Eloise at the Plaza

When Meg and I went to Lancaster a few weeks ago, I read the fine print and discovered that there was a 10 dollar breakfast that was included with our room charge. Excellent. Saturday evening, after the competition concluded, we found a breakfast menu in our room. It had instructions to make our selections and hang on the door by 2 a.m. Done! We happily made our selections and slung the menu on the door knob.

The next morning, we were awakened by a nice young man toting this tray of breakfast goodness. Yum! Good omelets, coffee and fresh fruit. We snuggled up and dug in.

Here is Meghan, unknowingly enjoying her first Room Service Breakfast, which was not, in fact, 10 dollars. Guess I didn't read the fine print closely enough.

Morel Madness, or What Happens When Kids Fight Too Much on Christmas Vacation

Ok, so the kids had a big fight yesterday, involving a movie, pushing/shoving, and an axe. Don't ask, because I don't really want to reveal the gory (no, not literally!) details. Suffice it to say that Matt and I enjoyed a lovely dinner pas de deux. And, through the gift from a friend, dinner included some morel mushrooms. If you haven't had these, they are the best tasting mushroom evaaaaahhhhh AND they bring out MJ's mad cooking skills.

Morels, soaking in salt brine.

MJ, grilling in the shed.

Ribeye on the grill.

Black and gold and venison steaks waiting their turn.

Roast garlic parmesan potatoes. Ignore the non-self-cleaning oven in the background.

Steak dinner for two. With no kids in sight.*

*No children were harmed in the making of this blog post. They were relegated to their rooms to eat their dinners.

Oh, how I love you, Stuffed French Toast

So, with not so much cooperation from SD cards, computers, and email, and with thanks to Picasa web albums, here is a delayed post on Mamie's....

The kids and I finally convinced MJ to give our favorite breakfast haunt a try. On Christmas Eve's Eve, we set out for Martinsburg, to visit Mamie's.

Mamie's Cafe and Bakery is named in honor of the owner's grandmother, Mamie Teeter, who worked owned the Teeter Hotel and Restaurant. The Hotel used to sit on the lot adjacent to the current location of the restaurant and bakery, and a mural painted on the side of the building pays homage to the original, much as the baked goods inside are a tribute to Karen Wyland's grandmother.

Central PA favorites include monkey bread log, gobs, pies and home-made doughnuts. Breakfast is a real treat, especially if you choose to have fresh ground and brewed coffee and an Almond Joy doughnut.

On this occasion (and many others) I had my favorite - French toast, stuffed with sweetened cream cheese, topped with strawberries, pineapple and blueberries. Nom nom!

MJ is a skeptic, and not likely to take our word for yumminess until he experiences it for himself. He was surprised by the baked goods, lavishly displayed as you walk in the door, interested in the menu, and weirded out by picking out his own coffee cup and getting his own ice water. Also by the fact that I told him that the motto of the day is "Eat and Get the Hell Out" because the tables fill up quickly, and other people are waiting to taste the goodness, too.

He ordered "The Big One". He got it. 3 eggs, 2 pancakes, bacon, sausage, rye toast and no skimping on portions. He's now a believer.

Both plates are his.

Ethan got his favorite, a half-order of chocolate chip pancakes. A half-order is IN order, because of the size of the pancakes. When a tween-age boy can only eat two, you know they're big.

Meg got the special:

Reindeer Pancakes with Bacon Antlers! So cute.

Make a trip out - you will not be disappointed!

Like Mamie's on facebook - click here.

Small Town Saturday Night

Well, it wasn't exactly Saturday night. It was last Wednesday evening, and we were celebrating a softball win with a local custom: a trip to the Meadows.

The Meadows is a frozen custard stand that sits at its namesake corner, The Meadows Intersection in Duncansville. I do believe this is the original location; we pass through this intersection several times each day, and Ethan and Meg crane their necks to see the two specialty flavors of the day, in addition to vanilla and chocolate. My personal favorite is cappaccino chocolate chunk, Meghan's is cookies and creme, Ethan's is chocolate peanut butter cup, and Matthew likes Whitehouse or teaberry. Yuck. (Side note; the other day, it was cappaccino choc chunk, which rarely occurs, and I actually FORGOT to stop on the way home. I'm still pissed at myself.)

At any rate, if your team wins, and sometimes when they lose, the whole group hits the Meadows afterwards and your coach or another parent buys everyone a small cone. Meg's pigtail softball team is sponsored by The Meadows this year; no idea if we get a free cone out of it or not. There are usually at least three or four other teams there, so the kids are sure to see someone they know. In addition to the frozen custard, there is a mini-golf course, batting cages (to keep the baseball/softball customers on winning streaks), an arcade, large bushes for kids to run between and under, and lots and lots of Adirondack chairs to sit in and watch the show.

And on this night, there was the best entertainment of all: karaoke!

Hard to see, but one guy is playing the broom and the other has a mouth harp.

They are singing "Play Me Some Mountain Music".

Ethan finds some friends and they start a kick line.

Meg Macaroni (no. 17) hopes no one knows that the dancing fool is her bro.

!!!

Just realized that no one is eating ice cream, er, I mean frozen custard in these pictures,

but that is actually not the point of going to The Meadows. Not for the kids, anyway.

Allegheny Creamery and Crepes

This weekend, the kids and I had a quick supper at our local crepe shop. Why, a local crepe shop, you say? How urbane! Well, this isn't just any hick Pennsyltucky town!

I had my first crepe the summer I ran away from home and lived at the beach in Rehoboth, DE; my mother was horrified. There was a tiny crepe shop called Cafe Papillion in the walkway where I worked in a gift shop. After my shift, I would stop and try new flavors of sweet and savory crepes. I was very taken with my sophisticated self, living on my own (sort of ) and eating French cuisine (again, sort of). I miss those days!

Penny Lane in Rehoboth Beach

Even though we had donuts for breakfast and Mickey Dee's for lunch, I like to expose my kids to other kinds of foods and restaurants. And only because we had had such a crazy day (selling tickets for Meg's dance recital, getting dance pictures taken, Ethan's belt rank testing for taekwondo and a jr. high percussion concert to complete the insanity) did I take them out to eat thrice. This is why we hit the crepe shop. And I was feeling nostalgic.

Meg does not like crepes, so she chose soup and salad. Orzo and spinach chicken soup with mixed curly greens and homemade ranch dressing.

Ethan chose a Nutella and banana crepe with chocolate milk.

I had my fave; a blueberry with orange ricotta cheese crepe.

This crepe shop sells ice cream from a local dairy, so we ended our meal with a scoop of Graham Cracker Crumb Cheesecake ice cream. Every thing was so fresh and tasty. This was exactly the break we needed.

We also took advantage of a another feature dear to our hearts: a Book Crossing. This shelf has a little sign that directs patrons to borrow, read, return, or replace. All housed on a killer bookcase that I would like to have at home. We enjoyed our meal in silence, all three paging through a new read.

Here's a link to an article in our local paper that was published when the shop opened:

Click here.

Yum!