February 2009 Archives

It's been a while since I shared one of my Page-A-Day Web sites with you, but today's got me thinking in a local way.

It's a page of McDonald's "local adaptations" in its foreign locations. You know, the Greek Mac in a pita, the Indian Chicken Maharaja Mac, the McKebab in Isreal, the Candaian McLobster Roll, and even the German McFeast, which you can wash down with beer.

So I started thinking... what if our local McDonald's tried to immerse itself in our culture? Would we get the McScrapple Deluxe? The McPretzel, in which your burger is served on a pretzel roll?

C'mon, have fun with this. What are your suggestions?

The Peppermint Pattie story I mentioned yesterday was one of our most-viewed stories online all day Saturday, and I'm not surprised.

We also got a lot of comments, many unhappy with outsourcing, but others reminiscing about the Pattie being made here in York.

I thought they were so good that I ought to share some:

"York Peppermint Patties used to be made in York on S. Pine St. Growing up i remember the smell of Peppermint in the air. They used to sell 'seconds' in the front office. 50 cents for a paper bag of 10. And if you walked down the street a few blocks there was the Mrs.Smith Pie plant. You could smell freshed baked pies in the air."

"I remember York Peppermint Patties on S. Pine St. When I was a kid, I would walk down the street & go inside the factory & buy seconds for a real cheap price. I always loved that candy & still do to this very day."

"It was located just south of the intersection of S Pine Street and East Boundary Avenue. It was neighbors with Century Ribbon Mills, Doe Spun Sewing Factory and Simon Photo shop, all out of business."

"In the Forties I had to pass the factory on the way to Jackson School. We would stand outside the window in the alley behind the plant and coax employees to hand us candy through the window. One of my older brothers had a friend, Dekel Beard, who worked there and would hand us peppermint patties, minus the chocolate, on our way home. And, my mom baked pies at the Mrs Smith's Bakery."

Do you guys have any other memories of the true YORK Peppermint Pattie-making? I guess you can guess it was a little before my time..

Sad news today, folks, in the world of local and food-related items. (Mark, I know you'll especially not like this one.)

The York Peppermint Pattie, which used to be made in York but was most recently made in Reading at a Hershey plant, will soon be made in Mexico.

I'm definitely disappointed. I am not someone who is categorically against production moves if they keep a company afloat economically, but this one hits pretty close to home.

From a funny e-mail making the rounds:

Think about it.

"I want a cake decorated. Yes, I'd like it to say 'Best wishes Suzanne.' Underneath that, 'We will miss you.'"

Oops. :)

OK, a break from the many food posts of late:

My favorite local band, The Jellybricks, who I wrote about back in July, just recently made a music video recently entirely using Rock Band 2. Here's the video:

The coolest part is, Rolling Stone's "Rock and Rolly Daily" blog calls them the first clever viral video of '09. (Read their piece for more on how the band synched Rock Band's images with their song.)

How cool is that?

One of my favorite locally owned places to eat is Alexander's Restaurant on Route 74 in West Manchester Township.

I took Hubby there for lunch last Friday, and for less than the cost of a couple of value meals, he had a great French toast breakfast and I had a bacon cheeseburger deluxe.

Here it is, missing a bite:

The thing I love about Alexander's and several other local restaurants is that they always have feta cheese (one of my favorites) on hand. So they had no problem swapping feta out for the cheddar or American or whatever was supposed to be on the cheeseburger. It was AWESOME. Thick burger, feta cheese, crispy bacon, ketchup and mustard.

Yum.

OK, your turn: Favorite burger topping combinations? Best place to get burgers locally?

One of my favorite things to do with Hubby is send funny Craigslist postings back and forth.

Well, he got me the best one on Saturday night.

"I am looking to get a dairy goat. Will perform weeks/months worth of farm work or math tutoring in exchange. I am an experienced tutor and work as a professional mathematician."

The scary part? He thought maybe it was me! (You'll remember that I was considering goat ownership last summer.)

It was not my post, but I wish it had been. That's an awesome idea. I'm a big fan of barter, and an even bigger fan of unusual barter combinations. (There was also one on Craigslist in which someone would trade homemade pet beds for a tattoo... also not me. Sorry. But if you have a goat and a tattoo for me, I might be willing to trade you for all the scrapple you can eat...)

