Stories About Stories...A View to a Kiln

Sometimes something unexpected inspires a story. But if you know about my pottery studio, you can probably guess what inspired A View to a Kiln. But find out more in this week's Story about a Story!

PS, Did you know A View to a Kiln was on Jeopardy??

Holly

Slip and Fall: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #2 Kindle/KU
A View to a Kiln: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #1 Kindle/KU 



Exclusively available for Kindle and KU.
 Around the Square

Hometown Hearts/KU

Stories About Stories...Briar Hill Road by Holly Jacobs

Another Stories about Stories...this time in video form.
Please note, I do not play an actress on TV...and obviously stumbled over the title, Briar Hill Road. LOL
If you look to the left of the screen, you can see my newest weaving project. And the bookshelf behind me to the left is filled with my books. Both the US and international copies. It's a shelf that always makes me smile!
Check out Briar Hill Road if you haven't read it before! And if you want a bit more of the story, check out The Moments, a short story sequel!

Check out some of my other books!

Deck the Halls

Exclusively available for Kindle and KU.
 Around the Square
Book 1-6 are available now! Book 7 & 8 are available for preorder and the final book will be out this fall!

Slip and Fall: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #2 Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook A View to a Kiln: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #1 Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook
A View to a Kiln on Jeopardy!!

Hometown Hearts

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit.
I figure it's best to start a new year off with as much luck as we can garner.

On to my serious thoughts...
I chose HOPE as my word for 2025.
I know a lot of people who are anxious about the coming year. There's so much we can't control on a macro level. But we can hope for the best and we can work towards that goal...we can have say on a micro level. We can try to make our little corner of the world a better place.
We can volunteer.
We can pick up a piece of trash on the sidewalk.
We can smile at our neighbors and spread a bit of glee.
We can drive a little less.
We can plant a tree.
We can take care of ourselves physically and mentally.
I like to think of it as ripples on a pond. If I toss my
one small pebble in, it will make a ripple, but it won't make much of one. But if I invite all my friends to toss their pebbles in at the same time...well, we'd have a tsunami of HOPE.
So I invite you to toss a lot of HOPEFUL pebbles in your ponds this year!
One of my favorite quotes from Hometown Christmas (I know, quoting yourself is pretentious LOL) is
"I can't change the world, but I can try."

Let's make 2025 a tsunami of hope! Holly

Check out some of my books!

Deck the Halls

Exclusively available for Kindle and KU.
 Around the Square
Book 1-6 are available now! Book 7 & 8 are available for preorder and the final book will be out this fall!

Slip and Fall: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #2 Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook A View to a Kiln: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #1 Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook
A View to a Kiln on Jeopardy!!

Hometown Hearts

The Gift of Giving

Back in high school, there was one teacher who stood out then and stands out all these years later in my memory. Mrs. L. taught Child Development. I was working full time and needed an easy class. I thought this might be it. What I found was a class that totally engaged me. A class I willingly gave a hundred percent to. I learned then how much I loved reading to the preschoolers who were part of the program. When I had my own kids, I read to them and I was the Kindergarten Story Lady for years after they moved beyond kindergarten. (I used that experience when I wrote Carry Her Heart.) That was all thanks to Mrs. L.

I learned a compassionate, empathetic way of steering kids in the right direction. I emphasized the same thing when I spent well over a decade volunteering with Erie’s Teen Parenting program.

I learned the idea of giving back. Not only did Mrs. L. teach, she was our class advisor. She and her husband spent countless hours with our class. I can still see both of them in the garage across the street from the school as we built an annual float for homecoming. It was really over and above the role of class advisor. She never hesitated. She embodied the idea of giving without any thought of return. And that final gift is something I hope to impart to the Minions. Every year we sponsor an animal for the local rescue, Tamarack Wildlife Center, as part of each of their Christmas gift. Yep, the Minion’s gift is the gift of learning to give. And I hope it is a gift that follows them through life as much as Mrs. L’s gift of giving and caring has stayed with me all these years.

I’ll confess, of all the classes and teachers I had, Mrs. L. is one who stands out. She truly radiated caring and a belief in all of us. I hope that as the Minions grow up, they carry the lessons I learned from her with them.

Holly

Check out some of my books!

