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Discovering (New) Pennsylvania Dutch Cuisine {Gadling}
Nov 2nd 2011 12:16PM First of all, it isn't just the Amish who are Penna Dutch (a
corruption of Deutsch); most of the people in a large chunk of Penna
are the Fancy Folk, as opposed to the Amish (and Mennonites) who are
the Plain Folk, in other words, German-origin people whose families
were here before the Revolution. They even have their own German
dialect which is only a little resembles today's Low Deutsch. The Whoopie Pie
was invented where? I'm over 70 years old, spent my entire youth in
Berks County (in the heart of the PD land) and am rather well
travelled ... and I never heard of Whoopie Pie until a couple of
months ago when we visited Portland, *Maine* for the first time. As a whole, PD cooking is very down-home and very plain. It could stand a little fancying up.
One item they have that's better than anywhere else in the world is
crab cakes. There's a diner in Leesport Penna, right on the highway
thru town ... And yes, diners in Berks County are not pseudo but the
real thing.
Save Big: Spend Smart on Small Appliances -- Savings Experiment {WalletPop}
Oct 21st 2010 10:36AM I use my bread maker quite a bit. Used to make by hand/Kitchenaid dough hook, but don't want to run oven in Tucson's 6-9 month summer. Plus easier to not have to do the pan of hot-water in the oven to make a place for the dough to rise ... AC blowing plus 8% humidity. Why make bread in the first place? I think, as the pioneers came west, they forgot how to make good food, especially breads.
News Roundup: 'Big Bang Theory' Creators Receive Scientific Honors, Lisa Oz Working on New Talk Show and More {AOL TV}
Oct 10th 2010 8:52AM I'd really like the show, I'd watch it, if the laugh track was silent, or at least, less loud. I don't watch it at all. Too bad. My dad was a geek which means I grew up with things like a Celcius thermometer in the coffee pot (no auto chef yet) and a beryl crystal for a door stop.
Best Ways to Save a Bunch on Lunch -- Savings Experiment {WalletPop}
Jul 1st 2010 8:49AM Not specifically mentioned by the article is that Oscar--and the other processors--put a lot of salts into their cold-cuts, not just sodium chloride (table salt) but nitrates and nitrites. I shudder when I see those "lunch kits" for children with their salty salty contents. Where the article is really right on is making your own sandwich meats where you control what goes onto it. But watch out for turkey! It is impossible (at least in our neighborhood, central AZ) to buy a raw turkey that has not been pumped full of salt water--and don't say "organic" since we are talking *frugal* here.
Maine Coons 101 {Pawnation OLD}
Jun 8th 2010 12:31PM A big point of this article is that the cat was roaming the neighborhood and --surprise surprise-- disappeared. Let's see: Hit by car, coyote dinner, fought w/another cat & lost then crawled off to die somewhere . . .
Pet cats do not have the "tools" to survive in the wild as feral cats do. Please keep your Tom or Kitty indoors.
Would you pay a nickel more for a cage-free Egg McMuffin? {WalletPop}
Apr 22nd 2010 8:46AM Well, if McD ever said they were thinking of switching to organic anything, I had not heard of it. How can we make a choice if we don't know it is being offered? I've gone to the McD website and they make it very clear they do not accept any input from their customers--good or bad--nor ideas.
And McD prices vary widely across the country. (We're RVers.) The most we ever paid was in Bishop, Calif. Felt we were being ripped off.
Check FEMA flood maps now before flood insurance rates rise {WalletPop}
Apr 3rd 2010 9:37AM
FEMA tried that flood insurance threat on our community--three-four years ago. Our town spent a few bucks doing a very precise study and found that perhaps 25% of the area FEMA said was at risk actually was; the other 75% was just fine. And the town is doing some mitigation to help the situation for some of that 25%. Seems to me FEMA is speaking in generalizations; homeowners need to have specifics. Don't take FEMA at their word; fight back in an intelligent way--and hope your home is in the it-really-is-safe zone.
My Teen Daughter Refuses to Tell Me What's Upsetting Her! {ParentDish}
Mar 16th 2010 10:17AM My daughter had a domineering boyfriend in HS, something I never experienced. I just kinda knew that words were not the right thing at all; nothing I said would have made a difference. When I wanted to yell, I hugged her. And she'd be out so late at night. Scary! We had a dark walkway from driveway to house, with a step at an awkward place that was in a shadow from the porch light. I put a candle in a mason jar and put it on the side of the step. It was both for safety and for "welcome home." I was very proud when, a few years later, she told me how I did not say the things her boyfriend had told her I would say. He had it all planned that we'd blow up at each other and they would run away together! She finally realized that he was "stealing her dreams for the future" and broke up with him. I also invented the word "motheritis" to explain my behavior; after all mothers are as hardwired to react to things as are the teenager. When things got rough between us I was say "Sorry, I've got motheritis and I can't help how I'm reacting to ..." It would defuse the situation for both of us. Now she's an adult and one of my best friends.
