the simple things

My mom is a great cook, specializing in simple, old-fashioned food. And she knows how to cook just about everything -- if you're ever in a bind and don't know how to cook something, or need to know what cut of meat to buy, definitely call MJP -- she can help you out. She has taught me tons of great techniques -- like lump-free gravy, and a killer, foolproof pie crust. But one of the best things she ever taught me how to cook, and probably one one of the first, was popcorn. Old school popcorn in a dutch oven on the stove top. In need of a salty snack, and no chips in the house? Whip up a batch of popcorn! If you cook it in olive oil, it's even relatively healthy, and always delicious. Plus, it only takes about 5 minutes from start to finish. Suck it, greasy, salty, preservative-laden microwave popcorn. MJP has you beat.

pies n' thighs

reviewed in the new yorker this week. ate there with our brooklyn posse (this means you, JoJo, Franco, and Mike) earlier this year, and it was crazy tasty. fried chicken, mac & cheese, collards, biscuits, and pie - like whoa. love this line from the review: "The place is generally full of youngish Williamsburg types with beards and assertive eyewear, and enough plaid shirts to make you think you’ve ended up in the Appalachians."

assertive eyewear. funny.

tastes just like store-boughten!

homemade beet, sweet potato, and potato chips.


file under "yes, you CAN make these, but it will take you at least one hundred times as long as it would to open a bag of terra chips."

Farm51

My brother Andrew


and his friend Sarah



have started an urban farm in West Philadelphia.


Not on the trying-hard-to-be-hip-and-edgy-Bobby-Flay-burger-joint side of West Philly, but on the vacant-houses-corner-stores-micro-or-kinky?-gunshots-in-the-night side of West Philly (51st and Chester, to be exact). What started out as two overgrown and cement-strewn vacant lots next to my brother's apartment building is now lush with growth and bustling with activity. It even has an official name (Farm51), a farmstand (Saturdays from 10 - 2), a blog, and a logo (yay Neal Santos!).

Take lettuce, beets, radishes, collards, broccoli (can we talk about broccoli for a minute? it's a HUGE plant with ONE little broccoli stalk. lame.), raspberries, blueberries, tomatoes, to-mah-toes, potatoes, pot-ah-toes....then throw in 29 (!) chickens and a beehive, and you get the picture. But just in case you don't, here you go:

You should totally stop by. Buy some eggs. Pull some weeds. Pet a chicken. You won't be sorry.

i would love to make...

...these for my bedroom (especially since I happened to look up at my windows from the neighbor's yard the other day and realized you could TOTALLY see into my room, like A LOT), but I am pretty sure that my belief in the old adage measure once and cut twice (that's it, right?) means that I am far too half-assed to follow these directions: "It’s important to cut the fabric straight and even, so that the blind will hang straight. This is probably the trickiest part of this project, so take a little extra care to be sure you’ve got it really straight." Oh well.

i'm in love

As I see it, we have three choices:
1) start a business venture with a fleet of snazzy camper vans
2) take Flo for a spin across England
3) get one snazzy camper van for personal use