A Pennsylvania Blogger Meet-Up

This post is way overdue. Months and months ago I responded to a blog post by one of my favorite bloggers, Katherine from Of Corgis and Cocktails, inviting PA bloggers to lunch.

That's me on the left! Then Kate, Stephanie, Becky, Katherine, and Marisa! Photo courtesy of Katherine.

And so in October I borrowed my husband's car and drove down to Terrain in Glen Mills to eat lunch with some lovely girls I'd never met before. The journey down was an adventure. The car was literally falling apart due to some bad repairs carried out by a garage (which we later got fixed at no charge because the garage made so many mistakes). Scooting down the highway was a bit scary as I needed to avoid potholes and braking too hard. Plus it was the furthest I'd driven by myself since moving to the US, and I had no clue where I was going, or where I was meeting my fellow blogettes!

But it was a very nice afternoon, meeting some lovely local ladies, and poking around a gorgeous store.

From the buttery bread served in flower pots and fresh water in mason jars, to the beautiful displays and delicious aromas (check out their soaps…mmm), Terrain was a great place to meet up.

And as it was nearing Halloween (hence all the pumpkins), we gave each other little treats, most of which my husband and I snarfed immediately when I got home. Let me tell you, these bloggers have skills. 

When my husband saw the photo at the top of all of us, he asked how I managed to find the five girls in Pennsylvania with the same style as me. I told him it made complete sense - we all follow the blogs that attract us the most, and blog the things that interest us the most, or that we hope others like us will find interesting. People on social media, and bloggers especially, get knocked for image crafting, but to me that's entirely the point. I'm going to talk more about this in a future post, so watch out for it.

Of course I'll do my due diligence and link to Katherine's outfit post and Marisa's outfit post so you can find out where they got their cute dresses (and see more photos of Terrain). And my dress? It's from UK store Trollied Dolly. I wore it here too. Their dresses are so fabulous that I have several, and my husband even proposed to me while I was wearing one!

Snow in Pennsylvania

This winter we've had plenty of snow days, including yesterday and our last few days before Christmas in the UK.

Luckily I wear a number of professional hats, so it doesn't create too much turmoil for me. I currently work for a cute little country club in the ruralburbs, and I also do freelance work for a creative marketing agency. When I'm not doing one I'm doing the other, and a snow day gives me a chance to catch up with copywriting, reports, and walkies.

Glad Notes: The musical fruit

Have Americans really never heard of beans on toast? 

Recently a good friend of mine asked me if this Reddit thread was based in truth. It kind of is, and kind of isn't. America has beans, and America has toast, but beans on toast? Not so much. But that's because there are some subtle differences between the US and UK concept of beans.

I'm not a UK baked beans fan. I don't like the orange sweet tomato sauce - so much so that the sight of beans irks me out. In the UK beans on toast is 1. A breakfast item and/or 2. A significant part of  most UK university students' diets. Except me. It was really hard being a student in residences and having to live with other students whose diets consisted almost entirely of beans on toast.

I am a US baked beans fan though - especially BBQ maple bacon beans. The other day I heated a can and poured them over a slice of toast for what I thought would be an acceptable brunch. I may never have eaten beans on toast before, but that's the way I thought it was done. I almost caused a UK-US diplomatic-domestic incident going by my husband's reaction. In the USA beans are part of a dinner meal - a side for corn dogs perhaps.

Here are 17 random facts about beans, beans on toast, and Heinz, which is probably the most well-known bean brand in the UK. I tried to get to 57, but ran out of, er, beans.

1. According to Heinz, the company invented beans on toast in 1927. 

2. Heinz Foods was founded in Pennsylvania in 1869.

3. Pennsylvania is known as 'The Keystone State'.

4. The Pennsylvania Keystone symbol is seen on many Heinz products, including Heinz Beanz and Tomato Ketchup.

5. The first can of Heinz Beanz was sold in the prestigious London department store Fortnum and Mason.

6. Classic Heinz Baked Beanz in tomato sauce is number three of the Heinz 57 Varieties. 

7. I've been told I have a Heinz 57 accent because it's influenced by so many regions and is very difficult to place.

8. There were more than 60 Heinz Varieties when the marketing phrase Heinz 57 was invented.

9. Beans on toast counts towards your daily vegetable intake. 

10. During WWII the UK Ministry of Food classified baked beans as 'essential'.

11. Baked beans aren't baked, they're stewed.

12. "Old Bean" is a slightly old fashioned term of affection still used in the UK.

