We see the writing on the wall -- you want your pickled eggs, your heritage millet, your rusty chicken coops, maybe a prairie linen or two. You like artisanal? We'll show you artisanal. How many of you can say you milk your own cows to butter your morning toast? A&M show you how, 19th-century-farmstead style.

We're sitting down with our favorite writers and cooks to talk about their upcoming cookbooks, their best food memories, and just about anything else.

Today: We chat with Jen Causey, a Brooklyn-based photographer (and former Food52 contributor!) whose new book, Brooklyn Makers: Food, Design, Craft, and Other Scenes from a Tactile Life documents the artisans behind Brooklyn's creative renaissance. 

We're sitting down with our favorite writers and cooks to talk about their upcoming cookbooks, their best food memories, and just about anything else.

Today: Caroline Fidanza of the tiny, nautical sandwich shop Saltie in Williamsburg, Brooklyn talks to us about transforming the shop into the new Saltie: A Cookbook.

If you haven't heard of Caroline Fidanza, you've certainly heard of the restaurants and publications she's worked for (not to mention enjoyed the farm-to-table restaurant culture that she helped to create!) -- before founding Saltie in 2009, she was the head chef at Diner and Marlow and Sons in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as well as the food editor at Diner Journal.

Have you bought your Brooklyn Brew Shop beer brewing kit yet? If you've watched Amanda learn to make beer, you know that brewing is full of jargon to describe very specific stages of the beer making process. We've collected our top 5 basics below -- try tossing these around next time you visit your local bottle shop.

1. Mash - This is just a mix of grains (mostly malted barley and wheat) and water. It looks like porridge, or oatmeal, or...well, mash. After it's simmered, you mash out by bringing it to a certain temperature (this is called mashing out). Then you're on to the next fancy word.

Read more for the other 4 terms!

We cook from scratch a lot here at Food52 -- yogurt, granola, sriracha, ricotta, bread -- but before we met Stephen Valand and Erica Shea from Brooklyn Brew Shop, we'd never considered making our own beer. We made a video with Erica and Stephen all about the beer brewing process -- be sure to check out Brooklyn Brew Shop and our Shop deal. And when your bottles of custom brew are ready, won't you share one with us?