eG Foodblog: Lori in PA - These ARE the Good Old Days

[Susan in FL]

Sigh.  I really CAN'T do this reply/quote thing.  Maybe somebody in charge will take pity on us all and fix it?

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Lori, I will take the above as your permission to edit the post and fix the toggled quotes, unless you say otherwise. (I'm making this a post instead of a PM, so we have witnesses for your permission; otherwise, staff does not edit posts.) The only thing is that I am only briefly home from work for lunch, so I have to do it later.

Meanwhile, blog on! It's a great one.

[Lori in PA]

Sigh.  I really CAN'T do this reply/quote thing.  Maybe somebody in charge will take pity on us all and fix it?

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Lori, I will take the above as your permission to edit the post and fix the toggled quotes, unless you say otherwise. (I'm making this a post instead of a PM, so we have witnesses for your permission; otherwise, staff does not edit posts.) The only thing is that I am only briefly home from work for lunch, so I have to do it later.

Meanwhile, blog on! It's a great one.

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Yes, please. And thank you.

[racheld]

Grapes with Brown Sugar and Sour Cream

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Now I KNOW you're a GRITS Girl!!! That's an OLD Southern standby for strawberries and other dippin'-fruit!!

I love the class pictures. Brings back lots of memories--substitute bright orange Brady Bunch countertops and it's home.

[mizducky]

Sigh.  I really CAN'T do this reply/quote thing.  Maybe somebody in charge will take pity on us all and fix it?

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Don't sweat it, Lori. Considering you're chasing after last-minute financial aid forms and wrangling cooking classes in addition to blogging, the last thing you need to be worrying about is tediously counting formatting commands to find the odd one out.

[Lori in PA]

Today is the last cooking class of the week. These are my big kids, ages 13 1/2 -- 18. They are the Advanced Class, though even here there is a range of knowledge and skill. If last night was the College Crisis Dinner, this morning was the College Crisis Class. What a performance -- we should sell tickets! It seemed a simple matter -- go over all the financial aid (for an Adopt-a-Student program) paperwork one last time, Mom proofread Alyssa's request letter to be sent to potential adopters, and run up to the post office to next day express mail it.

First, I realized as I was finishing up my early-morning eGullet postings that I never picked up eggplant for one of the class dishes this morning. Samuel informed me we were completely out of milk. No problem -- I'll just run over to Jane's. Jane's had milk, but no eggplant until the produce truck arrived, expected in about an hour. No problem -- I'll just run home, get a shower, eat breakfast, and run back. It occurred to me before I got home that maybe Sandoe's would have some, so I popped in there, but no -- it's too early in the season, so I went home. I proofed A's letter, found some problems we needed to discuss, worked on that, kids arriving by now -- it just went on. As we were almost finished and ready to run to the post office, we realized we should copy everything for ourselves, so A went to the fire dept. to use the copier while I went to Jane's for the elusive eggplant. Then, The Husband called to remind me that the Second Most Aged Vehicle (my van) was scheduled to be worked on and inspected this morning (ack!). Ok -- A and I can drop it off when we do the post office run.

Meanwhile, I told the others to start reading the plan for the day and going over the recipes. As the problems multiplied I told them to start cooking and gave them my cell # in case they couldn't find equipment or ingredients or had a question. Off we went. As we were getting home from the PO/garage run, I realized today is the day I have to turn in our homeschool portfolios to the school district. I wouldn't be able to do it after class because A would be gone to work with the other vehicle, so I had to do it immediately. After I finally got back to be able to teach the class that had been going on for an hour and a half pretty much without me, A suddenly shrieked and said, "Mom, we forgot to include a photo of me in the fiancial aid thing." The photo that is required. The photo without which the entire application would be rejected. The photo that was not in the envelope we paid $15 over an hour earlier to have next day express mailed to the school. We raced out the door together, shocked expressions on all faces (oh, the drama, the drama!), and careened, careened, I tell you, into the post office. I truly was fighting back tears and had to get hold of myself to explain everything to the postman (not the really nice lady postman, naturally, but the little-bit-reserved postman). He looked at me like I was nuts, BUT HE RETRIEVED THE ENVELOPE AND OPENED IT FOR US. For all I know, he broke dozens of federal postal laws, but he will have my gratitude always. On the way home, Alyssa said, "Next week this will be funny." Maybe.

