Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

These apple trees are grown for patios and small spaces. But you'll need two varieties to get fruit, unless there are other apple trees nearby that will cross pollinate. They're hardy to zone 4, which should be fine where you live. Check your zone here. And they ripen in September, which is also good. Some fruit trees are hardy, but don't ripen until late October or November - by which time the cold has destroyed the fruit for us northerners! (Granny Smiths, for example.)

Here is some info about growing potted fruit trees. You can also talk to your local cooperative extension. Putting the trees up against the wall of your building will help in the winter. And if it's a south facing wall, that's a big plus! Espaliered fruit trees are grown against south facing walls. (The Sentinel trees I linked you to are basically a single cordon espalier.)

Perhaps wrapping the pot in insulation, like you would use for a hot water heater, might help it through a particularly cold winter.

It's interesting that Ed's article lists Breugger's as part of the reason bagels have gotten bigger over the years - theirs are only about 4 oz., not the 6 or 7 that seems to be the norm nowadays!

@edritch - Try Bruegger's, there are some in DC. And they are definitely better than a lot of the ones you'll get in NYC even. (H&H on 46th weren't any better than the ones at our grocery chain upstate, Price Chopper, IMHO.)

@NO_Pam - Thanks so much! (Custom cabinetry also doesn't help resale. I had a coworker who was over 7' tall, and his realtor took him to a house with custom cabinets built for someone who was around 5'. HA!)

I'm curious as to how she determined what would be the right height for her counter. I have a small movable island that I would like to cut down like that, but I'm scared to have the cuts actually made until I'm certain it's going to be a good height.

But most people at the grocery store CAN'T seem to count... At least the ones standing in the express lanes.

Cheesy polenta (plenty of butter and American cheese added) with chicken braised in salsa mixed with some dried (unsweetened) cherries, a little honey, and a pinch of cinnamon and cumin. Top with some plain Greek yogurt or sour cream.

@mcanna - I've seen Stonewall Kitchen in some stores or catalogs (maybe Williams-Sonoma?) but I can't recall specifically. But you can go to stonewallkitchen.com and mail order.

@soyviz - Yes, one parent CAN take care of them, but it seems that none of them DO. If you can bring your child to the restaurant and keep them under control, that's fine, and I don't mind them being there. It's the ones running around, nearly tripping the food-runners, and the parents completely ignoring the kids that are the problem. I'm paying for a nice restaurant, not for Chuck E. Cheese, why should my meal be disrupted for your benefit? It's like smokers in restaurants. I don't want to feel like I'm in an ashtray, nor a pre-school.

BTW - I'm all for this plan if it means that I can eat later, and in peace.

I appreciate the demonstration/educational type of food tv that Julia Child began. What Alton Brown continues, and I would even qualify Giada's Everyday Italian in this category. But I hate that FN has moved away from even the "celebrity chefs" and towards entertainment as their main programming. Good Deal with Dave Lieberman has been relegated to a 4:30 am slot, yet prime slots (evenings and weekend afternoons) are filled with (other than Good Eats) Unwrapped, Food Network Challenges, and Dinner: Impossible, all which I see more as "entertainment" than food shows. I think that's worse than what "celebrity chef" has become. Thankfully, we still have PBS.

I buy it right from the farm, not far from my parents', $15 for a quart of Grade B. Available here, but the s/h costs are probably killer.