13. The French equivalent of "Old Bean" is "Mon Pote" but pote does not mean bean.

14. "Haricot" means "bean" - does that mean a can of haricot beans literally means bean beans?

15. "There is no physiological harm from the flatulence caused by eating beans" - The British Dietetic Association.

16. Sitting in a bath of baked beans is a common fundraising strategy in the UK.

17. The Guinness record for most baked beans eating in five minutes using a cocktail stick is 258.

FOOD FIGHT: Haggis v Scrapple

It's been a while since I last did a Food Fight, so here's a very special edition for you: A Burns' Night special.

Today is Burns' Night, an evening to celebrate and remember the Scottish bard Robert (Rabbie) Burns. For Scots this is (yet another) excuse for good heavy food, great company, and even better drinks.

At the very least you'll know of Burns for Auld Lang Syne, the charming ditty sung at New Year. He also penned the delightful Address to a Haggis, which is recited on Burns' night as the haggis is ceremonially cut open and served to expectant diners…

…but not in the USA, on account of haggis not being available. According to the BBC the USA banned it in the 1970s because it contains a rather dubious ingredient: Sheep lung. This is a real shame, because despite its rather unglamorous constituent parts (essentially left-over offal, bits of sheep with oats and spices) it's a true delicacy.

A traditional Burns' supper of haggis, neeps (mashed turnips) and tatties (mashed potatoes) is a beautifully sweet, spicy and comforting winter dish…honestly!

All is not quite lost though, because Pennsylvania has its own answer to dubious spiced meat products: Scrapple. This too is a traditional dish comprising leftover meat (hog offal - that is, pork), grains (cornmeal) and spices. It's a Pennsylvania/Amish dish which is formed into loaf shapes and fried in slices.

I think Scots would whole-heartedly embrace scrapple as it has potential to be a great addition to any heart-stopping full fried breakfast. It's similar to lorne (square) sausage, although with a more haggis-like texture. Even the name is suitably dubious, literally describing the left-over meat used up in the product (actually it's allegedly from the PA dutch word panhaskröppel).

So, here goes…

Haggis

Invented: Some time in the 15th Century.
How to Make: You probably don't want to know.
Rock n Roll factor: Has an ancient poem, an annual ceremony, and is banned in the USA.

Scrapple

Invented: Some time in the 18th Century.
How to Make: You probably don't want to know.
Rock n Roll factor: Has a song, can be put in Apple pie to make Apple Scrapple Pie, diner favorite in the Mid-East.

Who is the FOOD FIGHT winner?

Sorry scrapple, today of all days it has to be haggis. Anything that strikes fear into the US Government has surely got an edge. But as I'm no longer living in Scotland, I'll have to settle for my local equivalent instead. Do you think scrapple, neeps and tatties could become a new Pennsylvanian favorite?

PS - I didn't take the photo of the haggis myself, but got permission from a real red-headed Scot who runs a tour company. If you're ever in Scotland be sure to get in touch with him - tell him I sent you and he'll give you special treatment.

One Week of US Cuisine

 I've said before that American food gets a bum rap.

Perhaps when you think of "American food" you think of McDonalds, drive-thrus, diners and do-nuts. To some extent you'd be right to think of those things. They are everywhere.

They are on every street corner, on every intersection, by (or in) churches and museums. The food is cheap, sweet, and childish, and often famous for the branding or business model more than anything else.

But that's not everything. You know it's not. If you don't believe me, I'm going to show you. In just one week, I'll make you a fan…

A Week in US Cuisine

America has a very rich immigrant culture, and some fabulous cuisine to boot. Finding excellent food here can be surprising and wonderful. And it's fun. American food is undoubtedly fun. What American food sometimes lacks in sophistication it often makes up for in experience and good humor.