The positive side to all of this, besides the heroic postman, is the wonderful cooking class students, who soldiered on without their teacher, using new techniques for four unfamiliar recipes, and performed brilliantly.

Clean as you go:

Chopping raw spinach for the spinach garlic risotto:

Ready to shape the foccacia dough:

Rosemary, one of the best smells:

Stirring risotto, a new technique/dish for all:

Shredding the parmesan:

Ready to dine:

[Lori in PA]

A little culinary yard tour; first, the herb bed, clockwise from noon-1 o'clock: self-seeded dill, rosemary, basil, more rosemary, French tarragon, spearmint in a sunken pot (hidden between two tarragon plants); in the center is sage; the bare spot was dominated by two huge culinary sorrel plants until a couple of weeks ago. They'd choked out my old stand of chives, so we pulled them out. I need to go divide some of my folks' chives to get some going again -- I miss them. You can't see the thyme, lemon thyme, and flat and curly parsley.

The "salad bed": successively-sown lettuces (with one lonely bolted head), Ruby Swiss Chard, and a Sungold cherry tomato

We are growing nine tomato plants this year -- eight different varieties: 2 Cherokee Purple and 1 each of Sungold, Juliet, Aunt (Sombody)'s German Green; (Something) Striped, Celebrity, and two others I can't remember. Here is one without a support to weave through. Look! The first tomatoes of the season:

The asparagus patch, with a fine crop of weeds surrounding it:

The cook, and gardener's, retreat:

[lancastermike]

When did you plant those tomatoes, Lori? Mine are no were near ready. I always go with Mothers Day as the time I can plant.

[Susan in FL]

Sigh.  I really CAN'T do this reply/quote thing.  Maybe somebody in charge will take pity on us all and fix it?

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Lori, I will take the above as your permission to edit the post and fix the toggled quotes, unless you say otherwise. (I'm making this a post instead of a PM, so we have witnesses for your permission; otherwise, staff does not edit posts.) The only thing is that I am only briefly home from work for lunch, so I have to do it later.

Meanwhile, blog on! It's a great one.

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Yes, please. And thank you.

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!@#$%^&*)(*&^%$#$#@!!!

I tried, and I'm sorry, but hell if I know what's up with this.

For both our sakes, I hope everybody agrees with this:

Sigh.  I really CAN'T do this reply/quote thing.  Maybe somebody in charge will take pity on us all and fix it?

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Don't sweat it, Lori. Considering you're chasing after last-minute financial aid forms and wrangling cooking classes in addition to blogging, the last thing you need to be worrying about is tediously counting formatting commands to find the odd one out.

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[snowangel]

Lori, I have have many days like you have had today! At least today, it was your advanced cooking class, and since they are advanced, it may just have been a good thing that they were alone for a while because there's always that first time we're alone in the kitchen!

And, I have those same orange/yellow big wide Tupperware bowls. Two of them. I love them!

Have you recovered from today? Did you even have the energy for cooking dinner?

And, please, I keep pleading. No more tomato photos. My plants are about 1-1/2 feet high and just have blossoms. It's beyond sad.

[C. sapidus]

Lori: Is that lovely hammock in the shade surrounded by fragrant roses? If so, you need to take some time there to recover from your day (which will indeed be funny next week, or maybe the week after).

Did you get a chance to enjoy your asparagus this year? How many plants do you have?

I’m also envious of your tomatoes. We planted ours late this year (again).

[judiu]

A

The cook, and gardener's, retreat:

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The plants in the lower right corner of the picture look like something my Nana used to call cat's claw briar. Do they have particularly nasty thorns, or do they just look like they should?

[Lori in PA]

Trying the quote thing-y again. I just can't understand why it isn't working -- I'm trying to be so careful. Follow-up after previewing this post. It isn't working! I'm putting my comments in green.

I'm assuming that where you live, the Big City is one of the following:

1) York, 2) Lancaster, 3) Harrisburg, 4) Baltimore.

Or is it 5) Gettysburg? 

