the heat down and let simmer till the biscuits are done.
Bake the biscuits in the air fryer at 330° for 7 minutes. Carefully turn them over and set the air fryer for another 4-5 minutes at 330°. They came out perfectly. Cut the biscuits in half and place in a good lined soup bowl. Ladle the hot Tomato Gravy over the biscuits and enjoy. This is truly a West Virginia treat!
After supper and the news, I got one of the pints of ice cream fixin’s out of the freezer and tried out my new Ninja Creami Ice Cream Maker. WOWZA! It was SO good and tasted exactly like chocolate soft serve. I used Splenda Glucerna Chocolate Smoothie as the base this time. We each got a nice sized serving of ice cream for 170 calories! I’m looking forward to trying all kinds of recipes in this thing.
I decided to wait for today to smoke the pork butts. It’s going to be a fun day! No need to work hard on my birthday, right? Seventy-one. I think 71 is more fun than ‘71…the year we graduated!
🥳
“May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans!”
Psalm 20:4 ESV