Silas was a troubled kid, no doubt about it. He’s angry, mean, and a thief. When he harasses Violet, day in and day out, he’s trying to find the power and stability that’s missing in his own life. Silas continues to hurt others until he’s finally held accountable for his actions, and then his heart begins to change. It takes a lot of courage to face the past and accept responsibility. Silas also has to believe he’s forgiven, and be able to make amends with a clear conscience.
When Silas and Violet first meet again, years after high school, she refuses to believe he could change into anything better than the bully he was. Silas wants to make amends, but he still believes― deep down― that no one will ever trust him again. They both must learn to let go of the past, and see each other for the person they are now.
I hope this story helps someone let go of hurts that happened many years ago, or perhaps helps someone else embrace the possibility of forgiveness. Approaching someone we’ve hurt and asking for forgiveness is a true act of courage, and I pray that your apology is received with an open heart!
Love,
Mary Jane
Recipes
Violet’s Very Bestest Pizza Dough
Violet and Silas spend a lot of time at Fire and Brimstone although we don’t get to see them in the kitchen during the story. Of course, when they’ve resolved their differences and are completely content with each other, they’re going to spend a lot of time in the kitchen together. After Silas builds Violet a brick oven for her backyard, Friday night make-your-own pizzas with friends become a weekly tradition. But you can’t make a really great fire-grilled pizza without a great crust, so this is Violet’s Very Bestest Pizza Dough. Enjoy!
Ingredients
1 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
1 envelope active dry yeast (2 ¼ tsp yeast)
2 1/4 cups (or more) all purpose flour (whole wheat flour works wonderfully, too)
1 1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
Dump the yeast into the cup of warm water and let sit for five minutes until the yeast is puffy and happy. Yeast party!
Stir the flour, sugar and salt together. Make a little well in the center and pour in the yeast/ water mix with the olive oil. Begin to mix gently until fully incorporated. It will be sticky and a bit of a mess.
Bring it to a floured cutting board and knead it, adding a few teaspoons of flour to keep it from sticking to your hands. You may have to add flour as you go. This is an important step and if you don’t know how to knead dough, you can look it up on Youtube. It’s very easy. Fold it in half and push forward away from you, flip ninety degrees and repeat for about five minutes. The dough should be nice and stretchy when you’re done.
A lot of people have good luck getting their dough to rise in a dry bowl but I always wipe mine down with a little oil. It keeps the dough from sticking and it rises faster. So, place it in the oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Place in a warm spot and let it rise for about an hour. If you have quick acting yeast, it may not take that long. While it’s rising, go read a book or play with the cat. (But don’t go clean the house. That’s definitely not in the recipe.) The time spent waiting for your pizza dough to rise is worth it, I promise.
When it’s doubled in size, punch it down (free anger therapy!) and lay it on a floured surface to begin rolling it out. Don’t be afraid if air is trapped at the edges. That will make for some really fluffy and crispy edges. It can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a day or two, or frozen for a little longer. Pizza dough is not a soufflé. It’s pretty durable.
Fire and Brimstone’s Famous Kimchi Pizza
I’d always avoided kimchi because I’m not a fan of cabbage, but a trip to Seattle convinced me that kimchi can be delicious! It also helps if you find a variety that isn’t burn-your-face-off spicy. (I’m not a fan of that, either.)
Once you’ve had kimchi on pizza, you’ll crave it. Maybe not every week, but you will. It’s one of those unique flavors that just can’t be substituted by any other pickled vegetable or topping. This recipe uses the most basic ingredients, but delivers a fantastic but subtle blend of Korean flavors.
Ingredients:
One cup of kimchi in your favorite variety
If you’ve never tried it before, I recommend picking out several small jars for a taste test. I prefer a mixed vegetable variety, but my husband likes the cabbage only version best. It also comes in several heat levels so read the labels carefully. It’s no fun if your taste buds are fried before you get the chance to taste the food. (My personal opinion. Others in my family disagree.) It’s also very easy to make at home so if you like pickling, consider trying a few jars of your own home grown kimchi.
2 tbs rice vinegar
2 cloves chopped or minced garlic (okay, you can get away with one, but I love garlic, so for me it’s two minimum)
1 tsp oil (sesame, if you have it)
¼ cup kochujang
This is a red pepper paste that’s in most grocery stores. It’s related to the pepper that Mrs. Tam puts in her famous sauce (see below). Now, a spicy kimchi and a full ¼ cup of kochujang is a little much for me, so I keep the sauce a little spicy and tone down the heat level of the kimchi. But hey, if you’re brave enough, dial that back up and see what you think. My husband makes his own kimchi pizza for good reason. He says my version isn’t even “warm”. (I think he’s just killed his taste buds.)
Mix all ingredients together and spread on the pizza to the edges. Sometimes I add some green onions or scallions if they’re around. My daughter likes to put fresh spinach on hers, and another adds pineapple for a spicy-sweet combo.
Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and bake at 500F for about 15 minutes. Enjoy!
