I don’t know about you, but when the grey days of January hit, I’m ready to enjoy some warm soup and chili. In fact, today I made the Spare Change Diner’s Potato & Ham Soup. It was yummy. In case you haven’t tried it, you can find the recipe in our blogs.
One of our family’s winter recipes is my mom’s easy chili. She grew up in Indiana and brought this recipe with her when she moved east. I liked the chili as a child, but I learned to really appreciate it when I grew up and had children of my own. As a working mom, I looked for quick recipes I could make in about 30 minutes.  Give this recipe a try.
 Easy Chili
1 pound of ground beef
½ cup of onion (chopped)
1 can of Tomato Soup
1 can (14.5 ounce) diced tomatoes (do not drain)
2 cans dark red kidney beans (drained)
2 teaspoons of chili powder
Salt & Pepper to taste
Optional-Shredded Cheddar Cheese
 Brown the ground beef in a skillet and add onions. Cook until onions are translucent and beef is not pink. Add Tomato Soup, tomatoes, drained beans, and chili powder. Bring to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes on low. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese when served.
 The last years of my mother’s life she had progressive dementia. There were many things she forgot, but she didn’t forget this chili.  The last time I made it for her, she said, “this chili tastes like home.” I hope it helps you stay warm on these cold winter nights and brings you that feeling of home.

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This creamy, flavorful soup is perfect for cold winter evenings!  The folks at the Spare Change Diner always have a pot bubbling on the back burner.
 
 
Ham and Potato Soup
 
4 cups diced potatoes
2 cups chopped ham
½ cup chopped onion
41/2 cups chicken broth
5 T butter
1/3 cup flour
2 cups half and half (or 2% milk)
Salt and pepper to taste
 
Directions:
 
Chop potatoes, ham, and onion and boil in chicken broth 10 – 15 minutes (until vegetables are soft)
In a medium sized sauce pan, melt butter and whisk in flour. Slowly add half and half (or milk), stirring continuously. Allow to thicken (about 5 minutes).
 
Stir flour, butter, and milk mixture into the vegetables. Heat through. Add salt and pepper to taste.
 
 

​PART I – The Deer Story
Until my family moved to the Shenandoah Valley, we were major-city suburban types. Paved roads, sidewalks everywhere, gutters, and trash and snow removal were just some of the amenities we expected without really paying attention to them. But my grandparents lived "in the country," so I felt pretty knowledgeable about rural life.
 
Not long after our move, I was in conversation with a coworker, talking about the upcoming hunting season. She told me her husband loved to hunt, but they had a freezer full of venison and she didn't want any more. "If he gets a deer this season, do you want it?" she asked.
"That would be great," I answered enthusiastically. My tone was smooth and casual, but I thought to myself, "Yes! Free meat!" Feeling shrewd and thrifty, I pictured stacks of labeled and neatly wrapped meat in our freezer—and significant savings to our always-stretched grocery budget.
 
The weeks passed, and the conversation was forgotten, when I received a call at home one crisp fall day. The hunter had bagged a young buck, and it was hanging in a local barn. We could pick it up in a couple of days. Hanging in a barn! Pick it up? The whole thing?
 
And not only that, but at the end of the call, my friend added, "He'd like to keep the head, so you can just bring that back for him."
 
Indeed. I thanked her calmly on the phone before the panic set in.
 
"Okay, we can do this,” I told myself. Surely our ancestors had done this many times.  Not to worry. So, knowing how important it is to delegate to avoid becoming overwhelmed, I asked my husband to retrieve the deer from the barn. He brought it home in the hatchback of our small car.
 
Our children gathered ‘round the back of the car and peered at the carcass through the glass. "I think it's alive, I saw it move," said one son. “Why are its eyes open—can it see us?" said another. Putting on my cloak of parental calm and assurance, I told them no, it was not alive, and it couldn't see us. And, for good measure, I told them we were getting our meat just like hunters did in the olden days. They weren't convinced. 
To be continued…
 
 
 
 
Copyright 2016 by Barbara Finnegan – Used with permission.

​PART TWO:  The Deer Story
 
The next morning, with the deer still in our hatchback and still dead, it was my turn to ante up. I drove to a butcher shop out in the countryside and parked outside the main building. Resolute and strong, I approached the counter. I really did know these country ways, after all!
 
After ascertaining the legality of the kill, the man behind the counter said, “So how would you like it cut?”
 
Ummm. How would I like it cut?  “Well, I’d like it mostly ground in one-pound packages,” I said tentatively.
 
“You want the hams butterflied?” He said. “’Course, it’s up to you.”
 
Butterflied hams? Was that like bacon with wings or something? Busted! Seconds passed, and I knew I had to ‘fess up.
 
