Lori in PA

Yeah, see, I think "give them away" is how we got them in the first place. We went back to Mom's and Dad's house after evening worship to help finish the clean-up and all these had been left by our kind brethren. Party favors is a great idea -- we could throw another party and use these as favors. I wonder how much it would cost us in groceries to do a third party? (We need a tongue-in-cheek icon.) Have any of you ever done something like that -- ended up spending a bunch of money on ingredients to make a particular dish you wouldn't have made in the first place except you were trying to use up extras of some actually inexpensive ingredient? Like a bunch of packs of 79-cent buns? I've done that.

Hi, Lori! For the mutliple-post quoting thing, all you have to do is click the ADD "" button under each individual post that you want to respond to. Then, when you've got all those selected, click the ADD REPLY button all the way at the bottom of the whole page (not the "reply" buttons associated with individual posts). When the post-editing window comes up it will include all the posts you selected, which you can then edit and insert answers for as desired. ← You're a genius! Thanks -- this is much less tedious than what I've just been doing. Good ideas, Susan. We're having leftover pork sandwiches tonight and I have plenty of pork I'm going to freeze, so I'm sure I'll freeze several of these buns, but I don't have enough room in there for all of them. Bread crumbs are an excellent thought --I keep an old mayo jar in the freezer and it is empty of its supply at the moment -- hadn't even thought of it.

It is supposed to be shower-y most of the week, but I won't complain at all. The Husband is the main griller in the family and he's away on a business trip til Wed. night, so I don't think rain will bother us much. This is my favorite muffin recipe for blueberries. It's especially simple if one just does the plain version, though the lemon glaze and sugaring takes them over the top. I basically follow the recipe, but today I had a smidge of half and half that was going sour, so I used it and cut back a bit on the sour cream measurement. I also always double the recipe and get 30 muffins out of the batter instead of the 24 a double recipe is supposed to make.

These are the sum of my vast civic powers: 1. I'm in charge of our two-man police department. 2. I break tie votes at borough council meetings. 3. I do ceremonial things like parades and have performed a few weddings. 4. I sign an awful lot of paperwork. Me and Mr. Giuliani, ya know? Oh, and though I say it myself, those muffins were divine.

Rachel, we should be neighbors -- I just nod my head the whole time I read anything you write. Especially this -- the HAND shot! I love hands. I really love old hands. I was going to mention that when I talk about the cookbook my beginner/intermediate cooking classes are using last year, this year, and next year. It is by Marion Cunningham and has all these lovely photos of her showing various cooking techniques -- full color shots of her arthritic, knobbly old hands -- too wonderful. I just want to go to her kitchen and work beside her all morning.

Thank you, Katie. My world is very small compared to yours in Philadelphia, but I love it very much.

Mayor Lori, indeed! Ahem, Susan, I'm slightly embarrassed to tell you the proper form of address is Your Honor. The only people who call me that are the kids, and they only do it when I get a borough-related phone call from a citizen or a reporter, as in, "It's for you, Your Honor." It's their signal that I need to put on my mayor hat. If you knew me well you'd know this whole mayor thing is strange for me -- I'm so UN-political and NON-competitive. It's just something I do to serve the community a bit, really.

We have a cherry tree, but it is ornamental, so we must buy our cherries. I paid $3.75 for a quart of sweet cherries this morning -- not too bad.

Somebody tell me how to reply to several people in the same post. I can't remember, if I ever knew! (Did I mention I'm not a technical girl?)

We got more than 6 inches of rain, but we are thankful because we have been really dry. My garden has been suffering because I've been too distracted to water consistently. I just went for little tour around the yard and have many perennials knocked down, but the veggies and herbs looked grateful for the "Big Gulp-style" drink the last day has given them.

