the best kind of day

I went on a special adventure yesterday with Mrs. Nye. She invited me to join her on a trip to Lantz’s Bulk Foods, about a 30-40 minute drive (we took a few detours, so I’m not sure exactly how long it would take if you were heading straight there). It’s in Wyoming County (or maybe Lancaster?), near where Mrs. Nye grew up, and is run by an Amish (or Mennonite, I’m not sure which) family.

What a gem it was!

They had a small cafe (cafe implies it was cute and fancy, which it wasn’t; think more utilitarian, perhaps even the kind of hole-in-the-wall place only the locals go), a refrigerated meat and cheese case, a small section of books and cookbooks, and aisles of dry goods.

There were decent amount of people there, both eating and shopping, that it’s clear this store is a landmark among the miles of open farmland surrounding it.

Obviously, the spices and flours captivated me the most. I walked the aisles completely, taking it all in, before I grabbed a basket and, for lack of a better word, went crazy. The photos of my haul follow these, taken at The Valley Inn, in Warsaw. Mr. and Mrs. Nye go occasionally and it’s been on my to-go list for awhile now–we just never think of it.

It’s in a quaint farmhouse just off the road in the middle of the village there. I walked in and felt like I was in Bucks County, Pa., where I used to live. The decor was very ‘Revolutionary War-era’ and classy. In my snow boots, I felt just a tad under dressed! (Thankfully, I’d happened to wear a nice sweatshirt and scarf, and since it’s snowy and we’re in Western New York, everyone else was wearing snow boots with their khakis, too.)

Mrs. Nye recommended the she-crab soup, which immediately made me want it. It wasn’t until the last seven or eight years or so that I’ve come to really like seafood and fish. Growing up, I avoided it like the plague as much as I could get away with, but now I find I really like most of it. New Year’s Resolution no. 6 (or it is 7?): make fish once a week. (We’ll see how long that lasts; Andrew is likely to revolt!)

My soup arrived with little crabs of puff pastry on top!

Despite my resolve to eat more fruits and vegetables and less of everything else, I had to order the rueben. It was calling to me. I have such a hard time ordering salads at restaurants, as I eat them so much when I’m at home. Eating out is such an experience to me that I hate ruining it–especially my first time somewhere–by getting something I didn’t really want in the first place.

Their New York salad sounded fantastic–apples, sweet potato chips, sunflower seeds, hot dressing–but I can make that at home. A rueben, I can’t. (Well, I COULD, but who does that with any regularity?)

I splurged and got the fries in hopes they’d be good–they were. Too good. Andrew will love them. I consider it a personal victory that I left about half of them on my plate.

I spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying a cup of coffee with the rest of the gang at the Nyes’ upon our return, and then took Hadrian out for a cold, snowy walk to Firefly Cupcakes. (More on that shortly.)

When I arrived home, I set out my purchases to photo (and show Andrew). Oat and rye flours (both of which I needed and at these bulk prices, I couldn’t refuse), whole-wheat couscous, tapioca, angel food cake mixes (again, about half the price of our local Tops or Wegmans!), spices and some pasta.

My biggest splurge: black cherry juice concentrate. I have a cherry ice cream recipe I’ve been wanting to make for Andrew (his favorite flavor at Graeter’s) that calls for it and I’ve only seen it from King Arthur Flour, which would be more expensive PLUS shipping costs. I threw it in the basket with gusto.

Look! My nails match the Valentines’ Day decors! Cute pink sprinkles and hearts, as well as coarse red sanding sugar.

Look at that price! Half the sprinkles would be double that at Tops. I love you, Amish bulk foods people.

Whole nutmeg. Interestingly enough, I’ve been wanting to grate my own nutmeg for some time now. Andrew even asked if I needed a nutmeg grinder in my stocking this year. I think I can use one of the surfaces on my microplane grater, but I’ll take a small mortar and pestle, as well as an electric spice grinder, honey.

I’ve found that my cookbooks, especially Barefoot Contessa’s, can’t stress enough the difference between freshly ground black pepper and nutmeg. Just opening the lid of the nutmeg convinced me.

I wanted to get Andrew a treat for while I’m gone–heading to Ohio in just a couple hours–and I thought he’d like these:

I could take them or leave them, but he’s already munched away at the bag.

OK, how awesome does this pasta look:

I couldn’t resist.

Another neat thing happened yesterday while we were out. My friend, Wendy, the owner of Firefly, texted me asking about a hummingbird cake recipe. Apparently they’re experimenting with a new cupcake flavor over there and she knows I like hummingbird cake. I don’t even know why I like it so much… Obviously, the banan/pineapple/cinnamon/coconut/cream cheese frosting combo is fantastic, but it’s more than that. Hummingbird cake is an old, Southern tradition reminiscent of the 1950’s. Traditional. Home-maker-ish. Heels and pearls in the kitchen-ish. Everything I’m not but (kind-of) want to be, in my own, updated and modern kind of way.

