Florida being Florida
Jul. 14th, 2022 09:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39On Monday I took my time for breakfast, driving to the Weis grocery again for fruit and protein.
I filled my car up with gas and started driving to my sisters house, but stopped at Rohrbach‘s farm stand.
Rohrbach’s has been a fixture in this part of Pennsylvania since the 1950s. It started out as a roadside fruit stand, the Rohrbach family selling some of their produce to passerby. When the second generation took over the farmstand, they added baked goods to their wares, making everything from scratch.
Over the years they have expanded into more than just a stall, they have basically a general store now with lots of other products from local farms, dairies, and butchers.
They sell candles and soaps and housewares, and most recently have installed a barbecue restaurant on the second floor.
Despite these changes, the interior is much as I remember it from childhood. Right when you walk in there is a huge wall of canned goods and preserves, with the produce of the season on island displays in the middle of the floor, and a refrigerator/freezer against the back wall with venison, beef, kielbasa, and other meats processed locally.
This is a separate freezer where you can get apple dumplings, pies, Whoopie pies, imported meats, and some prepared meals like lasagna and casseroles, premade and frozen. I picked up a frozen apple dumpling and peanut butter Whoopie pie to bring to Jameson.
The apple dumpling. Our church also used to sell these once in a while. They are made using an old recipe, with a thick and somewhat salty dough, and a whole baked and spiced apple in the middle. As you would expect, great with vanilla ice cream on top!
Here are the Whoopie pies. These are the “original“ ones, but they come in a wide variety of flavors like peanut butter, red velvet, oatmeal cream pie, mint, and pumpkin. If you’ve never had a Whoopie pie, it’s another Pennsylvania Dutch dessert thing. The O.G. is soft and moist chocolate cake circles with vanilla icing in the middle.
There was also shoofly pie of course, the stereotypical Pennsylvania desert, but I hate shoofly pie.
It’s molasses-based, really sticky and overly sweet, not a fan.
Here is some raw milk for sale from a local dairy. Yes, some people still drink raw milk or use it in recipes. It is hard to tell from the opaque containers, but raw milk separates quite a lot, so there is a layer of thick creamy white stuff at the top and yellowish clear liquid at the bottom. I’ve never had raw milk, but would try it once.
For Jameson I got a bag of circus peanut candy from Ohio, the apple dumpling and Whoopie pie, and a can of Pennsylvania Dutch birch beer, which annoyingly is also made in Ohio but has been sold in in PA for many years, I remember this can from childhood.
For myself I got some peach preserves, which will go into a peach bourbon pulled pork shoulder when I get home. I also gifted myself a small jar of apple butter, a sample bag of locally roasted coffee, and a Rohrbach‘s Farm sticker. Don’t know where I will put that yet.
Near checkout was a small ice cream counter containing two of my favorite flavors, bittersweet and Teaberry. I was very tempted, but ultimately passed them by.
This was a nice nostalgic visit. I’m grateful that I got to stop in while I was home. Who knows when I will be back in this area again.
At Kate‘s house, everyone was up and preparing lunch. I helped by grating some cheese and cutting up some vegetables while we all chatted, sharing memories and family drama, the usual stuff that you talk about when family gets together.
Kate‘s baby is very sweet and generally well-behaved, but with the excitement of many guests over the past days, he was unwilling to take a nap and was a little bit cranky. After lunch we tried to distract him by taking him outside to play with his little kiddie pool. Isn’t he cute?
The day passed quickly. At some point I called Raven for a video chat, since she couldn’t be here due to catching Covid a few days ago. She is feeling better, but was sad that she couldn’t be there in person.
Too soon it was time for me to hit the road again. I didn’t want to do another 19-hour marathon drive, so I was leaving around 5pm and driving to Richmond which is almost exactly 5 hours away. I hugged everyone goodbye and wondered when I would see them again. It is so rare for all of us to be together. Although it was a lot of travel time on my part, I didn’t mind and it was very worth it to see family.
