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

[Lori in PA]

you made the vinaigrette already??!!

as far as frugality - i am frugal in some ways but could be considered extravagant in others.

like you i have a mini grocery in my basement.  i buy on sale and with coupons.  not to excess but i do have a several month stock of some things, a bit more on others.  i use coupons  for the things i always use - paper towels, toilet paper, pasta, john's favorite roobis tea, etc.  sometimes i will use a coupon to try a new product(alexa potatoes, dole frozen fruit).  the one thing i do do is pay into one of our joint accounts monthly the amount of money i saved on couponing.  i do work part-time(25 hours per week) outside the home unlike you  but this way i feel i can help even more for our emergency and/or fun funds.  where my extravagance comes into play is paying more

local, organic fruits and vegetables and buying johnnybird a pie once a week when the local farmers market is around.  unlike my mom i cannot make a decent pie crust - i have decided for crusts and biscuits i definitely have warm hands and are definitly ham handed.  i buy good grades of things like cheeses since a bit can go a long way - except in mac and cheese and i try to buy organic, free range meats.  funny the best value i have ever gotten is from a 4Her.  Kimmy sells the eggs from her prize winning chickens for 1.75 a dozen- 1.50 if you return the carton.

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I didin't make the vinaigrette yet -- sorry for the confusing reply. I intend to make it as soon as possible, but when I spoke of the vanilla flavor I was referring to the dressing I had at Restaurant Sydney.

I think we are much alike about being frugal in some ways and extravagant in others. I love luxury ingredients like good cheese and chocolate and have spent money on them. I try to get items like that at better prices -- candy at BB's, grey sea salt at TJ Maxx -- and control the frequency and amount of things I can't get any other way than paying a high price.

[Lori in PA]

Ah, Lori!  Your blog really out to have the subtitle "The Big Orange Bowl."  I also have two.  When we moved from a house that had a huge kitchen with more storage space than a person really needs to a tiny ktichen with no storage space, I decided that the Bitg Orange Bowls should live in the tons of space I have in the laundry room.  It wasn't long before one of them became  permanent fixture in the kithcn.  And, not longer, the second Big Orange Bowl also took up residence in the kitchen.  I could give up m any things in my kitchen, but not my Big Orange Bowls.  They have been part and party to many, many memories, none glamorous, but all very memorable.

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I actually have two big orange bowls now, also. When my mil moved into a much smaller apartment 4 years ago, she had a lot of stuff she asked us to dispose of in some way. I kept almost nothing for us -- I hate clutter -- but she had a big bowl just like mine. It has joined the nest of Tupperware bowls in the cupboard and I haven't regretted giving it the space at all. It's amazing how often both are in use at once.

And, I'm sorry about all the garden tomato references. Sort of. Still friends?

[Lori in PA]

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Lori, I have very much enjoyed your blog.... it has been extremely fascinating to get a glimpse of your daily life. You have described your days so eloquently.

I have one quick question.... what is going on, on the wall behind everyone at your dinner table? It looks like a chart of some kind and I am most curious to know what it represents.

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It is another bow to the demands of home education. It is a timeline going from pre-2000 BC to 2000 AD. (We need to catch up and add a decade or two.) We attached cork-like (but not cork -- it's some kind of cheap building material a little like insulation, but not insulation -- I don't know what it is), felt-wrapped panels to our wall, and we velcroed on the date strips and the figures representing different historical people and events. A few years ago, it occurred to me that Samuel was so little when we started working on it that he'd never had the chance to "grow" it from scratch so we took off all the figures and he's been adding them back as he learns about each one. It isn't really what I'd pick to have in my kitchen, but that is the only wall in the house with a large enough expanse to hold it, so there it is. I'm sure this is the single obstacle to my never having received a request from House Beautiful to allow them to do a feature on our home. Anyway, it has been a useful tool -- it is great for understanding things like this: if Louis Braille hadn't lived before Helen Keller, she might never have made the strides she made or become the person she became. It gives us all a big picture in our heads and a place to "hang" new people and events we learn about into that larger view of time.

Edited July 3, 2006 by Lori in PA (log)

[Anna N]

Orange Tupperware, white plastic and yellow plastic! All HAVE to live in my very tiny kitchen. All were acquired at garage sales. Now if only I can find the lid to the orange bowl at yet another sale.

Let me just take this opportunity to say how much I have enjoyed your blog, Lori. Thank you.