How long is his commute to work?  (For comparison purposes, mine is one hour in length door-to-door and about 17 miles in distance, all on mass transit.  Highway commute time would be about half that, as I travel in the reverse-commute direction.)

The Big City to which The Husband commutes is none other than our nation's capitol, Washington DC. He is employed by the federal government, at an agency which has been receiving a good deal of bad press since last autumn. He does a combo of driving and metro commuting and carpools most days with one of two people. The travel time is about 2:15, so he is truly a hero.

I really cannot understand the unwillingness of some people to even consider store brands.  Buying a product and deciding afterwards that it doesn't satisfy you is one thing, ruling it out in advance simply because it's not nationally advertised is another thing altogether.

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I especially can't understand it after taking a few tours at local processors. At a snack foods company, we saw them switch the name brand chip bags for a generic brand. The chips pouring into those bags were exactly the same!

When did you plant those tomatoes, Lori?  Mine are no were near ready.  I always go with Mothers Day as the time I can plant.

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The grape tomato with the ripe fruit was a plant given to me by a family in our congregation who live in Lancaster County and have an organic produce farm. It was big when I got it in early April. I did my best to kill it for several weeks by leaving it in its pot on the north side of the house and forgetting several nights to bring it inside and forgetting to water it for days at a time, but it resisted all my efforts to make it die and survived until I got it in the ground. Then I kept putting a five gallon bucket upside down over with a big rock to weight it on nights when we had frost predicted, but half the time I'd forget to take the bucket off the next day and a couple of times I think I left the bucket in place for days. And still there are tomatoes. I don't deserve them, for sure.

Our frost-free date is May 15, right in line with your Mother's Day practice. I planted the other plants a good one or two weeks after that because I didn't have time to get them and then I didn't have time to plant them.

!@#$%^&*)(*&^%$#$#@!!!

I tried, and I'm sorry, but hell if I know what's up with this.

For both our sakes, I hope everybody agrees with this:

Sigh.  I really CAN'T do this reply/quote thing.  Maybe somebody in charge will take pity on us all and fix it?

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Don't sweat it, Lori. Considering you're chasing after last-minute financial aid forms and wrangling cooking classes in addition to blogging, the last thing you need to be worrying about is tediously counting formatting commands to find the odd one out.

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Thank you for trying. So, maybe it isn't actually my computer ineptitude?

Have you recovered from today?  Did you even have the energy for cooking dinner?

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I did not have to muster the energy for dinner because we went out! More on that in the morning...

Lori: Is that lovely hammock in the shade surrounded by fragrant roses? If so, you need to take some time there to recover from your day (which will indeed be funny next week, or maybe the week after).

Did you get a chance to enjoy your asparagus this year? How many plants do you have?

I’m also envious of your tomatoes. We planted ours late this year (again).

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The hammock has a crescent of old-fashioned hydrangeas around it. The flowers pre-date us as owners of this house and they take very good care of themselves except for one thing. Since we put up the hammock, every year at least one child, ours or a visiting one, manages to flip himself out of the hammock and into the hydrangeas. They don't take kindly to being crushed by flailing children. This year it happened smack in the middle of the clump. Ah well, someday we'll have a quiet house and unmolested borders, but I guess we'll be the poorer for it.

I do enjoy my asparagus very much. I have 50 plants, which my dad and I put in more than 10 years ago. As I'm the only one in my immediate family who likes it, I often eat it three times a day in season and give away much of it to friends.

A

The cook, and gardener's, retreat:

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The plants in the lower right corner of the picture look like something my Nana used to call cat's claw briar. Do they have particularly nasty thorns, or do they just look like they should?

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Nothing so interesting, I'm afraid. That tree in the forground holding up the hammock is a basswood and those are sprouts I have to cut back every year.

[snowangel]

I'm glad you couldn't muster the energy for dinner tonight. Knowing that today was going to be hot, I hard-cooked some eggs this morning, so in our house, if you didn't want an egg salad sandwich for dinner, you were out of luck.

Bad news about the hydraneas and the kids tumbling on them from your perch, but these days will to fast be gone. Peter still loves that I have lunch with him once a week during the school year. People ask why I do it? Because, the kids love it, and these days are fast afleeting. We may be broke sometimes, but we are never poor.