Deck the Halls

Exclusively available for Kindle and KU.
 Around the Square
Book 1-6 are available now! Book 7 & 8 are available for preorder and the final book will be out this fall!

Slip and Fall: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #2 Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook A View to a Kiln: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #1 Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook
A View to a Kiln on Jeopardy!!

Hometown Hearts

A Line of Women

 I'm still plugging away at my family tree. And I've been thinking about Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) a lot. (I know, you're rolling your eyes and thinking, "Of course you are, Holly." LOL)

Ancestry.com says, "Mitochondrial DNA makes up only 0.1% of the overall human genome and is passed down exclusively from mother to child." 

For me, it went...

Holly 
Pat
Marion
Sarah
Mary
Sarah
Elizabeth
Eliza 
Jane

Jane is my 6th great-grandmother. She's where that branch's trail muddles a bit. She was born in the late 1700's.  Despite the fact I can't go further back (yet), from Jane that mtDNA traces back to Mitochondrial Eve. She lived more than 100,000+ years ago. So even though I feel I've taken my family tree back quite a ways, that chain of women is so much more expansive. 100,000 years would be well over 4,000 generations. I can trace nine in my mtDNA line...but there are so many more. Woman, after woman, after woman...  As a woman with three daughters, I love that I gave them all that long lineage.

My grandmother was adopted. I found her original birth certificate and was able to  use that to trace her bio mom. Sarah was a nurse. She never married and lived with one of her sisters for her adult life, until that sister passed.  I'm a little haunted knowing that she was still alive while my grandmother was an adult...while I was in my teens. Did she think about the baby she'd called Marjorie Ruth every day? She was a morning's drive away, but we never met. She never knew my grandmother, my mom or me. She never got to see her legacy.

Each step I take on my tree leads to another piece of the puzzle of me. But the mtDNA line is one that reminds reminds me of the power of women. Women carry that tiny .1% of 4,000+ women in us. We give give life to the next generation and bless our daughters with that same line of mtDNA. There's such a power in that.  Knowing the strength of all those women who came before us, and the generations of women who will come after we have to remember our power as we work for our daughters' future.

One of the things that stands out to me as I work on my family tree is how some of the women get lost to history. Women like Jane. She took her husband's last name and her family name and line are lost to history...so far.  I've hit those hurdles many times in my tree. I'll keep looking, but I find some solace in knowing that the women in those lost lines maintain their past in their mtDNA. Is there any wonder I've been thinking about it so much lately? 

I'll continue looking for Jane's story...and telling my stories. Stories of women who have power and strength. Women who know their worth.  And I'll work to build a future for my daughters...and son. LOL

HollySpeaking of trying something new...

Check out some of my books!

Exclusively available for Kindle and KU.
 Around the Square
Book 1-6 are available now! Book 7 & 8 are available for preorder and the final book will be out this fall!

Slip and Fall: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #2 Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook A View to a Kiln: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #1 Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook
A View to a Kiln on Jeopardy!!

Hometown Hearts

Jill of all Trades...Master of None

 I just did a thing...I bought a small loom from my friend Mauri. She wanted a bigger one and I wanted to try weaving. I wrote about weaving in my book Just One Thing without ever having used a loom (I also wrote about pottery before my first pottery class). 

As I worked at putting my first warp on the loom I found myself thinking about all the crafts I've tried. It started with my Mom teaching me to cross-stitch and embroider, then crochet. Over the years, I learned to sew and quilt, I learned basketweaving, I learned pottery (and found my true love) and now I'm toying with weaving. I'm a Jill of all Trades and a Master of None. And that's ok.  

I talked about quilting also in Just One Thing and wrote a supposed Amish tradition (which may or may not be an Amish tradition), that they purposefully add a flaw in every quilt because nothing but God is perfect. I love that thought. 

I don't strive to be perfect. I do strive to be competent and to enjoy the process of each craft. 

I think there's a lesson in that. I know there's a lot of pressure in the world. But what if all the jobs we're striving to be perfect at, we instead allowed ourselves to make mistakes? What if when we're trying something and find we made a mistake, we think...well, that's my unintentional, intentional flaw? Maybe we'd be more apt to try something new. 

