Monthly Archives: April 2015

surprise! east whiteland is getting a new township manager april 8

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nagel east whitelandThe thing about East Whiteland Township that is so marvelous   is that you rarely know what is going on until it is done. You can purportedly sign up to get meeting notices and what not, only you never get them.

Well lo and behold a NEW Township Manager is being sworn in TOMORROW April 8th. You would think they would notify residents of things like this, or in their case send up a smoke signal as no meetings are televised. (I have personally signed up three times for township newsletters and such including today but have yet to receive any notice of meeting agendas and so on.)

His name is John Nagel and here is his Linked In Profile – which was updated already to reflect his new gig for which he gets sworn in tomorrow. I will reserve judgment but I sure hope he makes East Whiteland more user friendly – better communication, maybe even televised meetings???

Here is what I just read (which was echoed on Patch late yesterday only who really read Patch anymore?):

East Whiteland Township Announces Appointment of New Township Manager

East Whiteland Township Supervisors announced today that have agreed to hire John B. Nagel as the Manager of the Township. Mr. Nagel is replacing Terry Woodman who is retiring from the position she has held since 2001.

Mr. Nagel joins EWT from Whitpain Township, Montgomery County where he was the Director of Finance. Prior to that position, Mr. Nagel served as Director of Administrative Services for the City of Reading and as Township Manager of Montgomery Township and in various other positions over a career of more than 26 years in local government.

Bill Holmes, Chairman of the East Whiteland Township Board of Supervisors, “We are very pleased and excited to have John Nagel join our organization. East Whiteland is a vibrant, dynamic community and we believe our efforts have resulted in our selection in the best possible candidate to lead the Township.” John Mott, Vice Chairman of the Board added, “John Nagel is an accomplished individual with a proven track record of successfully guiding business growth and process improvement, and we are confident that he is the right person to lead the Township in achieving our goals.”

In commenting on his appointment, Mr. Nagel indicated, “I am excited about this new challenge and look forward to joining East Whiteland as Township Manager. I am confident that working with our elected officials and dedicated employees, we can achieve our true potential as a premier local government serving the needs of our residents, employers and employees who call East Whiteland home.” Mr. Nagel commended Ms. Woodman for establishing a strong, results-oriented staff and a community and economic center in EWT. “It is an honor to succeed Terry Woodman as Township Manager.”

Mr. Nagel will be sworn in as Township Manager at the Board’s April 8th meeting.

 

And by the way….read the township website about interesting zoning related updates. And this gen in PhillyDeals caught my eye:

Meanwhile, out in the suburbs: Instead of reskinning aging 1970s buildings and tacking on skylit public areas and shops, Liberty Property Trust last week presented plans to knock down a largely vacant 300,000-square-foot group of buildings that formerly housed drugmaker Sanofi in the Great Valley Corporate Center.

The plan is to get East Whiteland Township approval for “600,000, 700,000, 800,000 square feet of offices, six or seven stories high, a 130-room hotel, 25,000 square feet of retail, 600 apartment units,” said Jim Mazzarelli, head of Liberty’s suburban East Coast operations.

Aye yay yay. East Whiteland as Mall of America? Sweet.

cooking gnocchi with mushrooms

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I ended up having some people over for dinner last night.  So I butterflied a big roaster chicken and roasted Julia Child style simply with fresh herbs (you can see the chicken in the photo at the bottom of the page – that was what it looked like as it went into the oven – I forgot to take its picture when it came out). 

I served with a fresh mixed green salad to which I added a simple balsamic mustard vinaigrette, and the starch was homemade gnocchi with mushrooms. Dessert in case you were wondering was sliced fresh strawberries from Kimberton Whole Foods.

I have previously given you my gnocchi recipe. So use that as your guide to rolling them out until little logs and slicing them into bite-size pieces, but the dough composition is different and here’s how I did it:

 
1 egg beaten
 
4 to 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
 
2  medium sized (not huge) potatoes roasted skins removed and smashed up
 
1 cup of ricotta strained to remove any extra liquid – whole milk is best
 
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
 
About 2 cups of flour, maybe  less – add half a cup at a time to your dough to see. You don’t want a dry dough with gnocchi, it should always feel not quite sticky but more elastic.
 
1 tablespoon of rosemary leaves dried, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 teaspoon of salt.
 
Basically you mix it all together until becomes a dough but don’t overwork it. Then I throw a cloth over my bowl and allow the dough to rest for at least half an hour.
 
