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Good enough to eat

I was in the marching band during high school (the kind that competes in field shows, not just the kind that appears in parades – it’s NOT the same!) and our big fundraiser for the fall was to make apple pies and dumplings. Pie Baking Day was actually a series of weekends where I learned how to roll dough into circles for crusts. The band members and parents would work assembly-line-style, starting from scratch to mix the dough in huge bins in the school cafeteria. The recipe included warm water and apple cider vinegar, ingredients that Martha doesn’t even include in her pâte brisée. Talk about life skills! My favorite parts of the whole operation were folding dumplings up and making the decorative vents on the pies. (Exhibit A: the pie that just came out of my oven).

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

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Paradise

Steve and I love to sip coffee and look at stuff at the bookstore. It’s a cheap date and I get to catch up on my non-subscription magazines. Today we went to Borders after Festival of Trees, and after that we noticed lights on at the new Cheeseburger in Paradise. We were told when we walked in that the staff was in training and it was Friends & Family night, but we could have a table even though we were walk-ins. They limited what we were allowed to order and said we could have only two drinks each. (Oh gee, only 2?) I figured they were just trying to get the chefs & bartenders trained and they figured friends & family would be forgiving for having the limitations. I chose one of the approved appetizers and then realized it was pretty expensive, so then we split a burger because we weren’t that hungry anyway. They also brought out soup and salad, and after dinner we got a random dessert. “But we didn’t order dessert.” “Oh, the chef just sends his choice of dessert to each table.” So we forced it down politely. Then our waitress thanked us for being part of their training and said she was giving us the check as a formality. Only then did we realize it was all complimentary. So we left a tip and walked out grinning.

As a side note, our waitress was named Ryan. I’ve recently noticed several gals over 20 named Ryan that I never noticed before (it all started with Ryan Starr). Where have they been all my life? I knew that this was a popular baby girl name now, but Name Voyager has just confirmed that the initial wave of she-Ryans was in the 80’s. Musta missed that.

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Happy Thanksgiving

Tonight Steve and I joined our friends for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. We each brought different parts of the meal, so all together we had the complete spread — turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, the works — and Laura (the hostess) even brought out the china and crystal. More photos, courtesy of Dave (the host).

Festival of Trees is this weekend at Cokesbury Village, so I’ve been busy making jewelry. Yes, that’s something I normally do, but at a flurry pace; this week it’s Nor’easter level. The festival is Friday through Sunday from 10-4 if you’re in Delaware and you want to support the hospice (and shop for Christmas gifts). I’m offering 25% off my whole collection at this event.

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Weekend

I had a free Saturday, which is unusual and precious, so Steve and Riley and I piled in the car for a drive. It was another warm day for November and the last of the leaves were clinging to the trees. We decided to drive around beautiful, rural northeastern Maryland and finish up at Wegmans in Hunt Valley. For those of you who think Wegmans is just another grocery store, you should visit one and grab a coffee while you peruse items they have like pickled kumquats, truffle mushrooms in a locked case, and bulk candy (Steve’s favorite). Here is a photo of HALF of the olive bar. There is also a bruschetta bar, and all this is next to the cheese shop with hundreds of varieties to choose from. (Yes, Riley was in the car!) And there’s the pastry shop with fruit tarts and the fish and meat counters with… I digress… We used to live 5 minutes away from the Wegmans in State College, PA and sometimes we’d go just to walk around. Now the closest one is about an hour away. Steve grew up near Rochester where every town has one, so I’m sure his parents think it’s a little weird that we always go to the grocery store when visiting.

The weather today was pretty gloomy, good for watching football so that’s what we did. Or at least what Steve and Aaron did while Becky and I tried not to interrupt.

Oh, and kill the fatted calf because I found my swirl stamp.

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Pumpkin Spice

I notice food trends, like Buffalo wing sauce a few years ago and fish tacos lately. One trend I’m totally on board with is Pumpkin Spice Everything in the fall. Some things actually have pumpkin in them, like Cheesecake Factory’s pumpkin cheesecake, and other stuff just has spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. Today I had coffee with my friend Melissa and her daughter, so I took the opportunity to have yet another pumpkin spice latte and some pumpkin bread with cream cheese icing. Yesterday I had a pumpkin spice donut with my pumpkin spice latte. Sadly, the Ice Cream Corral down the street closed for the season before I got to have pumpkin custard. Last night (for dinner) I had a pumpkin spice muffin with cream cheese, and I’m thinking about making pumpkin bars again this year. Delaware’s own Dogfish Head Brewery even offers a Punkin’ Ale. I don’t think I’ll wear this out because it’s a seasonal thing and I’m ready for it again by the time I’ve worn out iced coffee over the summer.