Now I suspect this world view wouldn't work so well with, well, let's say skydiving, but so many things we try won't be harmed by one small flaw. Some may be even more beautiful because of it. I think the other advantage to trying new things is...staying young. Learning, trying new things, expanding our horizons.  I'd love to hear from friends who've been expanding their horizons and trying something new.

Holly

Speaking of trying something new...
Check out some of my books!

Exclusively available for Kindle and KU.
 Around the Square
Book 1-6 are available now! Book 7 is available for preorder and the final book will be out this fall!

Slip and Fall: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #2 Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook A View to a Kiln: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #1 Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook
A View to a Kiln on Jeopardy!!

Hometown Hearts

Fast Nacht Kuchen

 

I'm getting ready for Shrove Tuesday on Tuesday. When I first became part of Himself's family, his mother taught me to make faz naught kigglies, the family name for Fast Nacht Kuchen. She was an Irish girl who married a German boy. My father-in-law's mother taught her to make this German dish that was made on Shrove Tuesday. I'd never had one before I met Himself...and those years without seems like wasted time. 

It turns out there's some debate about the shape of the donuts. For me there's no question...triangles. My MIL made them that way, so for me, that's the proper way. But because I try to be an accepting human being who welcomes other opinions, I am open to trying other shapes. I mean, it would be a trial, but hey, I'll manage. So if you make circles or squares and want a taste tester, let me know.

There's also a debate on what to call them. For me, they'll always be faz naught kigglies because of my husbands family. I don't think anyone will mind what you call them as long as you call them when they're ready. 

I'm going to post this on Monday in case you've never made fast nacht kuchen and want to try them. Pretty much any not too sweet dough will work.

My MIL never gave me a specific bread recipe. But I bought this really cute Pennsylvania Dutch recipe book in Cook Forest and have used this recipe for decades. (Our family always called it Cooks Forest, but since I've started my State Park hiking, I know it's Cook Forest.)

So here's my version of this recipe. I used to double it when the kids were young and they took in trays for their classes, but these days I half it. That's ample for Minions.

1 TB honey
3 1/4 C milk
8 C flour

1 TB dry yeast

1/2  C butter

2 eggs

I make the dough Monday evening and let it rise overnight. 

In the morning, I punch it down and roll out sections, cutting them in to triangles. I use pretty much every cookie sheet and cutting board I have to let them rise a second time for at least an hour.

I heat up a couple inches of oil in my big cast iron frying pan (it doesn't have to be very deep...these are thin) and when it's sizzley (I have no temperature for you...I just drop a piece of dough in to check that it bubbles). I do a half dozen fast nachts at a time. (Don't crowd the pan...it will lower the temp of the oil and make them sort of greasy.) When they're lightly browned on both sides, I drop them into a bag of cinnamon sugar and shake them so they're coated. REPEAT until all the dough's been fried.
These are best served immediately or quickly. They're not super sweet, which means it's easy to eat a lot of them. I mean, I do have to test them...I wouldn't want to serve an inferior fast nacht. And because I'm up early working on these, I need a lot of coffee and these are perfect with coffee.

I've found a lot of Mennonite branches in my family tree. Most came from Lancaster. So there's a really good chance, my family made these and my mother-in-law reintroduced me to a part of my personal history without either of us knowing it. I like thinking of that. My mother-in-law was an amazing woman. We lost her twenty years ago (I wrote a fictionalized version of her in Briar Hill Road) and I still can't believe she's been gone that long. We bought her house and, though over the years, things have changed, there's so much of her and my father-in-law in it. I'll be thinking of both of them on Tuesday when I get up in the wee hours and make some fast nacht kigglies for the Minions and I'll know that before I even joined the family, she would have been up early in the kitchen making them as well. I love the continuity of that. When my kids were little, I'd send down their classes a tray of fast nachts each Shrove Tuesday. I won't make quite that many this year, but I will make enough for Minions and Himself's colleagues. 

Traditions. 

There's something about carrying on family traditions and passing them on to the next generation. Do you have any Shrove Tuesday traditions?

Holly

Check out my newest releases:

Exclusively available for Kindle and KU.
 Around the Square
Book 1, 2 , 3, 4  and 5 are available now! Three more are on their way this year.

Slip and Fall: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #2 Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook A View to a Kiln: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #1 Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook
A View to a Kiln on Jeopardy!!

Hometown Hearts