Since I’m in the neighborhood…

And since it’s, you know, food-y, I’m somewhat ashamed to admit I was perhaps ever-so-slightly tempted by this. Sounds like it was kind of a bust though…so tragedy averted?

The irony or strange coincidence or whatever you want to call it is that I totally wrote down “Yonah Schimmel Knishes” when I was exploring the Lower East Side this weekend (my “beat” neighborhood this semester). Who knew it was a single’s paradise??

Hmm…

http://gawker.com/news/the-future-of-journalism/-294844.php

I’m doin’ a little research on the LES…

…and came across this crazy website.

I don’t think I’m hip enough to comprehend what it’s all about though.

But, oh, what a crazy world it would be if I could get a story out of it…

Want to hear something crazy??

We had a lecture this AM on reporting on race and class…and to start things off, we had to partner up and we were given a list of questions for a “silent interview.” In other words, there were questions about where the person came from, what ethnic group he or she identifies with, what books they read, what they do in their spare time, etc. And we had to answer just by looking at the other person…and then we showed them what we thought about them and they told us if we were right or wrong.

So…a whole heck of a lot of the students are *pretty* liberal and like to read and write…so those answers were all pretty much the same across the board. But! Guess what my partner said about me in the spare time question?? Just by looking at me, she said she thought that I like to read and BAKE.

Can you believe it??

(My apologies to Pickle Hater…who may have received this, well, verbatim earlier today…)

Also Local…

All I know is that the food these vendors sell is really, really good: Health Department Crackdown on Red Hook Vendors Now Has Teeth.

Also interesting…”A Tree Grows in Red Hook”:

Could there be a better way to celebrate three days after my birthday??

I’d like to draw your attention to a comment from Chef Ron at Bubby’s:

“We are having our 4th annual pie social on Sunday September 29th. Noon to 3. We’re slow getting our act together because we have a super sweet new book: Bubby’s Homemade Pies, just out. Plus, my wife Melissa is 2 seconds from having a baby. Consider this official. We will be doing the social this year at the same time as the DUMBO art fest. I heard there will be actual elephants there painting!”

So…this is very exciting news! I can participate in a local pie contest after all! (I think *maybe* I have a class on Saturday from 10 to 1…but I am confident I can work something out!)

Come one, come all??

It Ain’t Easy Bringin’ Baked Goods to Work…

Also last weekend…I went to a birthday party and met someone who feels my baked-good-transport pain! He brought a cake in a big plastic container…and told me that he used to live in San Francisco and would use bungee cords to attach that very container to the back of his motorcycle to bring baked goods in to work. Once, however, he made a cake with a gelatinous center and said that after going up and down all those hills, the layers completely slid apart within the container!

I helped a friend decorate his new apartment last weekend…

Or, rather, I came over to his new apartment with the *intent* of helping him decorate, but he didn’t have frames or a hammer or nails or anything…and by the time we finished walking around and shopping, it was sorta too late to do anything further.

But! I was incredibly jealous because he has a KitchenAid mixer! He claims to use it to make holiday cookies…but I’m a little skeptical. I think maybe it would be better loved at my apartment.

Apparently there are no boyfriends between San Francisco and South Dakota…

So, instead of horrible man postcards, my aunt has been sending me pie postcards from across the country. It’s kind of amazing – literally every time she sees anything to do with pie (remember the Purple Pie Place?), she snaps a photo and glues it to an index card…et voila!

My most recent acquisitions include a billboard for homemade pie at Wall Drug and the sign at Tomacelli’s Too in Sioux Falls.

Brunch

Some of my new classmates met for brunch this morning at Kitchenette.

I was thinking about going…but it was kinda on the early side…and it’s pretty far away from where I live…so I didn’t exactly make it.

However…the description of the original location downtown is very intriguing. New York mag says: “You cannot beat the baked goods from Kitchenette, particularly the mixed-berry pie.”

And…

“If you crave cherry pie, try Kitchenette’s flaky, pleasingly acerbic year-round standard.”

Worth a shot?