Things we eat: June 2009 Archives

First, if you're visiting for the first time today to vote in the "what do you call that veggie" poll that appeared on the front page of the York Daily Record's Living section, you can do that by clicking here. Heck, even if you are a longtime reader, if you haven't voted yet - please do!

So far, "string beans" are beating out "green beans" as the name for the veggie in question. But I've had some interesting conversations about this that I'd like to share.

First, I asked my brother-in-law Mike, who reads faithfully but never comments, what he voted for. He said string beans, which is fine. But we started talking about, IF you were to pick green beans, what do you do when confronted with the yellow version of said beans? He says those are called wax beans, which I admit I have heard of but didn't realize what they were. (There are some pictured here. I think all the pictures make them look like very yellow french fries, but that's beside the point.)

Cubby, my virtual friend and a columnist for the Hanover Evening Sun, said she was raised calling them string beans and had kind of gotten away from that.

Melanie also votes for string beans; "snap them in two and you immediately see why," she wrote.

Jim Fahringer, a new commenter, said he also calls them string beans, but adds, "perhaps the real name is green beans or pole beans depending on whether they were grown on vines that grew up poles or grew on bushes."

He's also got a point that I think Jo (who hasn't weighed in yet - where are you, Jo?) would appreciate. He says: "By the way, if they are the kind that grow on bushes and hang down close to the ground, picking them is one of the most difficult back breaking jobs I ever had and are tied with picking strawberries as a back breaking job!" Jo, if you'll remember, said the strawberries she picked at Dover's Barefoot Farm really did her back in!

Anyway, there's still time to vote. For all the commenting seems to suggest "string beans" is far and away the name winner, it seems close. Those of you who picked green beans - leave some comments! :)

Those of you who read all the way to the end of my long post about Cracker Barrel Sunday dinners should have seen my pop quiz about what vegetable pictured in the post has two names. None of you answered, but you're still obligated to vote in my next poll!

Extra credit: Leave me a comment about why you prefer one name over the other!

Thanks to all of you who voted in my "favorite local fruit" poll. And the winner, with 55 percent of the vote?

STRAWBERRIES!

Photo from Jo, who rightly called me out on the poor quality of my earlier photo.

You guys had a lot of berry thoughts to share. Here's just a few:

Jo said she picked about 12 quarts total of the biggest and most delicious strawberries at Dover Township's Barefoot Farm; that's where the photo is from. She also says: "Fortunately, blueberries, which are excellent for the heart, become plentiful just as strawberries go out. They are my second most fav. And then there are cherries, peaches, plums, apples, cantaloupes. I vote 'em all in!"

Mark says he doesn't eat fruits (WHAT?) but adds: "I do remember a little orchard just north of Emigsville that we went to every fall to pick apples, watch them make apple butter and cider and of course buy some. ... I also remember them opening up the strawberry fields around this time for 'pick-your-own' strawberries." He was later able - through the power of the great and might Google, to find out that it was Forge Hill Orchards near Mount Wolf.

Melanie weighed in with a non-majority opinion: "I've never had peaches anywhere as good as the ones I've eaten in York County, so they've got my vote," she wrote. "But I almost voted for cherries, because when I was little (a looooonnng time ago!) there were a couple of cherry trees back of the old high school in Manchester, and my grandpa and I would go back there and he'd hold me up so I could pick them. I have no idea what kind of cherries they were, but they were deep, dark red and very tart and juicy. I can remember the taste to this day." I have to tell you, Melanie, those are the kinds of memories that make me LOVE being a Yorker.

Some of my Facebook fans weighed in, too.

Corey said he goes for ANYTHING from Brown's.

Joe, one of the YDR's freelancers, said "Starfire Peaches, which are grown near the grounds of Maize Quest in New Park (Southern York County!)" (That was new to me, Joe, so thanks for the recommendation!)

Cubby, who is also a columnist for our sister paper in Hanover, really liked the fresh fruit recipes. She has a request, though. "We need names of markets here around Hanover!" she said. (Oh, and she was with Melanie on the peaches.)

Can anyone help her out? Good markets near Hanover? Comment and let me know!

One place our family likes to eat is the Cracker Barrel in York Township, near York County Tech.

In our opinion, the best day to eat there is Sunday, because of their great specials. That's where we went last Sunday after church, because Mom and I wanted to get the Sunday special of "Homestyle Chicken."