Now, for the serious talk. Given the state of my tomato plants, please no more talk about them!

Lori, how do you divy up other kitchen chores, like scrubbing the sink and sweeping and mopping the floor? Do your cooking classes take care of this stuff as they mess it up?

[handmc]

Lori, you are truely amazing putting up with all of us during the challenges of this past week. Will the hammock see use this weekend?

Anyting planned for the fourth?

edited because I cannot spell.

Edited July 1, 2006 by handmc (log)

[Susan in FL]

Sigh.  I really CAN'T do this reply/quote thing.  Maybe somebody in charge will take pity on us all and fix it?

←

Lori, I will take the above as your permission to edit the post and fix the toggled quotes, unless you say otherwise. (I'm making this a post instead of a PM, so we have witnesses for your permission; otherwise, staff does not edit posts.) The only thing is that I am only briefly home from work for lunch, so I have to do it later.

Meanwhile, blog on! It's a great one.

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Yes, please. And thank you.

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!@#$%^&*)(*&^%$#$#@!!!

I tried, and I'm sorry, but hell if I know what's up with this.

For both our sakes, I hope everybody agrees with this:

Sigh.  I really CAN'T do this reply/quote thing.  Maybe somebody in charge will take pity on us all and fix it?

←

Don't sweat it, Lori. Considering you're chasing after last-minute financial aid forms and wrangling cooking classes in addition to blogging, the last thing you need to be worrying about is tediously counting formatting commands to find the odd one out.

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Thanks to the help from Janet Z. (JAZ), I was able to get that bugger fixed.

Still, Lori, in the overall scheme of things, and relative to all that goes on in the course of your days, that was small stuff. And, like Ellen said, don't sweat the small stuff.

[Lori in PA]

Dinner at Restaurant Sydney or, Taking One for the Team

We decided to celebrate our twentieth anniversary from last July, our twenty-first anniversary coming up in a couple of weeks, The Husband’s job change last February, The Husband’s raise, and help out the blog all at one time last night with dinner for two on the terrace at Restaurant Sydney in East Berlin.

I’ve been hearing about this place for over a year – more than one person has said it is the best restaurant in Adams County. We had decided the day before that we’d go, but with the morning I had I wasn’t even sure I wanted to do it anymore. I took a nap on the sofa in the afternoon, though, and woke up feeling human and happy, so I called for a reservation.

As you know, there is a difference between eating out and dining out. We do eat out occasionally – when traveling or the odd fast food dollar menu drive-through lunch when a van picnic won’t work out because of time. Sometimes we get a pizza or a few hoagies to share from one of two little Italian places here in B-ville. We often get an ice cream after worship services or Bible study at Bruster’s or Dairy Queen in Gettysburg. Dining at an upscale restaurant happens annually or less for us, though, on average, so it becomes an Event when it does occur. And what an Event last night turned out to be – just wonderful. In fact, I rather think it may be the best restaurant meal I’ve had in the US.

[Disclaimer: I know some of you reading this are knowledgeable and serious restaurant foodies, so I feel obligated to point out that what was an ethereal culinary experience for me might seem less exciting to you. My dad is a retired airline captain; therefore I grew up traveling often and have eaten some really good meals in various places and have some frame of reference, but please don’t book travel arrangements to East Berlin on my say so. ]

Part of what made the evening so special wasn’t even the food. The weather was perfectly comfortable, we were seated next to a little garden filled with herbs, the company was excellent, our servers were friendly but not intrusive, and they paced everything so well for us – long and slow and relaxing – which was just what we wanted.

The food was fabulous, though, and we really splurged. Normally when we dine out we might each order an entrée and perhaps share an appetizer or a dessert, but last night we did it up right. There was one “special” for each course and The Husband chose that for his starter, a chilled five onion soup with crispy shallots and toasted onion seeds:

I asked for the warm duck confit tartlet with arugula salad, but they were out of it, so I took the other thing I’d been dithering over, which was citrus cured Scottish salmon with fried oysters, mango chutney, and orange-vanilla vinaigrette. Oh, that vanilla – I need to learn how to make that…

I thought the chutney’s curry flavor overpowered the other elements, so after a bite or two I ignored it, but otherwise everything combined wonderfully.

