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.