C is for...

Cheese farm -- September Cheese Farm in Honey Brook, PA, to be exact, where the staff is pleasant and the samples are many.  Try the spring onion cheese (alas, sold out when we were there)!  Try the bacon cheese spread on an almond cracker!






Cheese Curds -- These have been a favorite of mine since childhood.  We bought plain (unflavored) and roasted garlic cheese curds.  They should squeak when you chew them.  That's how you know they're good.  Also, my parents say if you leave them in the fridge a little too long and they start to lose savor, just zap them in the microwave for a few seconds.




Cute Cat with three paws who lives at the Cheese farm:


shoes by Marais

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Apple Dumpling Gang of One

Before leaving The Green Dragon, I considered buying an apple dumpling.  I'd tried to get one at Reading Terminal Market on our last trip to Philadelphia, but the booth selling them had closed early that day.  I didn't buy a Green Dragon dumpling, though (pictured above), because it looked so juicy I was worried it wouldn't travel well (and I wasn't hungry enough to eat it on the spot).

Later in the day, though, we visited the Farmer's Market in Bird-in-Hand, PA.  It's quite a place, with plenty of good eats displayed wall to wall in the market's permanent building.  There, I found a "drier-looking" dumpling and made it mine.



I ate my dumpling the next day, warmed in the microwave and topped with vanilla ice cream.  I expected the dough to be a bit more delicate and/or flavorful, but the sweet, baked apple was very nice.

I'd like to find a good recipe and try making some apple dumplings myself at home.

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This is how much a pie should cost.

Now, look.  I live in New York City, but I'm a midwesterner by heritage (and a west-coaster by birth!).  When it comes to my taste buds, I like to imagine I'm eating through life with an eye toward both down-to-earth sanity and aspirational luxury.  I don't need everything I eat to be beautiful, trendy, or perfect.  Still, I can appreciate good food, I have enough income to pay a fair-to-inflated price for dishes made by others every so often, and I know how much work it can be to create an amazing mouthful.

This established, I am horrified at the price of whole pies around here.  Pie-men (I mean this as a genderless term) in NYC ask a lot for their creations, and I think it's gotten out of control.  For example, I have a lot of affection for a Brooklyn establishment known as Pies 'n' Thighs.  I treasure their "chicken box" dinner close to my heart.  But their whole pies cost $30.  Yeek, I say.  Yeek!  That's expensive. 

I've bought, eaten, and made a lot of pie in my lifetime.  I'm willing to pay a fair price for a good one, too, but frequently the $30 pies of the world (and I'm not talking about pies from Pies 'n' Thighs specifically because I can't afford them) do not measure up to the down-home simplicity and pleasing flavors of, say, an Amish creation retailing for $4.25 (as advertised in the photo at the top of this post).

I took the picture up top at The Green Dragon to remind all of us that a delicious pie need not break the bank.   I mean, I'd pay more than $5 -- I don't want to rip off any pie-bakers -- but I doubt the Amish women selling these pies were doing so at a loss.  I know people selling homemade pies will have to charge more than that per pie if they don't grow their own fruit, but there's a lot of room for fair pricing between $5 and $30.

I'm taking a daring, political stance: Accessible pie prices for every man, woman, child, and person who does not identify as male or female!

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Pick Your Pleasure (or, if you're allergic to nuts, your poison).

Breakfast this morning: pecan stickies bought at The Green Dragon.  They needed no butter.  Delightful.

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What didn't I eat at The Green Dragon?

I only wish I could have eaten more.


[What is The Green Dragon?]

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