Ghostly footsteps, mysteriously locked doors, and apparitions from centuries past. The rolling hills and hollers of the Yadkin Valley have been home to many historic events, from Stoneman�s raid to the hanging of Tom Dooley. These events have left their imprint on the county�s architecture and landscape, and some of them have evenleft a ghostly legacy. Ghosts of the Yadkin Valley is a collection of spine-tingling tales, including ghost stories from many of the area�s National Historic Register sites. Join local storyteller R.G. Absher as he relates the history behind the haunts.
Author: Reluctant Retiree
Ultimate Ragu Sauce Recipe for Comfort Food Lovers

This rich, slow-simmered ragu sauce contains hearty meat. It includes tangy tomatoes. Aromatic herbs make it deeply flavorful. This sauce elevates any plate of pasta.
This homemade ragu sauce is rich, hearty, and deeply satisfying. It is the ultimate comfort food for anyone craving a meal that tastes both indulgent and homey. The sauce is slow-simmered and layered with ground beef, pork, and smoky bacon. It is infused with aromatics like garlic and thyme. A splash of cream finishes it for a velvety texture. It clings to pasta in the most irresistible way, making every bite a perfect balance of savory, sweet and umami. Serve it up for a cozy night in. You can also prepare it for a special family meal. This ragu recipe is sure to be the star of the table.
Ragu Sauce Ingredients