——————————-
After a few hours of sleep at a crappy hotel along I-95, I started the second leg of my journey home. I left at 4 AM, with the goal of getting to Orlando before the rush-hour.
I drove past the SC Buc-ee’s at 8am. It was much less crazy than it had been the day I drove up. I have since read that that location opened only a month ago, which might account for the frenzy.
Stopped for food and lunch and bathroom several times, but was glad to see my end time remain at or around 4pm.
By the time I got to the Florida Buc-ee's I was soooooo ready to be out of the car. So tired.
I had meant to take pictures but was in no frame of mind.
It was busy, but not manic. Just regular-busy.
Found a Buc-ee's t-shirt that I liked and got it.
Went to the jerky deli for a piece of cherry beef jerky and peppered turkey jerky.
Grabbed a bag of Beaver Nugs for Jameson.
Wanted the pickled quail eggs but forced myself to the register, this was already enough wasted money.
(it was a fun waste, though!)
Only 15 minutes and I was back in the car. Nice!
The remaining 2 hours went quickly.
I greeted Jameson and shared my Amish-and-Buckee haul with him, then unpacked while he finished up a project he'd been working on.
Packed a lunch and also breakfast because I've got to go in early to work for some setup.
Gathered a work outfit. Watered the plants. Took a shower. Printed documents for tomorrow.
When Jameson was done we ordered dinner, DoorDash, and it never showed up :(
That's ok, we had food in the house. I ate random leftover stuff and he had kind of a white-trash charcuterie.
I was exhausted but managed to stay awake and be nervous about my first day at work tomorrow while Jameson played baseball online with his friends.
--------------------------------------------------------
Woke up early, so early, after a rough night of barely sleeping despite being so tired.
Drove to the office early, recruited the tech guy to help set up my profile.
And here's where the shitshow began.
Everything was going smoothly until he finished up and did a restart.
The computer promptly went into an infinite restart loop.
We moved to a different room, but partway through THAT setup a VHR walked in and said it was their room for the day, so we had to evacuate.
Back in Room 1, after a forced shutdown the computer at least loaded the login screen.
I was able to log in and everything seemed fine...until I tried to access my email and got nothing but error messages.
All of the documents that I need to do cases are in my email.
The schedule for the day, claimant names, important phone numbers, instructions for video conferences, payment info.
Tech support worked on the problem up until a few minutes before my first case of the day and STILL could not resolve the issue.
But while they were doing that, I found a workaround: if I hit "Forward", the emails would open with all the attachments there are accessible. In this way, five minutes before my first case, I was finally able to get the info I needed to hold the hearing.
Technical issues continued throughout the day, and the problem with my email was never resolved.
Despite it all, I was able to at least complete my hearings.
I also got to retrieve my newly-minted SSA ID badge.
I want to post a picture but don't think I should.
It pretty much looks like this but without the ridiculous badge, and with a SSA logo to the right of the headshot.
(photo from ABC6)
On the way home, Publix for groceries and dinner for us.
It stormed pretty strongly; I used to like thunderstorms more, but a close encounter with lightning in my childhood scared me so much that when there's intense lightning I get pretty nervous. This was an intense one. I felt like a dog with PTSD, hiding under my tortilla blanket.
Jameson thought it was funny. I do feel silly but, yeek!
------------------------------------------------------------
I woke to Jameson's alarm going off at 9am.
If it hadn't, I probably would have slept in until 10:30 again! Very tired.
But I got up and had breakfast, then launched into King Arthur Flour's Classic 100% Whole Wheat Bread.
The ingredients are wheat flour, water, vegetable oil, honey, evaporated milk, salt, and yeast.
KAF has started incorporating Tangzhong into more of their bread recipes, and I was happy to see they'd added that option to this one, so you can see the little ramekin with roux in it among the ingredients in the picture.
There's also a little orange zest because someone in the comments said it was nice to add.
This recipe is easy. Throw everything in the mixer.
