Spirits

Says the reformed and rejuvenated Ebenezer Scrooge at the end of "A Christmas Carol": "A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year. I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of steaming bishop."
A Christmas bowl of WHAT? wondered a curious friend of mine.
He discovered that Steaming Bishop (also known as "Smoking Bishop") is a festive punch made from port wine mulled with sugar, cinnamon, and a roasted, clove-studded orange or lemon (some recipes call for grapefruit).
My sister, an English professor, found this relevant passage from VictorianWeb.org: "Dr. Johnson was quite fond of it, as the following passage from Boswell's Life attests. One very late night in 1752 his friends roused him for a ramble and they walked to Covent Garden to help the fruit & veg merchants set up. They then repaired to one of the neighboring taverns, and made a bowl of that liquor called Bishop, which Johnson had always liked; while in joyous contempt of sleep, from which he had been roused, he repeated the festive lines,

     Short, O short then be thy reign,

     And give us to the world again!"

Dust off that punchbowl and ladle!

Bites the dust

Looks as though the "Barnwood Curse" has struck again: Tacos Palenque, the Mexican place that opened there this past summer, has every appearance of being defunct. It seems that no establishment has flourished for long at the West Cypress Street restaurant -- a BBQ place was there for a while, and I believe another Mexican place -- since the Barnwood shut up shop maybe 10 years ago. I miss old Borelli's: how I loved their crabcakes, burgers, and pasta, not to mention their friendly staff!
 

Longwood

Longwood Gardens' 2013 "Field Guide to Continuing Education" catalog arrived in the mail the other day and I'm having a great time browsing through it. What a variety of classes they offer, from the in-depth ornamental horticulture program to workshops, tours, and classes on garden photography, botanical illustration, floral design and even programs on pesto, "hanging string gardens," and beekeeping.
The catalog also lists the 2013 special exhibits. The orchid display starts on Jan. 19; what words could be more compelling than "enter our warm conservatory"?

Turning aside wrath

Yesterday evening I overheard a guy relating the story of a parking dispute he'd been involved in last Sunday at the Avondale Wawa. I didn't get all the details, but apparently a woman was blocking his vehicle in and emphatically refused to move. The guy said he was close to losing his cool when trying to reason with her.
"I don't know what would've happened if I hadn't just been to church," he said.
But turning the other cheek, he called the state police. They arrived immediately (they're just across the street), backed him up and ordered her to move.

Point A to Point B

Help me out with this one, readers. I was at Dick's Sporting Goods on Concord Pike and wanted to get to Wild Birds Unlimited in Hockessin. Is there a direct route? Mine certainly wasn't: I took Mt. Lebanon Road west to Rockland; then crossed Kennett Pike and took Route 82 across Hoopes Reservoir and along the Red Clay Creek until I got to Yorklyn, and hence past the Hindu Temple to Hockessin. Scenic, yes, and I saw some amazing northern Delaware real estate, but it took forever.
If you have found a better way, let me know: uvilleblogger@gmail.com.
And by the way, Wild Birds Unlimited is a terrific store! I bought lots of Christmas presents.

Fellow humans

When I moved to West Marlborough in 1990, I was amazed and delighted at how people acknowledge each other. It took me a little while to feel comfortable waving to oncoming motorists and riders and workers, even if they're strangers, but now it's second nature and you wonder what's wrong with somebody who stares straight ahead and doesn't acknowledge your existence.
The other morning I was out on my errands early and a couple of riders were on the paved road because it was so muddy. I slowed the car to a crawl, rolled down the window and wished them a good morning. The rider gave me a beautiful huge smile, raised his riding crop in salute and returned my greeting in his enchanting Irish accent.
It's a good way to start the day. 

Calendar

A local freelance photographer named Cristin Rojas has created a 2013 calendar featuring her lovely photos of Chester County, and I know you'll recognize some of the scenes. 

"This is my first venture into selling my work in the marketplace and I am very excited about the prospects," she told me. The calendars are on sale at Carriage House Gifts in Willowdale (where I bought two copies), Paradocx Vineyards in Landenberg and Kennett Square, The Woodlands at Phillips on Route 82 south of Kennett Square, Tender Touch Gifts on Route 82 in Ercildoun, and Chester County Books and Music in West Goshen. (Tender Touch Gifts is also carrying blank greeting cards with photos from the calendar.)

 

 

In addition to her photos, the calendar also includes the usual civic and religious holidays, some equestrian events, and such offbeat celebrations as "Peculiar People Day" (Jan. 10) and "National Clean Out Your Fridge Day" (Nov. 14). 

And just sayin': if you are a friend of mine and your name is Karen, you do not need to buy one for yourself.