Take my mum's visit over Thanksgiving week, for example. She wanted to experience American food. She's travelled all over the world - Europe, Asia, South and North America. She's tasted all sorts of cuisine. She's even been to the USA a fair few times. But when I asked her the first thing she'd like to do when she arrived she said "go to the supermarket".

So that's what we did.

Monday - Supermarket lunch

 

In the UK a supermarket lunch is a sad affair - usually comprising a wrinkled baked potato sitting under a heat lamp all day, cheap baked beans, and terrible tea, all served on suspiciously sticky tables. Do British supermarket want to punish families for spending their afternoons traipsing up and down the shopping aisles? The food is an afterthought, which is a worrying thing in a store that sells food.

Not so here in PA.

I'm not talking about Super-Walmarts with a Subway franchise inside. I'm talking about lesser known, small family chains of supermarkets. A prime example is Wegmans, once dubbed the 'Anti-Walmart' by The Atlantic magazine (in an unsponsored article, it appears). The Wegmans approach to food and shopping is a little different to that displayed by most supermarkets. Whole Foods comes close, but not quite.

Wegmans is a beautiful playground for food and produce, complete with a miniature railway circling high above the cheese department. Lunch there could be take-out pizza, sushi, a hoagie, or a wholesome twist on pub lunch, complete with specialty draft beer. Everything on the menu, from the seasonal beer to the multi-grain marathon bread, is available in-store to take home.

And that's how supermarket dining should be. It's seems so obvious. A supermarket's food should be like a giant exciting tasting counter. Trust Americans to actually make grocery shopping fun.

Tuesday - Reading Terminal Market

The Philadelphia cheesesteak is ubiquitous. I won't go into the debate over Pat's, or Geno's or Tony Luke's here,  because I've yet to try them. I didn't realize the sin of my ways until I took my mum for lunch in the city center.

The Reading Terminal Market is another fun food playground, a disorienting cuisine casino bustling with tourists and lunching business locals. It's a Caesar's Palace filled with all sorts of cultural fayre, including, of course, the cheesesteak.

Carmen's is great for the uninitiated cheesesteak consumer - they'll advise you the most popular way to do it. Provolone or Cheese Whizz? Sweet peppers or not? I can't remember because they fried it up so quickly. I get the impression they are used to hungry and bewildered tourists bumbling up to their neon sign.

And for dessert: On a cold November afternoon of culinary touristing, who can resist an apple dumpling once featured on the Food Network?

The dumpling was a fat individual apple pie with a flaking crust and hot spiced apple filling dripping with cream. For three bucks a piece this fall filler was a pleaser. The birch beer is an acquired taste though.

A local businessman beside us lunched on sloppy joes and coffee. He noted our accents, "you had cheesesteaks here?" he enquired, "because, you know that's like, how can I say it, it's like going to Heathrow Airport for fish and chips".

What a faux pas. I visibly winced. The very suggestion of an Airport providing a quality fish supper! I promised I'd try an 'authentic' cheesesteak ASAP (confession: I still haven't).

Wednesday - Hoagie

Surprising fact: The hoagie is THE official sandwich of Philadelphia, not the cheesesteak. As such, they are not without their controversy. The origin of the name is a little unclear for a start. A hoagie is a Philly twist on the ubiquitous submarine sandwich, reputedly named after Hog Island, Philadelphia, where Italians and other Europeans worked on shipbuilding for the World Wars.

Forget Subway or even local hoagie purveyor and 'Hoagie Day' sponsor WaWa for a decent Philly sub. A true hoagie comes from an Italian market, and one should contain enough meat for afternoon tea sandwiches for the whole British Royal Family.

Thursday - Thanksgiving Dinner

Turkey, sweet potato, and pumpkin. What else can I say?

Friday - Drive Thru

During the national hangover from America's favorite holiday, it seemed apt to get take-out. We opted for Popeye's Louisiana Fried Chicken, purely because it's fun for us Brits to order chicken with biscuits and end up with cheese scones rather than something to dunk in hot tea. I know this isn't authentic American Soul food by many measures, but the drive thru certainly is a US tradition. 

Saturday - Traditional US cuisine?