I was excited. And what a boon it was to be with Mrs. Nye when it happened. We immediately started talking hummingbird cake recipes and baking (as if we hadn’t been already). When we got to her house, she dug out this 1990 issue of Southern Living:

You can see she made a note, “very good,” next to the Hummingbird Cake recipe below. Apparently, it appeared in 1978’s issue and became Southern Living’s most requested recipe! What a treasure Mrs. Nye has right there!

I texted with Wendy and marched myself (and Hadrian–he was in desperate need of some exercise!) over to Firefly where a sweet blonde employee (I wish I’d caught her name) ran a 2-pack of whatever iteration they’re on out to me in the snow.

They’re a little worse for wear–I was walking a giant dog home in the snow–but good thing that doesn’t detract from taste. Wendy thought they were a little too banana-y, and I agreed. When I think of hummingbird cake, my first thought is of pineapple and cinnamon and coconut (which I don’t believe was in the SL recipe, but has become a well-known addition) more than banana. My thoughts: less banana, more pineapple and cinnamon. Perfect amount of coconut. I even found a recipe online that called for ginger, but that’s probably stretching it a bit. I’m a huge fan, but not everyone is. Although just a TINY bit could add a little warmth, especially with the cinnamon…

Anyway, I shared my thoughts with Wendy and am going to deliver the other one to Mrs. Nye, who has the benefit of years of baking experience and is very familiar with hummingbird cake (so many people these days aren’t), and I can’t wait to hear what she says!

As I walked home with Hadrian yesterday, as the sun was going down and despite the icy snow blowing in our faces, I could not even contain my smile as it spread right across my face. A day spent surrounded by good food and dear friends, good conversation, asked for my two-cents on a recipe (who doesn’t like that?), and here I am, walking with Hadrian on an errand. I even saw a friend from school who was volunteering at the co-op office!

Hadrian was happy to be outside and I was happy to take him, enjoying that I can walk to Main Street and see friendly faces along the way. This is my hometown, now, and there isn’t anywhere else I’d rather be.

cuttin’ out some cookies

I got incredibly ambitious last night. For awhile now, I’ve wanted to send a box of goodies to a friend of ours’ who is a single dad while his wife is deployed, and I figured I’d send her a box while I was at it.

At this same time, I happened to have been given a recipe for sour cream cut-out cookies from Mrs. Nye (who was very clear about it being the recipe of a childhood neighbor, who actually used to send them overseas as well!), AND I happened to have extra sour cream sitting in my fridge (which NEVER happens). It was as if the stars had aligned.

I initially thought Andrew and I could tackle the job together, which we both approached with some degree of trepidation. Let’s just say I haven’t done a good job of sharing my kitchen with others. Resolution no. 5: don’t be such a Nazi in the kitchen.

Anyway…I invited Adam over to play games with Andrew instead, and I went about my business in the kitchen within earshot–which is just where I like to be. I love that this kitchen allows me to be part of the action in either the dining room or living room. (There are other things I DON’T love about the kitchen, which will be a post all its own. I’ve had a vision!)

ANYWAY….back to cookies.

I SO wanted to make “2013” cut-outs, but I got rid of the giant tub of letters/numbers/seasonal shapes forever ago because I never used it. So, I was left with cookie cutters in the shape of a pineapple, a Penn State paw print, a giant pumpkin or circle biscuit cutters. Seeing as I’ve NEVER used the pineapple I’m sure I begged Andrew to buy, I figured now was just the right time. And my deployed friend–an avid blog reader–would get a kick out of it. (Hi Heather!)

I mixed and rolled and found it to be much easier than expected. Cookies aren’t often my dessert of choice; they just seem to be too much work for nothing very impressive. Not that I don’t have some awesome recipes–I just hate that I have to keep rolling/scooping/cooling and taking sheet pans in and out of the oven.

I decided on royal icing since the cookies were going to be shipped–I didn’t want a sticky mess! I used Martha’s recipe (from her Baking Handbook) and subbed plain gelatin for meringue powder. (You can also use egg whites or egg white powder, but I was fresh out!)

I had a ball decorating them–some pineapples, some circles–with tinted frosting, sprinkles and colored sugar.

The cookies turned out well–I hope I didn’t overbake them. (I’ll find out today; Mrs. Nye and I are taking a field trip to some Amish/Mennonite bulk food store…probably worth a blog post all its own!) The cookies aren’t overly sweet like a sugar cookie, and neither is the royal icing. They remind me a lot of those cookies you can get from the bakery at the grocery store that are cake-y and sof and covered with a thick coat of hurt-your-teeth-sweet frosting. You know the ones–they’re always iced with whatever color frosting is appropriate for the season. If I weren’t mailing these, I would have slathered on some buttercream! (Because THAT’S what my waistline needs right now…)

As usual, somehow along the way it turned into FOUR boxes of cookies to be shipped, as well as a bunch sent home with Adam, and still others wrapped up to be distributed to friends in the next couple days (hello Ohio readers!). It’s self-defense, really; if they sit on my counter, I will eat them. ALL of them. I left us two circles and two broken pineapples to enjoy.