We waited to order our main course until we’d finished our appetizers and I spent some minutes happily musing over the choices again. Of The Husband and me, I am much the more adventurous eater, though he has made great strides from the time we met, when the only cooked vegetables he liked were potatoes, corn, and green beans. Really, his parents were plain eaters and he just hadn’t been exposed to anything else, so he was starting with a handicap. When we dine together or when I get creative in the kitchen, I’m always torn between offering full disclosure about ingredients or choosing to “wait and see” if he’ll discover a new taste and enjoy it. So, last night when he was considering whether to get the roasted halibut with caponata and green peppercorn sauce or the prime rib, which he loves, I was thinking, “Should I tell him caponata = eggplant or not?” I decided to keep mum until he made up his mind. He chose the beef, which solved my dilemma nicely. He got the medium-rare he asked for, along with perfectly cooked fresh vegetables, so he was pleased:

I ordered the “lamb loin chop and braised shank with cauliflower mousseline, organic arugula, hazelnut milk, and rich-braising lamb juices.” Really well done – the contrast of the chewier medium-rare lamb and the fork-tender shank paired perfectly with cauliflower’s creamy wonderfulness – I unapologetically ate every scrap and polished my plate with a piece of bread to get all of the sauce, and probably made several embarrassing yum-yum noises as well:

We shared bites of our starters and mains, but dessert was different. Our server intuited, I guess, that we were going to go halves on each choice, so she first brought one, waited until we finished it, and then brought the second. We began with poached banana ice cream with white chocolate/banana crepes and chocolate sauce. I’m not a huge fan of bananas sometimes, but there was much to love about this. I got carried away and started eating before The Husband took a pic (well, actually, we both did that more than once, which you’ve probably noticed):

Lastly, we had the dessert special, which celebrated the cherry season in our orchard county – warm sweet cherry clafouti, cherry granita, and a miniature almond milkshake:

What a perfect ending to a perfect meal. At one point in the middle of it all I looked up into the darkening sky and saw the beautiful crescent moon and just gave thanks for so many blessings – the kindness of postmen, the terrific kids in the cooking classes, naps, our family, and the grace of that good meal.

Edited July 1, 2006 by Lori in PA (log)

[Lori in PA]

Weekday breakfasts are usually Every Man for Himself around here, but sometimes on Saturdays I do something a little nicer. This morning I felt like making pancakes. I add some cornmeal in place of part of the flour:

I triple my recipe, so I have two skillets going:

I like to cook bacon in the oven -- easier, less mess, and I don't have room for another pan on the stove anyway:

The stack grows:

I made sure to have an egg -- protein first:

I cooked along with a British comedy this morning. My mil tapes them for me sometimes and they are one of my guilty (because sometimes I watch when I should be doing something else) pleasures:

[Anna N]

Lori,

That sounds like a "perfect" meal to me. I read every word you wrote because it was not in the least pretentious. I rarely read many meal reviews as I find them boring! We have a gift certificate for a restaurant to celebrate our 44th anniversay and the one year anniversary of hubby's cancer surgery. I only hope it comes close to the experience that you and your hubby enjoyed.

[Susan in FL]

Lori, that's a perfect dining out experience in my book, too. And like you said, so many factors go into making a meal wonderful. I'm so glad you had such a fine evening.

I agree with Anna, and feel the same way... what a good write-up. Some restaurant reviews bore me, even though I am very interested in restaurants and read about them all the time. I was glued to this one.

There are a few things from your dinner that you described which I would love to make, namely a chilled onion soup (I don't know why I never thought of that), the orange-vanilla vinaigrette, and a pairing of lamb chop and braised lamb shank. If you have some clues on the chilled onion soup or the vinaigrette, please let me know. What was the hazelnut milk, a "cream sauce"?

[Ann_T]

Lori, I have so enjoyed reading your blog. I love the pictures and the tradition of your kids spitting cherry pits.