Not only did we have Alyssa's grad party Saturday night, we had an all-afternoon potluck/baby shower yesterday at my folks' house for a family in our congregation. Everyone was asked to bring crockpots of sloppy joes and buns and so on. I brought extra pulled pork, buns, barbecue sauces, and coleslaw. Somehow, The Husband came home with this: We didn't bring take that many to begin with! Anybody have some ideas how I can use several dozen slightly squashed hamburger and hot dog buns? Well, I made a little dent in them for my lunch: I toasted this in a skillet and thought it looked too naked on the plate, so I garnished it with some blueberries, strictly in consideration of the photo. I just finished munching them and must thank you for nudging me to add an extra touch:

My breakfasts vary somewhat but they revolve around eggs, 2 eggs, to be precise, which I consume nearly every morning. My altered digestion requires plenty of protein, so that has been my habit for the last five years. I tend to make them the same way for months on end and then change suddenly to a different method for no apparent reason. I’ve been eating fried eggs for a good while, but in summer I often get on an omelet kick because I have more time in the mornings since we aren’t doing school. I getting VERY tired of the fried eggs, so I sense change in the air soon. What I have with or just after the eggs depends on mood and what’s available. Another thing I ALWAYS have is my morning ration of vitamins and supplements. I take a smaller amount at bedtime and space out several calcium tablets throughout the day. Today, I wanted to do something special to celebrate a day off for the kids and me. I announced last night that everyone was allowed to sleep in as long as he wanted. That was greeted with great joy, because we’ve been so busy it hasn’t felt like summer vacation to us yet. We’re picking blueberries around here, so I went to Sandoe’s Market to get some of those and a few other things. Sandoe’s is a great little produce place near our house. They do get some things from outside the local area, but they list “what’s local” on a marker board, so you know what you are getting. When I got home, I used the berries to make some lemon blueberry muffins. It is a recipe from an old Cooks’ Illustrated. Alyssa thinks you need to know we often turn on a video like Andy Griffith when we're cooking: And, time for a snack:

That pretty much sums up my life this summer. It is the busiest one I can remember, chock full of good activities and events, but tinged with bittersweet as we graduate our oldest child from homeschooling and get her ready for college. We’ve homeschooled our three kids from kindergarten, and back when we started I had this crazy idea that one of the side benefits of our adventure might be that, when the children left home, I’d have spent so much time with them I’d escape the regrets and sadness of the empty nest syndrome. [insert hollow laughter here.] So, Miss Alyssa graduated on Saturday, and we celebrated with a casual cookout afterward with close family and friends. I’ve spent every free moment in the past month working on two extra projects: a DVD “slide show” with music about Alyssa’s growing up years (which was really my mom’s thing – she’s a video editing whiz) and a small scrapbook containing one photo from each year of her life and a little comment to go with it. Gathering photos and working on the text of these has been a wonderful way to spend a bunch of hours and has left me nostalgic and feeling much gratitude for how very blessed we are. Culinarily speaking, the grad party included pulled pork (don’t get excited – I rubbed it and roasted it on low heat all day in the oven – I’m not the griller many of you are), vinegar-y coleslaw, and a couple of Mississippi Mud Cakes from me, pound cakes from my mom, and a variety of side dishes and desserts from guests. The price of admission was being forced to watch the DVD, but nearly everyone there has known Alyssa since she was tiny and they are in half the pictures anyway, so I don’t think it was too much torture. After it was over, there were crumpled tissues all around. This week, our big blog event will be the three 4-H kids’ cooking classes I teach at our house. Otherwise, I’ll be trying to accomplish all the tasks I’ve been putting off until “after graduation.” I hope you’ll accompany me on my food shopping rounds – among the usual markets and produce stands I visit one particularly unique place in my continuing quest to feed our family of five well on a basically one-income budget. We can also talk about another factor in how I plan meals – my husband and I underwent gastric bypass surgeries about five years ago and our altered digestions demand some accommodation. What else? My Tiny Town is in the middle of orchard country and the cherries are at their finest right now, so surely they’ll make an appearance. Should we go out for dinner one night this week? Adams County isn’t overflowing with good restaurants, but I’ve been hearing about one again and again over the past few months that I’d really like to try. We rarely eat out, but perhaps I can persuade The Husband that we should do it “for the blog.” Who knows what else the week will bring? I’m off in a few minutes to sign paperwork at the borough office. (I’m the mayor, but it’s no big deal: Tiny Town = Tiny Government = Tiny Job. My job is so tiny they only bother to write me a check every three months.) I don’t imagine there will be anything food-related happening there beyond the employees’ first cups of coffee, so I think I can safely leave the camera at home.

