Look Who Got to Go to The Amish Country Store

Auntie Miranda and I took off for Branson this past Thursday to go play for her birthday which is coming up this week but we wanted to celebrate early. We started out at The Amish Country Store in Branson, one of our favorite food places to shop.  I've blogged about the store before but this time they had even more fun treats to play with. This time I got some of my standards and more:  mixed bean soups, Mrs. Smith's noodles, fresh baking powder, flavored twists for Jordan and Sydney in their favorite colors, green and purple respectively, oats for granola (still have plenty of dried fruit), brandied spiced peaches for Gene for cobbler, sweet tomato preserves,  dates, white chocolate sauce, pomegranate juice for Gene, brown sprinkling sugar, Brown Buggy ham & bean soup, pickled asparagus, spiced apple rings, dried herbs and veggies, and in the middle flipped upside down are candies made in the shapes of legos.  Have NO clue what I'm going to do with them but I'll do something for a niece or nephew birthday, I'm sure.

Matt was minding the The Store, filling us in on all the new products and being a sweetie pie like always but Auntie and I were also excited to meet more of Matt's family, his mom Darlene, and Uncle Mark.  Really lovely people. Next time you stop in be sure to say "Hello" for me.

One of the things I love about spending the day with Aunti Miranda is that we can do anything or nothing and still have a good time. To me, that's the mark of a real friend. We also share a lot of the same passions: food, obviously, and reading. Maybe the better way to say the second is the passion for learning.  We're both curious by nature and we know that there are worlds upon worlds in books.  Where did we go next?  Barnes & Noble, of course, where we perused all manner of cookbooks, ficition, and whatever caught our fancy for a couple of hours.

I was very bad.  Man.  So bad I confessed to Gene the minute I walked in the door that night.  B&N that day is where I splurged on those bread and that pastry book that day.  I've been working since Thursday so I haven't had time to indulge yet but I will.  Can't wait to sit down and start reading--then experimenting!

Here's my first cooking adventure from the pile on the table. One of the things I routinely get now from the Amish Store is dried soup greens, along with dried red/green peppers.  The soup greens have the red and green peppers but also contain dried carrot, onion, tomato, spinach, etc.  They're handy for when I'm out of those things in my crisper and also for days like yesterday when chopping veggies would have been too much for me to face.  I've talked about this before. I work 12 hour shifts nights.  So on days I sleep, there's precious little time or energy to cook when I get up at 4pm and have to be back at work at 6pm.  Energy is the key there.  When I first went to nights last fall we ate a lot of fast food on my work/sleep days but now I'm getting the hang of it and as long as I keep it simple I can deal with cooking which is not only better, it's much better for us.

This is a simple chicken and rice casserole, the one that everyone makes:  rice, cream of chicken soup, and skinless chicken thighs.  My addition was to spruce it up with the dried soup greens, giving it lots of flavor and more bite.  Topped with a little shredded parmesan, it became a treat instead of a boring casserole.

I have lots more about fun buys from that day but since I'm the one who organized a Cinco De Mayo lunch party at work for 1am tonight (technically tomorrow which is the 5th) I should probably run to the grocery to get beef for the shredded beef tacos I signed up to bring.

Comments

[Deborah]

Glenna - the very first post I ever read here was your last visit to the Amish store. I was jealous then and even more so now! Such great loot! Your casserole looks scrumptious too!

[sher]

Wow!! You got quite a haul there! And the casserole looks yummy! I used to make something like that all the time. Need to do it again. :)

[Deborah Dowd]

I am so envious! There is a big Mennonite market in Stuart's Draft that we have gone too and I love going there. There are so many things to choose from -cheeses,bulk foods- heaven for us foodies!

[MyKitchenInHalfCups]

Lego candy! Now how much fun would that be. What fun you two can have! Haha I love book stores and especially Barnes & Noble.

[Glenna]

Deborah---Wow, that's very special to me!
Mennonite Market--that would be sooooooo fun! These guys have cheese and stuff too but we knew we wouldn't be going straight home. Dang it!

Sher--I know! Feels like Christmas!

Tanna--I know! It's so fun. I've never seen it before.