Our final days in Happy Valley were very social and filled with an abundance of summer treats. Bucky and Janine came for a dinner, Bucky toting a bushel of corn from his plot at the farm in Gatesburg. We feasted like Lenni Lenape, in season. Most of our menu was local, except for the salmon from Norway via Wegmans.
The corn polenta recipe from this Cuban cookbook, co-written with State College native friend Megan Schlow, is one to pull out when the corn is high—and forget about it other times of the year. Shucking and scraping the cobs is work, but luckily, John enjoys doing that and he does it very well, removing all the corn silk.
Our friends Moira and Barry came up from Maryland and we hosted a dinner to celebrate two significant birthdays—both Nina and Moira were hitting that elevated number, so it required a serious party to honor them both.
Still writing for the Centre Daily Times on a monthly basis, I had an article to churn out before we headed out of town for a month. My topic, Morning Glory Café in Pleasant Gap, is a great stop for breakfast for either a bagel or a full-on breakfast. The owners, George Salgado and Madison Shedd, have the drive and enthusiasm of youth and their passion fuels their delicious food.
Labor Day weekend we traveled to Fairpoint, Ohio and met my brother, Geoff, and his wife, Barbra, for lunch at a dive bar that looked scary from the outside but had delicious food. Geoff knew it from going there while working on the plumbing at Barb’s ancestral home with her husband, Mike. It was worth the side trip, but John’s pulled pork sandwich was so big that he was too full to eat dinner a few hours later.
We were in southeastern Ohio for a memorial service for my cousin, Barbara, who succumbed to pancreatic cancer last May. All the sadness was overcome by the happy reunion of the clan at Barb’s favorite cafeteria in St Clairsville, Mehlman’s. Only now, I am the oldest cousin in the family, though my Uncle Joey and his wife, Mary Jo, are still with us. (There are lots of Joseph derivatives in my mom’s--Josephine’s--family.)
We played pinochle that night in our hotel room, and got up and out early the next day to drive back to State College, against the football traffic pouring out of town. We had a very early flight the next morning and were in Jackson, Wyoming before noon. Rose and Iris picked us up and we went to the National Wildlife Museum for lunch, to their excellent café for game stew, salad, and mac and cheese after enjoying a plate of their homemade potato chips with goat cheese ranch dip. Sorry about the lack of food photos—I was pretty well wiped out by the travel.
The next day was our 47th anniversary—but we were too jet-lagged to drive anywhere for dinner. I surprised John with a couple of gyros and a Greek salad from the new Greek food truck in Alpine and we toasted to our long life together with Pouilly Fuisse and watched the aspens shaking from the porch. It was perfect—though a little heavy on the potatoes. We saved half of them for Kirk.
Now we need to get in the new fall groove here. Kirk is in kindergarten and the school has rules. It’s not as strict as St. Athanasius, where John and I both went to elementary school, but Wyoming Classical Academy, the new charter school in town, has expectations.
Rose made us a schedule for the month, and Kirk made up his schedule for the week, and we will get on board with those. Prompt drop-offs and pick-ups, early dinners, homework--the glorious details of learning how to be on top of your game. All that, plus enjoying being in this beautiful area with some of our favorite humans.
I’m still dreaming of all the delicious food and those corn fritters!