After the dishes were done by my offspring/slaves and I was awoken from a snooze by a borough call (long story), we were persuaded out to the front porch for a sort-of tradition by Samuel, the 11-year-old.  A few years ago, I happened to get home from Sandoe's with a quart of the summer's first cherries just as a thunderstorm hit.  The kids and I ended up sitting on the porch eating cherries and spitting the seeds into the perennial border as we watched the storm.  Now each time we get cherries, Samuel hopes for a thunderstorm so we can repeat what apparently was a very memorable experience for him.  It isn't storming now -- just raining -- but it was close enough.  Here they are getting ready to let fly:

In the midst of the spit:

And the after effect:

Bread pudding is so, what’s the word?  Ugly.  That’s it:

And there is nothing ugly about your bread pudding. Bread and Butter Pudding is one of my all time favourite desserts. I've made it with a chocolate bread before but have never added chocolate chips. Great idea.

You live in a beautiful part of your country. . Love the photos of your shopping trips and the Cooking lessons.

Dinner at Restaurant Sydney or, Taking One for the Team

Looks like you and your husband celebrated your anniversary in style. I would have been happy with what you both had. Everything looks so good.

Ann

[MarketStEl]

Dinner at Restaurant Sydney or, Taking One for the Team

We decided to celebrate our twentieth anniversary from last July, our twenty-first anniversary coming up in a couple of weeks, The Husband’s job change last February, The Husband’s raise, and help out the blog all at one time last night with dinner for two on the terrace at Restaurant Sydney in East Berlin.

[...]

[Disclaimer:  I know some of you reading this are knowledgeable and serious restaurant foodies, so I feel obligated to point out that what was an ethereal culinary experience for me might seem less exciting to you.  My dad is a retired airline captain; therefore I grew up traveling often and have eaten some really good meals in various places and have some frame of reference, but please don’t book travel arrangements to East Berlin on my say so. ]

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After this post, and those pictures, don't be surprised if you get PMs from some of those "knowledgeable and serious restaurant foodies" asking you for recommendations for charming B&Bs in the Gettysburg area.

mizducky and I share our college experiences (we were at Harvard at the same time) and our love of Steely Dan, but prior to this, I imagined that you and I didn't share that much besides the same home state. But--as Chufi noted before--reading a blog like this reveals how even people who live lives as different as yours and mine nonetheless can share many things in common: Besides a love of good food and cooking, in this case, there's also a love of British sitcoms--I don't know how many times I've seen that episode of "Are You Being Served?" in the photo upthread. I hope you have many episodes of "Keeping Up Appearances" in your collection as well--I don't think there's been a funnier sitcom, ever, on British or American TV.

(Something tells me that your sense of humor isn't warped enough to go all the way to Monty Python. But I may be wrong about that. It wouldn't be the first time.)

I don't think I've enjoyed reading a blog as much as I have this one. Thanks a bunch for sharing what looks to me like an absolutely wonderful life with us.

Edited to clarify a pronoun reference.

Edited July 1, 2006 by MarketStEl (log)

[mizducky]

Not only was that celebratory dinner totally yummy-looking, but I absolutely adore the building that houses Restaurant Sydney. Do you happen to know anything about the building's history?

[Lori in PA]

In your honor, Susan/Snowangel, I have made the first BLT with the first harvested tomato from my garden of the season. I have also made what will probably be the tiniest BLT of the season. It was goo-ood!

I may have a wee cruel streak in me.

Addition after initial post: I was so disappointed in the blurry photo. Unfortunately, I ate the subject immediately after taking the picture...

Edited July 1, 2006 by Lori in PA (log)

[Lori in PA]

Saturday meanderings

Today has been one of my favorite kinds of days -- I have no commitments beyond what I choose to accomplish. Nobody's pulling at me -- well, except for a few thousand people on this website, I suppose. What I decided to do was have some fun in the kitchen. After three days straight of cooking classes, working alone in here feels like a reclamation of my space. It is peaceful, with an easy pace as I get into the groove of working on multiple little jobs in succession. I'm mainly making dinner for just our family tonight, but I'm also doing some prep work for Sunday dinner (which you understand is really lunch) tomorrow after worship. My mom and dad are just back today from a trip, so I've invited them to join us, too.

