At a cooking class in June 2014, I heard Phoebe Canakis of Phoebe’s Pure Food describe fillo shells as “a nice cheat.” This kind of shortcut is a sanity saver when it comes to entertaining. When you’re throwing a big…
British flapjacks are a gluten-free oat bar (much like a granola bar) traditionally made with just oats, fresh or dried fruit, butter, brown sugar and syrup (golden or maple). This recipe calls for oats, nuts, dried apples and cranberries, applesauce…
My husband often talks about one of my most spectacular kitchen failures. But he speaks of it fondly, and almost dreamily, because sometimes even the messiest kitchen mistakes are still quite edible. Here’s what happened. I was trying to make…
“There never was, and never will be, such a remedy for the tired, overworked human body as the pure, fresh air of the country,” wrote an author known as Mrs. A. Sherman Hitchcock in an article published in 1911. Picnics were nothing…
Whoa?! Where did you get that? A museum? That’s the kind of reaction I get when I pull out my cell phone. It’s a heavy black Samsung flip phone, probably designed for people who are not in their 30s like…
Some of my favorite Christmas parties have involved white elephant gift exchanges. I have usually come back with gifts I love, but perhaps this only shows my capacity to be charmed by strange, low-budget gifts. At one white elephant party…
In 1932, Daniel Weaver started Weaver’s Orchard on the same site where I now love to shop and pick fruit. But what was this part of Pennsylvania like before 1932? What is its agricultural history? Early History through 19th Century…
In high school, some friends and I volunteered at the Hay Creek Valley Fall Festival at Joanna Furnace, around the corner from Weaver’s Orchard. The Hay Creek festival recreates early American arts, like blowing glass, pressing cider, and cooking over…
I love pancakes. Unfortunately, making them from scratch takes time. Since I stick to a pretty strict morning routine to get some things done before work, I don’t usually have time to make pancakes for breakfast. Oatmeal or peanut butter…
At orchards, markets and farm stands all around Pennsylvania every August, produce is so abundant and flavorful that the Pennsylvania Vegetable Marketing and Research Program has named this month “Pennsylvania Produce Month.” Why does August bring such variety? This time…