Mrs. Tam’s Fresh-From-The Garden-Super-Secret Pizza Sauce
Now you all know this is based on fictional characters because I would never reveal a super secret recipe. It’s against the girlfriend’s guide to keeping your friends (especially friends who cook delicious food).
Not only does this spicy sweet pizza sauce go with anything and everything, it freezes well for several months. We like to freeze ours in ziplock bags so we can defrost them easily in a pan of warm water. Instant homemade pizza sauce!
Ingredients:
6 ripe tomatoes
3 TBS olive oil
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons fresh basil
1 teaspoon salt
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
2 teaspoons fresh parsley
2 tsp gochugaru or other red pepper flakes
In a small sauce pan, blend the olive oil, garlic, dried oregano, red pepper flakes, pepper and salt. Stir for about five minutes on medium-low heat until very fragrant. Don’t let it burn! If it starts to clump together, add a small bit of water and lower the heat.
In a blender or food processor, add six chopped, fresh tomatoes, fresh parsley, basil, sugar, and the heated spice paste. Blend until smooth but don’t over blend. You can add a little more salt or pepper to taste, if needed. This thick and chunky sauce is the perfect base for pizza toppings or dipping for breadsticks. Enjoy!
OTHER TITLES by Mary Jane Hathaway
Austen Takes the South Series
Pride, Prejudice and Cheese Grits
Emma, Mr. Knightley and Chili-Slaw Dogs
Persuasion, Captain Wentworth and Cracklin’ Cornbread
Leaving Liberty
Cane River Romance Series
The Pepper in the Gumbo Book One
These Sheltering Walls Book Two
Only Through Love Book Three
A Star to Steer By Book Four
The Boundless Deep Book Five
Until Winter Comes Again Book Six
To Look On Tempests Book Seven (Spring 2017)
Arcadia Valley Romance Series
Romance
Grows in Arcadia Valley (Boxed Collection of Six Inspirational Novellas)
Summer’s Glory (Arcadia Book One)
OTHER TITLES by Virginia Carmichael
Colors of Faith Series (historical Christian romance)
All The Blue of Heaven
Purple Like the West
Denver Homeless Mission Series
Season of Joy
Season of Hope
A Home for her Family
BIOGRAPHY
Mary Jane Hathaway is an award-nominated writer of Christian fiction and a home schooling mom of six young children who rarely wear shoes. She holds degrees in Linguistics and Religious Studies from the University of Oregon and lives with her habanero-eating husband, Crusberto, who is her polar opposite in all things except faith. They've learned to speak in short-hand code and look forward to the day they can actually finish a sentence. In the meantime, she thanks God for the laughter and abundance of hugs that fill her day as she plots her next book. She also writes under the pen name of Virginia Carmichael. You can find her on her facebook author pages of Mary Jane Hathaway or Virginia Carmichael, on the cooking blog Yankee Belle Café, on her personal blog The Things That Last, or at Huffington Post where she blogs about all things books.
Now for a sneak peek at the next book in the Arcadia Valley Romance Series!
Muffins and Moonbeams
by Elizabeth Maddrey
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
John 16:35
Malachi Baxter pushed a hand through his hair and scowled at the computer screen. He hadn’t built a website since high school. How did he get stuck with this job? Oh, right. Business degree. Which meant handling the finances and such, but the website? He scooted away from the machine and stood. He needed to talk to his brothers.
He stepped out of the tiny office at the back of the bakery and into a wall of heat. His oldest brother, Jonah, was measuring ingredients into a huge mixing bowl. His lips were moving, but with his brother’s face half-turned Malachi couldn’t quite lip read well enough to make out the words. Was he singing? He touched Jonah’s shoulder.
“Hey, Mal. Done with the website already?” Jonah set the measuring cup aside and dusted his hands on the apron tied around his waist. “That was fast.”
Malachi shook his head and signed. “We need to hire someone. It’s an investment that’ll pay off in the long run. If I do it, it’s going to look like someone’s ten year old put it together over the weekend.”
Jonah laughed. “That bad?”
Malachi nodded. He’d drag his brothers back to see what he’d been playing with all morning if they insisted, but it was embarrassing.
“All right. Let’s check with Micah, but if you say we need it and can afford it, then I’m game.” Jonah strode across the kitchen to the swinging door that led to the front of the bakery where Micah manned the counter.
Malachi sighed and followed.
Micah handed change and a bag of bread to one of their regulars—Malachi searched his memory for the name and came up blank—and turned when the light above the door that served as the hearing impaired version of a door bell flashed and the customer left. “Uh oh. If Mal’s out of the office, something must be up.”
Malachi clutched his stomach and feigned laughter before sticking his tongue out.
Jonah shook his head. “Nothing serious. Mal thinks we should hire the website out.”
“Rusty?” Micah raised his eyebrows.
Malachi signed, not bothering to speak along with it since they were alone in the bakery. “When was the last time you did a website?”
