mmm

Today is our last official day of vacation. Tomorrow we journey back to the land of palm trees and I must say, we are sad to go. The rainy, gray days of PA did not visit us this time around. The weather has been gorgeous (minus the 24 hours of Hurricane Irene stopping by)...
I feel like we have eaten our way through PA. The foods I do not allow myself to savor 51 weeks out of the year, have delighted my tastebuds this past week. Today we took a (much longer than we anticipated) drive through the small country towns of eastern PA to visit my uncle. On the way back, we passed a farm stand which caught my eye. Fresh sweet corn! But even more exciting was across the street: a little handmade sign that said "Homemade shoo-fly pie". We literally pulled a u-turn for this favorite treat. (We had one from the store which just wasn't very good). I hopped out of the car and rang the doorbell. No answer. I saw the pies inside the front door (mind you, this was an enclosed front patio). I saw a plastic tub that was labeled, "leave money in the tub". As I looked around, I realized there was really no choice. I had to enter and pick a pie. One last glance over the shoulder to see if anyone was watching me, I gingerly opened the door and stepped inside. There was a small 3-tier rack on a table with about 9 pies on them. The pie I picked up first was still warm from the oven!!! It felt so funny to open their money tub. I felt like at any minute someone was going to jump out and yell "AHA! Caught you!!!". (boy, do i have a guilty conscious or what?!) haha
I quickly dropped my ten in and retrieved my change and scurried out the door. The label says "Kerns Shoo-fly Pie"-- which is a delicious molasses-based pie with scrumptious crumb topping. The perfect balance of sweet and salty. Oh my, can this Kern-person bake!! Can't get this Pennsylvania Dutch goodness in FL unless you make it yourself.
Evan and I had a brief discussion about who we thought "Kern" was. I said naturally, it's a little old lady who has been baking these pies for sixty plus years, who has white hair, wears an old-fashioned, well-worn apron and is a grandma. Her kitchen always smells of sweet vanilla, sugar and butter. He said it could be a man.
That's it. Just "well, it could be a man". Humph! That, ladies and gentlemen, is the perfect example of the differences between men and women. I'm telling you... my mind is always reeling with thoughts, ideas, images, colors, etc. And his? 5 words in his reply and it totally changed my perspective on Kern. I don't even begin to be able to explain the way men think! And I've now got 4 of them in the house!!
Anyway, we came home and enjoyed a glass of cold milk with this PA favorite. It was heavenly. (I could elaborate, but I'm sure Evan would come in and just say "it was good"). :)
Well, regardless of how you say it, this pie tickeled our tastebuds leaving us longing for seconds!