Pa, reprise

And here we are back in Pennsylvania. This weekend we attended my cousin's wedding at an Amish church in southeastern Pa. This gave us an excuse to enjoy an extended weekend in Pa, doing what we do best: shopping and eating! Eats included stacks of blueberry pancakes, peanut butter pancakes, waffles, veggie omelets, Eggs Benedict (bacon on the side), scrambled eggs with sausage, quiche, apple dumplings with ice cream and corn fritters with maple syrup. And that was just breakfast--lunch and dinner were equally extensive.

As for shopping, we got enough dry goods to weather the apocalypse, which J. anticipates with glee. I swear, we must have a year's supply of rice and beans in our pantry! We also purchased an ice cream maker, the old fashioned bucket kind, so we can try our hand at making ice cream for our next braai on the roof. When I was a kid, I got homemade ice cream at every birthday and beyond--there's nothing as delicious as a Pepsi float (hey, it was the Philippines, no root beer to be had!) made with homemade ice cream.


The wedding itself, on a hot Saturday afternoon, was absolutely beautiful and it was a treat to see my Pennsylvania Dutch relatives. There are always newborn second cousins (my cousins' children) to meet and new gossip to hear, like which of my cousins has started dating. It's a vast family--my father was one of seven children, I have 30+ cousins, and now my cousins have started building their own, large families--and I only see them at family gatherings held at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love their old world way of life: canning produce from the kitchen garden, sewing clothes by hand, baking their own bread. Some days, I wish I lived that way. It would be a respite from my silly urban life where I run hither and thither.