“Fair enough. Works for me. You notice I didn’t volunteer to do any of that stuff, right?” Micah squatted and collected a towel from under the counter. He ran the cloth over the display case, scrubbing at some imagined spot. “Do what you think is best.”
Jonah nodded. “Agreed. And since you’re handling all the business end, I don’t really care about details. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders and won’t dig us into debt.”
It was good his brothers had faith in him. Someone needed to. He nodded and eased back through the door into the kitchen. No point in hanging around out where customers came to gawk at the deaf man. In D.C. he hadn’t been a novelty. There were all sorts of people in the greater metropolitan area that made up what had been home his whole life. And mostly people didn’t bother staring at the ones who were different. In Arcadia Valley different stuck out. Oh, they were nice about it. Malachi doubted anyone genuinely had any motive other than learning about something they didn’t encounter every day. But that didn’t keep him from feeling like a circus sideshow because he couldn’t hear.
Back in the office, he pushed the door mostly shut, a signal that he was involved and shouldn’t be disturbed if at all possible. A quick search online revealed what he suspected, there were more web designers in the world than made sense. How did he sort out the bad ones and find the good? Malachi drummed his fingers on the desk and reached for his cell phone to tap out a quick text to his sister, Ruth. The B&B had a nice site with a lot of the same kinds of functionality that they’d need. He set his cell back in the cradle and turned to the computer. It was mid-morning. Ruth was probably cleaning rooms and wouldn’t get to her phone for a while. But there was no rush.
With a glance toward the door and only the barest twinge of guilt, Malachi started up Orion’s Quest and logged in. There weren’t many players online in the middle of the morning, but there were always folks in other time zones, or people, like him, sneaking in a battle during a slow time at work. He skimmed the activity log. No one he played with was on, but he’d been storing up solo missions. Maybe he could knock one of them out. If his ship was repaired. He’d parked it in a dry dock when he logged out the night before, there should have been enough time for the fixes to be finished. And if not, he’d wander this outpost—where was he again? Didn’t matter, really. Some new outpost on the edge of civilized space, getting ready to head into the frontier and see where his fortune lay. Before that, he could use an armor upgrade. Maybe some new weapons. If he had the cash after he paid for repairs.
The chat bar at the bottom of his screen notified him that Scarlet Fire had logged in. His heart sped up and he grinned as he opened up a direct message box.
“What are you doing on in the middle of the morning? Don’t you have work?”
“Ha ha. I could ask you the same thing. Slow day?”
Malachi glanced at his cell phone cradle before typing again. “Waiting on a text. Thought I’d check on my ship, maybe start a quest.”
“Need a first mate?”
Colorful lights flashed in the corner of his eye. Of course. He sighed and grabbed the phone. Sure enough, Ruth had come through with the contact info for her web designer. “Never mind. Gotta run. You’ll be on tonight?”
“Of course. See you then.”
Malachi took two minutes to run down and spring his ship from the repair facility. At least that way when he did have time to play he’d be ready to go. With a final check that he’d set himself to be able to scoot out on a mission as soon as he logged back in, he exited the game and opened a web browser. He liked the website for the Fairview, but there was nothing wrong with checking out other references just to be sure before making contact.
“You sure you won’t come to church with us?” Ruth frowned as she signed.
He shook his head. Sunday morning was hard enough with everyone staring at Ruth signing during the sermon and special music. And then, out in the foyer, anyone who tried to talk to him either yelled, as if that was somehow going to help, or spoke slowly as if it was his brain that had been injured and not his ears. Both made it more challenging to read lips. He didn’t need that on Wednesday night, too. “You don’t have to babysit me. I’m okay.”
“Don’t you think if you were around them more it would help? The people
at church are really nice, Mal.”
“I believe you. I’m just...it’s hard to be the weird new kid again. I thought that was behind me. In D.C., even if the people didn’t know a deaf person personally they’d been exposed to enough differences that they could just treat me like a person without any adjective attached. I don’t want to be ‘the deaf guy.’” Mal threw his hands in the air when he finished signing and turned to head upstairs to the room he shared with his brothers at the B&B. And that was another thing they needed to address. Sharing a room with them temporarily was fine. But now that they were all settling here? Something had to give. And Ruth needed the space back, anyway. He’d seen her telling people she was booked up when, in reality, it was just her brothers taking up space.
Ruth touched his arm.
He turned, flinching inside at the sorrow written on her face.
“I’m sorry. You didn’t have to move out here. If it’s that bad...you don’t have to stay.” Her shoulders fell.
Was it possible to be a bigger jerk? He held out his arms and waited for her to walk into them. Since it was just Ruth, he could speak without worrying she was listening for the telltale signs of his deafness. “I’m glad to be here. If you’re all here, then it’s where I need to be. It’s just...hard. And...I miss Mom and Dad.”
Ruth leaned back and held his gaze, her eyes filling with tears. “I do too. Every day. I thought the years were supposed to make it easier.”
Summer's Glory: Seasons of Faith Book One (Arcadia Valley Romance 2) Page 17