Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Wide Noodles For Shastya!
I was trying to think of something tasty and nutritious to make for Shastya for lunch. We had lots of green vegetables in the fridge, so I wanted to incorporate them into our meal. I remembered we had some leftover wonton wrappers so I decided to cut them into wide strips to make wide noodles! Anthony and I had had wide noodles in China and loved them! Shastya's and my lunch could not have been more perfect, complete with Shastya slurping down her noodles! Our veggies included zucchini, asparagus, and broccoli.
Shastya Goes To "The Store"
A trip to see my family in Pennsylvania is never complete without a trip to see the latest and greatest at Henning's Market, or as my family often refers to it as, "The Store!" Shastya loved her momentous first-time trip to the gourmet grocery store during our little family's recent trip to Pennsylvania. This time, the latest was banana whips from "Henning's Coffee House." The banana whips were made up of whipped frozen bananas, but they tasted like ice cream! Baby Shastya enjoyed eating her banana whip with Daddy and Mommy under a covered table in the open air on the sidewalk in front of "The Store!" There's always something new at the on-trend upscale food store that has been in my family's line for many generations. It's quite the story really. . .
Let's see, from present to history, some key family patriarchs that work there or that worked there include my brother Bobby, my Dad, my Poppop, my great grandfather "Poppop Henning," and Poppop Henning's father-in-law. Of course, there are countless other family members and friends that were, and/or are an integral part of the family business as well.
"The Store" was started five generations ago as a general store, and has seen a wide variety of changes and locations in Harleysville, PA over the years. It may have gone back six generations . . . however many generations ago it was that "The Store" started, there was a relative that had three businesses. That relative left one business each to the husbands of his three daughters. The general store was one of the three businesses. The general store operated out of a three-story building that sold everything from furniture to food. I've been told, one of the patriarchal owners was excommunicated from a local mennonite church for selling TVs in his general store! Along the way, the store became distinctively a food store, no longer sold furniture, and was labeled Henning's Market.
Henning's Market today is still located in Harleysville, PA, a historic Philly suburb. Some of my favorite regional hallmarks of Henning's Market include "Henning's Homemade" bakery, authentic PA Dutch foods, sushi, specialty cheeses, wedding catering & cakes, specialty foods, a wide variety of organic foods, a homemade gourmet smorgasbord buffet, and "The Terrace" upstairs eating area that overlooks the whole store!
From organic baby food to gourmet refrigerated pet food, my Dad's historic and hip store is ever progressing and has something new for everyone everyday! It's a happening place! In a day and age when local and family-owned is not as common as it used to be, Henning's Market holds its own. May God continue to bless the historical and futuristic Henning's Market.
Let's see, from present to history, some key family patriarchs that work there or that worked there include my brother Bobby, my Dad, my Poppop, my great grandfather "Poppop Henning," and Poppop Henning's father-in-law. Of course, there are countless other family members and friends that were, and/or are an integral part of the family business as well.
"The Store" was started five generations ago as a general store, and has seen a wide variety of changes and locations in Harleysville, PA over the years. It may have gone back six generations . . . however many generations ago it was that "The Store" started, there was a relative that had three businesses. That relative left one business each to the husbands of his three daughters. The general store was one of the three businesses. The general store operated out of a three-story building that sold everything from furniture to food. I've been told, one of the patriarchal owners was excommunicated from a local mennonite church for selling TVs in his general store! Along the way, the store became distinctively a food store, no longer sold furniture, and was labeled Henning's Market.
Henning's Market today is still located in Harleysville, PA, a historic Philly suburb. Some of my favorite regional hallmarks of Henning's Market include "Henning's Homemade" bakery, authentic PA Dutch foods, sushi, specialty cheeses, wedding catering & cakes, specialty foods, a wide variety of organic foods, a homemade gourmet smorgasbord buffet, and "The Terrace" upstairs eating area that overlooks the whole store!
From organic baby food to gourmet refrigerated pet food, my Dad's historic and hip store is ever progressing and has something new for everyone everyday! It's a happening place! In a day and age when local and family-owned is not as common as it used to be, Henning's Market holds its own. May God continue to bless the historical and futuristic Henning's Market.
