happy halloween from apples & cheese, please!

Happy Halloween, y'all!
Hope you fulfilled your need for all things spooky this season, and if not, you better quickstart your celebratory coupe for one last day to be seasonally giddy in everything that's gruesomely gorey!

an ode to apples and cheese, please

As an obvious lover of apples and cheese, it seems very appropriate to share the above artist's representation of my top food love!

Sketched by Cakespy, the Seattle-based illustrator and freelance writer, food blogger and exceptional baker, Jessie Oleson regularly produces food-friendly images paired with quirky edible-and-informational tidbits.

The Queen of cupcake love, she also sells sassy screen prints of her cake spies, including the top-notch investigator, Cuppie. I happily obtained a tee a few months back, detailing hipster baked goods waiting for the subway in the super-hip Williamsburg neighborhood of New York City.

hot diggity dogs at philly hot dog cafe

It was about frickin' time I ate a hot dog.

Soon, the time passed of not eating a bunned wiener would amount to a decade and, honestly there isn't anything I wouldn't eat anymore.

Yet, in the amount of years passed, I promised myself that the first dog I'd chow down on would be worth the wait. My ultimate hot dog shack-of-a-crush has always been Hot Doug's in Chicago. The menu is quirky and phenomenal, including foie gras-topped dogs, aside duck fat-fried frenchies.

But, I'm not in Chicago, I'm in the suburbs of Philadelphia so, I had to uncover the next best thing.

Philly Hot Dog Cafe, first opened last year as a diamond-in-the-rough of a Limerick strip mall, boosts itself at having an overwhelming roster of hot dog combinations. Only some of which are listed on their online menu, the 100% domestic beef dog are loaded with varying fresh ingredients that appear as though "dragged through the garden" with everything from dill pickle spears, coleslaw, roasted reds to celery salt, spicy chili, corned beef and Bleu cheese.

My choice: The Southern Dawg topped with a sweet-and-spicy chili and a homemade coleslaw. The bun, fresh and soft, also allowed for an overall excellent bite.
B's choice: The Chicago Dog, which he selected because it reminded him of the specialty wiener served at Hot Doug's, was amazingly loaded with tomato slices, sport peppers, dill spear, diced onions, relish, mustard and celery salt--all served on a poppy seed bun. In addition to the Chicago, he also selected the simply pleasant Polish Dog, served with spicy mustard and sauerkraut.

With an exciting beef-and-bun experience, hot dogs may not become an everyday thing, yet I will be more willing to bite into another cylinder sometime soon. Also, next visit I am opting for the town-appropriate dog, The Limerick Dog, served dosed with a nuclear hot sauce and Bleu cheese.

experience raw milk

The best secrets are those that take just a little longer to uncover.

A slightly hidden secret of Berks County happens to be a resplendent raw dairy farm, one that is intermixed among many other farms that do produce gallons and gallons of milk, yet this milk is full-fat, unprocessed, and from pasture-fed cows.

The raw milk, if produced under orderly and sanity conditions like at this dairy, Wholesome Dairy Farm in Yellow House, Pennsylvania, and then, promptly refrigerated, contains many anti-microbial and immune-supporting components that have been raved to be a substantial addition to the human diet.Being a girl who couldn't be more health-conscious about her diet, uncovering a raw dairy in the backwoods of my neighborhood could not have been more squeal-worthy. Owner and operator Mark Lopez takes pride in maintaining the healthiest of cattle, all of which he knows by name and appearance.

Personally trekking through his organic grained fields, waving amongst cows named Vampire Bat, Sheron Faye, Roxy, Damien, Scout, Daisy, plus many others, I felt no harm in consuming massive gulps of his fresh milk. Regularly certified to produce and sell the pure variety of the creamy milk on his property, the dairy's raw beverage is well liked from a versatile group of regularly attending customers. From body builders, foodies and locavores, to name a few, crowds of folks find the milk smooth and sweet, and believe it offers a pleasantly rich sip compared to the accustomed, casual slurp of skim or lowfat cow's milk.

Pay a visit to Wholesome Dairy for a new experience of dairy intake, or locate your own nearby raw dairy that raves similar clean, creamy gulps.

a fall flavored harvest pizza

Once the month of September draws near (heck, even late August), I can't help but embrace the autumn season with open arms. Although these scrawny, hungry fall arms may appear to the average daily chomper as already overdoing it with the fall flavors, I honestly consider, is that possible?