From Cracker Barrel's Web site:
"Starting at 11:00 a.m. every Sunday, enjoy two boneless chicken breasts hand-dipped in fresh buttermilk, breaded and deep fried to a golden brown in our kitchen. Served with choice of two vegetables."

While we waited, Chris and Sarah made an alien out of paper napkin rings, and we played the peg-jumping game (which Sarah is better out than I am.)

Once dinner came, we were glad to dig in.

My dinner: Homestyle chicken with fries and dumplins

(Read on for the rest of the family's choices.)

This post is a photo tribute to Hubby, who wowed us all by grilling some marshmallows last weekend during an impromptu Sunday cookout.

Who knew? You CAN blacken a "mallow" on a gas grill - if you take off the rack and stick the poor thing directly in the flame. You can't see it too well here, but in the photo below, he's caught one on fire.

Thanks to Hubby and my best girlfriend Nina for introducing me to this great treat.

What do you guys think about grilled marshmallows? Good on their own? Only with S'mores? I'm interested in any ideas!

Well, despite not feeling 100 percent in the tummy after last week's stomach bug, I am not keeping my promise not to blog about food.

Today, a bunch of us ladies took a nice lunch break and went to Spataro's on Roosevelt Avenue in York. It was my first time there, and any time I try new local food, you know I have to write about it!

Lunch was:
Sam: Lasagna special with salad and garlic bread
Me: Small (hahaha!) Italian hoagie
Kara: Pizzaiola burger
Ellen: Cheese pizza
Carryout for Amy: Chicken parmigiana with capellini

And we all split an order of fries. More on those - and local fries in general - in a future post.

Suffice it to say we got a LOT of food, and for the most part we liked it a lot. Ellen wasn't crazy about the type of sauce they used on the pizza, but she really dug the fries, and Sam loved her lasagna. Kara - after learning how to pronounce pizzaiola - seemed to enjoy hers, and if you know me, you know a good Italian hoagie is one of my favorite things. It came with what I'm almost positive by the taste were Martin's chips, too.

The thing I liked best was our waitress, who was super-friendly, didn't mind splitting a check four ways, kept our drinks full, and made good conversation. She was great.

The other great part? It was cheap! My hoagie and Kara's were less than $4 apiece. Amy's chicken parm was only $6.50, it came with a salad, and had a good-sized portion of meat and pasta.

All in all, I think you should pay them a visit! It's great to eat somewhere locally owned, and it's much better than some Italian chains I won't mention.

Don't forget, you can still vote for your favorite local fresh fruit!

As of my writing this entry, there were 18 votes, and strawberries were way in the lead with 72 percent. Peaches were doing OK, at 22 percent, and cherries took 5 percent. Nobody voted for any of the other choices yet!

There's still time to vote; I'm not going to "close" the poll for a while, though I'll probably declare a winner early next week and share some of the feedback I've gotten from readers on what to buy where.

Meanwhile, you might as well know what got my vote - STRAWBERRIES! They are the other thing I bought during my lunchtime trip to Brown's North yesterday.

My mom was kind enough to slice them up and sprinkle Equal/Stevia over them (that's what the picture with this post is of). We ate about half the bowl! It's a great snack.

For those of you who already voted - how do you like to eat your strawberries (or peaches, or cherries)? Since I'm sure I'll be getting more fresh berries soon, I'm interested in any suggestions.

Today for lunch, I went with my mom to the new Brown's North, at Shiloh Nurseries in Emigsville, Manchester Township.

All I can say is, WOW. We love Brown's, as I've mentioned before, but it really is a bit of drive to go from West Manchester to Springfield Township.

Brown's North, though, was less than a 10-minute drive from the office. YAY!

In addition to some fresh fruit, which I'll write about later this week, once I've tasted it, we got good sandwiches for lunch, plus a sweet treat for each family member.

(From left, it's chocolate-chip sugar cakes for my daughter; a raspberry pie for my mom and I to share; and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing for Hubby.)

The lunchtime sandwiches definitely met the high standards the original Brown's location has set. We sat at some really great patio tables and enjoyed the wonderful weather. My mom's tuna salad was SO full of tuna, she had to take some off. I added bacon to my ham-and-cheese-on-Kaiser delight, and it was super-crispy and they put a lot on.

Neither Mom nor I finished our whole sandwich, because we had to save room...

We each at a quarter of the small pie. HOLY COW, it was good. Definitely worth the trip!