Out of Hibernation

This past Thursday I decided I MUST join the outside world again.  I came slithering out from under the rock and was met with a wonderful warm day in the high 60's,  How delightful!

Zip has music lessons on Thursday in Hagerstown and occasionally I ride along and he drops me off at my friend Marian's.  Her house is conveniently located en route.  We had been working on a rug design together and wanted to do a little more tweaking before committing it to backing.

But just for fun we also visited the Asian Market in Halfway, MD. 

I had noticed the sign while Zip and I were traveling through and have wanted to see what they had to offer.  It is a small market, but had all the ingredients I had been looking for to make a batch of spring rolls plus the wonderful sweet hot chili sauce for dipping.  In their freezer section I found not only the spring roll wrappers but a package of about two dozen spring rolls already made up.  If only I had taken a cooler. 

Check out all those noodles!

They had some bright golden yellow mangoes that were about half the size of those in the regular grocery.  I bought one of them and that little darling was yummy!  The Japanese eggplants looked nice and fresh, but I didn't get any this time. 

This pastry is made of a delicious soft Phillipine sweet roll dough and contained long strips of sugar-soaked coconut called 'coconut strings'.  Zip and I both loved it.

Then on the way back to Marian's we stopped at the Dutch Market, which features Amish vendors selling their produce, baked, goods, meat, cheese and candies.  I was so thrilled with the variety and clean, beautiful arrangements that I forgot to take pictures.  Please believe me, it was an excellent market.  Another 'bring-the-cooler' venue!  Everything looked so temptingly good that you just wanted to BUY!

Good thing I didn't indulge too heavily because later we were invited by Willa to join her at the Lions Club spaghetti dinner in Shippensburg. 

Her husband, Chuck is a generous supporter of local charitable and civic organizations and he kindly bought our tickets.  Thank You, Chuck!  unfortunately he had to work so could not join us.

On Saturday Zip and I traveled to Ligonier PA which is about a two and a quarter hour drive to the west.  I wish I could show pictures of lovely countryside along the way, but the weather was atrocious.  Gray clouds, fog and periods of rain prevailed.

 
Ligonier is a pretty little town.  As we arrived they were having a wedding in the gazebo on the square. 

Fort Ligonier was built in the time of the French and Indian war (mid 1700's) as a staging point for driving the French out of the western part of PA.  It opened the area for further exploration, making it possible for the settling of Pittsburg.  Amazing that they had chain-link fence at that time.  LOL!

But you may ask, why did we go there??? 

Because I joined an on-line knitting group through the Knitting at Large blog by Julie Matthews.  I've shown pictures of my sweater in progress and now the participants who lived within a reasonable distance were getting together for a meet and greet day for showing sweaters and generally having fun.

Sweater parts for show and tell.  Kathy, who came from Brookville PA brought the delicious Easter eggs made by a candy company in her town.  To die for!!!

 

We met at Kathy's Kreations, a lovely knitting shop owned by Kathy Zimmerman, the designer of the Waltham sweater we are all working on.  I had not met Julie, Dottie and Kathy until now but had commented back and forth on her blog and Ravelry.  Kathy Z. was kind enough to sit down with us and have a discussion about what plus-sized women wanted and needed in knitwear patterns.  So many designers and pattern publishers only offer their patterns in S-M-L and are missing a huge (pun intended!) market by not offering plus sizes.

I was so busy talking and shopping and eating that I didn't take time to get out the camera.  I only got a few shots of the shop.  I will be returning and will do better the next time! 

And since I mentioned food, there is a delightful little deli next door where we had lunch.  The panini sandwiches were excellent.  They were so satisfying that we didn't even sample the gelatti!  For once, no pictures of the food!

All in all, it was a fun day.  I hope when we finish our sweaters we can get together again and model the sweaters.  By that time I will have decided which of my new patterns I would like to try next and will be ready to buy YARN!

The new patterns and books.  I'm doing my part to support the plus-size pattern industry by voting with my dollars!

Monday I spent most of the day sewing with Brad and Kami.  When I arrived home it was in the high 70's outside and Zip had opened several windows in the house.  The kitties were in HEAVEN!  Aaaah, smell that air!!!  I didn't get any pictures, but Penny's eyes were even bigger than usual and she had her little pink nose pressed right against the window screen. 

Deiter wasn't really impressed with the great outdoors.  He would rather lay on my shawl and sniff where I had been lately.

One of the signs of warmer days.  FLIES!!!  Izzy will protect us!

