Where is the best Fall Foliage?

In my lifetime I have seen some of the most gorgeous displays of Fall foliage that I think is available to man.  But, I'm prejudiced.  I live in Pennsylvania and I love the Pennsylvania hillsides as they turn their beautiful shades of yellows, oranges, reds and browns.  It takes the whole spectrum to make the best display of Fall foliage.

When I was a child we had a scarlet maple tree in front of our house.  Around the end of September it would turn the most beautiful shades of yellow, orange and red leaves.  It was a particularly full and well-shaped tree and people would come from miles around to take pictures of it each Fall.

Traveling the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to Fall Conventions, I have seen some really pretty displays in the middle of October along Interstate 80 as I traveled East. 

I'm sure the residents of the North Eastern Seaboard would tend to argue with me that their trees are prettier and I've seen some beautiful displays that have been filmed in movies and TV series.  I will admit that the opening scenes in the Bob Newhart Show were absolutely brilliant.

But, I'm a Pennsylvania girl and I would put our hills and dales up against any other state's treasure trove of colors for the best any time.

So if you agree or don't you can let us know in your comments.

When Is It My Turn

Not so long ago, I was sitting in my comfortable chair watching NCIS with my oldest son, Bill.  He and I would banter over what shows to watch because he didn’t like most of my favorites and I was not a devotee of Nascar.  He was tired of Pawn Stars and certainly didn’t like Murder She Wrote.  He would watch some of the Hallmark mysteries with me.  He would also tie up the DVR recording all of his favorite shows so that he could watch them while I was at work or out of the house for some reason.

Father Ken once labeled me a St. Monica person.  St. Monica is the patron saint of caregivers.  As you recall Bill was an amputee and as such could not carry things while walking on the stairs and as a result I would do his laundry and sometimes carry his meals to him.  I was his chauffeur to eye doctor visits and when he needed to go to St. Margaret's the last couple of years.

On one occasion I casually looked over at him sitting on the couch and asked, “When is it my turn?”  To this day I regret that idle remark because while he spent almost four months in hospital beds and when he was so sick and in ICU in the last days of his time on earth he would ask. Are you there Mum?”  I would answer “Yeh!  Right behind you in the corner.”  One time he uttered, “You’re the best.”  I can still hear those words when I feel the lowest and I'm missing him the most.  It's been almost seven months since his passing and I'm moving on but for no reason at all I hear "You're the best" in my mind.

My point is just be grateful for what you have and don’t long to be in someone else’s place because it will come back to haunt you.  That year, I visited funeral homes seven times for extended family and I think that is quite enough.  

Even though it is nice to be pampered once in awhile, I'M NOT READY FOR IT TO BE MY TURN.

Potato Soup for Lunch, Ouch the Sodium Content

My eating habits are controlled mostly by my craving for certain foods or food groups.  I know this is not considered healthy or good for dieting so I took a recent craving on a grocery shopping trip to pack my lunch.  I believe that a craving is your inner being needing the nutrition in the food you crave.  I know babies will gobble down hunks of margarine and it's their bodies craving the oil content for better bowl movement.

bowl of loaded potato soup

Before I go off on a totally different tangent, let me tell you about my potato soup craving first.

I had seen an advertisement for potato soup as one of the daily specials for a local family restaurant.  I had fully intended to buy a bowl for my lunch and take it to work but my frugal side overtook my shopping trip and I went to the supermarket instead.

Once inside the supermarket I made a beeline to the soup aisle to look for a can of soup with lumps of potato and other goodies in it.  I found what I was looking for and the devil made me turn the can around to read the caloric content.   (I'm not mentioning brand names in this article because I don't want to throw the food industry into a finger pointing situation.  All I will say is that these are all popular brands.)

The soup I found was called Loaded Potato Soup and it had all the goodies in it.  It also published 980 mg of sodium per serving.  The can contained 2 servings.  Wow that's a lot.  My next choice was a can of potato soup with broccoli and cheese.  This was slightly lower and only contained 960 mg of sodium per serving.  Far below these tempting choices on a lower shelf was a selection of Light Potato Soups with various added veggies of sorts.  These boasted 690 mg. of sodium per serving.  A lot less but still too high I thought.

I abandoned my craving for potato soup and chose to go to the freezer section where a popular brand of diet meals were being offered for a sale price around the same price as the can of soup.  Only 1 serving but I thought this would be a healthier choice.  When I turned over the packages of Salisbury steak and macaroni and cheese, I was shocked to find 1190 mg. of sodium listed.  I read the other meals being offered on the sale.  All of the packages were over 1000 mg. of sodium.

Needless to say that can of soup just became more interesting and I went back to pick it up to take to work for my lunch.  I selected a can of Light Potato Soup with Broccoli and Cheese.  Of course, it was too tempting to just eat only half the contents of the can.  I ate the whole thing and enjoyed every bite so I guess my system needed the extra potassium that was in the potato soup.  At least, that's what I told myself after I ate it.

The big lesson was that just because it says diet, it doesn't mean it is low in sodium and other things that you need to watch for your health.  Happy shopping.

Cooking Using the Basic Crepe

The recipe for crepes isn't all that different from making pancakes except you expect a crepe to be thin and you don't use baking powder.

I remember when my children were in their teens and my oldest stepdaughter, Lisa, who God called home this past Christmas, would stand in front of the old gas stove and make crepes in the small cast iron skillet until she got them right.  Lisa was born to be a Italian chef but just never got the chance to do it.

Crepes Ala Orange

Crepes have always been a signature dessert in French cuisine.  I remember that the owner of the first company I worked for was something of a Gourmet Chef.  Even though he was Jewish, he treated the employees to a Christmas Party which was a gourmet meal that he would cook himself at a famous Pittsburgh restaurant.  The dessert was a Crepe Ala Sch......  This was his own crepe filled with fruits and and orange liquor sauce that he flambeed at the table.  It was a sight to behold for an awe struck 18 year old.

The Italian side of my life was filled with crepes that were also used for desserts but they were fruit filled according to the season, rolled up with whipped cream on them.  They weren't fancy but they were always deliciously light at the end of a filling meal.

Another use of the basic crepe in the Italian household is to make ricotta stuffed specialties such as manicotti.  You can use the basic ricotta and egg mixture to fill these or you can make the filling with spinach along with the eggs.  I prefer the ones with spinach because not only do they make a better appearance they are more healthy to eat.  The crepes are laid out on a greased glass dish and then covered with a marinara sauce and grated cheese sprinkled over the top before they are put into the oven.

As I think about it, I don't see why you can't use your basic crepe as a start for your Cannoli.  After all what is a cannoli except a rolled up shell with delicious sweet fillings and powdered sugar.