On Saturday, I headed out to Jersey City to help a friend who was holding a stoop sale (though without a stoop -- it was on the sidewalk in front of a park). Since I live in Manhattan and don't have a terrace or backyard or car, I'm always looking for ways and excuses to eat outdoors in the summer. Like a lot of people, I'm particularly obsessed with grilling; however, living in an apartment in the city makes it really, really difficult to host a barbecue. Especially since I don't own a grill, either. Not counting my George Foreman.

Lucikly, I knew there was going to be an honest-to-goodness charcoal grill at the stoop sale, so we came prepared -- mustard, ketchup, sauerkraut, hot dog buns, and of course, the hot dogs. We didn't stop at just ordinary dogs, though. After all, I have a reputation to uphold. I brought along some of D'Artagnan's new all-natural hot dogs: beef, pork, buffalo and duck (yes, I said buffalo and duck). They're all huge -- more than double the size of ordinary dogs -- are hormone- and antibiotic-free, and don't contain any nitrates or preservatives. Just pure, high-quality, 100% meat. We were most curious about the buffalo and duck, so we got those on the grill and taste tested them, with varying types of condiments. Most of us liked the buffalo better (though to be fair, some people were too scared to try the duck dogs); they were juicy, and had a more intense, meaty flavor than your standard hot dog. The duck was declared delicious by some, and one neighbor's dog (an actual, live four-legged dog) who got a taste of one tried to steal a whole duck dog for himself. (Those are the duck dogs in the photo, btw.) We ate so many hot dogs, we didn't even bother griling the fresh corn we'd brought (courtesy of the farmers' market across the street from my building, naturally -- on a side note, it's good to see corn start appearing in the market).

All in all, the stoop sale -- and the barbecue -- was deemed a success. I'm just waiting for my next opportunity to bust out the tongs and condiments before the summer ends.

7/15 Ed Note: Ok fine, we made s'mores too. I didn't have a pic so I didn't want to mention them and then not show all that gooey, chocolately, marshmallowy goodness. But yum, they were tasty!