When your dough has rested, break off pieces of the dough and roll into little logs and slice into bite-size pieces from the log. You can roll them off the edge of the forks so they have those lines in them or you can cook them just the way they are.
 
After I make my gnocchi I lay them out on a large baking sheet on parchment paper and put it on a shelf by itself in the refrigerator till I am ready to cook.
 
 
The sauce is pretty simple:
 
Melt one stick of butter which is half a cup in a sauté pan – a large sauté pan because you will be adding the gnocchi to it later.
 
When the butter is melted and starting to bubble just a slight bit, add half a large red onion diced. Add a little salt and pepper to taste.  Add one finely grated medium sized carrot.
 
After the onion starts to turn slightly translucent, add thinly sliced baby Bella  mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms, and a handful of white mushrooms. Basically you should use one 8 ounce package of shiitake, The same size package of baby Portabella mushrooms also known as crimini, and about 4 ounces of white mushrooms.
 
Next add a handful of fresh sage leaves chopped into small-ish pieces and about a teaspoon of dried rosemary  or if you have fresh dice up a smallish twig.
 
When everything seems to be cooked together fairly well but not mushy remove from heat.
 
I do the mushroom mixture ahead of time and not at the same time I am cooking my gnocchi because there is not enough time.
 
After the mushroom mixture is cooled use a slotted spoon and remove the vegetables to their own bowl for the time being. Leave the butter and liquid from mushrooms in the bottom of the pan.
 
Boil a large pot of salted water and when everything is really boiling toss in all your gnocchi.
 
The same time you are boiling your gnocchi bring the pan with the butter and the mushroom juices back up to heat. You may have to add about another tablespoon of butter and do add a scant 1/4 cup of white wine.  (Last night I was roasting a chicken as I was making these gnocchi for a side dish so I also tossed in 2 tablespoons of pan juices. ) You need that mixture to reach almost boil but not cook off. Also toss in two or three whole sage leaves.
 
The gnocchi will cook probably in about 3 to 4 minutes – when they all are bubbling to the surface and bobbing around, use a slotted spoon to remove them.
 
Put the gnocchi immediately into the pan with butter and wine that should be really bubbling at this point. Move the gnocchi around gently to brown slightly. As you are moving the gnocchi around gently add back the mushrooms and red onion to heat again.
 
Be careful  with your gnocchi they are a slightly delicate things but once everything is browned through toss half a cup of grated Parmesan on on top and some diced flat leaf parsley if you choose. Toss one more time into a bowl and serve.
 
 

languishing…..rotting…..east whiteland

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loch aerie 2015

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what is this place?

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farm

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abandoned and rotting. morgantown.

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why development in chester county needs to slow down…or “oh look a crop of tyvek , stucco, and vinyl!”

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imagine the roses

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David Austin English Rose “Abraham Darby”

You can’t smell the roses, but you can imagine them. So on this pretty Easter morning I took a walk through the garden to see what was happening. Some of my perennial herbs are starting to show new growth, bulbs are starting to stick their little heads up, and the pussy willows are all fluffy with catkins.

I decided to push my luck and feed my rose habit.  So I ordered two more roses from David Austin Roses. They get shipped to me bare root, and I have been ordering from them for decades at this point through various gardens.

Bare root means exactly how it sounds. They arrive roots and sticks. You soak them overnight and then you plant. It really is simple.

Roses are just about a garden routine. I love roses and have planted them in every garden I have ever had. I had 50 different kinds in my parents’ garden. And this year I am using milky spore to combat the Japanese beetles. It’s the only thing that works well unless you want to squish them one by one.



David Austin English Rose “Maid Marion”

Over the past ten years roses have been disappearing from a lot of American garden centers. Basically it’s because people don’t want to do the work for the queen of the garden flowers.  I get it but they’re so worth the work.  I prefer planting bare root and growing old garden and English roses.  I don’t plant as many roses as I did once upon a time because I just don’t have the garden space and the uniform light needed for them all the way around. But I could never have a garden without having some roses. 

Roses have also gone out of favor as growers have gone under.  Truthfully if more people, don’t start planting roses a lot of the varieties we grew up with and took for granted in gardens will disappear from our garden and landscape forever. Is the case with many of the hybrid teas.

My roses have sort of survived the cold this winter. A couple look a little worse for wear and I’m not sure how they will do. So to hedge my bets, I have ordered two more bare route from David Austin roses. This year I ordered Maid Marion and Abraham Darby.

If you were thinking about ordering roses to plant your garden have to do it over the next couple of weeks because David Austin stops shipping in May for the year.

Enjoy your Easter….and imagine the roses….