some interesting foods

ok, well-- i have an announcement to make-- Andrew and i have struck a compromise, and i will only be blogging twice a week. so sorry!

So, andrew's mother visited last week and brought Fasnachts-- andrew was so happy!!!

and i'm sure you're thinking: WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!?!?!

they are doughnuts-- but made with potato, not flour. they're supposed to be eaten on fasnacht day (go figure) which is always the day before ash wednesday. though, people like to eat them ALL the time.

so, lets talk about some other foods--

pierogies-- ok, my mom informed me that they arent PA dutch. though, they are eaten a lot in PA, and people from other parts of the country dont know what they are. when i was in south carolina, i could never find any in the grocery store. They are mashed potatoes stuffed inside a noodle thing.

shoo-fly-pie-- Its a dessert that was named because the aroma was so good that flies would come to get it, and you'd have to shoo them away. right. so, its a pie that has molasses on the bottom and a coffee cake on top. andrew loves them. i'm not as keen on it.

woopie pies-- i never heard of these before meeting andrew. oh well. you mix up cake batter, but with not as much liquid so that its thicker. then, you plop circles of it (like you would with pancakes) onto a cookie sheet and bake them. Then, once cooked and cooled, you put a frosting type filling between two of them, making a little sandwhich.

chicken pot pie-- you can buy chicken pot pies frozen at your local grocery store-- but what you are buying is not really chicken pot pie; at least, not to the PA dutch. the real thing is actually a soup. its noodles, chicken, cubed potatoes, in a thickened chicken broth. andrew's mom adds hard boiled eggs. Its not a pie at all-- just called that because of the noodles. when my mom makes it, she makes her own noodles-- actually, its dough rolled out and cut into big pieces, then boiled in with the soup.

scrapple-- i dont even want to tell you what it is... lets just say, its gross! especially when you eat it with thick maple syrup.

apple butter-- YUM! though, it has no butter in it. Its applesauce but cooked for such a long time that the sugar starts to carmalize, making it really thick and really sweet. andrew likes putting it on fasnachts. my family would always eat it on bread whenever we had ham and beans. its a soup; we cook fresh green beans with ham chunks and cubed potatoes. really good.

Corn Pie, Meat pie, potatoe pie-- awe, some of my favorite pies that my mom makes. yum! during the summer months, when fresh corn is in season, we'll buy corn, husk it, cut it off the cob, and then bake it inside a pie crust. really good. Meat pie is hamburger, onion, cubed potatoes in a pie crust. and the ultimate in PA dutch-- potatoe pie. its just mashed potatoes inside a pie crust. See, we PA dutch LOVE meat and potatoes. especially potatoes. [as you've already seen, its in fasnachts, pierogies, chicken pot pie, ham and bean soup, meat pie, and potatoe pie.]

For more, you can check out an online list. i hope you feel completely enlightened.

OH, OH, OH! i promised to tell you what the green dragon is.

its a farmers' market, where local farmers and people sell their produce. there are lots of amish and mennonite stands. also baked goods. andrew likes to buy his shoofly pie there. of course, there's also tons of "junk" sold. and lots of food: sausage sandwhiches, meatball sandwhiches, steak sandwhiches, french fries, and of course-- pierogies.