August 2009 Archives

I go back to work tomorrow, so you won't have to hear nearly so much about my attempts at housewife-ness. But until then...

Here's another recipe! This one's super-zesty, which is what I love about it. It's honey spice-rubbed pork tenderloin, and it's from Kraft's Food & Family magazine, the spring 2008 edition.

Here's the final product:

And here's the recipe:

- 1 pork roast
- 1/4 cup Catalina salad dressing
- 1 tsp. red pepper
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 tsp. dry mustard
- 1/2 tsp. Season Salt
- 1 Tbsp. honey

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place meat in a baking pan and brush meat with 2 Tbsp. of the dressing. Mix dry ingredients and rub onto the roast. Mix remaining 2 Tbsp. dressing and the honey; set aside.

Bake 15 minutes; brush with the dressing mixture. Bake an additional 10 minutes or until the pork is cooked through. Remove the roast from the oven; cover it with foil and let it stand about 5 minutes before slicing.

Once you slice it, it'll look like this:

And it will be yummy!! I especially like the ends, which have lots of the spicy rub on them.

My week off has really given me a chance to explore my domestic side. Not only is my house as clean and organized as it's been in a long time, but I've been cooking regularly.

Saturday night's dinner was a favorite of mine, bacon cheeseburger pasta, and I thought some of you might like the recipe.

Here's the finished product:

The recipe is from what used to be called "Quick Cooking" magazine, back in 2000. Here it is, with a few subsitutions of mine:

- 8 ounces uncooked pasta (tubes or spirals are best)
- 1 pound ground beef
- 6 bacon strips, diced
- 1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed tomato soup, undiluted
- 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Cook the pasta according to its package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook your ground beef over medium heat until it's no longer pink; drain. Then, cook your bacon until it's crisp in the same skillet and drain again. Drain your pasta, then add it to the skillet, along with the soup. Mix it well and heat it through; then, add the shredded cheddar cheese. Cook (the original recipe says covered, but I do it uncovered) until the cheese is melted, then serve from your skillet.

The recipe says it makes 4 to 6 servings; usually, I make mine with a whole box of pasta, which is 12 to 16 ounces instead of 8, so it makes MANY more servings for pretty much the same cost. It's just a little less juicy, and that's fine with me!

Anyone have any other one-dish recipes to share? Casseroles and skillet meals are my favorites because I'm basically lazy - the fewer steps and dishes, the better! But I get tired of just pasta as the base, so if you have one that uses potatoes of any kind, my mother - who hinted today that I need to branch out - would really appreciate it!

Have you missed me? I took this week off to celebrate my daughter's first week of fourth grade. Boy, I'd love to be a stay-at-home mom; this week has just been awesome.

Tonight's adventure in domesticity was a particularly good one. Lest you think that all I do is eat at the various dining establishments of York County, no, I do make food at home too, and here's proof - a photo of Sarah making homemade ice cream tonight.

It's not quite done chilling yet, but it soon will be. It's cookies and cream, and we're really looking forward to trying it!

So what are your favorite ice cream flavors? I need suggestions for the next time we make it!

It's been a LONG time coming, but work has begun in earnest on the property along Route 74 in Dover Township across from McDonald's - which was long ago home to a Jay's supermarket, plus a bunch of other odds and ends since - that is slated to become a Royal Farms convenience store.

While driving by today, I got a couple of shots on my cell camera of the demolition of the old building there.

Take a look:

This is a view from the rear of the store, taken from along Grenway Road. You can see that a lot of the building has already been demolished.

This is the view from along Fox Run Road to the side. Action shot, of the heavy equipment knocking stuff down! Yes, don't laugh at my photo skills, that cell phone camera is pretty hard to use.

So anyway, does anyone remember the Jay's at this site? And even better, does anyone know what it was before it was Jay's?

I had a cavity-free visit to the dentist at noon today, and of course, I hadn't eaten beforehand, so I was starving by the time I finished!

My dentist is in the South York area of York Township, so I headed almost across the street to a favorite lunch spot of mine, The Festive Board deli in Queensgate.

The sky was just starting to get super-gray, so I knew I'd be eating my lunch in a storm. But once I went in, browsed for a while and ordered, I realized that their indoor tables didn't really give a great outside view, so I went and sat at a small table outside, underneath the shopping center's overhang, just as it began to rain. By the time I was halfway through lunch, it was a total downpour, complete with thunder and lightning. I wasn't at all afraid - in fact, I loved it, though I admit one particularly ominous clap of thunder with a straight-down lightning bolt just in front of me had me wondering if I should reconsider.

But I stuck it out, and all in all, it was a really interesting way to spend lunch. They're doing a lot of work on the Queensgate center, so there were a lot of crews trying to work despite the rain; the lightning chased the sign company men on their metal ladder down too, thankfully, and they headed into The Festive Board as well.

