Greenhouse Time

The opening of the local farmers' markets is one of my favorite times of the year.  This past
Saturday, our favorite orchard, Hollabaugh's, near Biglerville, PA, had it's grand opening.  Of course there weren't any fresh offerings from the orchard at this time of the year but there were some local lettuces, rhubarb and asparagus.  They were also featuring a local farm that raises grass-fed, no antibiotic beef by giving away free sliders with a selection of yummy toppings.

Zip is making a bee line for the grill.
 

The beef was really delicious.  We ended up buying two pounds plus some of their lovely asparagus.  No pictures of either.  The asparagus got eaten and he beef is in the freezer for a special occasion.

Even though the offerings from the orchards haven't come into season yet, Hollabaugh,s is still worth a visit if you're in the area.  They have a nice produce section, a bakery area, had dipped ice cream, pickles and relishes in jars, a coffee bar (Zip's favorite) and a lot more.


On Memorial Day Brad and Kami came to do yard work and have lunch.  Brad made smoked pork loin on the grill.  Kami and I prepared the rest of the food which included deviled eggs and panko crusted corn fritters plus watermelon and honeydew and other salad makings.

We didn't have a recipe for the corn fritters, just an idea that we wanted crispy, savory ones.  We really got it right o the first try.  They were delicious!


We used the smoked pork to make tacos with lots of tomato and cilantro.

 We had a great holiday.  Lots of eating and even a nice amount of yard work got done.

On Tuesday we went to Lurgan greenhouse to get plants to fill our hanging baskets for the porch and tomato and herb plants for the garden and herb planter.  Unfortunately it was the hottest day of the week.  I thought Zip and I were going to have a heat stroke.  He had to sit down and rest because he was feeling faint.  I blundered on with sweat running off me in buckets.  It must have been 100+ degrees in the greenhouses, not to mention the high humidity.

Needless to say in my hurry to get out of there I forgot a lot of stuff I wanted to get.  I thought we had three arches between the support posts on our porch so I only got enough to do three hanging baskets.  Guess what!  I need four!

So today it is cooler so we returned to the greenhouse.  I wanted to take pictures but forgot until we were leaving. This is the parting shot.

Got what I needed to finish the last hanging basket, cocoa mulch for some flower beds, and a few pepper plants. 

I put a dark red geranium in the center of the basket, very dark purple petunias and the ornamental sweet potato vines around the edge.  They should look really nice when everything starts to grow over the edges.  I have to laugh.  Both geraniums and petunias are stinky.  I sure didn't plant my baskets for fragrance!

Was going to post my recipe for corn chowder, but I think I'll save that for the next post.

Will close with a kitty picture.  Penny and Izzy sleeping on wicker.  Summer dreams.

 Thanks for stopping by!

Sprechen die Detsch?

No, you don't have to speak German to have a successful shopping experience at the PA Dutch Market in Hagerstown, MD.  The Amish and Mennonite people who provide the wonderful selection of edibles all speak perfectly good English.  And contrary to  popular rumor, they don't mind being photographed.

I have written about this smorgasbord of traditional PA German delights previously.  When I checked back through my blog, I realized that it been over two years ago so a revisit is in order.  I took my friend, Linda, who says she's never seen this kind of market before.

So let's start with the bakery.
Pies, breads, fancy pastries, cookies, brownies.  You name it, they have it.

One of my favorites is the bread, like raisin bread, with peaches instead of the raisins and either icing or crumb topping.  Makes yummy toast.

You can watch the Amish women working on the various pastries as you decide on which goodies to buy.  Oh, to have a kitchen like that for baking!

They have a beautiful selection of fresh meat.  I always bring a small cooler along to keep my purchases cold since it takes about an hour to get home.

They have a lovely produce section.  This is only a small part of the fruits and veggies being offered.  There is also a fresh salad bar so you can make your own salad to go.

The cheese cooler is filled with interesting cheeses from all over the world.  One of my favorites is a stilton with mango and ginger.  A perfect dessert cheese.  There are plenty of samples to make the decisions even more difficult.  Of course, you have to try several to be sure.