The City Tavern in Philadelphia is an interesting place. It's conveniently located in the vicinity of Philly's top historical tourist spots, for those visitors with a hankering for 1770s cuisine. 

Yes, the waiters are in period costume, the pewter goblets and tableware are for sale in the restaurant's gift shop, and the chef's DVDs and TV appearances are advertised to visiting diners. But it's not tacky; it's very enjoyable indeed. The beers, brewed traditionally, are very good.

Surprising fact: Did you know that Benjamin Franklin brought tofu to the USA? No, neither did I. 

The jury's out on on this one - I'm not certain it's true, for a start. The tofu tasted okay, but the other hearty dishes, a menu reflecting the USA's European colonial history,  looked far more appetizing. No fish supper though.

US food is, genuinely, not that bad

 

I hope I've convinced you, or even tempted you a little bit. And if not, not don't worry, we still have a lot of US food adventures to enjoy one day: Traditional BBQ, Asian-American cuisine, the birth of the American diner and the sad decline of roller carhops (yes! they still exist, you just have to know where to find them).

This huge country has so much to offer to tastebuds and huge appetites, I promise, though I'm secretly glad I don't eat like this every week.

What local USA foods do I need to try? And where DO I get the best cheesesteak?

The Thanksgiving/Christmas limbo

Dear Americans,

It's too soon.

I don't care that Thanksgiving is over. 

I don't care that the nights are long and the lawn is frozen come morning.

I don't care if your houses are bare of decor. I don't care if they feel dark and sullen after the autumnal glow and ombre harvest shades.

I don't care if Santa Claus arrived at the end of the parade. 

It is still November. You still have turkey remnants lingering in your fridge. You have an extra week before Advent. You do not need to decorate for Chri-

Oh, who am I kidding? Never mind.  As you were.

There is no Thanksgiving/Christmas limbo. 

America's answer to Boxing Day is to make it bigger, brasher, and more menacing. But by the end of Black Friday the pumpkins, leaves, and corn were gone from every house.

Wreathes appeared on doors, making houses look like perfect little lilliput models. Strung up lights came on as if from nowhere. Reindeers, santas and nativity scenes popped up in front yards.

And they are multiplying.

One guy in the neighborhood has multiple sheds full of giant Christmas lights and lawn decorations. Over the past week more and more has appeared in his garden display.

But it as yet unlit, unlike the rest of the locale. When this boondock display lights up it'll feel like we have our own hyperlocal Blackpool Illuminations, to use a quirky British reference.

The 24 hour Walmart is playing Christmas songs (presumably 24 hours a day?).

Finding strings of white lights in store is getting harder and harder by the day.

Pumpkin shaped candy is out and bags of confectionery adorned with trees and Santas are in.

America, I am swimming here in festivity.

Christmas in Love Park, Philadelphia, and the Comcast building

Incidentally, today was also the start of the PA deer hunting season. This morning I saw a guy walking on his property wielding a gun … pointed up and towards his own house. Hunters, please stay safe and walk with your guns aimed at the ground.

Cookie and Buster are offering 10% off for Glad Blog readers - just enter code GLADBUSTER when you go to pay!

Valley Forge in the Fall

We were there on July 4th not long after I'd first arrived, and Mr was determined to take me back when the leaves changed their color and crispiness.

Valley Forge was not just an encampment for George Washington and his men during the Revolutionary War, it was also an important mining town. That's why we call it Valley Forge: it was an iron forge in a valley. Unfortunately, most of the town buildings were pulled down when it became a visitor's park and a lot of that heritage was lost.

The old train station still stands, and is used as a small introductory museum to greet visitors before they wander to Washington's Headquarters.

 Wait - is that - are they - ?

Teapots! I thought so.

An army that runs on tea?

A cup of tea seems such a British thing to me, and yet they were fighting the British. The ruckus started with a load of over-taxed tea getting dumped in the Boston harbor.

This is what fascinates me about this period in US history. There must have existed a strange dichotomy between the past and the future, between trying to shake off the perceived tyranny of the British government and clinging to the cultural hangovers of their former country. Between 'British' and 'not-British'. There was not, as yet, American culture.