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A campfire in your yard

This was the first day we used our new fire pit. It’s hard to get people together for a whole camping trip, so this way we can still have campfire food. We used pie irons to make pizza-wiches (pictured), ham&cheese-wiches, and raspberry pies. We also had skewers for hot dogs and marshmallows (for s’mores). I wondered out loud if a PB&J would be good toasted in the coals, and someone suggested I make an Elvis sandwich. Next time I want to make banana boats like I learned at Rockbrook Camp.

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Southern comfort

After letting the salt ham soak for a couple days and then baking it for 6 hours, I split it up into more manageable size packages to freeze and give away. I didn’t realize how much work was involved! My friends are like, “enough about the ham already,” but since Steve wasn’t here to observe me cooking dinner with two side dishes, I had to post a picture. I loved the saltiness of the ham & green beans contrasting with the sweetness of the creamed corn & honey mustard on the biscuits.

Sometimes I just get more creative when I’m by myself, and Steve would rather I stick to “normal food” anyway which is why I don’t usually get excited about sides. Here’s another dinner he missed: toast pizzas. One is the last of this season’s cherry tomatoes with pesto and the other is chicken, kalamatas, and Artichoke Antipasto from Trader Joe’s.

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Mooning over my hammy

My grandmother lived in the Tidewater area of Virginia and one of my memories of visiting her was having salt-cured Virginia ham. She pronounced it with two syllables (hy-am) and my Dad’s name (Charles) with one syllable. “Chawles, will you pass the hyam?” She was a real southern lady.

My dad went down to his hometown recently and (bless his heart) found a ham for me and sent it with my mother when she came to visit over the weekend. I am so excited about ham with my eggs at breakfast, ham & biscuits, ham in split pea soup… I feel like Bubba Gump and his shrimp. Hmmm ham and shrimp…

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Saturday

While we’re gone, Riley is staying at Camp Kenn. He sent me an email today saying that she has taken over his place, but still allows him to stop by to take a shower or sleep on the edge of his bed. Apparently Riley and Tropical Storm Ernesto didn’t get along; Riley thinks she’s made of sugar and doesn’t like the rain at all.

Speaking of sugar, one thing I really like about Sweden is the variety of offerings for sweetening coffee & tea. I have seen granular white, white cubes pre-wrapped in pairs, granular brown, lumps of brown, rock sugar (crystals 1-2cm across, supposedly flavored with vanilla), honey, spun honey… In our hotel room we have a hot pot with a sampling of tea bags, cube packets, and milk in funny triangular-shaped packages that you sometimes see sour cream come in.

Today Steve and I checked out the Kronhuset market, where artisans sell their wares: fiber arts, a blacksmith, woodturners, ceramic artists, a glassblowing studio, and several jewelry artists with koollookingen* designs. We walked the Avenyn, which is similar to Paris’ Champs-Elysees and Boston’s Back Bay with a wide street lined with shops and restaurants with outdoor seating. We sipped coffee and people-watched at a cafe, checked out the local bead store, walked along the main canal, and had a delicious steak dinner. I am not a big fan of white fish, so I was a little nervous about what I’d eat here in the land of fisk. So far what we’ve had is not that different from what we see back home, and all of it has been good.

*I’ve been amusing myself by inventing Swede-lish words. A lot of Swedish words are similar to English or French ones if you say them out loud. It’s like playing Mad Gab, where it looks like gibberish until you say it out loud (and then giggle). I always thought it was funny how certain product names at Ikea looked like their English counterparts. Some don’t, though. I saw a rack of skimpy tank tops on the sidewalk with a sign saying Slut. Duh. But then I saw it again in a kitchenwares shop (eerily reminiscent of Crate & Barrel) and learned that it means “sale.”

The more shopping I do, the more I realize how authentic Ikea actually is. I’ve seen store after store of the same style of stuff. And there are votive jars with tea-light candles everywhere, so now I understand why Ikea sells them in bags of 100. And lingonberries are just as prolific, especially in sauce similar to cranberry sauce. Swedes put this on little crepe-like pancakes, and it is available in the Swedish market section of Ikea. Okay, enough about Ikea!

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Davio’s

Lots of people have been asking about how Steve’s job is going. He really likes working from home when he’s not traveling, and the traveling part is not that bad either. Overall he’s happy he made the switch, but he really misses the office comraderie.

Well, last night his former colleagues Brenda & Brendan took us out to Davio’s in Philadelphia. Oh. My. Word. Yum. We had been planning this behind Steve’s back for a couple of months now, so it was nice to finally have the cat out of the bag. Brenda & Steve had eaten at Davio’s Boston location during a conference, and ever since then they have been talking about how it was like the best meal they’d ever had. Now Brendan and I understand what they were talking about.