Today it's back to cool and dreary with rain.  The winter was dominated by cold.  Now spring seems to be dominated by rain!  But last week when I posted, the buds on the maple trees were only showing green tips.  Now they are blooming!

I'm going to try really hard to stay out from under the rock.

The Shades of Gray

  Dreary, damp, sloppy wet, cold...you get the picture!

We have been inundated by the wet stuff this weekend.  It's not over yet.  The creeks are beginning to overflow their banks.  It's a miserable time to travel.

But travel we did.  Not that far in miles, but a cultural world away.  Our friends Chuck and Willa went with us to Harrisburg, PA to the Asia Mall.  This is a small strip mall featuring all Asian businesses, including several restaurants, a gift shop, a video store, a nail and beauty supply store and a large Asian grocery.

We had a lovely lunch at the Thai restaurant.
Chuck and Willa are studying the menu trying to make some serious decisions.

For appetizers they chose a chicken satay with peanut sauce and some spring rolls.

I chose several appetizers instead of getting an entree.  The spring rolls were delicious.  The little round dumplings that look like pot stickers were quite yummy.  The tofu would have been rather bland without the peanutty sauce.

Zip ordered chicken with vegetables in a sweet and sour sauce.

I thought Willa's eggplant dish was the best!  And look at the colors!  Love that purple eggplant with the green and orange and the sauce was to die for.

We decided to pass on the dessert and go to the bakery for take-home treats.
I've had the fruit turnovers on a previous visit.  They are wonderful!  I like to live dangerously and get some totally unfamiliar pastries like the yucca dessert that looks like custard pie.  They also have some savory meat and rice pies that are wrapped in banana (or plantain) leaves.  All are interesting and good.

The grocery is one of the largest Asian food stores in the area.  It's one of my favorite places to stock up on cooking supplies.

They have a huge selection of canned goods, sauces of every kind, candies, cookies, teas, fresh vegetables and noodles.  Oodles of noodles!

And there's fish.  Dried, frozen, pickled and fresh fish swimming around in large tanks.  They will butcher them right on the spot to your specifications.

We managed to make a dreary day into an enjoyable outing!

Now we are home with the woodstove warming our chilly bones. 
Zip is strumming away on the guitar and I am planning to do some knitting.  I have one sleeve on my sweater almost dome.  This is the cardigan that I'm doing with some other ladies from the Knitting at Large blog.

  So far it's been fun and fairly easy.  I wonder if I have the skills to manipulate those intricate cables.

The book is called Knitting Plus (by Lisa Shroyer) and is an excellent collection of sweaters especially designed for the larger woman.

The pattern we are knitting is by Kathy Zimmerman who is a designer who has a shop in Ligonier, PA.  I hope one of these days to get out there.  I hear it's a fantastic place.  It will be a lovely drive when the warmer weather arrives.

Not Quite Around the World in Three Days

Zip and I haven't been home much in the last few days.

On Friday we took my Mom to visit her sisters in Mt. Joy, PA.  This is in the heart of PA Dutch country.  Part of the visit was eating out, of course!  Zip loves the PA German cuisine.  All that meat and potatoes never seems to put any meat on HIS bones, though!!!  I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but they had a fantastic bakery right in the building.  Their soft wheat dinner rolls were to die for.

We had a nice visit with the aunts.  Kami had gone with us since Brad was away for the weekend.  She and I and my Aunt Ada had a good time discussing family history.  Next time I should take a recorder so I can remember all of it.  And while all the eating and talking were going on, I forgot to take pictures.

On Saturday we went to Carlisle with our friends Chuck and Willa.  We are eating Asian this time.

We were looking forward to trying the Issei Noodle restaurant that features many interesting Japanese, Viet Namese, and Thai entrees.  This time I took pictures.

Chuck and Willa ordered the salad sampler with three different cold Asian salads.  The deep fried tofu with ginger sauce is on the right.

Zip's meal was called chicken and egg dom-buri.  It was thinly sliced tender chicken breast with egg, greens and a mild sauce over rice.  Yummy!

I ordered the classic Phad Thai with meat instead of shrimp.

The portions were large enough that we had leftovers to take home for lunch the next day. 

This restaurant is family owned and operated.  Very tasteful decor.  The only drawback on a Saturday night is trying to find a parking place.  There is only street parking so we had to walk about a block, not that I minded.  We'll be going back!

I like to make spring rolls at home.  To make the best ones, you can't use eggroll wrappers from the grocery because they are too thick and will not give that wonderful light crunchy texture.  I have only found the spring roll wrappers at Asian groceries.