Here's what I had:

A ham-and-provolone sandwich on a kaiser roll with mustard, plus the largest dill pickle I've seen in a long time. Altogether, it cost $6.63 with the soda (diet, of course), so I thought it was a good deal.

While I was wandering around inside, debating what to order, I just had to take a picture of the deli case for you guys:

Besides thinking that many of the foods in there looked good - especially the ham salad at the bottom right - I had to snap the photo because there were "purple eggs" - which the deli labeled as red-beet eggs. Guess we know how they'd vote in the pickled vs. red beet poll!

Whether you call them red-beet eggs or pickled eggs, I think you can agree that they are indisputably purple eggs!

See? Purple. Photos were graciously provided by my "unofficial Only in York County staff photographer," Jo, who sent them to me with a note: "The real McCoy! No red food coloring. No Photoshop 'adjustments.' And they are surrounded by York County red beets and some will be lunch today."

Jo, hope you enjoyed your lunch! Jo, by the way, is in the minority in our egg poll... she says these are definitely pickled eggs. Unfortunately, of the 27 votes cast, 70 percent opted to call them red-beet eggs instead. (And my father-in-law, who clearly does not know his York County eggs, called them deviled eggs. My goodness.)

More on the great egg debate to come, including recipes! Do you have a recipe for either deviled or pickled/red beet eggs? Comment please! Otherwise you are stuck with whatever I turn up!

Remember when I posted about the cake disaster that only an editor could love?

Well, my friend Megan then told me about CakeWrecks.com, a site dedicated to showcases cakes, well, gone wrong.

It cracked me up! Do yourself a favor today and check it out. And, just because I like to talk about food, post me a comment and tell me what your favorite kind of cake/icing combo is (and where you buy it, if you don't feel that buying a cake is some kind of sin against humanity.)

Important note: The cake pictured here is decidedly NOT a wreck - it was decorated in 2007 by Mary Jo Sturgill at her home in Dover Township, and I picked it for the blog because my daughter loves cake AND ladybugs! So, this one's for Sarah. :)

I talk a lot about the programs offered by the York County Heritage Trust, like this weekend's Book Blast and the recently held "preserving your memories" class.

More recently, the trust issued a release about a new exhibit produced this summer by their Junior Curators, called "From Artists to Athletes: A History of Entertainment in York County."

The exhibit marks the second time the trust has had the Junior Curators put something together; last year's was about the history of the York Fair and was super-well-received.

This year's opens with a free reception, complete with light refreshments and music by the Little Ivory Blues Band, from 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 27 at the Historical Society Museum. If you can't make that event, don't worry; the exhibit is open until Oct. 30.

According to the trust: "The Junior Curator Program enables those high school juniors and seniors as well as recent high school graduates with an interest in the museum profession to gain an insider's perspective to the museum field. Meeting two days a week from June to August, teens gained practical experience working with artifacts, creating exhibits, and participating in various other projects they may encounter within the museum profession."

If you head to the museum to check this out, why not take a look for the letterbox that's hidden there?

Oh, and keep an eye out for something that might or might not still be on display - a small "digital exhibit" of Revolutionary War documents called "The Pen is Mightier..." (You can also find a version of it here.) Yours truly made that, way back in 2002 or so! If you happen to see it, let me know. I haven't had a chance to go through the museum in the last couple of years, so I'm not sure if it's still around.

Well, no one bit on my "pop quiz" when I posted earlier this week about free bowling.

That's OK, I want to show this off anyway, because it's cool. When we were there a while ago, here is what the Colony Park Lanes North "bowling pin backdrop" looked like:

Now, take a look at how it looked more recently, in two parts:

It's been Yorkified! This part features a Harley and the Bobb Log House Golden Plough Tavern - oops, messed that up; thanks to commenter Bill for the fix! And you can see Central Market's tower in the background. And the part below shows the York Fair in the distance, and the Colonial Courthouse.

How cool is that? I don't know if it was done for a particular event (I know there is or was a big PBA event this month), or just to brighten it up, but I hope it stays. It's pretty cool. Has anyone else seen it?

Today was the kickoff to the York County Heritage Trust's Book Blast at the Agricultural and Industrial Museum at 217 W. Princess St. in York. This Saturday is also a sale at the "Book Nook" in Red Lion.

Now, I love books. A lot. Some would say WAY TOO MUCH. But I'm always interested in getting more, whether it's from the library or from a good used book sale or a bookstore (preferably used.) One of Hubby's and my favorite pastimes is heading to the York Emporium in downtown York, and we have a vague dream of owning our own bookshop someday.

Well, at the encouraging of my friend and fellow blogger Pat, we ended up doing a story in the Weekly Record this week about book sales, coinciding with the events of this weekend.

