They have fudge there

In Red Hook, New York there is a little cafe called Taste Budd's. They have fudge there, by the pound.

Meat in the Beans

This is an actual image of the barbecued brisket and fresh green pickles from Fette Sau, this BBQ-restaurant-pub place we found in Williamsburg. We ate there last night with good friends, one of whom is a Parisian Tunisian fantastic cook who competes with the partner of my fellow blogger Smas for who can grill the best meat. This is a competition I am always happy to partake in, and my friend the Parisian Tunisian was impressed with the meat at Fette Sau as were we all - tender, juicy, spicy, meaty, mouth watering goodness. So when Smas and her fantastic cook come visit, we'll go again for their opinion.

Here's what I think about bean dishes: I know it's a vegetarian staple, but last night's baked beans at Fette Sau proved it for me once again - you should always have meat in your beans. Saucy innuendos aside, it's true.

PS This just in: Fette Sau is German for Fat Pig. MMMMMmmmmm. Yum.

Would you like a punch in the mouth? No thanks I'll just have some pretzels and mustard.

I have discovered the combination of salty and tangy is well loved in New York City. At the bodega near my apartment I counted twelve different varieties of salt and vinegar potato chips - from ridged and kettle cooked to thin and crisp. Of course I've been setting out to try each, some salty and sour and strong enough to nearly cut your tongue.

At my new job I was introduced to a salt/tang combination I hadn't yet obsessed over: salty hard pretzels dipped in super spicy mustard. Oh my! You must try it today. It satisfies many snack-worthy requirements such as aforementioned salt/tang combination, crunchy texture, the hand-to-mouth action we find so pleasing, and of course a prized element that can strike excitement in the imagination of many snack lovers: little dipping sauces.

Bet you didn't know: in the eastern most town of the US of A, Eastport, Maine, resides the last remaining stoneground mustard mill, Raye's. I discovered Raye's mustard through my Maine born-and-bred colleague, Arlen. Arlen is strange and wonderful just like this mustard, which you can only sample through visiting Eastport Maine, or by ordering online. Things you can also order online via www.rayesmustard.com include Award Winning Executive Packs, Raye's Old Mill Fudge, and a series of paperbacks by Sara Graves featuring "mystery and intrigue centered around hoome repair homicides in Eastport" with such titles as Unhinged, Tool and Die, and the most curious Dead Cat Bounce.

I Can Has Cheezburger?

A terrible website introduced to me by two different friends. Don't know what to say except guilty.

The Birthday Month!

In my circle we like to celebrate birthdays all month long - and why not? Birthdays involve, in addition to other favorite things called presents, very festive snacking including but not limited to: chocolate, champagne, beer, birthday cake, ice cream, and the best ritual of all in which on your actual birthday you are allowed to eat whatever combination of favorite snacks you want, such as a certain well-known combination of cheetos and Guinness, to be discussed in a later post. How this birthday ritual of eating whatever you want differs from the daily lives of the two bloggers from The Daily Snack, I don't really know - but it being your birthday it just feels that much more festive and exciting.

I bring all of this up because this month of October happens to be THE BIRTHDAY MONTH of my fellow blogger, Smas. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SMAS! Yippeee!

Dare to Snack

I moved recently, and in my transition, I've found it very difficult to focus. Yesterday in my new neighborhood in New York I found a treasure: an actual, real, big bustling supermarket - with real price scanners, aisles, produce sections, bulk foods, and lots and lots of snack options. I can't believe I now have affordable choices beyond $5 crackers at the bodega.

And inside this newfound homeland of grocery shopping, there in 'the cookie aisle' was my favorite studio snack: the lemon cream cookie with the painted cockateel on the package. It was like finding a long lost friend.

When I have trouble focusing on my work, I like to trick myself with an obsessive routine I call the studio snack. This is one favorite snack of mine that I only allow myself to eat while in the studio. After a while of studio snacking and focused working, the precious snack becomes like a mental and physical trigger, signaling now it is time to work on your work and shut out all the other noise in your head. It's simple, and self-indulgent, and it seems successful.

So now while adjusting to living and working on this other coast in this crowded, dirty, noisy city, my cockateel cream cookies are helping me shut out those screeching distractions and focus. Plus anything involving treats, as we know, becomes a sacred ritual. Yay.

Apple Pie (Mamma)

October brings these American things that I like (for now we'll skip past the American things I don't like):

School Supplies
The World Series
Apple Pie

My mom taught me to make pies, and this is her recipe, typed out from my memory. Things I love about pie dough include how it can tell you what the weather is like -- wet, stormy, hot, dry and quite nice.

Use the extra scraps of pie dough from the overlapping edges to bake pie crust cookies -- just lay them out on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and bake them on one of the oven racks until baked and bubbly and crispy brown along the edges.

Mamma's Apple Pie

Pie Dough
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour , plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
8 tablespoons vegetable shortening (chilled)
6 - 8 tablespoons ice water

Apple Filling
4 pounds Granny Smith apples (8 medium)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons granulated sugar-cinnamon mixture , for topping


Peel, core, and cut apples into thin slices. Mix all other filling
ingredients and toss with apple slices. Set aside while preparing the
dough.

Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Add butter and
shortening and cut into flour mixture with pastry cutter or two knives
until mixture resembles cornmeal with butter drops like small peas.
(Or pulse everything in a food processor slowly until you get the same
effect, and turn mixture into a large bowl).

Sprinkle the ice water slowly, tablespoon by tablespoon, while lifting
the flour mixture quickly with a fork until dough starts to get moist
and come together. Test the dough with your fingers-it should hold
together. Don't add too much water or over mix or over work your dough
- risk working with a crumbly dough rather than a dough with lots of
water, it will be tough and too chewy otherwise.

Squeeze dough gently until cohesive and divide into two equal
sections. Gently flatten each into thick little disks. Dust lightly
with flour, and if your kitchen is warm and the dough is too soft to
work with, wrap separately in plastic or parchment paper, and
refrigerate, at least 30 minutes, or up to 2 days, before rolling. Or
make lots of dough and freeze it in little disks and then you're ready
to make pie whenever you want.

Remove dough from refrigerator. If stiff and very cold, let stand
until dough is cool but malleable. Adjust oven rack to center position
and heat oven to 425 degrees.

Cut the toe off of one clean sock that you don't need anymore and
cover your rolling pin with the sock, then spread flour over it. Roll
one dough disk on a lightly floured surface into a 12-inch circle.
Roll swiftly around a rolling pin and gently lay into pie plate.

Turn fruit mixture, including juices, into pie shell and mound
slightly in center. Dot the top of the fruit in the pie with several
tablespoons of butter.

Roll out other dough round and place over filling. Trim top and bottom
edges and tuck the edges of the top dough underneath the bottom to
seal your pie. Flute your edges, or make them pretty, or not. Sprinkle
the top with cinnamon sugar. Cut little slits into the fop of your
dough in order to let steam escape - you can do this in the shape of a
star or not, whatever you want.

If your oven tends to run hot, you can cover the edges of your crust
with aluminum foil and then remove the foil during the last 20 minutes
of baking. Bake until top crust is golden, about 25 minutes. Reduce
oven temperature to 375 degrees; continue baking until juices bubble
and crust is deep golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes longer. Transfer pie
to wire rack; cool to almost room temperature, at least 4 hours