HA!

Last summer, I had mentioned how much I love the art of bento - a Japanese style of packed lunch, sometimes decorative, usually with varied foods and in a nice container.

Well, I'm not very artistic. And I'm certainly no cook.

But last week, there was only one day that Sarah was packing her lunch - the day before the school Valentine party - and I wanted to make her something special. So I did my own best-I-could bento.

It's all made inside some Crayola container we'd gotten to hold her sandwiches each day. I made a regular ham-and-cheese sandwich, then I used two different sizes of heart-shaped cookie cutters to create the little heart-shaped sandwiches for the four corners of the box. (I ended up with almost no sandwich left over, which was a nice bonus.)

Then, I put in some green apple slices in the middle, and added two of her favorite chocolate treats - Peppermint Patties - at the top middle. Put the lid on, and it didn't even shift around on her way to school.

She said she loved it! I was so happy. Some of her friends liked it too. She did say one kid "looked at it funny," but poop on him! :)

We celebrated Valentine's Day as a family Saturday morning with heart-shaped waffles made by my mom. Hubby and Mom had syrup on theirs; I had butter and cinnamon-sugar, and Sarah had butter, cinnamon-sugar, AND mini M&Ms. She was in heaven! Wish I had thought to take a picture.

Just had to show off what was waiting at work for me on Friday.

Didn't Hubby do a good job?

In addition to the flowers, we took a day trip Wednesday (photos from that to come), and he got me a box of chocolates and a great card.

And, the big gift... he got us tickets to see David Byrne at Radio City Music Hall on Feb. 28!! (Yes, this means you will have to read more about David in the coming weeks. I'm sorry. Sort of.)

Our Valentine's celebration with Sarah Girl was Saturday... photos of that to come later, too.

So, did any of you do anything special?

Hope you have a great day being with someone you love or doing something you love. Thank you all for "being mine" in faithful blog reading this year. It's great!

(Image from Creative Memories consultant Lizzie's blog, Suzy Q Crops, of which I'm now a regular reader.)

It's been a while since I posted about Showbiz Pizza and other former York County pizza places, like Pappy's.

But while doing this week's promised clean-out of e-mail, I found a couple of Showbiz comments, both of which were too good not to share.

New commenter Kevin said he was a huge fan of places like Showbiz. He wrote: "In Minnesota, we had Circus Pizza, which I'm almost positive was from the same company. Same band, same games, everything." Despite liking the pizza, he said the band "still haunts my nightmares to this day." Now, here's the scary part. He wrote a very interesting blog post on the most awful bears - and the Showbiz Pizza band makes up a lot of it.

He's right, they ARE kind of creepy.

Now, that brings me to another first-time commenter, Chris. Now Chris is a lifelong Yorker like me, it looks like, judging from his comments and his bio on his Web site.

He remembers Roll R Way burning down, and also Pappy's Pizza and Showbiz. He said he's still friends with the former manager of Showbiz and also with Aaron Fechter, the co-founder of Showbiz in the 80s.

Now, this is where he really got me. He wrote: "I loved Showbiz pizza so much, I even bought the animatronic band off eBay! Too bad kids these days don't have cool places like that to hang out at."

OK. Animatronic band purchase on eBay. That definitely makes you a fan. Interestingly, if you check out Chris's site, he's very into making Halloween displays. Now, I'm editorializing here, but I happen to think that creepy band would be MUCH more suited for a scary Halloween display than it would be for a fun kids' amusement. Creepy!

If you're going to eat hogmaw... which I'm the first to admit I am NOT lining up to do... I've long contended that there's a big debate over whether you actually eat the pig stomach or not.

I finally got my first response to my original post from July 2007 - last month!

New commenter Jamie said her grandmother used to make hogmaw when she was growing up in Stoney Creek Mills, near Reading. "The crispy side of the stomach was always fought over. We ate the whole thing in my family," she said.

I'll ask again: Is that the York County way? I don't know if I could ever manage to eat what I know is a stomach, but if that's the authentic eating method... who knows? Maybe I'll get brave.

Also, I finally found a decent hogmaw picture online, and by decent, I mean slightly scary-looking.