The aftermath:

And, of course, the dishes in the dishwasher were CLEAN. A huge, giant, can’t-thank-you-enough hug to Andrew for cleaning up my mess, and taking the dog out, and taking the trash out AND not getting impatient with me while I packed up all the cookies at, oh, 11:30 p.m.

We have three friends who are single dads right now (two whose wives are deployed and one who, well, these things happen sometimes) and it’s been on my heart to show them some love lately. Andrew stacked the boxes kinda precariously so as not to reveal any addresses…!

I’m in a state of severe lack of motivation to work out… All I want to do is STAY IN and enjoy my house and morning and GO SLOWLY. I’m trying not to feel guilty skipping swimming this morning, and I have been running and going to kickboxing every other day. I think I’m just burned out. I’ll be in Ohio in TWO DAYS with a great friend who has the same eating and working out goals as I do, so I’m hoping this weekend will be a chance to relax and rediscover my love of healthy eating (um, the sweets have taken over my life lately!) and exercise 🙂

lasagna, applesauce, cupcakes, pancakes and East Aurora

Saturday morning, Wendy, the kids and I walked to the farmer’s market in search of Idared apples for making applesauce. A couple weeks ago, Mrs. Nye gave me some applesauce to try and I couldn’t believe how good it was. I decided the weekend Wendy was here would be an excellent time to do some canning. (Turns out Wendy isn’t that much of a canner; instead she preps everything and freezes MASS amounts of food all the time. While single-handedly watching two youngsters running all over the house. And her husband is never home because he’s an ortho-surgery resident at Hershey Medical Center. Just call her super-mom.)

Our walk was a little challenging; the walk to the farmer’s market is A LOT longer with two little kids, and hot chocolate got everywhere. But, we succeeded in buying the apples and made a quick trip into Tops to get the ingredients for dinner.

Upon returning home and cleaning up some hot chocolate-covered jeans, we all–even Andrew–headed out for brunch at Charlie’s.

Natalie snacked on some jam packets while we waited for our food. Andrew and I split a daily special and I enjoyed my usual blueberry pancake; Wendy and Natalie split a ham and cheese omelet. Baby Austin happily snacked on some Cheerios in a high chair next to us. After lunch, Andrew went home while the rest of us went shopping at Fisher Price.

Instead of spending the afternoon on Main Street later that afternoon like we thought, Wendy and I prepped my favorite lasagna for dinner, while the kids napped.

Gary, Wendy’s hubby and “daddy,” called while we were finishing up and they got to video chat. Adorable. We missed you here, Gary!

Later that evening, we all–Andrew, too–headed out to Firefly for cupcakes. Natalie enjoyed a Vanilla Birthday Cake, although she ate mostly the icing.

I worked on the applesauce while Wendy put the kiddos to bed and by the end of the night, we had seven pint jars to put away.

This morning, I went for my usual run at Chestnut Ridge with my running group–friends from school–and then came home to a very awake group!

I made pumpkin pancakes, served with a little applesauce (what wouldn’t fit into our jars last night) and maple syrup butter. Andrew dined on two (well, one and a half) Manhattan Bagel “everything” bagels–I snacked on one on my way home from my run.

And the rest of the pancakes? Into the freezer they went!

Natalie and Austin went down for an early nap after brunch, so Wendy and I headed out to Main Street and hit Vidler’s first. I was totally impressed; Vidler’s is a big, busy place with people and stuff EVERYWHERE, and we simply wheeled around with a two-year-old and a stroller. Wendy never once lost her cool. She picked up some stocking stuffers and then we headed to Taste for a break and snacks.

After Taste, we toured the rest of Main Street, including the sewing store (where Wendy bought some fabric to make Natalie a dress–again, she’s domestic like that), Fowler’s (sponge candy and chocolate wings for Gary!) and Toy Loft. Let’s just say Natalie and Austin made out on this trip in terms of presents.

We made a quick trip to Tops for Andrew-requests (zip-lock baggies and vanilla ice cream) then headed home to get the kids fed and in bed. Us adults are watching the last available episode of Breaking Bad (Andrew is addicted, and I fear Wendy might be now, too), drinking wine and using our technology–Wendy her phone, me my blog and Andrew his Netflix.

It’s been so fun having Wendy and her kids here. She’s an amazing mom (seriously, I am in such awe) and it’s so touching she braved the trip solo to come visit. I hope she had as much fun as I did 🙂 I’m so blessed to have had (and still have!) such great girlfriends from college.