Pennsylvania - The Keystone State

Pennsylvania is near and dear to my heart.  Both my parents were born in PA.  My father in South Philly and my mother in Duncansville.  They met at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia while my mother was in nursing school and my dad was in medical school.  My parents spent 2 years in Ohio (where I was born) but lived in PA until 1969 when they moved to NJ.

My sister  Jill

Sydney was home for 2 weeks from college and we were able to get in 4 state dinners.  It just so happened the kids and I flew back East after Christmas to visit family and it lined up perfectly to do Pennsylvania with my family, who now live in Virginia.  Since PA food is so diverse and delicious we decided to make the whole day a states meal.

My niece Mia

For lunch we made Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches and Lebanon Bologna sandwichs.  Philadelphia is famous for there cheese steaks and soft pretzels.  Once you have had them you will never be satisfied with imitations, they have to be from Philly.  My mother grew up in western PA and introduced us to lebanon bologna and fried bologna.  I grew up believing that everyone ate lebanon bologna, it turns out they don't.  I can't find it in the NW and when I do, it is really expensive,  We rounded out the meal with hard pretzels and YuengLing Black and Tan.




For dinner we made Italian Wedding Soup which I thought my mother invented but it turns out it is a traditional food in Pittsburgh.  I also made a 2 shoofly pies which were my brother-in-laws favorite.



John grew up in Lancaster, PA.  We rounded the meal out with a salad (I can't remember what kind) and some squid with peas.













Squid with peas probably isn't a PA traditional food but it is a traditional food for the Pierucci family.  My father makes me squid with peas every time I come home.  I eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner.  Pennsylvania may be my favorite state dinner so far.  It is the first one we have done at someone else's house.

    

Oregon - The Pine State

We decided to do Oregon on Christmas Eve with the Warrens.  Since Oregon is only one state away it was an easy state to prepare the meal.  Oregon ranks up there as one of my favorite states, the best way to describe it is that its like Washington, only cooler.  My favorite food company from Oregon is Tillamook.  They do all things dairy, but their cheese and ice cream are delicious.  We've been to the Tillamook factory several times on our way home from vacationing in Lincoln Rock, it's always a treat and a highlight of the drive home.  My 2nd favorite food from Oregon is VooDoo Doughnuts.  I don't eat doughnuts usually but these doughnuts are indescribable!

Ted isn't a fan of salmon so I prepared Garlic Cheddar Chicken  (with Tillamook cheddar) and Lemon Rosemary Salmon as the main course, both were delicious.  

The Warrens were planning on bringing sushi but couldn't find any on Christmas Eve so they brought Duck, which was a perfect way to honor the Oregon Ducks.  Since we are all Auburn fans eating Oregon Duck seemed appropriate.  We also had  Tillamook Mac and Cheese,  Oregon Spinach Salad,  and Awesome Garlic Green Beans.  I can't remember the name of the wine we had with the meal but both red and white were from Oregon

Oregon is famous for marion berries and hazelnuts so dessert included Triple Berry Crisp and Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookie and Tillamook Marion Berry Pie Ice Cream.

It was wonderful meal and great company.

Oklahoma - The Sooner State

Oklahoma - The Sooner State

My impression of Oklahoma has always come from the musical that I watched a dozen times as a child.

Oklahoma actually has more official state food than any other state.  The complete list is fried okra, squash, cornbread barbeque pork, biscuits, sausage and gravy, corn, strawberries, chicken fried steak, pecan pie and black-eyed peas.

The official state vegetable is ... watermelon!  You can't say anything negative about a state that has watermelon as their state vegetable.

I went with a simple and delicious meal, Biscuits and Sausage Gravy,  Black Eyed Peas,  Southern Fried Okra, watermelon and Pecan Pie.  It turns out you cant find  fresh okra in December so i used squash instead.  It was all good southern food.

  

Ohio - The Buckeye State

Sydney made it home from Auburn for 2 weeks over Christmas break so we decided to do as many meals as we could in that time.  We got through all 3 O states and Pennsylvania.

I was born in Dayton, Ohio so I guess I have to call Ohio the state of my birth.  My dad was stationed at Wright Patterson Air Force base for a year, the rest of my siblings were all born in Philly.

It was pretty easy deciding on the main dish for Ohio, it had to be Cincinnati Chili.  Cincinnati Chili is served on top of pasta and then kidney beans, onion and shredded cheese are piled on top of the chili.  Cincinnati Chili is my family's favorite chili, this recipe is a good one.

We had an Ohio Salad which was good.  The dressing was a little spicy so it went well with the chili.

Dessert was fantastic!  Buckeyes are peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate.  They are now a traditional Christmas cookie in my family.  The candy gets the name Buckeye because they resemble a buckeye nut (Ohio is the Buckeye State).

My sister in law, Beth, sent us Graeter's Ice Cream for Christmas and it just happened to be from Ohio. We sampled 5 different flavors, all of which were delicious!

Tomato juice is the Ohio State drink.  No one likes tomato juice here.  I attempted to make a bloody mary but it turns out a bloody mary made with hot cinnamon flavored vodka is disgusting, trust me on that.

Ohio was a fun night with just the 4 of us.  It had been a while since we had all been together.  Ill make this meal again and again!