It's from a thread on the Sentinel newspaper's message boards on eating Pa. Dutch.

About a month ago, I asked you what you called your various meals.

Well, first of all, I am mad that I didn't get more answers. I count on you guys! Second of all, I'm mad at my sister, Louise, who grew up with the SAME Daddy I did, but who somehow escaped the idea of calling Sunday's meals "dinner" and "supper."

Her thoughts? "I don't remember ever using the word "supper" except when referring to the Last Supper or when I fed my cat "Super-Supper" flavor cat food."

Great. Cat food.

When I was growing up, most days, we ate breakfast, lunch and dinner. (Lunch at noonish, dinner around 5 p.m.)

On Sundays, though, it was different. We ate breakfast or brunch, then we ate "dinner" at about 1:30 p.m., and "supper" at about 6:30 p.m. or so.

Jo does almost the opposite of that. She says: "I tease my York friends who eat supper at five o'clock, as if a five o'clock whistle has blown. Personally, I eat dinner around 6:30 or 7:00 and lunch around 1."

Here is a page with more than you ever wanted to know about what some people say are the differences between dinner and supper - and why you can eat both in the same day. I would say that around here, most people say either one or the other for whatever their evening meal is, and that we're pretty steady about calling the first two meals breakfast and lunch.

But is there anyone else who ate breakfast, dinner, supper like me?

So, when I wrote about pancakes, my friend Brett wanted to know a good waffle recipe in which each waffle didn't weigh a thousand pounds.

So I did what any self-respecting wife and mother would do. I asked my mother.

Here's her answer:

1 1/2 C. SIFTED FLOUR
2 EGGS, SEPARATED
1/2 TSP. SALT
1 CUP MILK
2 TSP. BAKING POWDER
4 TBSP. OIL OR MELTED BUTTER

Sift flour, salt and baking powder together. In a large bowl beat the egg yolks and add milk and shortening. Add flour mixture and beat until smooth. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into the batter. Bake in hot waffle iron.

Mom says: "If necessary, tell him he can add more milk. The easier way is just to use Aunt Jemima Pancake mix and add more milk (or water) than called for. I make the batter rather thin for pancakes or waffles, so they're not so heavy."

I love her waffles and pancakes, so I think you should definitely try this out.

PS: Here is a photo of what I think waffles are best used as - a vehicle for ice cream.

The folks at Snyder's of Hanover just received an interesting award for their Hot Buffalo Wing Pieces.

The snack has won a "Libby Award" from peta2, the world's largest youth animal rights organization. The zesty cayenne pepper-flavored pretzel pieces were voted Best Vegan Junk Food by visitors to peta2.com as part of the third annual Libby, or "liberation," Awards, which honor animal-friendly people and products.

The Hot Buffalo Wing Pieces are loaded with hot and spicy flavor but contain absolutely no chicken wings or other animal ingredients. The product beat out other popular vegan snack foods, including Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili Flavored Tortilla Chips, Fritos BBQ Flavored Corn Chips and Lance Toasty Crackers.

Snack all you want without hurting chickens. Sounds pretty good to me. I don't particularly care for the "buffalo wing" flavor, but I do love Snyder's of Hanover's "Honey Mustard and Onion Pieces." I could eat a whole bag of those.

I'm spending this week trying to clear out my e-mail (in a very Unclutterer style), and I found that a lot of the stuff sitting there was from news releases I wanted to blog about.

So, be warned: It might be a weird week on the blog! Today's should hit home, though - a new locally made treat.

This new treat from Utz Quality Foods of Hanover is part of the company's Select Pretzel line of artisan deli-style snacks.

Everything pretzels are like "everything" bagels - lots of different flavors. On a bright note, these happen to meet Utz's nutritional guidelines for the "Snacking Smart" line.

They're flavored with sesame seeds, onion, garlic and poppy seeds. (Which means I can't try them; I can't have either sesame or poppy seeds due to food allergies.) They do only have one gram of fat, with no trans fats, saturated fats or cholesterol. They will be available in 9 oz. bags beginning in mid-February.

Check out www.utzsnacks.com for more. And let me know if you see them at the store!

So, let's review. Yorkers like to eat sweet things.
Yorkers also like to eat fattening things.

