Friday on My Mind

What you see in this picture is perfection--a cupcake from Jessie's Bake Shop in East Hampton, NY. We had their cupcakes at our wedding-- huge, moist cupcakes with the most delicious buttercream icing-- and real icing, not that cloying unbuttery garbage you get most of the time. Mmmmm. Plus we put real baby roses in our cupcakes. Listen to me now-- if you are in the hamptons and you crave a kickass cupcake, go to Jessie's. They don't have a website, but: Jessie's Bake Shop 297 Springs Fireplace Rd East Hampton.

The only icing I've had recently that comes close was from Mother Moose Bakery on Staten Island who also don't have a web site. Anyway, Here are a bunch of pics and notes on what we ate over memorial day, like this smoke-roasted london broil.

The roast was slathered w/ a paste of mustard and rub that included black pepper, garlic powder and a few other simple spices, like paprika. Nothing fancy.

The cooking began friday evening. As soon as we got off the train we walked to the Waldbaums and got a whole bunch of vegetables to grill (on a Tec gas grill that is pretty good) with some sausage. The next day we fired up the smoker and made some chipotles, 2 london broil, 6 chicken legs w/ a cherry glaze, more sausage, cold-smoked cheese (cheddar, velveeta (you heard me) and mozzarella- spelling?), 2 pieces of apple and brown sugar brined pork tenderloin that we served w/ a chipotle-lime crema (oh, yeah!!) and 2 racks of spareribs. We used the velveeta on cheeseburgers the next day w/ some carmelized onions. Whoo boy!

When the pork loins had smoked to a good color, they went into a pan w/ some broth, apple juice, diced apples, diced onion and a little star anise. I put some foil over it and stuck into the vertical section of the smoker to hold a while, along w/ the chicken. I threw the chicken on top of the firebox to grill a bit, too. What a beautiful weekend. And now the porn.....