If you are still hungry after the cheese sampling, there is the barbeque counter.  The aroma is out-of-this-world.  At lunch time the line of customers seemed a mile long.  We intended to eat there, but didn't want to wait for half an hour for that delicious pulled pork.

There is also the deli counter with all kinds of pre-made foods for when you are too busy or tired to cook.  It's a good thing I don't live closer.

There is a bulk food section where you can buy flour, sugar, snack foods, canned pickles, jelly and spices.
And then there's the CHOCOLATE!  This is just a teeny little section of the wonderful handmade chocolates they have to offer.

Since the market was so crowded at lunch time, we decided to travel back toward Chambersburg and stop at the Trickling Spring Creamery for our lunch.  A friend had been telling me about their delicious pretzel sandwiches, so Linda and I just had to try them.


They have an extensive list of meats, cheeses, vegetables, and condiments from which you choose to customize your own sandwich.  Then it's all put inside a buttery, salty sliced soft pretzel.

I had smoked turkey breast with lettuce, tomato, onion, and sweet pickles with a sweet onion dressing.  YUM!!!

Wish I had taken some pictures of the Trickling Springs store because they have lots of nice products.  It's one of the few places where they feature fresh milk, the kind with cream on top.

They have delicious ice cream made with milk from local farms.  But that's another trip.

So that's it for today.  Except for.....

No post is complete with out a kitty picture.

Here's Deiter.  In your face.

  I love waking up to this every morning!

Thanks for stopping by!

Is It Safe Now???

Is it time to come out of hibernation?  Is it safe to stick my nose out the door without taking the chance of getting frostbite?  No more snow, RIGHT???

The lambs are out frolicking so I guess we humans should do likewise.
These sheep are in the front yard of a nearby Amish home.

Oh, how I love spring in PA!  The grass is so green and the fruit trees are in bloom.  Life is good once again.
After spending the whole month of March with a severe sinus infection and then adding an ear infection, I'm so grateful for warm weather and sunshine.  It is the cure-all for everything.

While I was sick, my creative endeavors took a sad turn to nothing.  I still haven't found a project to really get my juices flowing.  I became obsessively attached to my Kindle, an instrument with which I had a mediocre attachment to before.  Without being able to get out to the library once a week, the Kindle became my reading lifeline.  I have to confess that reading and eating are my drugs of choice.  Gee, they go so well together!  Ha-ha!  Now MANY pounds and many wasted hours later, I'm once again trying to kick both habits and get moving to something less sedentary.

On the subject of food, I made something I've always wanted to experiment with.  English muffins!  I found a cookbook (of course!) recently at the thrift shop.  There was an interesting recipe for English muffins that had yogurt in the dough.  Healthy, RIGHT???  Delicious?  YES!!!

The dough starts out looking like normal bread dough so I didn't take pictures of that part.  After the first rising, the dough gets rolled out to about 1/2 inch thick.  I used a 4-inch round cutter.

The rounds on a cornmeal dusted cookie sheet.  Ready for the griddle.

Cooking on the cast iron griddle.

The bottom is cooked and the muffins are flipped.  I tested for internal temperature with my insta-read thermometer.

Breakfast is ready!

I was really surprised how well they came out.  Better than Thomas' and almost as good as Wolfermans.  And really not that hard to make.

Last week a friend and I went to the PA Dutch market in Hagerstown, MD.  I've shown pictures of it before, but it's a wonderful place so next post I'll write about it again.  And I'll try not to let a month go by before writing again.  There will also be some green house visits in the near future.  Love those flowers!

Can't have a post without at least one kitty picture.  This is Deiter and Izzy doing Kitty Yin and Yang.
They're so Zen!

Thanks for stopping by!

Gifts

This year winter is the gift that keeps on giving.  And giving.  And giving...

Or maybe it's the booby prize.  Whatever.  
After receiving three snowstorms in the last ten days,  I'll be glad to see it gone.  As I know most everyone will.

