Missing Sissy

My sister is all recovered now – back to her previous insane work and sleep schedule.  I’m glad she is able to resume her life in all its craziness, but I miss hanging out with her during the week, going places, doing things, eating lunch.

Today was my maiden voyage to the Mullica Hill Amish Farm Market all by myself.  It just wasn’t the same without Dut.  I was in and out in under an hour.  And, bad influence that she always is, I didn’t buy nearly as much as when we go together. It’s just not as much fun filling up a single shopping cart with all the available wholesome and hearty culinary goodies. 

What I did buy was: 

• Freshly popped rice cakes, regular and whole wheat, from a machine that you can watch (and hear) as it shoots 6 inch crunchy disks into a clear bin after puffing them into cakes.  It's a great snack with a smear of peanut butter.
• Organic popcorn and vegetable chips.
• Ready to cook ground pork and breadcrumb stuffed green peppers, meatloaf and 3 pounds of fresh chop meat at the immaculate butcher stand.
• Gala apples, organic Bibb lettuce, and an avocado in the produce section. 
• 2% farm fresh milk in a returnable glass bottle, a small triangle of bleu cheese and a block of hot pepper cheddar from "Ellies' Cheese Barn."
• A small container of homemade chicken salad to spread on freshly baked whole wheat bread for lunch when I got home.  There was enough left to make Joey a nice sandwich to take to his program tomorrow.
• But uh, oh.  The bakery.  I bought 3 half-loaves of dessert breads to slice and put out for my parent meeting tonight (apple cinnamon, blueberry and pumpkin), a soft, fresh whole wheat bread (mentioned above) and a fresh white bread (my husband doesn’t like whole wheat).  Here’s the downslide – a half a dozen cream-filled donuts: key lime, blueberry, chocolate cream, peanut butter, coconut custard and powdered vanilla.  I know that these are really unhealthy and loaded with artery-clogging glop.  That sentence, mentioned above, about wholesome and hearty goodies does not apply to these donuts.  Not unless they are used as weights for resistance and strength training.  Then you can’t eat them. You shouldn't eat them.  But I did freeze them. 

Dut offered to lend me her retired husband as my Amish Market shopping buddy in lieu of her.  I told her it wouldn’t be the same.  But he is funny and very good company so next time… hey, M., do you need any donuts?