Settings: Celebrating Food, Flavor and Place

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- The “tourist triangle” is how Julie Sullivan refers to the three popular southeastern Pennsylvania cities of Lancaster, Hershey and Gettysburg. Even visitors from far away are usually familiar with these cities and eager to see their well-known attractions. But, argues Sullivan, there are lots of other great places that tourists don’t know about, especially places to eat and experience the uniqueness of the region.

Since spending almost a decade searching out these lesser-known, off-the-beaten-path places in southeastern Pennsylvania for her destination management business, Sullivan now has compiled an exceptional list of unique eateries, food factories, restaurants and unusual and interesting spots to visit. This year she published nearly 100 recipes from these standout businesses and individuals, in a cookbook called Settings.

In her cookbook, Sullivan focused on the special flavors and foods unique to the area, but also wanted to “launch” off of them to explore new tastes. Each recipe in the book, attributed to the person or business who shared it, includes ingredients grown or produced locally along with a tale about its origin.

For example, the recipe for Yellow Breeches trout is from Boiling Springs restaurant owner Dawson Flinchbaugh, who prepares it with fish from nearby Yellow Breeches Creek, a well-known fly-fishing destination. The blue cheese dressing recipe in the cookbook comes from a Millerstown, Pa. vendor, Friskies Choice Cheeses, who sells a large selection of tasty cheeses at the seasonal farmers market held at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg. And the carrot-and-raisin-salad recipe comes from Perry County’s Spiral Path Farms, a community supported agriculture venture run by Mike and Terra Brownback.

Besides local chefs and bed-and-breakfast hosts, there are recipes from area attorneys, master gardeners, coffeehouses and farm owners. Sullivan’s enthusiasm for the region’s sights, smells and tastes are obvious when she talks about the land of southeastern Pennsylvania. “Here, farms are right outside your door, and chefs are being attracted to this area because of it,” she said.

Sullivan feels humbled by the generosity of the many cooks who shared their culinary expertise with her. “People were very generous with their recipes,” she said, adding that “the recipe contributors love this area and love being here.” She describes the region as “not quite metropolitan” and full of fun events and activities.

Some of the cookbook recipes are personal to longtime residents and food lovers in the region. For instance, Harrisburg radio personality R. J. Harris shared his recipe for Harris crab cakes with tangy caper tartar sauce on page 70. Regional attorney Gedd Schweikert and his wife Jen, submitted their own comfort food version of Valley Road bread pudding and sauce. And along with a marinated tomato recipe, Sullivan wrote about Julie Kahler, of Kahler’s Plant World in York Haven, Pa. who sells herbs and flowers at their farmers market each week.

Sullivan also showcased recipes from local charity organizations and businesses. Featured is Channels Food Rescue in Harrisburg, which picks up prepared but unserved food from events to distribute to homeless shelters and crisis centers across southcentral Pennsylvania. One Vietnamese chicken recipe comes from Ho-Thanh Nguyen, who founded the locally based Pennsylvania Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Network. The women of Harrisburg’s Junior League detail their Sunday egg and cheese strata in the cookbook, while the Holy Trinity Greek festival in Camp Hill, Pa. is apparently incomplete unless visitors taste their delicious Feta cheese dip. (Inspired cooks can visit the restaurants, farms or businesses included in the book because Sullivan lists their addresses and contact info in the appendix.)

Though Sullivan lives in a rambling, high-ceilinged stone house in the city of Harrisburg with her husband and twin sons, she feels deep connections to farming and the out-of-doors. Her earliest memories are of being on her grandparents’ 200-acre farm in Pittsburgh near where she was born. Later, her family moved to Hershey where she grew up (”with the smells of chocolate in the air during school recess”) but she continued visiting her grandparents’ farm for many years.

Sullivan’s career has taken the same twists and turns as her prescribed routes across the food landscape. She graduated with a degree in child development from Penn State but found herself instead enjoying working with hotels and trade associations, and eventually attained a master’s degree in association management from Shippensburg University. After taking several years off work to care for her newborn sons, she wanted to work but needed a flexible schedule. She started her own business as a destination event planner and found that there was a strong demand for organizing personalized tours around the region.

Every recipe in the book was tested by her, and although Sullivan loves to cook (and “respects people who are good bakers”), she has no culinary training herself. She wanted to make a cookbook that she “would buy herself,” that was not too intimidating or complex in its ingredients or methods. She attributes the book’s clean look and easy-to-use simplicity partly to the book designers and editors who helped her put it together.

Because of the area’s several chocolate factories, Sullivan included recipes from Hershey Resorts’ culinary partner and former White House chef Walter Scheib (who served the Clintons and the Bushes) for chocolate-braised beef short ribs, including a savory sauce of beef stock, thyme and Hershey’s dark chocolate.

Using a recipe in the dessert section for “real” 1950’s fudge, Sullivan connects readers with Gettysburg’s Eisenhower Farm. Old-fashioned rosemary cake from Lancaster’s Landis Valley Museum draws attention to their events. The influence of Italian immigrants is still alive at Mussoline’s Bakery (at West Shore farmers market in Lemoyne, Pa.) whose recipe for pignoli cookies is included by the author.

Cooking with Settings inspires the culinary reader to go on a food journey, criss-crossing from taste adventure to taste adventure through the rolling hills and streams of southeastern Pennsylvania.

Sullivan feels she has “just barely scratched the surface of the regional offerings,” so perhaps she will continue to seek out the best and tastiest recipes and share them with us yet again.

Julie Sullivan is the owner of Honeydew Events, a destination management company for the southeastern Pennsylvania region. Cookbooks are $23.95 plus $5 shipping, and can be ordered by emailing julie@settingscookbook.com; by writing to 2315 Magnolia Drive, Harrisburg, PA 17104; or by calling (866) 643-5990.

Anne Harnish is Food and Family Features Editor for Lancaster Farming Newspaper and can be reached at aharnish.eph@lnpnews.com or 717-421-4428.