Monthly Archives: June 2012

domestic diva monday

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Yes I was a domestic diva today and practiced some old-fashioned housewifery.  Apparently I am falling down on the job, because I just realized I still have a bed to change.

I have always been a little Becky Home Ecky, but I have a new appreciation of the stay at home moms and housewives extraordinaire I know.  They make it seem effortless, and it’s not always that at all.

Me, I have a habit of spilling on myself while cooking.  And that is after my morning French Press.

After gardening and straightening up and all that good stuff, I decided to play in the kitchen.

It’s summer, so I do indeed like to use local and cook fresh.  Part of this fresh cooking pays homage to my Pennsylvania German Grandmother and Italian Great Aunts and Grandmother.  Of course from them I get the little of this, little of that, what do you mean I have to write it down style of cooking.

First I made a couple of marinades.  One on little steaks being grilled this evening, and boneless pork chops tomorrow.  The steak marinade was made extra fun with the addition of a couple of the masala blends I have and chili powder mix from Jayshree Seasonings.  The pork is brewing in a marinade made from leftover homemade barbecue sauce.  BBQ sauce is SO easy to make.  And tastes so much better.

Now when I think of BBQ sauce I think of Southern Cooks.  Not just the queen of butter Paula Deen, but ones I have known personally (who are not on Food Network or the Cooking Channel!).

Speaking of the Food Channel, who watches Food Network’s The Next Food Network Star? Well I am and I am rooting in particular for a lady from Alabama named Martie from Team Alton.

So her name is Martie Duncan and she has a food blog called Martie Knows Parties.  Martie is the only true home cook in the bunch.

I found out today that in the weird small world of it all she is a close friend of a woman I am in a blogging network with who tells me she’s  “known her since 2002, and she’s just so nice. She’s completely self-made. She put herself thru college by working as a cop. She did wedding planning, did set design on My Best Friend’s Wedding movie, ran a successful online startup called WeddingPoints.com.

When WeddingPoints went out of business, she was devastated. But she reinvented herself and started from scratch as a blogger with nothing because she (as well as her investors in this business) used  personal savings to give severance pay to her employees.

She’s blogged for MyRecipes and MSN and run her own blog.   She auditioned for Food Network Star even though (and they don’t say this on the show) most of the contestants were actually picked/recruited by the network. She cooked her entry dish in a fire station in Chicago after driving all night from Alabama.”

Is she a perfect person? Doesn’t matter and you can see she is putting her all into this.  And I would rather watch someone like her versus that chick Nadia G. from Bitchin’ Kitchen on The Cooking Channel.  Nadia’s voice and her set assail the senses and I don’t mean that in a positive way.

But back to my kitchen.  I was playing around and cooked up this thing I do with fresh fruit every summer that is like a town with no name.  It has no name.  It is part cake and part cobbler.

I took some cherries and peaches (I am aces at pitting cherries now), tossed them in some orange juice, fresh grated ginger (tip: you can freeze fresh ginger nicely and grate it easier that way), sugar (brown and white), a couple of tablespoons of corn starch.

I tossed that into the bottom of a buttered pan. 

I did not feel like rolling out a crust for a pie (a tip I forgot to share  I think on pie crusts – Martha Stewart says brush your crust in the pan with egg white before adding filling, well I saw on some show of using butter instead and butter works better as far as keeping the pie crust bottom from going mushy but I digress). So anyway in the spirit of desert with no name, I threw some flour in a bowl, added baking powder, one egg, sugar, cinnamon and ginger, a little oil and whisked it up into a cake batter kind of sort of.

Poured the batter over the fruit in the pan, and went to the crumble topping: brown sugar, little bit of flour, butter, cinnamon and ginger and oatmeal.

Crumbly topping added to the fun as third and top layer.  Pan placed in Bain Marie and put in a 350 degree over for I forget how long.  Probably 45 minutes or so.

In between I husked a few ears of the first sweet corn of the season for tonight and tossed together a little potato salad for tomorrow.  The potato salad is with new red potatoes from West Chester Grower’s Market mixed with flat parsley, sweet onion and a dill and herb mayonnaise mustard mix that has a little malt vinegar to it.  This is a potato salad I will add capers and celery and cucumber to if I have them in.

I have to run as I still need to saute a few mushrooms for my steaks and make a salad.  The salad will be fresh greens from the farmers’ markets – bitter and regular, with a vinaigrette of my own creation.

See ya!

(Remember, if you like or love chestercountyramblings, please consider nominating this blog for a Blue Ribbon Blogger Award with Country Living Magazine.)

garden moments

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This morning, early and in the rain, I planted.  There is something so amazingly wonderful about planting in a gentle rain – LOL, I can hear what you are thinking, and no, I do not plant in thunderstorms and driving rain.  But light showers like we had this morning?  Why not? As much as everything else, it saves on watering.  You should try it as it is very relaxing.

So I planted the two day lilies and the fun Echinacea I found at the West Chester Grower’s Market on Saturday.  The name of the Echinacea cultivar is “Aloha”, by the way.