Here's the story we ran about just a few of the book sales around town. There are certainly plenty of other coming events in the local book scene, not the least of which is Sci-Fi Saturday starting at 10 a.m. Saturday at the aforementioned Emporium.

If you want details on some of the local sales, including the Heritage Trust and Red Lion events this weekend, go here.

If you want details on Sci-Fi Saturday, go here.

And if you know of another good book sale or bookstore, comment!

So after making you think so much in yesterday's post, here's a fun and easy one that I thought I should get to before summer picnic season winds down... what do you call these eggs?

(Image from RecipeZaar)

WOW! I can't believe how many responses my post about Hess's last week drew.

I'd love to compile a thorough archive of "stores that used to be but aren't any more" in York County. I have posted about a few; if you're a newer reader to the blog, please check these out and let me know what you remember about these locations.

And for everyone - please comment and let me know what other stores you miss. I'll try to round up some info on them and post about them in the coming weeks!

Ghost stores:
- Hess's
- The North Mall (not a "store," exactly, but still.)
- J.M. Fields (at the North Mall, my sister and brother-in-law say)
- The York Mall (commenter Joe reminded me of that one) - I do remember that; wasn't there a free-standing Sears there?
- Best
- Hills
- ... and its neighbor Pathmark
- Gee Bee's
- Zaire's (which was at the same location as Hills, if I remember right??)
- I hear we had Mailman's, too, though I need some more guidance on where and when that might have been!
- Same with Two Guys - where was that?
- People's Drug (commenters Mark and Melanie mentioned all three of these last ones; do you guys have any locations?)
- From the Remember When topic on the Exchange, I learned about Bear's Department Store, which is what the picture above is of, and Stillman's Department store, as well as a place called Jack's store in York.

Ghost restaurants:
- Rax
- Rutter's (former employer of commenter friend Mark!)
- Ponderosa
- Spurg's Drive-In
- Gino's
- Bury's Hamburgers

Let's keep the list growing!

Fall in York County, to me, means marching band. You might prefer that sport that uses our band field during some of the same events... you know, the one with quarterbacks and stuff? Yeah, whatever! Hahaha.

I headed out to my high school's marching band preview night last Friday. (Click the link to read about my trip to the same event in 2007.) Took my daughter, my best friend and her daughter. And I loved it!

This year's Dover show is a tribute to Queen, so that made it all the better, because I really enjoy their music. But I also enjoyed that I, quite by accident, sat right in front of a whole group of friends from my church, two rows below of the band director's family and two rows above my best friend's brother-in-law (who was in the band at the same time we were), who had brought his son. I love that about York County!

So here's a scene from the show:

Does anyone know yet what the other local bands' show themes are for this year? We usually run a roundup in the paper, but I'm impatient.

We've been spending a good bit of our summer bowling. It's a sport I've liked since high school (I even bowled in leagues way back then), and that my daughter likes pretty well, too.

Hubby is... well, he tries. He's a really good sport. (Sorry, Hubby!)

So when I heard about the Kids Bowl Free program, I thought it might be worth checking out. With no catch whatsoever, your child (18 and younger) can bowl two games every single day at no charge. (You do still need to pay for shoe rental, though.)

We also sprung for an upgrade (cost: $23.95) that allows up to four adults to bowl two games each per day, also at no charge. Since I have my own bowling shoes, Sarah and I can bowl two games together for a grand total of about $3 for her shoes. Not bad at all.

In York County, four alleys are participating: Colony Park Lanes North, Colony Park East, and Suburban Bowlerama in York, and the Hanover Bowling Centre in Hanover.

If you still want to sign up, you can do so at KidsBowlFree.com. If you do - let me know. I'd be interested in doing a bowling meet-up with any of my readers with kids, definitely!

The "adults package" we bought gave us a chance for something else: To let my mom experiment with bowling for the first time in decades! That might sound weird, but she broke her rotator cuff back in the winter of 1993, and she still has limited motion in her right arm - and she's right-handed. She used to love to bowl, but she knew she'd have to do it left-handed. So we convinced her to come along, and she did great. (Well, except for trying to pick up the ball with her right hand a few times!)

Here she is:

Now, here's today's POP QUIZ. If you know where this picture was taken and have been there in the last week, you'll be able to answer. What has dramatically changed since this picture was taken?

Answer to come...

I had lunch at Epex Pretzels on Route 30 this week, and guess what I had?

Aww, come on. It's not even a challenge. What food do I always order?

HOT DOGS!

Sarah had a "pretzel cheese sandwich." They piled on a lot of American cheese, which is good considering it's all she eats! Next comes my hot dog on a pretzel roll, with ketchup and mustard. Finally, there's Hubby's mild smoked sausage with mustard. (I tried to talk him into onions, too, but he was on the way to work and said he'd give our coworkers a break.)

Those are Sarah's Utz cheese curls in the background, by the way. They came free with her sandwich. I like that - a local business supporting another local business.

