Weekly Blogroll: Katie Troyer, Sourdough Sticky Buns, Amish Green, and More!

By Kevin Williams

Have some fun stuff in today's blogroll.

KATIE TROYER:  Ah, yes, we are now winding down for the season in Pinecraft.  The buses are arriving more frequently now and in a couple of weeks that'll be pretty much it for the season.  Only a handful of Amish will remain behind for the summer.  Pinecraft is the winter snowbird haven for the Amish and I can best compare it to the college town I once lived in.  I loved living in Oxford, Ohio because you had two distinction "seasons."  When the students where in town attending Miami University, you had this energy and vibrancy that was very appealing.  But when the students would leave for the holidays or summer, you had the town to yourself, you could find parking spots, grab tables at your favorite restaurant, etc.  I imagine year-round residents of Pinecraft feel much the same way, they enjoy the two distinct seasons.   Click here to see the hustle and bustle of Pinecraft winding down for the season.  And here's a cute Amish father-daughter picture bundled up against the Pinecraft chill (yes, there is occasionally a chill there in winter)

Sourdough Sticky Buns, yum, visit Home Joys for the recipe!

SOURDOUGH STICKY BUNS:  Gina from the Home Joys blog shares how to adapt a yeast bread recipe to sourdough in an easy tutorial with great photos and a recipe.  This is a valuable tutorial because, at least I, and I suspect others, get intimidated working with sourdough.  Gina takes all the worries out of it in this post.  

AMISH GREEN:  Tom the Backroads Traveller captures some gorgeous greenery and scenes of spring beginning to percolated in Upstate New York's Amish Country. Click here.

OHIO AMISH COUNTRY SPRING:  Bruce Stambaugh does a great job capturing what I suspect many people feel like this time of year when the weather does it's push-pull between winter and spring.    It can be 70 degrees one day which has you contemplating putting away the winter clothing for another season, only to get slammed the next by snow and 20 degree windchill.  I suspect if you reading this from North Dakota or Maine, this feeling lasts well into May.  Click here to read Bruce Stambaugh's ode to a stutter-start spring.

AMISH PEAR CRUMB PIE: I had to do a deep dive in the blogosphere for this one but, wow, it looks good.   I'll never understand why pears always seem so overlooked and underrated, I'll take a soft juicy pear anyday over a cold, crisp apple.  Both are good, but...pears...wow...click here for the recipe.

12 "Picture Perfect" Places to Visit in Ohio's Amish Country?   Hmmmm, no, honestly, out of the 12 places this website selected, exactly two of them would have made my list (which I'll post tomorrow!)  How many of these places would make your list?  The two that you will see on my list, well, one...one is Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen. Absolutely.  Lehman's Hardware.  Maybe.  It's a toss-up. I LOVE Lehman's, but it's not really Amish per se.  Anyway, click here to see the list.