The All-New Breakfast Sandwich
I made this sandwich up for breakfast this morning on a whim. It turned out rather whimsical, reminiscent of New York bagel breakfasts, and cold New York pizza for breakfast! A fusion breakfast of American traditions I presume.
Ingredients:
Toasted Cinnamon Raisin Bagel
Colby Jack Cheese & Bologna
Chilled Traditional Tomato Sauce
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Soup & Croissants
I made up my own soup today. It tasted delicious, but honestly, it was not very filling. I sauteed scallions and mushrooms in soy sauce and sesame oil. I added water, tofu noodles, salt, and pepper. Anthony and I thought my soup creation had an authentic Chinese flavor to it.
Grilled Vegetable Pizza
Anthony has not usually enjoyed vegetable toppings. Tonight, I asked him if he would mind vegetable toppings if I sauteed them in soy sauce. He said that was fine. The toppings I used were asparagus, zucchini, and mushrooms sauteed in soy sauce and sesame oil. Our pizza turned out without a glitch, and tasted rather classic. Sugar had dumped out of the bag rather quickly when I was pouring it into the bread machine canister for the pizza dough. The crust turned out quite sweet, similar to Pizza Hut's.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
A Doozy of a Day
What does a flood, waiting around, curtains coming down, wasps, and tomato soup have in common? For me, they share a memory of a doozy of a day! Bear with me as I attempt to explain . . .
It all started just this past week when Anthony woke up at 2:30 a.m. to what sounded like rain. He walked into the kitchen only to discover that our kitchen was flooding. The "rain" he was hearing was coming out from under our kitchen sink! Anthony quickly surveyed the situation, turned the water off as best he could, and then woke me up! I scurried out of bed to see the commotion. Anthony asked me what I thought we should do. After thinking a second, I replied, "We could open the back door and sweep the water out with the broom." That's precisely what we did. The carpet in our dining area and bedroom was already wet. I dammed up the entrance to the kitchen with bath towels, hand towels, washcloths, a beach towel, baby blankets, and a wool blanket. Once we got the situation under control, i.e. most of the water out the back door, I took some pictures. Anthony tried to stop the water that was leaking under the sink, and was able to curtail it, but not completely. He then placed bowls and a bucket under the sink. He changed them out, and dumped them outside as they became full.
We called our apartment emergency maintenance line, and Anthony explained what was going on. I went back to bed. Anthony waited up an hour, but ended up leaving a note on the door for maintenance that included his phone number, and stated that he was going back to bed. At 8:30 a.m. a man from apartment maintenance came. He said he had been by our place around 5:30 a.m., had read the note on our door, left, and had just returned. We discussed with him what had happened at our apartment earlier that morning. We had hardly finished our story when apartment maintenance had fixed the leak under the sink, and was about to leave. We were almost incredulous at such a short turn of events, it seemed apartment maintenance did not believe our tale! We asked what was going to be done about all the water in the carpet. Apartment maintenance asked what we wanted to be done. Anthony asked if some fans could be brought in.
Before Anthony left, he turned on the air conditioner unit/dehumidifier to help dry out the apartment. I waited around all day for the fans to arrive instead of going for a walk because I thought I needed to be there. Later, Anthony told me I could have just left because apartment maintenance did not need me to be there to get in. About halfway through the day no progress was being made whatsoever towards our apartment drying out. I called Anthony. I asked if I should switch plans, maybe open the doors and windows to let hot air in. He said sure. I did so, tearing down some of our curtains in our front room on accident in the process. I then nailed our curtain hanger back up into our window frame.