Having come from Britain to America myself, I can choose to assimilate to US culture, or maintain my British culture, or do a combination of both. Washington and his contemporaries had to choose to maintain their British culture, or create a whole new culture, or a mixture of both. True cultural pioneers.

Pennsylvania is the Keystone State: The bridge between the North - comprising New England  - and the South. If you look closely, you notice it's both Northern and Southern culturally. And that makes it a very interesting place to be.

A British cannon?

And this region represents the cornerstone, the foundations of US culture. Here's where it all began.

Some visitors to Valley Forge wear their American pride on their chests: T-shirts of Eagles and the Stars n Stripes, and Valley Forge memorabilia. I like to try to keep my Britishness under wraps when I'm there (but don't always succeed, if you recall).

So even I was a little surprised when I saw this:

A fashion shoot at Valley Forge? Union Jack clothing?

And I wasn't the only one who was shocked! As we left I overheard some Americans declaim, in their unusual Northern-Southern Pennsylvania country drawl:

"Is she wearing the British Flag - at Valley Forge?"

Millions of pumpkins, pumpkins for me

Every local farm and church seems to have their own fallfests filled to the brim with pumpkin fun. The farms run hayrides to their pumpkin patches, where you can wander, hidden amongst the corn, to find that perfect pumpkin to adorn your country porch.

obligatory hipster hayride shoe shot

choosing your pumpkin is a serious business, like choosing a Christmas tree

I TOLD YOU I'd go for the ones bigger than my head first

One fellow pumpkin-picker claimed that the reason the farms run hayrides to the pumpkin patches, which are nestled deep in the farm amongst the fields of corn, is to prevent wayward autumn revellers from stealing their produce. I'm sure it'd be a formidable, spooky place to visit at night - some places out here do offer night-time hayrides and scream events.

And, just because I'm British and I have to mention it, the weather has been impressively warm over the past couple of weeks. Slowly but surely it's becoming crisper by night and day, but I can still feel the heat of the sun, and it's surprisingly bright. While I do miss the lush greenness of Scotland, I don't miss the short gray days of autumn and winter. Plus the brightness here is dream light to photograph.

It's about a year since I got my camera and taught myself to use it (with a little help from my friends - thanks). Most of the shots I've taken here and blogged, since moving to the US, have been manual snapshots, and not overly staged. It's a fantastic hobby, and I enjoy it a lot. Moving somewhere new has given me the excuse to be a real shutterbug too. At some point I'd like to take the chance to challenge myself again to learn some new photo-skills.

Wafers Spiced and all things nice: The tale of a controversial autumn cookie

As a recent expat sometimes it's for me hard to know what is really a 'thing' - a custom, tradition, cultural trend - or what is just my American family's own way of life.

Pumpkin Spice is definitely a 'thing'. And by now maybe you think I'm obsessed with it. I am, but only because at this time of year America is obsessed with it too. The other day a local radio station proudly announced that it was "Officially Pumpkin Flavored".

US TV cook and potential-maybe-future-first-lady Sandra Lee introduced me to all sorts of bizarre pumpkin spice concoctions, including pumpkin spice cocktails and pumpkin spice jello shots. The varieties of ways this country can push a simple spice blend is pretty impressive. I don't think half of these products have even seen an actual pumpkin.

This brings me to 'spiced wafers'. Recently we had to drive across the county to one specific store that sold a specific brand of these things. Apparently this was necessary to get the true taste of October. I was told no local supermarket sells the 'right kind' of spiced wafer.

The 'right kind' I'm talking about is Ivin's Spiced Wafers, which are not at all a wafer. They look deceptively like ginger snap cookies, but instead they have that clovey pumpkin spice taste I currently can't escape. And yes, they're good.

You can only get them in Acme supermarkets within the greater Philadelphia region of Pennsylvania, during the months of Fall.  On a side note, Acme supermarkets only exist in Northeast USA. They should not be confused with the fictional Acme Corporation from Looney Tunes, although I like to pretend that I could pick up my seasonal spiced wafers and a large anvil in just one shopping trip.

