Sandra Levine

Ruth Reichl wrote somewhere about an academic who said it was possible to identify a person's ethnicity and the number of generations a family has been in this country by analyzing the family's Thanksgiving menu.

I think I'm really going to make it this year.

Don't go at all unless your salt tolerance is very high.

We break the fast at my mother-in-law's. After a groaning tablesworth of goodies from Russ and Daughters, our dessert is this: Janet Levine’s Break-the-Fast Kugel Put 1/2 lb. cooked, fine noodles into a large, buttered baking dish. Beat well: 8 oz. cream cheese, 8 eggs, 1 pt. sour cream, ½ lb. melted butter, 1 cup sugar, 2 tsp vanilla extract. Pour mixture over noodles. Bake at 325 for about 1 hour. Have the cardiologist's phone number handy. It's a good thing we eat this only once a year.

I've heard the preference expressed as, "Dry on the label, sweet in the bottle."

Can anything beat apple pie?

I found the recipe on-line. If it turns out to be any good, I'll let you know. You use a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey and roast that with olive oil and chopped garlic rubbed on until done. While the turkey is resting, you heat pomegranate juice, white wine, lemon juice cinnamon, salt, pepper and a bit of sugar together for 5 minutes. Right before serving you, pierce the turkey breast and pour the sauce over it and garnish with pomegranate seeds. We'll see.

Here's my menu: Halibut Ceviche Moroccan Beet Salad Roasted Pomegranate Turkey Breast Spinach with Pine Nuts and Raisins Israeli Couscous with Mushrooms Chocolate Mousse Joan Nathan's Apricot Honey Cake I was going to do a cold soup, but decided on the beet salad instead.

The label on McCormick Pure Almond Extract lists ingredients as: Water, Alcohol (36%) and oil of bitter almonds.

I can't stand celery, either raw or cooked.

Not a Bresse chicken, by any stretch of the imagination, but the Giannone chickens sold at Jefferson Market and Gourmet Garage are far more flavorful than those you usually see. They are from Canada and appear to have a narrower breast and somewhat more dark meat than the usual Cornish cross available.

I like a citrus buttercream, or citrus-flavored ganache.

My husband's signature (and only) dish is lox, eggs and onions, which he makes maybe twice a year. His secret is to saute the chopped onion first, in butter, then add the chopped smoked salmon (never lox, despite the name) and some additional butter, and after the salmon is heated through, the eggs, with more butter. We sometimes have this for New Year's Eve.

The restaurant at the Hartford Atheneum (a very good, small museum) is a destination in itself for locals.

Leave your large walking around bag back at the hotel and take a small, neat purse to the restaurant. Acessorize your black outfit (pantsuit or dress) tastefully and, preferably, expensively, and you'll be fine. Black pants, a black jacket, matching or not and a good white or off-white silk shirt will take you anywhere. If you can't tie the scarf, attractive, conservative earrings or a necklace will do, preferably in plain gold or silver, depending on your coloring. If you are thin, but have some nice cleavage, unbutton the shirt to look a little sexy, but only if you are comfortable. A tie will always help a man look pulled together, especially if he is of a certain age. 20-year olds can get away with a much more casual look.

Ferber's book is the ne plus ultra, of course, but Plagemann's Banana Jam (most directly comparable to Ferber's Banana with Lemon Juice), is better than that particular recipe. The others have such a strong component of other flavors that I don't consider them "banana jam," but jams with banana. I mean no disrespect to Ferber.

When summer's bounty is over, you can always make the banana jam from this book. It's better than [heresy] Christine Ferber's.

Cabrales is not the most reliable source for anything but high end French food.

ditto everything mentioned, plus raspberries, muscat grapes imported from Italy in the fall, the tiny champagne grapes,

If you have a lot of runny sauce, you can scoop out the solids, reduce the liquid until it is to your liking and return the solids to the now-thickened sauce. This method has the advantage of concentrating the flavors, but you have to have been careful from the outset not have oversalted.

It's on their website.

I will try this and report back. I did this, but the problem remains. Bar Keeper's Friend, however, was wonderful for my stovetop and Le Creuset.

I will try this and report back.

I used a regular steel-wool pad, and didn't scrub very hard. There was just one little patch that needed a bit of extra attention. That patch is now silvery. There are no sharp demarcations between the silver color and the copper. There is no indentation. I don't have a digital camera, so I can't provide a picture.

I had to scrub my Falk Culainair saucier...and when I was finished, not only had the gunk come off, but also, it looks like, the copper as well! Where I had scrubbed, there is now a large, pale, stainless-steel colored spot. What gives? I bought the pot on-line, directly from the manufacturer. It's supposed to be 2.5mm copper, stainless-lined.