Little did I know that having bright lights on was an invitation to wasps to invade our apartment through our open doors. All at once I perceived three large wasps swirling around our apartment as the overhead fans helped propel them about. I freaked out. I don't like insects. Shastya was laughing at my excitement. I tried shutting off the indoor lights so that the wasps would exit our apartment in search of light outside of it. I got most of the lights out, a wasp out, and one door shut. One door was still open. I shut it, and a wasp flew out from behind it! Ahh! I opened the door back again. There was still a third wasp that had flown into our bedroom. I went looking for it, hoping the second wasp would fly out the front door while I was in the bedroom. Then I beheld the third wasp, buzzing and dangling from the ceiling in our bedroom above the doorway I had just entered. It was hovering as if trying to build a nest, a home, in our home. I had baby Shastya on my shoulder the whole time, with my other hand I grabbed a broom and attempted to joust with the wasp. When it flew at us, Shastya freaked out too, and I ran outside with Shastya still on my shoulder. I texted Daddy, "can you come home." Over an hour later, Daddy rode the bus home. Shastya and I just camped out on a patch of carpet that wasn't wet in our front room until Daddy arrived. When Daddy got home, he found a great wasp in our closet where it had gone attracted by our closet light. He killed the third wasp with the broom! The second wasp must have flown out the front door earlier. It was nowhere to be seen.
Daddy brought home with him a mini dehumidifier from a friend. He also called and asked one of his Clemson PhD advisors if he had a wet vac we could borrow. Anthony asked his advisor because his advisor has a house, unlike a lot of our PhD student friends that have apartments similar to ours. Anthony's advisor generously let us use his wet vac which improved our apartment disaster tremendously! We thanked God for the wet vac.
After Anthony used the wet vac in our apartment, I made grilled cheese and tomato soup for supper while Anthony returned the wet vac to his advisor. Around 8:30 p.m., as we began enjoying our supper, Shastya spilled a bowl of tomato soup all over Mommy(me), baby, the floor and the wall. We didn't laugh or get mad, we just looked at Shastya. Daddy wiped us off a bit before Mommy went for a shower, and baby went for a bath. Daddy cleaned all the tomato soup stains out of the carpet. We could have snapped a picture with the tomato soup all over us, but I just thought that was a little too much. What would we have done, froze and then said "cheese?"
Where had the day gone? Let's see, Mommy washed and dried four loads of towels and blankets somewhere in there. I wonder if apartment maintenance would have believed our flood story if he had seen our pictures? How could we blame him for not fully comprehending our story? We had done such a good job getting rid of the water. Who would have known that there had been a flood? The kitchen floor looked mopped. All the towels had been drying unseen behind the closed back door on the back porch. Our day was over. It was time to get some sleep before meeting our friends the next morning at 3 a.m. for a hike to see a sunrise from a fire tower in Rabun Bald, Georgia.
It all started just this past week when Anthony woke up at 2:30 a.m. to what sounded like rain. He walked into the kitchen only to discover that our kitchen was flooding. The "rain" he was hearing was coming out from under our kitchen sink! Anthony quickly surveyed the situation, turned the water off as best he could, and then woke me up! I scurried out of bed to see the commotion. Anthony asked me what I thought we should do. After thinking a second, I replied, "We could open the back door and sweep the water out with the broom." That's precisely what we did. The carpet in our dining area and bedroom was already wet. I dammed up the entrance to the kitchen with bath towels, hand towels, washcloths, a beach towel, baby blankets, and a wool blanket. Once we got the situation under control, i.e. most of the water out the back door, I took some pictures. Anthony tried to stop the water that was leaking under the sink, and was able to curtail it, but not completely. He then placed bowls and a bucket under the sink. He changed them out, and dumped them outside as they became full.
We called our apartment emergency maintenance line, and Anthony explained what was going on. I went back to bed. Anthony waited up an hour, but ended up leaving a note on the door for maintenance that included his phone number, and stated that he was going back to bed. At 8:30 a.m. a man from apartment maintenance came. He said he had been by our place around 5:30 a.m., had read the note on our door, left, and had just returned. We discussed with him what had happened at our apartment earlier that morning. We had hardly finished our story when apartment maintenance had fixed the leak under the sink, and was about to leave. We were almost incredulous at such a short turn of events, it seemed apartment maintenance did not believe our tale! We asked what was going to be done about all the water in the carpet. Apartment maintenance asked what we wanted to be done. Anthony asked if some fans could be brought in.