I then re-mulched most of the bed I planted in, and stepped back to look.  I felt satisfied.  These three plants complete the look I am going for.  Mine isn’t a formal garden.  It is developing into a garden of moments and even nooks.  I am trying to do a continuity in plants and colors, but because I don’t have a lot of sun everywhere, I am taking advantage of pops of color where I can.

I also mix my kitchen herbs in with my flowers.  Chives pop up next to snap dragons, sage next to Impatiens, hostas and nasturtiums.

I also love wind chimes in the garden.  I found a most delightful fair trade and hand-made strand of bells recently.  They came from Past*Present*Future in Ardmore, PA. They were  fairly inexpensive, and the store has some fun garden accents mixed in with the crafts and jewelry.  The owner hunts for artisans near and far, and this is a real craft goods store.  Not a place to find crocheted tissue box covers, but really cool things.

Gardening doesn’t need to be formal or fussy.   Try it if you don’t.  And remember, you can indeed put almost anything in a pot as long as you have the proper sized pot.  I will put not only herbs and annuals in pots, but Sedum, hostas, and ferns.  I think it is fun to put perennials in pots.  I did a lot of container gardening the past ten years because prior to the Chester County of it all, I was much more confined on space.

I have been getting little texts and Facebook messages from a few of my old neighbors telling me what is blooming in my old garden.  I think that is so nice, and I am glad I left something behind they can also take pleasure in.

Come on now, go outside and get your hands dirty.  Create some garden moments for yourself.

Now if I could only find the garden furniture I want. I don’t need much, but I can’t stand what I have seen new, and don’t want wicker.  If anyone has any leads on vintage or gently used, let me know.

And oh yes!  One more thing – the yarrow I found growing wild is white!

(Remember, if you love chestercountyramblings, please consider nominating this blog for a Blue Ribbon Blogger Award with Country Living Magazine.)

coming soon…

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…photos from East Goshen Community Day and Fireworks!   Sorry people, but I do have a life off my blog, and I shot over 400 photos and have a lot to edit.

Here’s a taste:

…and not to put TOO fine a point on it, if you like or love this blog, please consider nominating it for a Blue Ribbon Blogging Award with Country Living Magazine.  You can nominate through July 29, 2012 .

 

sunday swapping

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S is for Sunday.

S is for Swapping.

I went swapping today.  I had this vintage country quilt and a vintage quilt topper I scored on Ebay a while back.  I decided I wasn’t digging the quilts and rather let them collect dust, I contacted Kris at Smithfield Barn to see if she might be interested in them. She and some of the ladies in her family are quilters.

She was.  So I mosied out today for a swap.

Love that barn, and I had fun!  Scored a vintage blue box purse (I have always had a vintage purse disease), a small tole tray, a couple more antique wooden spoons, and a Heisey jug.

Heisey is a depression glass that is a particular favorite of mine.  This jug I *think* is from the Colonial line, pattern named “Puritan” or “Wide Panel” or something.

A.H. Heisey & Co. closed in 1957. Heisey was a German immigrant who settled first in Pennsylvania, but the Heisey factory was actually in Ohio.

Heisey is to many the king of depression glass.  I always liked it for the clean lines. And the fact that a lot of it is clear like crystal.  I actually met an older gentleman and his wife years ago who were actual Heiseys.  I thought it was pretty cool and they thought it was cool what they termed a “young person” appreciated Heisey glass.

I am not suggesting to go to the Smithfield Barn to swap.  I just happened to know something that Kris likes …actually after speaking to her today I discovered she and I like a lot of similar vintage things. (Sigh,  I see years of trouble ahead….)

I think she said the barn is open next weekend.  If it is, I will post.

The Smithfield Barn is definitely the find of 2012.  I stalked it without going in during 2011, and discovered it in 2012.

And remember, if you love chestercountyramblings, please consider nominating this blog for a Blue Ribbon Blogger Award with Country Living Magazine.

what exactly does “coming soon” mean?

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Is a bulldozer coming soon or what?  This property is beyond unkempt and the way this historic structure is being left to rot via demolition by neglect is almost criminal (not that any of the multitude of other old and historic homes I see rotting along Route 30 are any better – I think the abandoned and derelict what looks to be 18th century farmhouse next toe Clews & Strawbridge looks like a giant vine now).

So this is Linden Hall, and since we were driving by today I thought I would take some additional photos.  East Whiteland are you just blind to how bad parts of your commercial corridor look?

saturday morning at west chester grower’s market

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This morning my sweet man took me to the West Chester Grower’s Market for the first time and boy did I have fun!

It is not nearly as large as the East Goshen Farmers’ Market, and is in a more urban setting in downtown West Chester, but I loved it!  I had a lot of choices in produce, the produce prices in some cases were a little more money than East Goshen and in other cases less.

I bought fabulous mustard and bok choy greens and beautiful spinach from Queens Farm, eggs and tomatoes from London Vale Farm, crimini mushrooms of incredible beauty from Oley Mushrooms, and amazing sticky buns from Lizzie’s Kitchen. (East Goshen needs a regular PA German/Farm Market staple baker like this, but I would not dream of suggesting that to the Market Madam lest I be chided and reminded again that she is a nutritionist and mama knows best.)

