A Fun Food Filled Day in Lancaster County, PA -- Part 2

Day two of our overnight at our friends home in Lancaster County began with coffee and getting ready for a task that is not part of our New Jersey life style . . . taking our to the dump. Not a very pleasant task, but the side benefit is that on the way home we stopped to get our breakfast treats from a hidden Lancaster County Gem. Way up in the hills overlooking the fertile ridges and valleys of the least touristy section of Lancaster County, there sits a yellow house that turns out delicious hand made donuts and backed goods. Sadie's Bakeshop is run out the the basement of their Amish farmhouse. The address is 489 Lambert Rd, Narvon, PA. As we arrived for our morning selection, we spotted freshly put up banana pepper and dill pickles, waiting to be shelved. Russ picked up a jar of dills. Since I plan on doing my own pickles in a couple of weeks, I held off on these. I was there for the baked goods. I picked up 2 trays of pecan sticky buns, some cream filled donuts, some apple fritters, and some butternut covered donuts. These baked good are like nothing you get from Krispy Creme or Dunkin' Donuts. They are made with loving care from old family recipes, using an abundance of top quality ingredients. "English" (that's what the PA Dutch call us outsiders) drive from miles around for Sadie's donuts, sticky buns, and pies.

Something that is pretty interesting about the Amish is that although they live separate from the "English" world and shun much of modern technology, they have figured out ways to have some comforts and conveniences without connecting to the "outside" world. For instance, at Sadie's if you look up you will see pipes running along the ceiling. These pipes are nut for water, rather they are for compressed air, which they use to power such things as fans, and presses and other tools. All of the cooking is done with bottle gas, so they do not need to rely on the gas company. Their lighting is from bottle gas and you will notice in an Amish or Old Order Mennonite home light fixtures that have the kind of mantles in them that are used in Coleman lanterns.

After feasting on coffee and Sadie's goodies back at the house, my wife and Debbie headed off to look at furniture at the shops in the area and Russ and I continued our food journey. We traveled along on of the roads along the way, stopping at different stand run by the locals. Our final stop was at the farm stand started by Russ's friend, whom we know as Pappy. Pappy and his wife Mammy, preside over an Old Order Mennonite family near our friend's house. They have twelve children, most of whom are married and have farms surrounding Mammy and Pappy's place. We stopped at Pappy's farm and I picked up some freshly picked cantaloupe and some zucchini and a loaf of Mammy's home made bread. After doing our shopping we went around back to Pappy's house and he invited us in. He offered us some watermelon, which he had just picked from their fields. It was sweet, juicy and delicious. We spent some time talking about our families and lives. Pappy took us around back to show us his son's carpentry shop. One of pappy's son has made a living harvesting wood from old barns and making rustic furniture from it to sell to the "English". He does beautiful work. In keeping with the Old Order Mennonite ways, all of his tools, from planers, joiners, tables saws, et al, are powered by hydraulics driven by a propane fueled generator.

After leaving Mammy and Pappy's place, we made our way over to Berk's County for a stop at Weaver's Orchards. I bought a half a bushel of peaches. When we got back to Jersey I put 12 aside to make a peach pie and I froze the rest. I am looking forward to the winter months when I can thaw out a quart of peaches and think of my happy weekend in PA.

When we got home the girls were waiting for us. We had a bite to each, finished our card game, noshed on the baked stuff from the morning and the left over cake from the night before, laughed about old times and then headed back to New Jersey so we wouldn't be driving in the dark. It was a great little get away and I am thankful for good friends who live in interesting places.

Stay tuned for recipe's for Peach Pie, a pasta zucchini dish I made with produce from Pappy's stand and instruction on how to freeze fresh peaches.

Enjoy!

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A Fun Food Filled Day in Lancaster County, PA -- Part 1

Our friends from my seminary days, Russ and Debbie, live in a beautiful part of Lancaster County, PA. Several times a year we get together with them to play cards, eat, laugh and share our lives together. Lancaster is pretty touristy area but because of Russ and Debbie live there, we get to enjoy the wonderful things about visiting Pennsylvania Dutch country without the tourist traps. They live far away from the main tourist arteries in rolling hills among Amish and Mennonite farmers. It is a beautiful peaceful place.

One of the joy we share with the Russ and Debbie is a love a good food and enjoy the bounty of the land is always a part of our visits there. We arrived on Friday night and stayed over till Saturday afternoon. On Friday Russ took us to a great steak house called Johnny's Bar and Steakhouse in Stevens, Pa (the north central corner of Lancaster County).

The four of us are all beef eaters and I was unaware there was a steak house in this part of PA that could serve up a steak as good as one you can get here in the New York metro area. Johnny's is a hidden away spot and from the outside you would never think of it as a premium place to eat. It is downstairs and around the back from the Silk City Diner (not about place to eat either I am told) on Rt. 272 between Adamstown and Ephrata. However, when you walk in the place, all doubt about the prospects for a good meal are replace with anticipation for a mouth watering dining experience. The room is sports modern decor, a bustling bar and creative neon lighting. We were seated at a table for four that was under an air conditioning vent. When we told the server that our wives were to cold, they quickly moved us to a table in the corner.

