whoopie pies

Quilt Week 2024

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“In the quilt of life, friends are the stitches that hold it together.”

If you read any of my books, my blogs, or my posts, you know that next to creating sweet historical romance, quilting is near and dear to my heart. With that being said, I’m taking you on a virtual tour of Quilt Week 2024.

Since 2000, 6 or 8 or 10 friends get together to quilt, shop, eat, and share lots of laughs. It first started out as a long weekend, then a week, and now has morphed into a ten-day getaway from household chores, husbands, children, grandchildren (although we love them all, girl time is important, too!).

In recent years we’ve rented a 5-bedroom house in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Here is what my husband jokingly calls the “sweat shop”!

…and, of course, we require sustenance at home and at Lapp’s Creamery twice a week!

   

Then there was the fabric shopping…a real feast for the eyes! So many choices!

   

I can’t forget the Amish foods at Bird-in-Hand Bakery, Stolzfus meats, Dienner’s Restaurant, and Kitchen Kettle shops!

      

Now, you might be thinking all we did was eat and shop…but you’d be wrong. We worked very hard until 9:00 p.m. Here is a breakdown of the items created and the results of ten days of sewing.

  • 32 quilts
  • 3 table runners
  • 5 wall hangings
  • 1 Christmas tree skirt
  • 1 table topper
  • 3 Diamond Dot decorations
  • 3 pillowcases
  • 3 cosmetic bags

 

 

Every year, prior to quilt week, we have a “challenge” in which we utilize a different theme and donate to hospitals, veterans’ groups, homeless shelters, NICUs, etc. This year we made 17 quilts and a fleece blanket that are being donated to an organization called My Very Own Blanket that will be given to foster children.  https://www.myveryownblanket.org/ 

There you have it…10 days full of sunrises, sunsets, rainbows, ice cream, laughs with women whose friendships span fifty years…I’m one very blessed quilter!

      

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What is your favorite vacation spot to share with family or friends?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whoopie Pies and An Upcoming Release

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Hello everyone, Winnie Griggs here. Today I’m excited to report that the release date for the second book in my Amish of Hope’s Haven series, Her Amish Springtime Miracle, is almost here! It will hit the shelves on May 24th. This book features the youngest of the three Eicher sisters, Hannah, who happens to work in a bakery.

One of her specialties is Whoopie Pies. And it turns out they are the hero’s favorite treat. However he’ll only eat the chocolate ones with white filling and the heroine makes it a mission of sorts to try to get the hero to try one of her other flavors.

Since the whoopie pies play a role in this book, I thought it would be fun to share a bit of trivia about these yummy pastries.

But first of all, for the uninitiated, a traditional whoopie pie is a delicious dessert sandwich made by taking a fluffy white marshmallow-y filling and placing it between two domed chocolate bun-sized cakes.

Now, on to the trivia:

  • The whoopie pie goes by several other names. Among them are a gob, a bob, a black and white, and “BFO,” which stands for Big Fat Oreo or Big Fluffy Oreo.
  • You can actually buy whoopie pie baking pans.
  • The record for the world’s largest whoopie pie is one that weighed in at 1,062 pounds. It was made on March 26, 2011 in South Portland, Maine.  The record setting pastry was cut in pieces which were sold and the proceeds helped send pies to soldiers serving overseas.
  • There are 5 states that lay claim to have been thee birthplace of the whoopie pie:
    • Pennsylvania – they claim the whoopie pie recipe comes from the Pennsylvania German culture and that it has been handed down through many generations
    • Maine – Labadie’s Bakery in Lewiston, Maine has been making them since 1925
    • Massachusetts – Berwick Cake Company of Roxbury, Massachusetts, which is sadly no longer in business, had them on the menu in the 1920s
    • There have also been claims from Virginia and  New Hampshire but I couldn’t find any info on what these claims were based on
  • There are two theories on where the name whoopie pie came from
    • The first, put forth by those who support the Pennsylvania claim, is that Amish housewives would bake these and put them in her family’s lunch pails. And when the lucky farmer or schoolkid would find them they would yell “Whopee!”
    • The second, put forth by those who support other claims, is that it came from the 1928 Gus Kahn song, “Makin’ Whoopie.”
  • Maine has declared the third Saturday in June to be the state’s official Whoopie Pie Day. There is also a Whoopie Pie Festival in September that is held in Piscataquis County
  • There have been two whoopie pie inspired ice creams by national brands. Ben & Jerry created Makin’ Whoopie Pie in 2002 (it has since been discontinued) and Turkey Hill has a limited edition version.

 

Back to my book – some of the flavors Hannah tried tto tempt Mike with were

  • chocolate whoopie pies with a special mixed- berry filling
  • chocolate whoopie pies with strawberry cream filling
  • lemon whoopie pie with cream cheese filling

If you could develop your own flavor for a whoopie pie, what would it be?

Leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for an advanced copy of Her Amish Springtime Miracle.

Her Amish Springtime Miracle

 

An orphaned baby brings together an unlikely couple who learn the true meaning of family. 

When Hannah Eicher discovered sweet baby Grace in her barn last spring, the adorable infant seemed like the answer to her prayers. The young Amish baker has always wanted a familye of her own and now that she’s fostered Grace for nearly a year, her adoption application is almost certain to be approved. But an unexpected visitor to Hope’s Haven could change everything . . .

Englischer paramedic Mike Colder is only returning to his childhood hometown to locate and adopt his late sister’s baby. But when the trail leads to Hannah and Grace, Mike’s determination falters. With Hannah, the simple life he left behind suddenly seems appealing. Despite their wildly different worlds, can Mike and Hannah give each other—and Grace—the greatest gift of all: a life together?

 

You can preorder HERE