Celebrations

I believe it was Garrison Keillor who described the Danes as a people who loved  celebrations & who took every opportunity to turn small occasions into great ones.  Maybe some Danish blood ran through my parents’ veins, because that certainly described my family, who used everything from birthdays to Christmas to St. David's Day as reasons to celebrate.  And I took to it all like a duck to water! 

How lucky am I that John also loves celebrations!  Not great big extravaganzas (although the thought of making an overnight in Manhattan & dinner at Brooklyn’s  Peter Luger's an annual birthday treat does have its appeal), but small cozies.  

Today is my idea of a sublime birthday:

Rennie gave me the best possible giftie from our kitties, letting me sleep until the unheard-of hour of 7:22 a.m., rather than pawing or nipping me awake at the usual 5:15 a.m. (or earlier) with a meowy plea for breakfast.  

After giving the kitties double scoops of breakfast, I set the toaster & portable ovens for the right temp to bake crackers, then settled back to savor one of Maddie's cheddar rolls with a cup of John's coffee.  Perfect way to start MY day.

Of all the things I bake, crackers are far & away my favorite.  They are time consuming, needing to be started in one oven, then transferred to another.  And they are downright temperamental, with at least one refusing to crisp, no matter how long I leave it in the finishing oven.   But I do find handcrafting & home-baking them so very satisfying.  Today’s: sundried tomato with rosemary, thyme & lavender – perfect with a lovely chunk of cheese & a decent Merlot or Cab..  

My pre-occupation with cracker baking almost made me forget the most important thing I had to do this a.m.!!

My baking kept me tied to the kitchen – I never went into the living room, so never saw the bag of RKT hearts with lashings of chocolate waiting to be taken to Kelly's to put into care packages for B.A. kids away at college!!  Camethisclose to totally blowing it!!!  How foolish it would have been to make the crackers & mess up getting the most important goodie where it needed to be.  Easy to chalk it up to birthday bliss, but an error is an error & I'm relieved to have at least remembered at the last moment.  Leaped into the car, dashed down to Alnwick Road & I hope got there in time for at least some of them to make it .  Sorry!

Once delivered, it was off to have a birthday breakfast with friends at Fred's, followed by a lovely visit with John & Mimi (alas, that dear Jack Russell has laryngitis) at Porches on the Towpath.  Then a quick nip across the river to tag up with Marianne & then Barbara.  

Whew!  Ready to settle back for some quite time – aka, US time. 

Off we went, on a leisurely ramble up the River Road, crisscrossing the Delaware between New Hope & Milford.  Sweet bliss, with John taking the reins so I could enjoy the scenery & soak in all the memories.

What memories line that particular ramble, not only of our own courting days - 24 years ago! - but so many of meanders with Mim & Mom, memories reaching back so many decades.  

We headed down Lambertville’s Union Street, lined with its lovely old houses, then up Rt 29 toward Stockton, heading off to the right along the route I can’t identify but love so dearly, a mostly one-lane stretch between Stockton & Kingwood that skirts a broad, rock-strewn river bed.  Cascades of ice cycles on the far side were breathtaking - looked straight out of National Geographic.  A covered bridge, many beautiful farms & dramatic views into the river gully later and we arrived at Highland Gourmet.  

What do I find so irresistible about Highland Gourmet, a small specialty shop known throughout the region for their grass-fed beef?  Could be their incredible baked goodies or their wine crib or just the sheer eclectic vibe, but my guess is it's got to be seeing the great woofy, long-horned cattle grazing in the pastures. Alas, their homemade pies are all crumble, when what I want more than anything else for my b-day dessert is a glorious 2-crust multi-berry pie - ideally (I must confess) a Marie Callendar Razzleberry Pie, but they are as rare as hen's teeth to find.  

Up to Stockton on the N.J. side, then across to Centre Bridge (blow kisses at the inn), up to Frenchtown where we crossed over to get gas ($3.59 compared to $3.79 at home) and back across to the PA side for the meander up to Milford.  