I think I've just explained the appeal of fastnachts, right? :)

Well, Yorkers also like to eat FREE things, so when I saw this, I was overjoyed:

Fastnacht Day is coming to the Historical Society Museum, 250 E. Market St., on February 24. From 9:30 a.m. to noon, free fastnachts, coffee and tea will be served by the York County Heritage Trust Auxiliary.

This event is the auxiliary's annual "thank you" to the York community for its support if its fund raising projects. Everyone is welcome.

The Fastnacht Day tradition was started by our Pennsylvania German ancestors on Shrove Tuesday. All fat had to be removed from the house before Lent, and Fastnachts were a product of this custom. This time was called Faching or Carnival, and Fastnachts were a treat.

Sounds pretty good to me!

Here's a look at Almena Motaka holding a collection of icing-layered fastnachts in 2005 at the Eureka Fire Hall in Stewartstown (photo by Bil Bowden).

There are a bunch of places making and selling fastnachts, including the local grocery stores... is there anywhere in particular you get your fastnachts? Which flavors do you like?

Just done this morning. It's a bit orangey, but I think that'll die down a little bit. And, hey, I had purple and pink hair less than a year ago, so what's a little orange?

Other previous hair incarnations:

-- Me with longer brown hair

-- Me with medium-length blonde hair

-- Me with longish blonde and pink hair

-- Me with short blonde hair

Went to Isaac's tonight with Rose, a chance to sit down and have dinner away from a busy night at work.

It was great, and while there, I happened on a new item of theirs that made for a perfect blog post!

No, that's not a misprint. At first, we thought they just couldn't spell "sultry." But then, I read the description of this new cocoa drink, which you can find here.

The trick?

It's hot chocolate, sweetened with caramel, whipped cream and hot fudge... then drizzled with red salt.

Sweet and salty. Indeed. Way to go, Isaac's!

Talk about things we eat. One of the funniest things "Only in York County" things that ever happened to me was when I was working at Weight Watchers on a Saturday morning last year. We had a HUGE rush of people right as we opened the door.

Well, of course, I wondered where the fire was. One woman was only too glad to tell me. "Oh, we're going to the big pancake jamboree, at the fairgrounds, and we wanted to weigh in first!"

Yes, all my lovely Weight Watchers members were going to go stuff themselves with pancakes. My biggest regret? That I couldn't join them! :)

All this comes up because, apparently, Feb. 21 is National Pancake Day. We've gotten several pancake breakfast news releases (and, of course, you remember the recent craziness at Denny's), but here's one that caught my attention; it's a little different.

St. Stephen's U.C.C. will hold a "heart-y" pancake breakfast 7 to 10 a.m. Feb. 21 at the church. There will also be a free blood-pressure screening and literature from the American Heart Association.

The breakfast includes all-you-can-eat pancakes, two sausage links and coffee, tea or milk. The cost is $5.

For details, call 854-6736 or e-mail ststephensucc@verizon.net.

Guess what tomorrow is?

It's the fifth annual meat bingo, co-sponsored by Eureka Fire and Ambulance Company and Stewartstown Lions Club.

The event will take place Thursday, Feb. 5, at the fire hall on North Main Street in Stewartstown, and features more than $1,800 in meat prizes, including one special-game seafood bonanza. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and games begin at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $12 and are available at L&L Citgo, from any Lions Club member or by calling 993-5553.

The economy's not so great. For $12, maybe it isn't a bad idea to take your chances and try to stock up your freezer!

Thing I'm hearing the most about today, both in the newsroom and online: Denny's giving away free Grand Slam breakfasts today between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m.

By 10 a.m., the one on Route 30 in York had given away 750. Denny's had expected to give away about 2 million nationwide.

As of the final total, 1,274 were given away in York.

Do you know what that means?

2,548 eggs
2,548 pieces of bacon
2,548 pieces of sausage
2,548 pancakes

All for free. To York County. At a value of $7,631.26, based on the regular price of $5.99 per Grand Slam.

Wow. That's super-cool.

Well, I'm a day late, but how about that Super Bowl?

I'm not a fan of either the Steelers or the Cardinals, but the close game and the last-minute awesome catch were pretty cool.

Who am I a fan of, you ask?

Go ahead, throw your tomatoes at me. I can take it.