Before I did much in the kitchen, I needed to pick up a few items. Often, when it's hot like it is today, I make myself my own version of iced coffee to have in the middle of the day. I make two 2-cup size mugs of coffee in the Senseo and pour them into a glass. I add two spoons of sugar and a big splash of half and half. I stir with an iced tea spoon and carefully put it on the bottom shelf of the fridge freezer's door. Ideally, I give it a quick stir every half-hour -- 1 hour until it is slushy, but it almost never works out that way. I always manage to get busy and forget about it and it freezes more or less solid:

Then I wrestle with the frozen-in-place iced tea spoon and try to break up the mixture. If it isn't frozen solid, I chip away at it and usually plunge through the ice and splash coffee all over. Then I have to let it sit at room temperature for awhile until it is thawed enough to stir and drink. Anyway, it is a good way to have undiluted icy coffee:

BTW, I think Rachel said she now only uses one coffee pod for the two-cup amount on the Senseo. I've done that since the beginning. Java aficionados may shudder, but it tastes good to me.

I got on my way mid-morning and ran by Sandoe's for corn and more dark sweet cherries. I drove back through B-ville and down the road about a mile to a store that's been open since last winter, The Butcher Block:

They want to be specialty grocery -- and I want them to be one, too -- but they are still figuring out their niche. They do have good meat and good weekly specials. Today, I got chicken leg quarters for 47 cents a pound:

They have a lot of Maryland seafood, because they are owned by a nice little grocery store called Jubilee Foods in Emmitsburg, MD:

I resisted the crabs and stuck with my chicken:

I went to my parents' house to harvest some squash blossoms. Their garden is terrific -- a real thing of beauty. Here are potted herbs sunken into the ground in the foreground, with their stand of asparagus behind. Their asparagus is lonely, with no weeds to keep it company:

Here are tomatoes (sorry, Susan) and snap peas surrounded by fencing in defense of the healthy (and well-fed) rabbit population they have:

The fence also encloses some of their squash and all of their green beans, which I think they replanted two or three times before they broke down and got the fence:

Ripe tomatoes -- I just can't quit!

And, the raspberries are coming on:

Here are the squash blossoms I harvested, a bit too late in the morning to have them open the way I wish, but I think I can work with them:

After I left Mom's and Dad's, I scurried into Giant grocery store in Gettysburg for three things. By that time, it was 2 pm and I'd had no lunch. I ran into the Dairy Queen down the road for a milkshake. (John, if you are reading this, the photo I took of you didn't come out.) Everybody else, I wish I could show you John, the owner of our DQ, who sets a very high standard for friendly service. My mom says nobody can make a peanut butter crunch Blizzard as terrific as he (and his employees) do it. (Oh, when my family sees this picture, I'm gonna be so busted!)

As I headed back toward home, I realized I forgot to take a picture of Giant, so I did it on the fly as I drove past the entrance road. Can't you see it?

Back home I started puttering in the kitchen. More on that in awhile.

Edited July 2, 2006 by Lori in PA (log)

[Lori in PA]

Tonight's dinner menu:

fake PA Dutch barbecued (grilled) chicken leg quarters

cherry salsa

corn on the cob

French-style green beans

For Sunday dinner, I hope to serve:

stuffed squash blossoms

grilled salmon steaks

baked cucumbers in cream

more green beans

Mom's French bread

This afternoon, I prepped the green beans, which are lovely small ones given to me by our organic farmer brethren. I prepped the cucumbers to give off their liquid. I made the tomato sauce with fresh basil for the stuffed squash blossoms' accompaniment:

I made the goat cheese and fresh thyme filling for the blossoms:

The stuffed squash blossoms come from Georgeanne Brennan's excellent little In the French Kitchen Garden: the joys of cultivating a potager. I have enjoyed this book immensely -- it is a pleasure to hold the nubby dust jacket over the hardcover, the watercolor illustrations are delightful, and the gardening and recipes ideas are useful and do-able. Here it is:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081182034...1102422?ie=UTF8

I put together the cherry salsa:

The salsa is just something I'm making up:

white and dark cherries, pitted and cut in half, about 2 c. total

1/3 c.-ish minced red onion

1/2 minced jalepeno pepper

zest of one lime

juice of half a lime

about 1/4 c. chopped cilantro

salt to taste

I think diced avocado would be a nice last-moment stir-in, but I'm the only one who likes it much, so I may add some to mine if the mood strikes me.

Dinner's almost ready -- just have to cook the corn!