Before Anthony left, he turned on the air conditioner unit/dehumidifier to help dry out the apartment. I waited around all day for the fans to arrive instead of going for a walk because I thought I needed to be there. Later, Anthony told me I could have just left because apartment maintenance did not need me to be there to get in. About halfway through the day no progress was being made whatsoever towards our apartment drying out. I called Anthony. I asked if I should switch plans, maybe open the doors and windows to let hot air in. He said sure. I did so, tearing down some of our curtains in our front room on accident in the process. I then nailed our curtain hanger back up into our window frame.
Little did I know that having bright lights on was an invitation to wasps to invade our apartment through our open doors. All at once I perceived three large wasps swirling around our apartment as the overhead fans helped propel them about. I freaked out. I don't like insects. Shastya was laughing at my excitement. I tried shutting off the indoor lights so that the wasps would exit our apartment in search of light outside of it. I got most of the lights out, a wasp out, and one door shut. One door was still open. I shut it, and a wasp flew out from behind it! Ahh! I opened the door back again. There was still a third wasp that had flown into our bedroom. I went looking for it, hoping the second wasp would fly out the front door while I was in the bedroom. Then I beheld the third wasp, buzzing and dangling from the ceiling in our bedroom above the doorway I had just entered. It was hovering as if trying to build a nest, a home, in our home. I had baby Shastya on my shoulder the whole time, with my other hand I grabbed a broom and attempted to joust with the wasp. When it flew at us, Shastya freaked out too, and I ran outside with Shastya still on my shoulder. I texted Daddy, "can you come home." Over an hour later, Daddy rode the bus home. Shastya and I just camped out on a patch of carpet that wasn't wet in our front room until Daddy arrived. When Daddy got home, he found a great wasp in our closet where it had gone attracted by our closet light. He killed the third wasp with the broom! The second wasp must have flown out the front door earlier. It was nowhere to be seen.
Daddy brought home with him a mini dehumidifier from a friend. He also called and asked one of his Clemson PhD advisors if he had a wet vac we could borrow. Anthony asked his advisor because his advisor has a house, unlike a lot of our PhD student friends that have apartments similar to ours. Anthony's advisor generously let us use his wet vac which improved our apartment disaster tremendously! We thanked God for the wet vac.
After Anthony used the wet vac in our apartment, I made grilled cheese and tomato soup for supper while Anthony returned the wet vac to his advisor. Around 8:30 p.m., as we began enjoying our supper, Shastya spilled a bowl of tomato soup all over Mommy(me), baby, the floor and the wall. We didn't laugh or get mad, we just looked at Shastya. Daddy wiped us off a bit before Mommy went for a shower, and baby went for a bath. Daddy cleaned all the tomato soup stains out of the carpet. We could have snapped a picture with the tomato soup all over us, but I just thought that was a little too much. What would we have done, froze and then said "cheese?"
Where had the day gone? Let's see, Mommy washed and dried four loads of towels and blankets somewhere in there. I wonder if apartment maintenance would have believed our flood story if he had seen our pictures? How could we blame him for not fully comprehending our story? We had done such a good job getting rid of the water. Who would have known that there had been a flood? The kitchen floor looked mopped. All the towels had been drying unseen behind the closed back door on the back porch. Our day was over. It was time to get some sleep before meeting our friends the next morning at 3 a.m. for a hike to see a sunrise from a fire tower in Rabun Bald, Georgia.
Pork Buns & Dumplings
I made up my own recipe for the dough for my pork buns this time. This was my best dough yet for baozi/ steamed buns! And yes, I will share my recipe. Next time I think I will food process my filling so that there are not chunks, and roll it into meat balls before forming dough balls around it.
Baozi Dough:
1 Cup Warm Water
2 Tsp Bread Machine Yeast
3 TB Granulated Sugar
2 3/4 Cup Bread Flour
1 Tsp Salt
1 TB Oil
1. Combine first three ingredients until frothy, about two minutes.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients.
3. Use the dough setting on your bread machine.
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