I let the mixer do the initial kneading, but finished it by hand.
Here's the dough ball ready for the first proof.
Usually bread is done proofing in this house after 90 minutes.
Whole wheat flour is pretty dense though, and the recipe said "let rise for one or two hours" and "it doesn't have to double in size, just get puffy."
Which is why I ignored the dough for over an hour.
Only to find that it had MORE than doubled in size during that time! Whoops!
Today was very hot and humid, but I didn't think it would matter quite THAT much.
Welp, nothing to do but continue. I punched the dough down and shaped it into a little potato.
Into the loaf pan for the second proof, which I watched carefully, but the damage had already been done.
It was ready after only forty minutes, and then started to look lumpy on top, pretty good indication that I let it go too long.
Oh well. Into the oven and out 40 minutes later.
It sank because of the overproofing, resulting in a flat top instead of a nice dome.
That said, it rose well for a whole wheat loaf and the crumb was fairly consistent.
You can see that the crumb is looser with bigger air pockets near the top of the loaf. But it's not terrible.
The flavor is really good. I love a good sweet-salt balance in bread, and this recipe has it.
Such a nice savory flavor, and the nutty whole wheat with a hearty texture. Very enjoyable.
The orange zest is noticeable and a nice touch. I wouldn't add it every time, but it's a fun twist that adds another level of flavor.
As the bread cooled I switched to cleaning mode.
Vacuumed, dusted, swept and mopped the tile.
Cleaned both bathrooms, washed the bathroom floor mats.
A strong thunderstorm rolled through as I was eating dinner.
I watched for a little while until it got scary (CLICK HERE to see footage).
It didn't last long, and soon Jameson was home from rehearsal with dinner for himself.
We chilled.
I should have worked on my data entry job, and felt guilty.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Tomorrow I will do data entry stuff, promise!
And a trip to Whole Paycheck for the pork shoulder, which I'll make on Saturday.
I'll make the slaw tonight so it has time for the flavors to mingle.
Other plans this week include getting some stock market advice since everything is tanking, and making paninis for us at some point.
I filled my car up with gas and started driving to my sisters house, but stopped at Rohrbach‘s farm stand.
Rohrbach’s has been a fixture in this part of Pennsylvania since the 1950s. It started out as a roadside fruit stand, the Rohrbach family selling some of their produce to passerby. When the second generation took over the farmstand, they added baked goods to their wares, making everything from scratch.
Over the years they have expanded into more than just a stall, they have basically a general store now with lots of other products from local farms, dairies, and butchers.
They sell candles and soaps and housewares, and most recently have installed a barbecue restaurant on the second floor.
Despite these changes, the interior is much as I remember it from childhood. Right when you walk in there is a huge wall of canned goods and preserves, with the produce of the season on island displays in the middle of the floor, and a refrigerator/freezer against the back wall with venison, beef, kielbasa, and other meats processed locally.
This is a separate freezer where you can get apple dumplings, pies, Whoopie pies, imported meats, and some prepared meals like lasagna and casseroles, premade and frozen. I picked up a frozen apple dumpling and peanut butter Whoopie pie to bring to Jameson.
The apple dumpling. Our church also used to sell these once in a while. They are made using an old recipe, with a thick and somewhat salty dough, and a whole baked and spiced apple in the middle. As you would expect, great with vanilla ice cream on top!
Here are the Whoopie pies. These are the “original“ ones, but they come in a wide variety of flavors like peanut butter, red velvet, oatmeal cream pie, mint, and pumpkin. If you’ve never had a Whoopie pie, it’s another Pennsylvania Dutch dessert thing. The O.G. is soft and moist chocolate cake circles with vanilla icing in the middle.
There was also shoofly pie of course, the stereotypical Pennsylvania desert, but I hate shoofly pie.
It’s molasses-based, really sticky and overly sweet, not a fan.
