Week of May 3rd

I grew up less than an hour away from Pennsylvania but I have to admit I know very little about the state. Oh sure, we had the obligatory family road trips through the Pennsylvania Dutch country (collecting Hex signs along the way), an historic field trip or 2 to the City of Brotherly Love or Gettysburg and several antiquing excursions through the New Hope area but I have no pearls of wisdom to share about the Keystone state. I even had to traverse the state from the other places I called home, traveling straight up the middle of the state on my way up to Syracuse and directly across the length of PA driving from St. Louis to West Orange. On those trips Pennsylvania seems like the longest state with the worst roads. However, I do remember getting to the Delaware Water Gap, with its beautiful vistas, and feeling like my journey was almost over. (I have long since refused to make this drive half-way across the country.)

Pennsylvania was nick named “The Keystone State” because of its central location among the original Thirteen Colonies. I opt for its lesser known nickname the “Chocolate State”. Hail to Hershey, PA, “the sweetest place on earth” where it smells like chocolate for miles around and you even get a chocolate on your pillow at the Motel 6.

Besides chocolate, PA is guilty of producing other eatable vices. In the book Yo Mama Cooks Like a Yankee, Pennsylvania was referred to as “the snack food capital of the world”. It leads the country in the manufacture of pretzels and potato chips, home to Snyder's of Hanover, Auntie Anne's Pretzels and Wise Snack Foods among others. (It should be noted that, using the Wise locator, I found out that no Wise Potato chips can be found within 50 miles of St. Louis.) To complete the picture, Just Born, makers of Hot Tamales, Mike and Ikes, and Peeps is headquartered in Bethlehem, PA.

Chocolate, potato chips, Peeps, Oh my, chocolate, pretzels, Peeps, Oh my, chocolate, potato chips, Peeps………..Oh my!

Armed with enough snack food to make Maj. Gen. Meade’s army go into diabetic shock we settled in for a week long celebration pitting the St. Louis Cards against the Phillies and the Pirates. The Cards would spend the entire week in the Keystone state and although this week was to be a PA celebration, they had no intention of giving the fans something to celebrate.

That’s not exactly how the playbook would be written and when the Cards left Pittsburgh on May 9th they had a record of 3 – 4 against the Pennsylvanian teams.
To complete the culinary Pennsylvania celebration we enjoyed authentic (although we were in St. Louis) Philly Cheese steaks. I almost forgot our nightcap for the week – Chocolate Martinis (of course, made with Hershey’s syrup).

Color in the “Keystone State” with silver kisses and hot pink chicks and travel south to “Old Dominion” – Virginia. 26 down – 26 to go. (Half-way through our journey.)