I want to thank all of you for your kind comments about making it through this very long and trying season and the resulting depression.  I did see my doctor.  She did prescribe an anti-depressant.  After taking it for a week and feeling like I was in a head fog, I decided it was not going to work for me.

You all have written such positive messages, some in the comments and some by private email.  I appreciate your help!  I am feeling better just knowing that there are people out there who share the same affliction.
I titled this post "Gifts' because your support is indeed a gift.

And a very sweet gift came in the mail too!  Very unexpectedly!
Briony from the Crafty-Cats-Corner blog sent me this lovely notebook for which she made the lace and bead embroidered cover.  Isn't it wonderful?  I was so thrilled to get such a nice surprise in the mail.  And the whole way from across the ocean in England.

Thank you, Briony!
Be sure to visit her blog and check on the fun things her kitties are up to.  And also enjoy her beautiful artwork.  http://crafty-cats-corner.blogspot.com/

In my last post I showed a picture of my spinning wheel that I was hoping to use in the near future.  I did not notice a problem until I tried to spin.  The pedal went right to the floor and the wheel did not go around.  Whaaaaat???
A small technical problem right here:

The nylon connector between the pedal and the drive arm snapped, probably from being old and dried up.
So I called the Mannings spinning and weaving supply store.  They had another one in stock, so Zip and I made the 45-minute drive to East Berlin on one of the coldest and windiest days to get it.
I didn't have time to put it on right away so...
Well, where did I put it???  It was in a little plastic bag in my purse.  I got it out to look at it.
After that, who knows???

I didn't want to make another trip to Mannings so decided on a makeshift solution.  The piece has to be stiff with just a little bit of flexibility so I decided to use heavy leather.  Couldn't find anything thick enough so glued three strips together to make it about 1/4 inch thick.  Then shaved off the square edges so it would fit in the round hole.

So far, so good!

I spun a test sample of yarn to see if I could match the weight and twist of the yarn I used in the Fairisle vest.  The original Fairisle yarns are the two pieces on the left.  My samples are the
two on the right.  The yarns are shown twice the actual size.
I think I've got it!

A friend of mine will be giving me some dog hair from his Border Collies to spin and make into a scarf for him.  I'm looking forward to that interesting project.

So hopefully some new projects will do wonders for my mood.  Spring is on it's way regardless of the fact that the snow is still falling outside.
Blue skies and green grass will be the ultimate gift.

One last happy picture before I close.

Don't you just love those eyes???
Penny, you are so darn cute!

Thanks for stopping by!

The Long Cold Winter

Please, please make it go away!

It was pretty for a while.  That first snowfall is always magical.

BUT.....
It has gotten OLD!  and COLD!  Not just cold but FRIGID!
And it doesn't seem to let up.  I know here in PA it is not nearly as bad as other parts of the country, but it's still horrible.
The furnace is running full blast, slurping fuel oil like a thirsty racehorse, and it;s still cold in here.  This has become my best friend lately.

 

Seriously, this is the worst winter I can remember, not only for extremely cold weather, but for depression.  I feel like my life is at a standstill until I get warm again. Sometimes I don't go out of the house for four or five days in a row.  Zip has been going for groceries.  I just can't face it.
All I've been doing is sit around wrapped in a blanket, reading, eating and drinking hot coffee.  I've gained back weight that I fought so hard to lose.  Can't think, can't focus.
The creativity has been frozen out of me.

Brad and Kami brought my loom downstairs.  It needs threaded, but I can't decide on a pattern.  So there it sits.  Haven't even dusted it off.

The old computer that I use to run the loom is ready to be set up.  But not yet.  More dusting.

Brad and Kami have been helping me to clean the upstairs.  We found tons (not quite TONS, but...) of spinning fiber, more than enough for three lifetimes of yarn.  So I got the bright idea that I would spin yarn for another Fairisle sweater.  Remember that really cool Fairisle vest I knit last summer.  Well it no longer fits because of all the sitting around feeling sorry for myself and taking consolation in eating.  I had such a great time making it that I thought I'd do it again only this time instead of spending money on more yarn (since I already have several tubs of it, just not the right kind) I would spin enough yarn to do another vest and maybe a sweater.  Ha!  There sits the spinning wheel.  And more dust.