Recently, B had anxiously arrived at the idea of an autumn pizza. Sprinkled with the always-addicting pumpkin pie spice, swirled sweetly with some pumpkin puree, and plopped with an overabundance of fresh fall vegetables, it was obvious that such a light bulb in the beau's brain was something that could not be ignored. Taking an old recipe we had from a healthier alternative to Auntie Anne's pretzels, we tackled the challenge of converting the season's best tastes into a doughy and satisfying suppertime sphere of freshness.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

makes 1

1/2 cup warm water

1 tablespoon yeast

1 teaspoon honey

1 1/4 cup milk

1/2 stick butter

1/4 cup honey

2 teaspoons salt

3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (or, an even amount of allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger)

4 cups whole wheat flour

In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast and honey. Stir together and mush around the yeast. Let sit.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add to honey, salt and milk to pan, and heat to 120 degrees.

Pour milk mixture into yeast mixture and stir. Then, add flour to mixture, a cup at a time (add more flour if needed). Sprinkle in pumpkin pie spice. Knead dough for 5-10 minutes and when able to roll into ball, plop it into a bowl. Cover and let it rise for 1-1 1/2 hours.

Pull the dough out of the bowl and knead for a few times to release the air. On a floured surface, roll wad of dough into desired size and shape of your soon-to-be-made pizza. Set aside.

Select a colorful assortment of fall veggies (see above: green and yellow zucchini, and butternut squash) and to be chopped and placed attractively atop your sauce and smoked cheeses.

For the pizza's sauce, take 8 oz. of tomato sauce and whisk with 8 oz. of pumpkin puree. The saucy blend will appear a gorgeous burnt-orange.

Assemble the sauce, choice of cheese (we selected a mozzarella-and-smoked provolone blend) and chopped fall vegetables atop the pumpkin-spiced crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until toppings are browned and crust appears crispy.

The result: A seasonally-appetizing dinnertime crunch that's accented fall flavors may have you never again craving a cheesy Sicilian snooze.

Naomi Strauss & chocolate chip cookies

As if I can't say it enough, my grandmother, Naomi Strauss, meant the world to me. This, of course, is why when filling out the question-and-answer from City Paper's Meal Ticket for their weekly feature, The Good Word, it was inevitable that I'd take the first opportunity I could to blab 'bout my lovely heroine.

As published a fews weeks back, I wrote:

If ever there was a baker’s hall of fame, my grandmother, Naomi Strauss, would be the star. As a Mennonite and a Pennsylvania Dutchwoman (same as myself), she crafted killer traditional sweet treats that were mixed, mashed and pinched to perfection, and I am forever grateful to her for passing on to me all that she could. With a childhood flooded with rounds of funny, shoo-fly and apeas cakes, mountains of fluffy Dutch doughnuts and delectable sweet buns and rolls, I never questioned whether I should skip a night’s dessert.


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There was something comforting and exceptionally special about visiting my dear grandmother regularly, and without question, having fresh baked cookies always available to nibble on. It is of the norm, that a gigantic Tupperware container would be filled with her recipe of chocolate chip cookies, usually also pumped with oatmeal.

No one has ever made cookies like her, and this is not a bias opinion. However, I recommend you all, see for yourself.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 5 dozen

1 1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour (I use whole grain/wheat.)
1 package (12 oz.) chocolate chips
1 cup nuts, oatmeal, etc. (I use toasted almonds.)

Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Sift flour, soda and salt. Add to wet mixture. Fold in chips and nuts. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.

pan-seared sesame-crusted tuna

There's something special about a guy that can cook. There's something even more special that my guy can cook well. Coming from a girl's who's always hungry, always worrying about the next great thing to eat, B has become seemingly accustomed to satisfying my need for a delicious dinnertime feed.

Although, working nighttime shifts in a steakhouse and sometimes, working opposite shifts completely, a nice meal always appears as a pleasant surprise to me. However this time, B's wonderfully wooed me by preparing one of my all-time favorite dishes -- pan-seared Ahi tuna plated with a delightful soy-based reduced sauce.

A simple dish to sculpt at the conclusion of a hectic week, his prepared plate of tuna and a delicate side of coconut-ginger rice screams sophistication without having to stress for time, or money. Coated with a blend of black-and-white sesame seeds sweetly mixed with lemon and pepper, the dainty fish, cooked to a perfect medium rare, almost melted gingerly in my mouth. However, what made the exceptional fish steak was the spicy-sweet sauce that offered the ideal bite to balance the seafood's crust.

Glopping honey aside fresh chili juices, ginger and soy sauce, my wannabe chef produced a perfect pairing to the already-tasteful tuna. And, being a girl who loves lots of gooey dips accompanying my dinner, I could not have asked for a better accessory to my dinner plate.

So now I have to simply confess, dinnertime in may be the next step in our relationship, as long as B continues being the one doing all of the cooking!