celebrating the season: the giving of thanks

In celebration of the just-passed season, I like to lend my hand in giving thanks. While I could post a roundup a million seas long of things I appreciate quite fondly, those petite and not-so-pocket-sized, I am going to keep this short & sweet.

I adore having Robert Rowe Scott so closely in life. He is thee greatest companion a girl could ever have, a best friend and a fellow beer-and-food appreciator. I wish for no one else to share my hustle-bustle of a life with. I sometimes consider myself like a one-woman army, but really, we all can't do everything ourselves, and he is so patient and perfect for me. We recently celebrated our two-year mark of our crazy little thing called love, and I couldn't be any more of peachy-keen about it.

 

 

 I, with never-ending open-arms, appreciate my friends and family, because without them, I would not be the person who I am today. I thank you all for that and your incredible friendships. It is invaluable how relationships have formed over the past years out of our similar interests, and I am honored to have you all in my life as my friends.

 

I am blessed to reside in an area booming with an incredible selection of homemade artisan cheeses. Chester County, home to its own cheese alliance, houses some of my top five cheese chunks, and having met all the makers and marveling in their masterpieces, I have to say there is something special about meeting the people behind the cheese, visiting their farms, and greeting the animals that are the source of such fine products.

'Tis the season, so I suggest y'all give a lil' thanks to your own slew of life-savers!

happy holidays & pumpkin pie pockets galore

 (photos by Jennifer Hetrick)

As I have been bogged down slaving away over my laptop's keys, for this and that publication, my lil' food-loving blog has taken brief breaths of fresh air, but that doesn't mean I was just writing! As baking is in my blood, I couldn't bare to dismiss this time of year, embracing the best pumpkin recipes I could grasp my hands on.

From milk chocolate chunk pumpkin fluffs and brown butter iced pumpkin cookies, to my personal pumpkin pie pockets sprinkled with raw cinna-sugar dustings (all of which are seen above), I could live forever on feasts of pumpkin-infused platters, and just because Thanksgiving has just passed, I will not conclude my compulsive pumpkin puree-splashed baking sessions any time soon.

best of the bunch: schlegel run growers

 

After a seasonal internship stint with the urban growers of Harrisburg, Joshua Farm, Ben Davies and his wife, Karah, became inspired to merge their agricultural training into their own organic operation, aiming to accommodate local neighbors with a lineup of nurtured and distributed produce perfected in their backyard.

However, searching for an adept backyard became easier than they assumed, and soon, the Davies along with their young son, Ellis, packed up their temporary residence in Harrisburg and traveled back to ben's childhood home in Barto, Pennsylvania.