I looked online for Asian groceries that were open on Sunday and found the Asia Mall in Harriburg.  Off we went!

Once again, I was so involved in the fun of the trip that I forgot to take pictures!!!

In this small  mall there are two restaurants (Thai and Asian noodle), a bakery, fingernail shop, gift shop, and a large Asian grocery.

The bakery is run by people originally from Viet Nam.  We were surprised to see French style fruit turnovers and loaves of French bread there.  A lovely lady explained to us that Viet Nam had once been under the rule of the French, giving this interesting twist to their baking tradition.  The pastries were excellent!

The same lovely lady again talked to us in the grocery store and introduced us to the owner.  She must have thought we were tourists of the worst order!

What an amazing store!!!  They had fish in so many varieties, dried, preserved in salt, frozen, fresh on ice and live in tanks, plus ways I probably couldn't imagine!  There was a huge variety of meat and poultry.  Quail eggs, chicken eggs, duck eggs, preserved on who-knows-what eggs!  I didn't even get to the produce section.

There was every variety of packaged Asian anything that you could imagine!  It was so unbelievable fascinating!  I found all the ingredients I needed for my spring rolls, plus a few extra goodies.

I can't wait to go back! 

After the Asian experience we went for dinner at one of my favorite Italian restaurants, Carrabba's.

I love the wonderful warm bread they serve to be dipped in the olive oil and herbs.  Zip ordered linguini with spinach, mushrooms and lobster.  I had the mezzaluna which is a half-moon ravioli filled with chicken, spinach and cheese.  We both had leftovers to bring home for lunch today.

So there's our little world tour, all within a hundred miles of home.  Who knew central PA could be so much fun!!!

Homemade Spring Rolls

Zip says these are as good as we get in restaurants.

1 lb. ground turkey

1/2 small head of cabbage 

spinach or Swiss chard

2 or three scallions

garlic

fresh ginger

Asian sesame oil

soy sauce

1 pk. cellophane noodles

spring roll wrappers

I used Swiss chard because we still have some in the garden.  A few leaves, shredded fine will do just to add color.

Slice or shred the cabbage into fine strings.  Chop the scallions.

Finely chop the garlic and ginger.  I did not add specific amounts.  It depends on taste.  I usually use 1 or two garlic cloves (NOT heads!!!) and a nickel sized slice of ginger. 

 Put in a small bowl and drizzle with about 2 tsps. of sesame oil.  Microwave for 30 seconds.  Set aside.

 Put your ground turkey in a large skillet and light ly brown the meat.  Add the shredded cabbage, chard/spinach and the scallion.  Saute till the veggies are tender crisp and the water in the pan evaporates.  Sprinkle on a little soy sauce.  Not much!  Add the garlic and ginger and heat for a few minutes.  You want the mixture to be dry, with no juice in the bottom of the pan  when done cooking.  Set aside to cool.

Next soak the cellophane noodles.

 Put one bundle of noodles in a container large enough so that they can be covered with water.  Heat water to boiling and pour over the noodles and let stand for a few minutes until they are flexible.

Drain the noodles and pat them dry with paper towels.  These noodles are VERY long!  Take kitchen shears and snip them into small pieces and add them to the pan of cooled meat and veggies and mix thoroughly.  No further cooking is necessary.

You are now ready to roll the spring rolls.

 Take only a few out of the package at a time, covering the ones that aren't being used to keep them from drying out.

Lay a nice spoonful of the filling near point of the wrapper and fold the point up over the filling.  Roll to cover the filling, then tuck the side points toward the center.

 Finish making the roll.  Lay on a baking sheet with the open point folded under. 

I have tried both baking the rolls and frying them.  Of course, the fried ones taste better!  Wouldn't ya know??? 

To bake, I lightly sprayed the rolls with cooking spray, then flipped them over and sprayed the other side.  Put them on a rack over a baking sheet and bake until lightly browned.  I can't tell you what the oven temp was because the oven control on my 1940's gas stove no longer works.

To fry the rolls, I put about 1/4 inch of veg. oil in a fryin pan and got it nice and hot.  Then added the rolls and fried till golden brown.  Then drained on paper towels.

Both turned out nice, but we preferred the fried ones.  Try them with the red pepper preserve that's listed in the recipes tab at the top of the blog.  Yummy!

Uncooked spring rolls can be frozen.  Just wrap them individually so they don't stick together.

That was a long one!
I think I need a coffee.