Here is some raw milk for sale from a local dairy. Yes, some people still drink raw milk or use it in recipes. It is hard to tell from the opaque containers, but raw milk separates quite a lot, so there is a layer of thick creamy white stuff at the top and yellowish clear liquid at the bottom. I’ve never had raw milk, but would try it once.
For Jameson I got a bag of circus peanut candy from Ohio, the apple dumpling and Whoopie pie, and a can of Pennsylvania Dutch birch beer, which annoyingly is also made in Ohio but has been sold in in PA for many years, I remember this can from childhood.
For myself I got some peach preserves, which will go into a peach bourbon pulled pork shoulder when I get home. I also gifted myself a small jar of apple butter, a sample bag of locally roasted coffee, and a Rohrbach‘s Farm sticker. Don’t know where I will put that yet.
Near checkout was a small ice cream counter containing two of my favorite flavors, bittersweet and Teaberry. I was very tempted, but ultimately passed them by.
This was a nice nostalgic visit. I’m grateful that I got to stop in while I was home. Who knows when I will be back in this area again.
At Kate‘s house, everyone was up and preparing lunch. I helped by grating some cheese and cutting up some vegetables while we all chatted, sharing memories and family drama, the usual stuff that you talk about when family gets together.
Kate‘s baby is very sweet and generally well-behaved, but with the excitement of many guests over the past days, he was unwilling to take a nap and was a little bit cranky. After lunch we tried to distract him by taking him outside to play with his little kiddie pool. Isn’t he cute?
The day passed quickly. At some point I called Raven for a video chat, since she couldn’t be here due to catching Covid a few days ago. She is feeling better, but was sad that she couldn’t be there in person.
Too soon it was time for me to hit the road again. I didn’t want to do another 19-hour marathon drive, so I was leaving around 5pm and driving to Richmond which is almost exactly 5 hours away. I hugged everyone goodbye and wondered when I would see them again. It is so rare for all of us to be together. Although it was a lot of travel time on my part, I didn’t mind and it was very worth it to see family.
——————————-
After a few hours of sleep at a crappy hotel along I-95, I started the second leg of my journey home. I left at 4 AM, with the goal of getting to Orlando before the rush-hour.
I drove past the SC Buc-ee’s at 8am. It was much less crazy than it had been the day I drove up. I have since read that that location opened only a month ago, which might account for the frenzy.
Stopped for food and lunch and bathroom several times, but was glad to see my end time remain at or around 4pm.
By the time I got to the Florida Buc-ee's I was soooooo ready to be out of the car. So tired.
I had meant to take pictures but was in no frame of mind.
It was busy, but not manic. Just regular-busy.
Found a Buc-ee's t-shirt that I liked and got it.
Went to the jerky deli for a piece of cherry beef jerky and peppered turkey jerky.
Grabbed a bag of Beaver Nugs for Jameson.
Wanted the pickled quail eggs but forced myself to the register, this was already enough wasted money.
(it was a fun waste, though!)
Only 15 minutes and I was back in the car. Nice!
The remaining 2 hours went quickly.
I greeted Jameson and shared my Amish-and-Buckee haul with him, then unpacked while he finished up a project he'd been working on.
Packed a lunch and also breakfast because I've got to go in early to work for some setup.
Gathered a work outfit. Watered the plants. Took a shower. Printed documents for tomorrow.
When Jameson was done we ordered dinner, DoorDash, and it never showed up :(
That's ok, we had food in the house. I ate random leftover stuff and he had kind of a white-trash charcuterie.
I was exhausted but managed to stay awake and be nervous about my first day at work tomorrow while Jameson played baseball online with his friends.
--------------------------------------------------------
Woke up early, so early, after a rough night of barely sleeping despite being so tired.
Drove to the office early, recruited the tech guy to help set up my profile.
And here's where the shitshow began.
Everything was going smoothly until he finished up and did a restart.
The computer promptly went into an infinite restart loop.
We moved to a different room, but partway through THAT setup a VHR walked in and said it was their room for the day, so we had to evacuate.