So these little cookies are almost exclusively a Pennsylvanian October thing. And a tasty Pennsylvanian October thing at that, especially when washed down with a refreshing pumpkin or Octoberfest beer (more on those later). But would it were that simple…

There's another local spiced wafer rival, Sweetzels, made in the little local Christmas town of Skippack, PA. And the brand you prefer could reflect greatly on your character. There is more than one Sweetzel v Ivins Throwdown available online, comparing the spice and crunch of each respective biscuit.

Moreover, there's a small level of outrage to be found online that Ivins may not be made as locally as Sweetzels, and may actually be shipped over each Autumn from (shock!) Minnesota. Acme, a Pennsylvania chain, is owned by SuperValu, a Minnesota chain. It gets complicated.

There's also another online conspiracy that Ivin's cookies are actually made by (shock!) Sweetzels. Some consumers find their packaging, and the shape and size of the biscuits themselves, to be too strikingly similar to have possibly been produced by two different companies.

If there's one thing I love, it's baked goods mired in controversy -from the Magnolia cupcake lawsuit to the Jaffa Cake cookie tax court case. I'm very tempted to try to get to the bottom of these spiced wafer conspiracies, but I'm also concerned that would spoil the intrigue surrounding this seasonal bake. What do you think? Should I go on a mission to uncover the mystery or leave this spicy tale be?

P.S Sorry for the delay in this post. Here's an unrelated piece of advice: Don't eat hotdogs that are a month out of date/expired. You will get food poisoning.


Remember, it's the Glad Blog Octoberfest all this month, so please send me your own Fall themed posts - I'd love to feature my favorites. Bonus points if you feature pumpkin related activities or products, local Fall Fests, or fun traditions I haven't heard of.

An actual Octoberfest!

You know I'm celebrating Octoberfest over here, and so far I've learned the history of the Pumpkin Pie.  I've also catapulted a pumpkin to smithereens in the name of charity, and decorated the house with fake dead leaves and er, pumpkins. It's National Pumpkin Pie Day on October 12th guys - I want to see your pies!

Well, I couldn't have Octoberfest without attending a real Octoberfest. This part of the USA is heavily influenced by German culture, hence the obsession with pretzels and a growing local craft beer industry. This is one part of October I can really get behind, so we joined our local community in supping beer and watching the traditional dancing.

The general consensus was that Lederhosen, like the Kilt, are a national dress that just works. More Lederhosen please.

We also sampled some traditional Oktoberfest cuisine. No, not weisswurst, brot or sauerkraut:

Yup, that's funnel cake, and a box of deep-fried Oreos. For my British readers, funnel cake is a deep-fried dough-based dessert not unlike the Spanish churro. It's the staple food of fairs, fetes and boardwalk amusement parks. I first tasted funnel cake at Seaside Heights in New Jersey, and then again many times while working on the Coney Island Boardwalk one summer.

But trust me: It is authentically German enough to make an appearance at an Oktoberfest in Pennsylvania Dutch country. In Austria it's known as Strauben.

The deep-fried Oreo I can't explain, except that it was battered in the deliciously fluffy funnel cake batter, contrasting with the infamous deep-fried treat that hails from my previous home-country (Scotland, to all you folks who don't know). Deep-fried Mars Bars, in my experience, have a far crunchier batter and a much more gooey inner consistency. This didn't stop me from eating two of those iconic US cookies though.

Brits: I know there's a stand in Camden Market in London that sells deep-fried Oreos if you want to share the experience! I offered to treat my nan to a plate when we were there in May. She turned me down, and I have no idea why. It's something that Americans and Scots (and 19th Century Germans?) share alike: A surprisingly tempting propensity to take food items and find a way to deep-fry them.

Remember, it's the Glad Blog Octoberfest all this month, so please send me your own Fall themed posts - I'd love to feature my favorites. Bonus points if you feature pumpkin related activities or products, local Fall Fests, or fun traditions I haven't heard of.

Rustic Weekend: Alpaca my bags

How You Doin'?

Alpaca Farm Day! These guys crack me up. If you're feeling down, head to your local Alpaca farm. 

I've heard mixed things about how domesticated they are. Either they make terrible pets, or they make great pets. Luckily we live near a few of these funny looking furry chaps, as I don't think our bulldog would be too keen on sharing the limelight with an alpaca.