Here's a blast from the past: Does anyone remember Hess's, the department store that used to be at one end of the (then-new) West Manchester Mall? I believe it was at the end that they expanded out and built the Wal-Mart at, but I could be wrong - I was pretty little.

Anyway, I was looking that up today and didn't realize until now that the Hess's chain, when it went out of business, was bought out by several other retailers, and among them was The Bon-Ton. Our location wasn't included in that, of course; it just closed, but still. While I had been sitting around today thinking it's a shame that Hess's is gone, I'm now sort of happy to know that it lives on through another York County retailer.

Anyone else remember Hess's? I think if SOMEONE IN MY FAMILY is reading this blog, they might have some memories to share, say of working there for a good bit of my childhood??

Subtle, aren't I?

You have probably noticed that I've been going heavy on "things to do" around town in my recent blog posts. This is in an ongoing attempt on my part to be more well-rounded and talk about more than just food and phrases, which are still my passions.

But it's also an attempt to encourage Yorkers to get out and EXPERIENCE the community rather than just reading about it, which is really what I hope news organizations are all about.

In keeping with that, about the most "Only in York County" experience I can think of in the summer is attending a Revs game. And I've gotten several news releases lately about fundraiser efforts; in essence, if you order tickets online through yorkrevolution.com, and put in a certain fundraiser code (click on "fundraiser code access"), the organization bearing that code will get a portion of the ticket proceeds.

Here are a couple that I know of; feel free to comment with more if you know of them.

To benefit the York County Library System, buy tickets for the 7 p.m. Aug. 17 game against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs; use code lib09.

To benefit Hopewell Presbyterian Church in East Hopewell Township, buy tickets for the 7 p.m. Sept. 5 game against the Bridgeport Bluefish; use code hopewell09.

There is a large list of fundraising partners here on the Revs' site, but you have to click each one to find out what the game date is, and some have already passed, so I'd like to list them out by game if you know of them.

(For my part, tomorrow night, I'm going to be a traitor and go with my family and see the Harrisburg Senators play. Don't hit me!)

Remember how I said I'd love to publish news of all the carnivals and fairs hitting the area in the coming weeks?

Well, this one comes from writer Lori Badders, who covers the Red Lion Area for us:

The 33rd annual Red Lion Street Fair will be held 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in downtown Red Lion.

More than 100 vendors are featured along with free entertainment and activities for the family. An official CASI-sanctioned Chili Cook-Off will be held in the center square parking lot.

For details and to enter the cook-off, contact the Red Lion Area Business Association at 244-0886 or info@rlaba.com.

The picture above is from last year's fair, and shows Grant Hensley, then 7 months old, of Red Lion, trying to fit a balloon in his mouth. Even MY mouth isn't that big!

I've been excited this summer because a hummingbird has been visiting the large butterfly bush outside the front window of our house.

Yesterday, while editing some reader-submitted photos to run in various sections of the paper, I came upon some really great hummingbird photos from Teresa Strickler of Dover Township. In fact, these are so good that they're going to be the basis for a future Weekly Record centerpiece, but for now, I just wanted to share them with you.

I can't wait to read what my writer, Barb, comes up with to go with these and Teresa's other photos. I asked Barb to talk to some gardeners about what plants attract hummingbirds - for instance, I had no idea my butterfly bush would. And I know you can get those red sugar water feeders at the store, but are there other things you can put out to attract them?

If you know, let me know. I'd love to get some more at our place!

Coming very soon - as in this Tuesday, Aug. 4 - is the annual National Night Out celebration.

The nationwide event is billed as a chance to get neighbors together while fighting crime and drug use. In the picture at right, Brittany Lowman, then 10, has her face painted during Wrightsville's first National Night Out event last August. About 100 people attended that event.

Among the participating York County towns that I know of for this year:

The neighborhood association of Olde Towne East in York, from 5 to 8 p.m., is joining with Asbury Church, Probation Dept, and YWCA to hold a "Give Crime and Drugs a Going-Away Party" at Renaissance Park on East Princess and Prospect streets. Meet McGruff and representatives of York City police and fire departments and Butler Ambulance. There will be free food, games, prizes, face-painting and music. Those attending are asked to bring a non-perishable food item.

Dallastown and the York Area Regional Police Department are holding their National Night Out starting at 6 p.m. at Dallastown Community Park. THere will be police and fire company demonstrations, live entertainment, bike rodeos for kids, face-painting and a Bounce House, plus food and drinks available for purchase.

West York's Night Out will be 6 p.m. Tuesday at Shelly Park on Highland Avenue. That event is sponsored by West York Block Watch.

I'm sure there are more National Night Out events locally, so I wanted to post this early. That way, if you've heard of one, maybe you'll let me know so I can get the word out?

Thanks - and have fun!