Tag Archives: lancaster

In Need Of Antidote for Too Many Christmas Cookies

After one to many Christmas cookies, a nice hearty soup was in order for we Bees. With our recent trip home, I knew just the antidote!

Chicken corn soup with rivels!

Have you ever tried chicken corn soup with rivels before? It’s absolutely wonderful!

Rivels? Scratching your head yet? No, no, these are not little bugs or anything crazy like that. Think of rivels as a homemade pasta. Little, perfect, delicious, little pasta’s.

In Central PA, typically we eat this soup towards the end of summer with freshly picked ears of corn. Oh how I just adore fresh sweet corn! We Bees were truly spoiled because my family would always kindly share the corn from their fields with us too. Sigh…

Speaking of family, I skyped with my grandparents this weekend and had to tell them what a proud little baker I was with my chicken corn soup accomplishments. I mean we are talking about homemade chicken stock folks! That’s serious stuff in my book, or maybe just serious time? Nevertheless, well worth it in the end! Anyways, it turns out my grandparents were cooking the soup the following day as well. Guess you can take the Bees out of Pennsylvania, but you’ll never take Pennsylvania out of the Bees.

Sight & Sound Theatre

Christmases past we Bee’s have given our grandparents tickets to attend the Sight and Sound Theatre, typically accompanying them. Since we have been away almost two years, sadly we haven’t been able to uphold that tradition and go with them. So this year because we knew we’d be home, we purchased tickets to go!

Sight and Sound brings the bible to musical theater. This trip marked my third performance. Each time we attend I walk away even more touched by the story, music, performance, and stage production. It’s truly quite a sight to see!

This performance we all set sail on the extraordinary journey with Jonah and the whale! When we got to see the whale float over the crowd, and the glowing lifelike jellyfish drop from above our heads, our mouths all dropped in amazement.

I’m looking forward to the future when we get to see another show.

Interested in seeing a show for yourself? Click here for further details.

A horse and buggy is a pretty familiar and common sight for those of us that grew up in Central Pennsylvania, especially Lancaster. But, there are many visitors that vacation or travel through the state that come for a glimpse or experience in the Amish lifestyle and practices. I thought it was only fitting to include some photos of a tourist attraction that we passed along the route from seeing our show that day.

Doesn’t the countryside look so peaceful? Bloggers, this is my Pennsylvania.

Shoo Fly Pie

Have you ever had a slice of shoo fly pie? Ah! It’s pure magic! Okay…I may be exaggerating a bit with the word magic, but it’s really that good!

Shoo fly pie is a pie that has three layers. A bottom gooey layer, called wet bottom. A middle layer of cake consistency, and a top layer that is sprinkled heavily with a streusel top. It’s a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch molasses pie and its delicious! If you ever find yourself around or driving through Central PA on 11-15, stop and treat yourself to a slice of shoo fly pie! Let me know what you think once you taste it too.

I never realized how much I enjoy cooking, and then of course there is eating too. I knew when I was home I wanted my grandmother to show me how she bakes her shoo fly pies.  She is amazing and of course made sure that she had all the ingredients for me to learn how to make it. It’s funny how much I miss the simple traditional things like this shoo fly pie. So many things that I took for granted. I cannot wait to bake it again in the near future when I am feeling a little home sick or craving something from my hometown.

Thank you Gram! These pictures will help preserve the wonderful memory of baking with you that I will treasure forever.  Love and miss you guys already!

Five Guys

Five Guys burgers and french fries is not your typical fast-food burger chain. The beef patties are fresh, the french fries are cut daily at the restaurant, plus there are boxes of free peanuts for you to take and eat while your patties are cooked up on the grill. Oh, and did I mention they have a digital soda machine that allows you to make your own drink creation.  Check out all of those french fries!