I noticed on the West Chester Grower’s Market preview post that plant growers called Applied Climatology was going to be there with their day lillies.  Those people had me at hello.  I purchased two beautiful new day lilly cultivars for a deer free zone (fences make good neighbors when I comes to deer too!), and a cone flower cultivar in a peachy color I had never seen!

The market was packed and the people friendly.  I also purchased some fruit from Fahnstock’s Fruit Farm, but really felt like I was cheating on my farmers from Frecon Farms.

 

I had quite a few delightful photo opportunities and look forward to a return visit to this  market.  I will however, look forward to a cooler day at my regular market (East Goshen Farmers’ Market) next Thursday.

along 202…

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Along Route 202 towards Delaware there are so many things….billboards, abandoned old buildings, strip malls, a few farms, more billboards and abandoned old houses.

Can anyone tell me about the house above?  I think technically it may still be in West Chester.

And speaking of West Chester, the tradition that just makes you smile:

 

And here again is the billboard that is the pride of Westtown – just like the giant T.V. you would never want:

 

malvern’s mistake

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I have written before how I feel that Malvern’s super-sizing via the Eli Kahn development on King Street is a huge mistake.

In March, the Daily Local had one of its nameless editorial columns on it.  As was the case with a couple nameless, faceless editorials on West Vincent, they were off the mark on Malvern too.  And honestly, part of my problem with these editorial is that if you want to go incognito on a blog, that is one thing, but if you are writing for a large local and regional paper, sign your name.

So the Daily Local said at the time:

At a recent meeting of the Malvern Business and Professional Association, developer Eli Kahn told the group about his plans to transform East King Street in the borough, now home to small industrial complexes, into a vibrant residential and retail swath that he calls “a walkable environment … a better environment to work in.”

Kahn is the man who with his partner Jack Loew purchased two large buildings from Chester County in West Chester’s so-called “first block,” ….In Malvern, Kahn said he had gotten the idea 12 years ago to begin work on a new mixed-use environment there. He said the five-year venture in 18 months will produce 25,000 square feet of retail space with “quality residential” space above it and expanded parking below and outside…“Success is a mix of business, shopping and quality residential,” he said. “West Chester has been very successful over the past five years,” and a like result can occur here. “The charm of Malvern is what’s making this project successful.”

 

We hope that Kahn will continue his efforts to be forthcoming about plans for the West Chester property. It sounds as though he is on the right track in Malvern.

Ok, did the nameless, faceless anonymous editorial column writers walk the site?  Or did they merely expound upon a developer feel-good press release?

I went to the site today while running errands.  I was profoundly disturbed by what I saw, and can easily envision for the future.  Yes, it is a site that should be redeveloped. But why not a park and a couple of stores?  Or something Malvern lacks? Sufficient parking?

Malvern Patch also has covered this development.   Much like The Daily Local has. The Daily Local has also covered the Kahn-ism of West Chester too.  In both cases, I feel in my heart of hearts, this will when all said and done, like letting the proverbial fox in the hen-house.

West Chester has a good formula in their downtown now, which I saw more of this morning when I went to the West Chester Grower’s Market.   Carolyn Comitta and Holly Brown better keep their heads on right, lest they  ruin a good thing.

Developers always say the right thing when they come a courting, but what happens when they leave?

Which brings me back to Malvern.  You know what I think Eli Kahn and Jack Loew’s project is going to be like when it is done?  A super-sized Charleston Greene.  And over the years, how has Toll’s Charleston Greene worked for you ,Malvern?

As I went back and forth through Malvern today, checking the streetscape, I had to wonder if they needed super-sized development anymore than Ardmore, PA does? In Ardmore, the residents wanted a new train station which may never appear in anyone’s lifetimes now, but on Monday apparently there is a press conference about the work beginning on the Paoli Transportation Center.

As I said before, as long as I can remember has had an unfortunate identity crisis – mostly stemming from local officials as opposed to residents.  The borough of Malvern has a charm that doesn’t need super-sizing with giant Tyvec wrapped buildings that will end up looking like a New Urbanism Disneyland.

Malvern will sacrifice any  charm of the area  and the traffic will be a nightmare.

I think parts of Malvern may end up looking as unattractive as parts of Eagle, another tiny community developers had a “vision” for.  When municipalities suffer an identity crisis, the residents and business owners are the ones who suffer in the end.

I sure hope I am wrong about Malvern and these plans, but I don’t think so. What I see are future buildings just sitting right on the street without sufficient setbacks like Jabba the Hutt, architecture (if you can call it that) that picks up zero cues from its surroundings, over-abundance of density abutting train tracks and an urban feel all wrong for a somewhat sleepy  and small Chester County borough town.

And mark my words, just because they build it it does not mean they will come.  And if they come, they might not be what you wanted.

But the horse is out of the barn on this one. So we’ll just wait and see.  Hopefully I won’t be able to say I told you so.  But again, honestly, I think Malvern had better enjoy Malvern before it’s gone.