Halloween is every parents’ opportunity to treat their kids like dress-up dolls. Sometimes they are entertaining, others a bit humiliating. Some of my friends’ most memorable efforts have included a lobster, a chicken, a Siamese twin (the other half was a doll), and a 3-year-old daughter as Spiderman. But Corin’s first Halloween costume was so clever and funny - he dressed up as Tony Soprano, everybody’s favorite TV mobster! It’s about time Corin showed some Italian-American pride. He sure was the cutest little mobster I’ve ever seen!

Cutest Tony Soprano ever! Notice baby’s first gold chain, cigar and pinky ring!

Mini Tony with Uncle “June” (just kidding)

Pinky ring = tough mobster
Thumb sucking = sweet and innocent

Happy 1st Halloween Corin, and Happy 6-month Birthday!

I’ll travel far and wide for an outdoor market where local food vendors are the main attraction. Luckily I live in NYC, where such markets are plentiful. The New Amsterdam Market is a monthly in the old Fulton Fish Markets space. The organizers are trying to make it a permanent thing, but for now it only runs through December. I went once last summer and was intrigued. These regional vendors mostly only sell their products to local specialty shops, but a lot of them sample and sell their goodies at the New Amsterdam Market. I saw (and tasted) bread, cheese, soy milk, and chocolate, plus sausage, meats, cooked and preserved foods. I happened to get there in time for this month’s special event was “Two Master Butchers and Half a Pig, Under the Brooklyn Bridge,” a demonstration and Q&A on pig butchering. They sold raffle tickets to give away the various cuts of the pig. I found it interesting to see how half a pig became chops, ribs, tenderloins, bacon, and a cut to be preserved for ham, like prosciutto. But if you can’t stand the idea of how that little piggy becomes bacon in your BLT or pork chops on your plate, DO NOT SCROLL DOWN ANY FURTHER! (consider yourself warned)

There were actually 4 chefs and 2 half pigs.

“Shanks a Lot”

“Lambtastic”