Photo Essay: Crest Fest, 2010

I think it's awesome that this hardware store in my neighborhood wants to support and display local artists.  They hold an annual event that's part street festival and part gallery opening -- all centered in and around the Crest Hardware Store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Walking around the store, looking for artwork "hidden" among the merchandise (and often greatly resembling the merchandise), was like participating in a treasure hunt.  Actually, there was a map to the artistic treasures, but it wasn't available yet when we stopped by on opening day.  We spent an hour or more just wandering and trying to spot everything.

Read more about the Crest Fest here. 


Dan's tool wallpaper.









Smitty's saws.




 


Made of tires!  What?!









In the garden at the hardware store.





Extended festivities on Saturday included food, crafts, face painting, other vendors, bands, and more!

I was glad to see that the major beneficiary of this event was The City Reliquary Museum, another local institution that's been in danger of going out of business for too long.








Expect details on lunch in my next post!

A Question

I think the flavor of organic milk is superior to non-organic milk, and I try to buy it whenever I can afford the extra expense. 

But has anyone else noticed that some organic milk has a weird, chalky aftertaste or under-taste?  When I buy milk from Costco, where it comes in bulk, or when I drink the milk in our fridge at work (pictured above), which is delivered to us, I can't get past that odd extra layer of flavor.  I don't notice this taste in organic milk bought at a "regular" grocery store or bodega.

To make things more confusing, I recently discovered that the organic whole milk at work (I had only been drinking 2% or skim) does NOT taste chalky.

What is up?!

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That's a "Yes!" to yard sale snacks.

This yard sale in Pennsylvania had a table off to one side at which 3 Amish women (a mother and her daughters?) were selling baked goods.



I bought a large peanut butter cookie.  It had a nice flavor but was slightly dry.  I had to eat it in one sitting, as the chocolate on top was melting in the heat of the day.  Not bad as fuel to get me to the next bargain-hunting spot.

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It's the most wonderful time of the year.

As you may have guessed from my post yesterday, on Monday I started baking cookies for this year's Cookie Party, my thirteenth annual. Above is a shot of the haul from my Costco shopping trip for ingredients on Saturday. I bought pounds and pounds of nuts, sugar, butter, peanut butter, etc. This is serious.

(Last year's bounty.)

[Ride and members-only buying power graciously donated by Moss and Rachel. Thanks!]

Spree

The first trip I made was to Costco, but for my second shopping trip in search of very necessary baking ingredients, Key Foods did the trick. I also picked up some cranberries at WholeFoods and two lemons at Millenium Market (only one lemon is shown here).

And away we go.

Here's the haul from holiday baking shopping trip #1. And I'm not talking about Thanksgiving.

Costco made me a little crazy and I bought too much oatmeal, but otherwise I'm doing okay. I wish I could say I won't have to shop for baking ingredients for the rest of the season.

Anyone need some oatmeal?