“Okay, I said humbly, “I really don’t know what I’m doing. It that’s what most people get, then that’s what I want─butterflied hams and the rest ground.” He kindly kept his thoughts to himself and wrote up the order.
 
“And, oh,” I added, “the hunter wants you to save the head.” He nodded his acknowledgement without flinching.
 
Mission accomplished! All that remained of my new adventure in rural living was picking up the meat in a couple days. When I returned, I received neatly wrapped and labeled packages of meat, flash-frozen and ready for my freezer. As I wrote the check, I mentally calculated how much I was paying per pound. Not bad, I thought─and for such healthy, low-fat meat, too. I turned to leave and the man said, “The head is out in the shed.”
 
Oh yeah. The head. Gross.
 
“Look, would you mind putting it in a trash bag and taking it out to my car for me?” I asked, hoping my pitiful glance would soften his heat. It worked. I didn’t have to look at the disembodied head, which I delivered forthwith to the hunter.
 
These rural life things take time. Now I’m trained and ready for that kind of thing.
 
The venison was fantastic. For months, my family never knew whether I was serving round venison, ground beef, ground turkey , or any combination thereof. We played “guess what meat this is” around the dinner table. The butterflied ham steaks were delectable─a culinary delight.
 
This event took place many years ago, and this former city girl has made the central Shenandoah Valley her home for over 25 years now. I don’t miss suburban living one tiny bit. In my book, living here beats suburban living by a coon’s age, whatever that is.
 
So if you know any hunters with freezer space for meat, just tell them to give me a holler. I’ll be right over.
 
Copyright 2016 by Barbara Finnegan – Used with permission.

​And so, on the 13th day of Christmas, the holiday season has been packed away in cardboard boxes and plastic totes. The skiff of snow on the ground reminds us however, that, although Christmas is over, there is still a lot of winter to wade through.
 
Tonight, icy winds are whistling-- rattling windows, stirring up bare branches, and turning the neighbor’s decorative flag into a twisted knot. You can’t really take a deep breath outside. The air is like a hundred tiny knives stabbing your nostrils and threatening to make mincemeat of your lungs. Even the outdoor cat takes one look out the sliding glass doors and turns disdainfully back to the wood stove. The mice can wait.
 
We spent several days last week revisiting our friends in Custer’s Mill. The story is unfolding, and we’re hoping to have it ready to read by early summer. Perhaps that is wishful thinking, because we’re also starting to write a non-fiction book on the process of collaborative writing (more later). One of the questions we’re consistently asked during book talks is “how do three of you write one novel?” Excellent question—one we don’t always know how to answer, as much of our process flows organically. But not always. Sometimes our ideas don’t mesh, and our thoughts about how the story should flow diverge. The writing process is enigmatic at best and chaotic at worst. Somehow we manage, though. Somehow the story comes through!
 
We hope you’re as excited about reading our stories as we are about writing them!

​The new year is three days away. On Saturday night we’ll tuck away all of the memories of 2016 and open a fresh notebook to begin recording the happenings of 2017.  There is something energizing about starting a new year. The slate is clean, the world is fresh, and undiscovered possibilities lie on the horizon.
 
I have turned my resolutions into goals, and most of my goals are the same each year. (Obviously, the idea of mastery is not a prerequisite for recording an aspiration!) One goal I list each year is to write more.
 
My creativity appears to peak in January, and invariably dwindles as the long days of summer approach.  I start many projects in winter, and many of them have disappeared by early March. My main goal this year is to hold on to the creative spirit in every season. To write, to share, to be vulnerable. For vulnerability is a big part of writing. Baring ones soul to an indiscriminate public can be risky. What if my ideas are misunderstood? What if I sound eccentric and unbelievable? What if my words aren’t true? I suppose if writers stopped too long to analyze those abrasive questions, we wouldn’t put many of our thoughts on paper.
 
At any rate, Book #2 of the Custer’s Mill Mystery series is well underway, and we hope to publish in the spring and began to share them with the public by early summer. We’re excited to be immersed in the lives of the fine folks of Custer’s Mill once again. We found the library ladies still hard at work – not only on library business, but also in renovating the old Brubaker mansion. In her will, Miss Bertha left the house and grounds to her unconventional friends, and they are busy turning the old estate into a cozy tea room.  Former detective, Jake Preston, is now Custer’s Mill police chief, and Emma, his unwieldy sidekick, is still conducting solo side investigations. But as art imitates life, all is not well in the little town. New residents bring new troubles, and soon, murder will strike again.
 
We hope you will enjoy this next visit to Custer’s Mill.  In the meantime, I hope to hold on to my writing schedule and connect with you more often!