We spent some time looking at the menu which included a great selection of steaks, chops, chicken, fish and salads. In addition to the regular menu there were several specials that were tempting. We ordered our drinks and put in an order for a crap dip appetizer to share. The dip was a delicious concoction of large pieces of lump crab meat, mayo, cream cheese, artichoke hearts, and a variety of cheese, served brown and bubbly in a casserole with pita points. The casserole was plenty for four but the pita points were a bit skimpy. No worry however, because the dip was so delicious we finished it with our spoons.

We ordered our entrees which came with a choice of soup or salad and a choice of a side dish. We all ordered salads, which were garden salads with a choice of dressing. I had blue cheese dressing. The salads were a nice, chilled, fresh mixture of crispy iceberg, romaine and mesculin served with ripe tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots. It was nothing special, but was well prepared and tasty. They served some outstanding freshly backed rolls along with the salad.

Our entrees arrived in a timely fashion. Russ ordered the 24 oz Angus porterhouse that was a special. Christine and I had the Johnny's Special, which was a 10 oz center cut sirloin and Debbie ordered the baby back ribs. I have to say that the steaks were indeed "seasoned and grilled" to perfection as the menu described them. Russ's 24 oz medium rare porterhouse was nicely charred and beautifully juicy on the inside. Our 10 oz sirloins were pink, juicy and tender. Debbie's baby back ribs were a full rack of meaty ribs that fell off the bone. I ordered a baked potato for my side, Debbie ordered garlic mashed potatoes and Christine and Russ ordered asparagus with hollandaise sauce. In addition we shared an order of sauteed mushrooms. The sides were great. My backed potato had a nice crust of salt on the outside of it's crispy skin. The garlic mashed potatoes were creamy and flavorful. The asparagus were tender and the sauce had a nice balance of butter and lemon. The mushrooms were sauteed in wine and were quite delicious.

After dinner, instead of getting desert we ordered a tiramasu cake from the diner upstairs to eat at the house later. When we got home, Russ and Deb's daughter and son in law were married. A couple of years ealier I officated at their "renaissance" themed wedding. It was good to see them doing well. Russ' 8o some year old mom who lives with them joined us as well as their 14 old son. We played a rousing game of "Apples to Apples" and munched on the tiramasu cake. After the game we spent a few more hours playing the first half of our favorite card game, Shanghai. Christine was winning when we could no longer keep our eyes open. It was a great night, and the next day we had a similarly great time which I will write about in part 2.
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Friends, Family, Food and Fireworks

We just got back from New Hampshire this past Saturday, but our vacation began last Thursday. We attended the annual gathering of my wife's extended family for food, fellowship and fireworks at her cousin's home on beautiful Lake Mohawk, NJ. This is an annual tradition. There were well over 150 people there and my wife is related to most of them. Many are descendants of Christine's grandmother and grandfather who came from Norway in the early part of the last century and eventually settled in New Jersey. I believe we have only missed one "4th of July" party at the Lake since we have been married. It is really interesting to look back over the years and see how the family has grown and how individuals have changed and yet stayed the same. This year was a little bitter sweet for us, as only one of four children came with us. The others were either working at camp or at music events they had committed to.

One of the highlights of the day is catching with old friends and family members. We break out the pictures. We talk about how the kids are doing in school. We commemorate milestones, meet new family members and just enjoy each other. And of course we eat. The eating at this annual gathering follows a time honored tradition. People begin to arrive around coffee hour. That is around 2 PM. The table will be laden with all kinds of baked goodies and there is strong, hot coffee. People roll in over the next couple of hours and take what they like from the table.

Around 4 PM or so, the goodies are cleared and the table gets prepared for dinner. We all line up and get our good. This year the main dishes were pulled pork, hot dogs, and rosemary chicken. There are all kinds of sides and salads: baked bean, fruit salads, tomato and mozzarella, and many more items to numerous to name.

After supper the table is cleared and the coffee hour cakes and goodies are brought back out, along with two enormous cakes from the Viking Bakery in Denville. One of the cakes is the general happy 4th of July cake and the other is a cake to celebrate whatever milestone we are celebrating. This year we were celebrating the engagement of the host's daughter. These Viking Bakery cakes are pretty interesting. They are the only cakes I have ever had that are covered in a thinly rolled out sheet of marzipan. Inside there is white cake, a layer of whipped cream and a thick layer of raspberry preserves. They are rich and delicious.

After we have made our way for the final time trough the food line, we take our goodies and coffee, find a good spot and settle in to watch the fireworks.

After the fireworks, my wife and drove back to her mom's house in West Orange filled to the brim, not just with the great food, but with the blessing of the abundance of family, friends, love and goodness that we have been given in this life.

Enjoy!