Opayo Frozen Yogurt

A "Unionville in the News" reader informed me that there's a new frozen yogurt shop in the Giant shopping center on Scarlett Road west of Kennett Square. Well! That was all I needed to hear. I stopped by "Opayo Greek Frozen Yogurt" yesterday afternoon after working up a hearty appetite doing Christmas shopping.
It's a self-service place: they give you a dish, and you fill it with the type and amount of yogurt you want (they have 18 flavors) and garnish it with whatever toppings (fruit, berries, candy, nuts, and so forth) and sauces (including hot fudge) you choose. Then they weigh your cup and you pay by weight.
I filled my dish with a mix of chocolate and vanilla yogurt and topped it with raspberries and mini-chocolate chips. $4.52. It was delicious. Highly recommended!
(And the name Opayo? The website explains that "OPA is a Greek expression of joy or happiness and YO is short for yogurt." So the "yo" isn't a nod to South Philadelphia argot, then.)

Leaving Unionville

It's a good thing my sister is a seasoned air traveler. After her wonderful visit here this past weekend, my parents dropped her off on Sunday at PHL for her late-afternoon flight back to MSP. She was supposed to take a lunchtime flight, but it was canceled because of the impending blizzard in the Midwest. Once she got to the airport, she learned that the replacement flight, too, was canceled, and the next flight out wasn't until Monday morning.
She phoned my parents' cell phones, trying to get them before they arrived back home, but wasn't successful (partly because my mother had accidentally left hers at home). She left messages asking for them to pick her up.
But then US Airways came to the rescue and found five seats for passengers without checked luggage, for which my sister qualified. She called my parents, relayed the good news and made it back home -- just in time to contend with the slippery drive south from Minneapolis.

What happened?

I'm compiling my annual end-of-the-year "Tilda's Top Ten" list, so if you have any favorite events from 2012 that you'd like to nominate, drop me an email at uvilleblogger@gmail.com. Thanks!

Social whirl

People ask me all the time how I manage to fit so much into my schedule -- work, socializing, family time, gym time, domestic tasks, township meetings -- and write about it too. Well, last week was nuts even for me: I think I was out seven nights in a row.  By Saturday I was so tired that I fell asleep on the sofa and snoozed right through my friend Karen's annual party. Sunday I was in bed by 8:30 p.m., catching up on the readings for the First and Second Sundays of Advent and looking forward to the tabula rasa week in front of me.
Hah! That didn't last. By Tuesday I was bored and was e-mailing around, looking for somebody who wanted to go out for sushi.

Thrifty

The Young Relative is striking a hard bargain. At dinner the other night he informed me that he is going to start charging $5 per "Tilda item" that he provides. Alternatively, he said that because he is a reasonable youth he will allow me to sublet him a piece of p. 3 each week ("The Young Relative's Corner"), for which he will charge only a retainer.
I can't imagine from whom he inherited this mercenary streak.

Cheese

Now this is noteworthy: a Philadelphia newspaper actually did a feature story on Chester County without describing it as "sleepy"!
Adam Erace wrote a story called "Run for the Hills" for the Nov. 15 edition of the Philadelphia City Paper about the cheeses made at Richard Hayne's Doe Run Farm here in West Marlborough. He wrote that the farm "sits on softly rolling meadows of south Chester County. Those wild fairways inform the style and flavor of the fine cheeses [Kristian] Holbrook and his wife, Haesel Charlesworth, craft for sale at local markets and restaurants neighborhoody and star-spangled alike. ... Doe Run’s flagship, the Gouda-style Seven Sisters, is available all year, as is the Alpine-style St. Malachi, which Holbrook named for the quaint white church at the top of a hill visible from the creamery. But the dairy’s crown jewel is available only in spring and summer. Hummingbird is a bloomy rind American robiola, one of the most compelling artisan cheeses made in our fine state. Or anywhere, for that matter — it won first place at the American Cheese Society’s 2011 conference."

Critters

Hillary at the Brandywine Conservancy was kind enough to send me a copy of "Teasel & Twigs: 'Tis a Critter Christmas Tale." It's a children's book featuring the "Critters," the ornaments that grace the River Museum each Christmas. The writer, Paige DD Singer, is a Chadds Ford native (transplanted to Arizona) and the granddaughter of Libby Dean, one of the original Critter creators. The illustrations, by Robert Dionne of Chadds Ford, are adorable, and it's fun to spot the details of the museum's stairwells, the ceiling beams and even the wood-and-rope stanchions that keep visitors from getting to close to the paintings. He even included the Conservancy's "River Rat" mascot throughout!
Proceeds from sales of the book (available online or at the Museum's gift shop) support the Volunteers' Art Purchase Fund, "in honor and remembrance of Critter founders and artists, Libby Dean and Anne Scarlett."

Bittersweet

Christmas-cookie bakers beware: not all packages of baking chocolate contain the same weight of chocolate. Both Hershey's Baking Bar and Baker's Baking Chocolate Squares contain eight squares of chocolate, but the Hershey's squares weigh a half-ounce each and the Baker's squares weigh a full ounce -- double the amount of chocolate! The packages look very much the same, but the Baker's one is thicker, kind of like a Droid compared to an iPhone.
As you probably know, I do a lot of baking, but I just learned about this difference a few days ago, and by direct pantry experience.
It's easy to say that consumers should just read the label, but that's tough to do in the jammed baking-supplies aisle when you have a list of errands to get through.