[Pontormo]

Rosemary, one of the best smells:

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Lori, your cooking classes with children are especially fun to see. Thanks for answering my question about Italian lessons with documentation. Now that the blog is drawing to a close, I hope you'll have more time to devote to eating fruit on your front porch.

[lancastermike]

Thanks for a wondefull blog, Lori. We are neighbors in several ways. You and your husband have made great decisions for your kids. I know they will be great adults because of it. And thanks for the very kind answer to my PM.

Pennsylvania's make great bloggers.

[racheld]

Oh, Lori!!! This has been wonderful. Your life and days are so filled with youth and activity and an energy reserved for the real DO-ers of the world. Your family is always happy to be doing whatever you're doing, they are learning AT HOME all the values and standards and recipes and formulas, from Love Thy Neighbour to white sauce to E=mc squared. What a great foundation for them to stand on and walk out into the world---and from some of your teaching and example, they may FLY!!

All the pictures, from simple family dinner to seedspitting, from your TV show to the misty view across the valley---they convey a home and family atmosphere that is growing so rare, therefore more precious. I was so fortunate to have been home with my children when they were home from school, and our church and family were always the given, the solid, the place to stand against the world, or the soft place to fall when the world WAS too much with us.

I see all that, from your Bible study to the wall-exhibits to the simple fact of your church clothes under an apron, hurrying to get a good Sunday dinner on the table for three generations...that was so often a part of our weekend, and all the kids still remember and speak of those times with happiness and good memories.

And your husband, too, races great distances to "Do Battle With The Forces Of Economy"---Chris' title for his getting out every day and hopping in that little gold car and going off for many miles in every direction, to keep our family safe and comfortable in our home.

And the ORANGE BOWL!!! My big ole yellow one is even older than your own, I wager. It's lived in about ten houses in its long life, and has carried more potato salad to church suppers and potlucks than I can remember. It's served in almost as many capacities as yours has, from its shiny days way back in my catering business--I remember one memorable evening that several of my staff were delayed by snow, and I was TOO rushed too prink all that chicken salad into the tiny shells, so we just put the shells in a pretty napkin-lined basket and turned Ole Yeller upside down with a "WHOMP" that made a pretty dome-shaped mold on the big round platter. A few grapes, some parsley sprigs---who knew that beautiful dish came out of a homely plastic carrier?

Now she's a permanent dishpan, living always in the left sink, filled with WAY hot water and apple Dawn to brush-wash all the dishes before they go into the dishwasher. And I think the lid is in the pantry somewhere still--I've even pressed it into use as a quick cutting board on occasion.

Anyway, I thank you for this glimpse of my own almost-past, with its occasional groups of kids in my kitchen for cooking classes--one memorable day when a seven-year-old asked, after making several dishes, "Miss Rachel, why don't we just whip up a trifle before Mom comes to pick us up?" (And somehow, we did). The family rush on Sunday mornings, the home-to-get-Dinner-on-the-table, the shopping for bargains and enjoying the hectic and fulfilling life of a home-Mom. It's a great gift, to you as a Mother, and by you to those children and to the World they will grow up to contribute to.

Thanks for all the above, the memories and the new ideas and just for sharing your precious time and family with us. You are my Hero this week.

[Susan in FL]

Once again Lori, thank you ever so much for such an enjoyed blog. The topic will be open for last minute comments, questions, and good wishes until early afternoon Pennsylvania time. And faithful eG foodblog readers, another very interesting blog is in progress. Tune in!

[MarketStEl]

Thanks, Lori, for sharing a great week with us and giving us a glimpse of life and food in the Keystone heartland. I've no doubt your kids will do well in the world thanks to your guidance.

Now I've got to find someone around here who hosts Tupperware parties so I can get a loud-colored plastic bowl of my own. (The big orange melamine salad bowl I once had I left at a potluck years ago. The one big plastic storage bowl I have is...beige.)

[BarbaraY]

Thanks for your great blog, Lori. Took me a while to read it all since I was away for the first part.

Your younger son seriously resembles my younger grandson. Close cropped red hair and all.

[jrobin]

Hello Lori!!

You have the honor of having my first post!! I've been lurking at egullet and imagine my surprise to start reading a blog from someone in my same county!! So I had reply.

Your words and photos portray this part of PA very well. Whenever I'm over in your area I love looking at the hills and hills of orchards. Just beautiful!

Great job!!

Jennifer

[handmc]

Lori, Thank you and your family for a great week.