Lovely. Thank you.

I'm very glad no one was hurt in that accident and I thank you for the blog -- I've enjoyed it even though my garden tomatoes are still little green blobs.

I made crepes yesterday, in honor of the cook-off, thinking they'd be a nice vehicle for using up some leftover chicken and ham. I cooked the crepes in the morning, got very busy working outside in the afternoon, and rushed into the kitchen when it was suppertime NOW. I made a thick bechamel and added in the diced meat and a couple of roasted carrots I found in the bowl with the leftover chicken. I didn't have time to make pretty rolls, so I just layered the crepes with the filling in a casserole dish and baked like that til it was heated through. Everyone enjoyed it, though I missed the prettiness of the rolled crepes. (My batter rested a couple of hours in the fridge, but I can't tell any appreciable difference than when I use it immediately. Also, I don't use a blender -- I just whisk with everything I've got.)

Susan, I'm so encouraged to know I'm not the only one who experiences "real life" holidays/special occasions and takes that in stride. I appreciate your excellent attitude -- I'm a big believer that the days which have made up The Husband's and my almost-21-years together are far more valuable than one less-than-ideal anniversary -- and it's clear you share my philosophy.

Hmm. That's not a question that immediately brings an answer to mind. In Hanover, between York/G-burg is an Italian restaurant we enjoy called La Cucina: http://www.lacucinarestaurant.com/index.php I don't know about wine there. I think it used to be BYOB, but as we aren't drinkers, I haven't paid attention to changes. I'll try to think some more.

Well, we ate at El Malecon and all three of us enjoyed it very much. We ordered the whole chicken with red beans and rice and extra sides of tostones and the sweet plantains and shared it family style. It was perfect in every way for our needs -- fun, welcoming atmosphere; good protein; a new cuisine for us (but familiar ingredients, which is good when one is tired and a little pre-occupied with health issues and doesn't want to have to think too much about what one is eating); a friendly and nearly understandable waitress; and the cheapest meal (divided three ways) we've had in NYC. (Don't worry -- we tipped as though we'd ordered three meals.) Once again, I really appreciate the help from egulleteers. As we were eating, The Husband commented about how good it was and mused that we'd probably never have picked this place if we were just walking down the street looking for a restaurant on our own. He's right -- time and again the folks on here have saved us money, frustration with bad food, and given us good memories. Thank you!

Thanks, Mike! You gave me just the sort of careful direction I need. What are tostones?

Dh, dd, and I have an appt. there Monday. I'd appreciate some ideas for a good lunch and/or dinner. Meals with plenty of protein are better than high carb content -- not because of Atkins-like desires, but because of health needs. Oh, and we've only been to that part of the city once, so complete address and approx. distance from the hospital complex would be helpful. We'll be walking wherever we go. Thank you.

Pot likker -- also the leftover juices after cooking greens. As in, "Darlin', let me give you a spoonful of this pot likker on your turnip greens. Now I'll jes pass you the vinegar to sprinkle on there. Good, that jes makes 'em go down better, doesn't it, sugar?" "Yes ma'am, it does."

I'm totally with you, Susan. Yet another example, Klary, of the melting-pot, impossible-to-pin-down-collectively nature of the Americans.

Handles are very graspable, Marlene.