- Ground beef: The beef adds a rich, meaty flavor to the sauce and provides a hearty texture.
- Ground pork: This ingredient contributes additional fat and flavor, which helps create a tender and flavorful sauce.
- Bacon: The bacon adds a smoky, salty depth that enhances the overall savory taste.
- Onions: Chopped onions release sweetness and add depth as they caramelize during cooking.
- Celery: This vegetable adds a subtle earthiness and helps balance the richness of the meats.
- Carrots: Carrots bring natural sweetness to offset the acidity of the tomatoes.
- Garlic: The minced garlic infuses the sauce with bold, aromatic flavors.
- Dry red wine or beef broth: The liquid deglazes the pan, lifting flavorful bits from the bottom and adding depth to the sauce.
- Crushed tomatoes: These provide the base of the sauce, offering body and a fresh tomato flavor.
- Tomato sauce: Tomato sauce smooths the texture and adds a rich, concentrated tomato taste.
- Tomato paste: The paste intensifies the tomato flavor while helping to thicken the sauce.
- Bay leaves: These impart a subtle herbal aroma as the sauce simmers.
- Sugar: A small amount of sugar balances the acidity of the tomatoes, making the sauce more well-rounded.
- Salt: Salt brings out the flavors of all the ingredients, enhancing the overall taste.
- Dried thyme: This herb adds an earthy, slightly minty note to complement the meat.
- Dried oregano: The oregano provides a classic Italian herb flavor with hints of peppery bitterness.
- Ground cumin: Cumin brings a warm, earthy undertone to the sauce, providing depth and complexity to the overall flavor profile.
- Nutmeg: Nutmeg contributes a subtle sweetness and warmth, enhancing the richness of the meat.
- Pepper: This spice adds warmth, complexity and a touch of heat to the sauce.
- Heavy whipping cream: The cream gives the sauce a luxurious, velvety texture with a hint of sweetness.
- Butter: A touch of butter adds richness and smoothness to create a luscious final texture.
- Fresh parsley: Parsley brings a bright, fresh contrast to the richness of the sauce.
- Grated Parmesan cheese: Parmesan adds umami, along with a salty, nutty flavor that ties all the ingredients together.
- Cooked pasta: The pasta serves as the ideal base, absorbing the rich, flavorful sauce. Use your favorite brand of dried pasta, or make fresh pasta.
Taste of Home
Find more recipes like this on my companion blog, “Good Food, Good Meat, Good God, Let’s Eat!”
Conversations with Rabbi Small
As he counsels a woman considering conversion to Judaism, Rabbi Small takes a break from murder mysteries to discuss the mysteries of his religion.
In Conversations with Rabbi Small, the rabbi finds himself taking a well-deserved vacation at a Jewish retreat in the mountains, where he reads, plays cards, and furthers his studies, which have been languishing for too long. When the rabbi’s wife is called back to the city to deal with an illness in the family, the rabbi meets a curious young woman in the midst of a life-changing moment.
Joan is a gentile who is about to marry a Jewish man, and she is desperate for answers as she determines whether or not to convert to her betrothed’s religion. In Rabbi Small, she finds an ideal teacher. In a series of impassioned conversations, the rabbi guides her through the ancient mysteries and wonders of Judaism, giving guidance to both her and her husband-to-be. With humor and compassion, the rabbi shares the history, beliefs, and traditions that have linked Jewish people across the world for millennia.
When Time Flies
When Time Flies
Jennifer Moreno
Publication date: February 3rd 2026
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Romance, Time-Travel
She was just a flight attendant…until she landed in her past.
Indy Kash is a corporate flight attendant, jet-setting with the rich and famous in a world most only glimpse through glossy magazine covers. But beneath the polished service and designer luggage lies a past she’s spent years trying to forget. When a mysterious time-slip yanks her mid- flight into the trauma that derailed her life thirteen years ago, Indy is forced to face the crime that destroyed her future—and the man who made sure she took the fall.
Back in the present, he’s suddenly on board her jet, and Indy’s thrown into a battle across time to stop him from destroying the world. With a reluctant spirit guide, a crash course in time travel, and a love she never saw coming, Indy must untangle the past to rewrite her future.
Can she finally clear her name, save the world, and discover if time really does heal all wounds?
—
EXCERPT:
The old rage from my liver rose, and my intestines churned like an electric whisk on the lowest speed. I was a cliché of both Chinese medicine and Ayurveda. The fact that my shame, anger, and fear culminated into Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) really made me textbook. As the spiritual experts would say: You keep holding onto old crap.
I’d tried everything to let go of the past. I talked about my feelings to numerous therapists—some good, some not. I even attempted the “woo-woo” including:
Inner child work.
A soul retrieval from a Native American shaman (Apparently my soul couldn’t be retrieved).
Good ole fashioned journaling.
Cry therapy.
Ayahuasca in the Amazon jungle (The result? Shitting and vomiting at the same time).
Exploring my “shadow side.”
Breath work while a didgeridoo played in the background (One word: painful).
Shrooms.
Trauma workshops.
Belief coding.
Vision boarding (I was desperate).
Transcendental Meditation.
Ketamine.
Visits to psychics, mediums, astrologers, and tarot readers, who all agreed…
I was pretty fucked.
Then I returned to the Western approach and did a one-week stint each with Lexapro and Zoloft, which only gave me migraines. I freakin’ loved the I-can’t-even-get-anxious-if-I-wanted-to feeling of Xanax…but alas, it wasn’t enough.
Nothing worked.
I let out a sigh from my belly, as a multitude of yoga teachers had taught me. As I expelled the air, I felt strange…odd…not dizzy, not nauseous, but weird. I checked the monitor that displayed the airshow. Time To Destination, or TTD, was three hours to go until we landed in Teterboro, New Jersey.
The words and numbers on the monitor blurred into an astigmatism.
I rounded the corner into the crew rest and then plopped onto the club seat. Exhaustion crawled through my veins like slow lightning. My vision pulsed. The feeling was jetlag times infinity. I tried to stay centered and think through what was happening. I had been flying, almost nonstop to save money to buy a house. Crossing all those time zones and the constant fatigue combined with the IBD did not make for a healthy lifestyle.
I’d let myself get that run down. Damn.
My body felt weightless. It was like the moment before a fall, that breathless pause—only it never ended. A newfound hum in my ears grew until it swallowed my every thought. My eyes darted over my lap to the khaki fabric wall and finally to the window. The sky brightened to an angelic white, nearly blinding me. I wasn’t dizzy. I had the urge to stare straight ahead, yet I could not focus.
Am I vaporizing?
I stretched out my fingers. They were disappearing! I felt so airy, as if I could levitate off the seat. I grasped the armrests until…
I couldn’t grasp them anymore.
The outline of my body began to blur. I lost the solidity of flesh. Tiny sparks of light flickered along my arms, breaking apart into floating specks, like dust in the sun. These particles—that were once me—scattered outward. Where I had sat, I was now only a swirl of luminous dust, leaving me somewhere between confused and terrified.
The world spun ahead of me, leaving no room for panic, no room to understand. In an instant, purple lightning hummed and sounded like the constant static of a bug zapper. The spinning intensified, yet I wasn’t queasy.
What the fuck is going on?
I realized I was spinning through blackness, as if I was on an otherworldly plane. Then the particles of my body snapped back together and returned it to its human shape. I kept rotating and twirling until, out of nowhere, I smelled old wood and cleaning solution. And then…
There I was, sitting on a chair in a—was it a courtroom?
My mouth was so dry it felt like sand had settled on my tongue. A dull ache pulsed behind my temples, the kind that usually came from waking too early and too thirsty. My eyes darted across the courtroom, desperate to anchor on something steady, but every face seemed sharpened against me, a blur of judgement I couldn’t decipher. My chest tightened, heavy as stone, and though I begged my body to move, shift, or raise even a finger, nothing obeyed. It was as if my body had betrayed me; every molecule refused to budge. Before I could get one thought together, I heard:
“Indy, doodoo, what’s wrong?”
Mom.
Where am I?
Author Bio:
Jennifer Moreno has a master’s degree in creative writing from New York University. She was a corporate flight attendant for six years and is the host of the Corporate Flight Attendant podcast.
She is deeply involved in metaphysical practices, including obtaining certificates in trance and advanced mediumship; medical intuition; and psychic detection. She is also a reiki master and hosted a metaphysical podcast called Two Inches Off the Ground.
In her personal life, Jennifer is a proud Colombian adoptee. As a Colombian American, she enjoys improving her Spanish and exploring her roots in her native Colombia. “Jennifer” is her adopted American name, and “Moreno” is her original Colombian surname, thus combining these different…yet magical cultures.
GIVEAWAY!
When Time Flies Blitz
Delicious Orange Olive Oil Cake Recipe

Our orange olive oil cake recipe makes a simple yet flavorful snacking cake that everyone will love. In my house, I always have to bake a double batch.
A few years ago, two friends from my culinary school days came to visit me for the weekend. In preparation for my house guests, I deep cleaned, bought fresh flowers and baked an orange olive oil cake.
My friends were still a few hours away. I decided that no one would mind if I tried a slice of the cake. Quality control, right? Well, that was a huge mistake, because I fell in love.
The cake was tender and soft. The presence of orange was playful and bright with the fruity olive oil. There was just enough sugar to impart a hint of sweetness. It avoided a full-blown sugar rush—the marker of a true snacking cake. One slice turned into two, three, four. Before I knew it, half the cake was gone. And then my friends showed up.
I told them what happened. They laughed, then grabbed two forks and tried the cake for themselves. Laughter turned into shock, and I was jokingly berated all weekend for barely saving them “the best cake in existence.”
Every reunion weekend after that, my friends have requested the cake—with no slices taken out beforehand. And, yes, I learned my lesson: Always bake a double batch of this orange olive oil cake recipe. One for them, one for me.
Taste of Home
Find more recipes like this on my companion blog, “Good Food, Good Meat, Good God, Let’s Eat!”