Back in Room 1, after a forced shutdown the computer at least loaded the login screen.
I was able to log in and everything seemed fine...until I tried to access my email and got nothing but error messages.
All of the documents that I need to do cases are in my email.
The schedule for the day, claimant names, important phone numbers, instructions for video conferences, payment info.
Tech support worked on the problem up until a few minutes before my first case of the day and STILL could not resolve the issue.
But while they were doing that, I found a workaround: if I hit "Forward", the emails would open with all the attachments there are accessible. In this way, five minutes before my first case, I was finally able to get the info I needed to hold the hearing.
Technical issues continued throughout the day, and the problem with my email was never resolved.
Despite it all, I was able to at least complete my hearings.
I also got to retrieve my newly-minted SSA ID badge.
I want to post a picture but don't think I should.
It pretty much looks like this but without the ridiculous badge, and with a SSA logo to the right of the headshot.
(photo from ABC6)
On the way home, Publix for groceries and dinner for us.
It stormed pretty strongly; I used to like thunderstorms more, but a close encounter with lightning in my childhood scared me so much that when there's intense lightning I get pretty nervous. This was an intense one. I felt like a dog with PTSD, hiding under my tortilla blanket.
Jameson thought it was funny. I do feel silly but, yeek!
------------------------------------------------------------
I woke to Jameson's alarm going off at 9am.
If it hadn't, I probably would have slept in until 10:30 again! Very tired.
But I got up and had breakfast, then launched into King Arthur Flour's Classic 100% Whole Wheat Bread.
The ingredients are wheat flour, water, vegetable oil, honey, evaporated milk, salt, and yeast.
KAF has started incorporating Tangzhong into more of their bread recipes, and I was happy to see they'd added that option to this one, so you can see the little ramekin with roux in it among the ingredients in the picture.
There's also a little orange zest because someone in the comments said it was nice to add.
This recipe is easy. Throw everything in the mixer.
I let the mixer do the initial kneading, but finished it by hand.
Here's the dough ball ready for the first proof.
Usually bread is done proofing in this house after 90 minutes.
Whole wheat flour is pretty dense though, and the recipe said "let rise for one or two hours" and "it doesn't have to double in size, just get puffy."
Which is why I ignored the dough for over an hour.
Only to find that it had MORE than doubled in size during that time! Whoops!
Today was very hot and humid, but I didn't think it would matter quite THAT much.
Welp, nothing to do but continue. I punched the dough down and shaped it into a little potato.
Into the loaf pan for the second proof, which I watched carefully, but the damage had already been done.
It was ready after only forty minutes, and then started to look lumpy on top, pretty good indication that I let it go too long.
Oh well. Into the oven and out 40 minutes later.
It sank because of the overproofing, resulting in a flat top instead of a nice dome.
That said, it rose well for a whole wheat loaf and the crumb was fairly consistent.
You can see that the crumb is looser with bigger air pockets near the top of the loaf. But it's not terrible.
The flavor is really good. I love a good sweet-salt balance in bread, and this recipe has it.
Such a nice savory flavor, and the nutty whole wheat with a hearty texture. Very enjoyable.
The orange zest is noticeable and a nice touch. I wouldn't add it every time, but it's a fun twist that adds another level of flavor.
As the bread cooled I switched to cleaning mode.
Vacuumed, dusted, swept and mopped the tile.
Cleaned both bathrooms, washed the bathroom floor mats.
A strong thunderstorm rolled through as I was eating dinner.
I watched for a little while until it got scary (CLICK HERE to see footage).
It didn't last long, and soon Jameson was home from rehearsal with dinner for himself.
We chilled.
I should have worked on my data entry job, and felt guilty.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Tomorrow I will do data entry stuff, promise!
And a trip to Whole Paycheck for the pork shoulder, which I'll make on Saturday.
I'll make the slaw tonight so it has time for the flavors to mingle.
Other plans this week include getting some stock market advice since everything is tanking, and making paninis for us at some point.