Milford is a very small town, about three or four not very large blocks, but it holds a lot of special memories for me - of Ship Inn (the owners were good friends with Dave & Jenny Childs), the super cozy Oyster House right before the bridge, and the magnet that drew us there in the first place many decades ago - The Baker. Many many many moons ago, as America quivered on the cusp on understanding the importance of whole grain, The Baker was a bastion of stoneground wheat, rye & sour dough bread & rolls.  We'd go up every few weeks to stock up.  Oh, to have one of their freshly baked whole wheat with raisin rolls!!  Sad to say, being on the (stone)ground floor of the whole grain revolution AND well situated near Mid-Atlantic transportation routes, The Baker outgrew its location in Milford & is now reported to be baking its breads in Rhode Island.  At least the Milford Station Bakery is top notch & totally worth a visit.  Rats!  Not a pie in site!!  Although John was only too happy to pick up a cinnamon roll for later, while I indulged in a chocolate-dipped biscotti to savor over the weekend.

We headed down the N.J. side to Frenchtown, where we crossed over again (3rd time!), back to the PA side, where we stayed for the rest of our journey.  

It's a wonderful bit of road, between Frenchtown & Centre Bridge.  Lots of curves & interesting houses, long stretches with the river just a hundred yards to the right & great hulking cliffs on our immediate right, where hills that once stretched down to the river were dynamited to make way for the road, awesome ice formations cascading down the sheer rock, making even the steeliest driver edgy about possible falling chunks.  Past Tinsmans Lumber & the Kinsman Company, pass the Black Bass & the Lumberville General Store, pass the sprawling circa 1920s hacienda & 1785's Burgess Lea Farm, to where the River Road intersects with RT 263, Dily's Ice Cream (closed up for the season) to the left & our dearly beloved Centre Bridge Inn across the way.  

This is where we bid adieu to the road & the river, heading UP the hill toward Lahaska, then meandering off the main road, down Byecroft, then turning this way & that, back across the main road & point the car toward our beloved (we have a lot of beloveds on this route) farm on Pebble Hill & Wilkshire Roads.  

How we love that farm!  This was the 3rd time we've been past in two weeks without sighting so much as a single sheep, which we find quite alarming, but everyone else was there - cattle & horses & white geese & barnyard fowl.  As usual, the Shetland was off standing by itself - we've never seen it with the other sleeker, bigger horses.  Gives us pause.  Just beyond the pasture, we turn around & go back the same way.  

Almost on the last lap.  One last stop - King of Tarts..  Surely, we will find a just-right pie there!  

We came so close - but their pie was cherry, which wasn't what I had set my heart on.  But John was happy as a dickey bird to get one of their delectable cherry turnovers!

Oh well, at least I knew that I'd find a fabulous mini-cake at ShopRite in Warminster, just 5 minutes down the road & over a bit.  They specialize in little bitty cakes that are decadent enough to be FABULOUS but small enough to avoid being a health hazard.  Which to choose?  The Chocolate Chocolate Fudge or the Cannoli?  

Something made me hesitate, something whispered, "Check the freezer section." So, I turned my back on the Scylla & Charybdis of b-cake choices & went hunting for the freezer dessert section.  Where I found a Marie Callendar Razzleberry Pie!!  

The top box seemed a bit the worse for wear, so - offering it my apologies - I moved it aside & took the pristine one underneath (very much against my early upbringing, which would have found pity on the battered one & made do).  

As I write this, my birthday pie is happily baking in my beloved (there it is again) portable oven.  I could NOT have made it last year, when I only had toaster ovens.  I might not have the full baking freedom I look forward to someday, but at least I can finally bake a razzleberry pie!!!  

Time to sign off.  Making pork chow mein for dinner (we had my birthday dinner last night at Centre Bridge Inn, where I go every Wednesday with a grannie client to bask in the glorious song stylings of Barbara Trent).  We'll snuggle down on the couch to listen to Fresh Air - Terry Gross interviewing Jenkintown's own Bradley Cooper - and savor a cup of  John's coffee & a slice of freshly baked pie.

A day filled with the best sorts of celebrations; a very happy birthday, indeed!