But instead of pursuing anything constructive or creative, I'm battling the kitties for the comfy recliner that's right there near my dear friend the woodstove.  And I'm losing.

Sometimes one.  But more often two....

And even the triple whammy.

Isabel, you know you don't want to hear that weather report!

Oh, yuck!  It's snowing AGAIN!

Dang it! I was all ready to go shopping!

I just can't face another cold snowy day.

Mom, Deiter took my chair!  He's such a lump.

Guess I'll have to sit with Daddy instead.

Snore!

Try to stay warm, friends.
Think thoughts of Spring.  It will eventually get here if we don't all freeze solid in the meantime.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Cake Adventure

We've had several days when the temperature lingered around 30 degrees and the sky was gray with a steady wind.  Already I'm feeling the hibernating urge.  Zip has been kind enough to make the trip to the library and the grocery store for those two essentials in my life, books and food.

I want to spend my winter in cat mode.

Curled up in the recliner near the woodstove sounds like a plan to me.

No, little sweetheart, I'm not going to attempt dislodging you from the chair!

I haven't posted for quite a while because I really haven't had anything to write about.  Life goes on, same stuff, different day.
Zip's birthday was on Saturday.  Number 71!  Yeesh, how did we get so OLD???
On Friday we went out with Brad and Kami to one of our favorite restaurants, Issei Noodle in Carlisle.
Then on Saturday we had a get-together with our grand-daughter Emily, her Mom and boyfriend at Lincoln Diner in Gettysburg.

The family picture minus me, I'm behind the camera.

 And with Kami taking the picture.
It was also Zack, Emmy's boyfriend's birthday too.

Now for the cake part.  Zip's mom is 93 tomorrow so we had her birthday dinner last evening.
About enough birthdays to make your head spin, isn't it?

Every year a different one of the brothers and sisters in Zip's family are responsible for providing the birthday cake.  This year it was our turn.  I get really tired of cakes from the grocery store with cool whip frosting and garish colored decorations.  All that food coloring can't be good for a person, right?

So I decided I would make cakes.  Even though I haven't baked a cake in years.

WHAT WAS I THINKING???

My first thought was to make them all from scratch, but then I came to my senses and decided to use cake mixes and just make creative fillings and frostings.
My sister Linda had made a wonderful cake with white cake mix and then you poke holes in it and let a can of cream of coconut soak down in it.
Seemed like a good idea until I tried to get the soaked cake out of the pan and it all fell to pieces.

I also found that with some cake mixes the layers can be cut in half with thread and moved to a plate, and others crumble to pieces because they are too delicate.
Several such attempts went into the trash.

I finally made three cakes with successfully divided layers, one chocolate and two yellow.  I think it was the Duncan Hines mixes that worked the best.  Betty Crocker cakes were nice and fine and moist, but crumbled easily.

The fillings and frostings were actually the easy part.  It was fun making lemon curd and chocolate mousse.  And I made some of the most yummy chocolate frosting ever.

Dark chocolate cake with tree layers of chocolate mousse filling and chocolate buttercream frosting.

Yellow cake with chocolate and maraschino cherry filling and white buttercream frosting with cherries on top.

And my personal favorite.
Yellow cake with two lemon curd  layers with vanilla buttercream frosting. and lemon curd in the center of the top.

So you can see how exciting my life has been lately!  ha-ha!

I started another sweater.  Decided cables might be interesting for a change.

Already finding out that it isn't challenging enough to old my interest for long.
This is the back.  I think I'll all two more panels of cables to the front.  Just one panel looks like it will get lost between my boobs.

It's time to bet back to the recliner and that nice warm stove.  With a cup of hot coffee and a good book.

Or maybe not...

Thanks for stopping by!