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Paczki have been a big deal in this area (western Mass) for a couple of weeks now. The local large supermarket chain has a big billboard that proclaims "The Paczki are Here!" There's a pretty large Polish population in this area (Palmer, Ware, Chicopee, Indian Orchard), though not too many bakeries are still in operation. A local author, Suzanne Strempek Shea, has written several novels about growing up in the Polish-American community: Selling the Lite of Heaven, Hoopi Shoopi Donna, Lily of the Valley. Great reads. I've never quite figured out the real differences between paczki, jelly doughnuts and Israeli sufganeyot. Maybe I need to do some more research .

Yeah, I didn't think it'd make sense to age previously frozen steaks. Will have to alter my plan of attack accordingly.

Hamantashen are triangular. Thre are two common types: cookie-ish, with dough similar to butter or sugar cookies and the filling showing through an indentation on the top of the cookie, and the turnover-raised -yeast- dough type, with the filling all tucked away inside. Every year I have to get several of each to do the annual taste test. Rugelach are usually made from a cream cheese or sour cream dough and rolled up like crescent rolls.

Guigal '95 Brune et Blonde. Had it twice a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it so I thought I'd try it again to see how it's doing. I love it -- it was a little peppery and tasted a bit like green olives, too, over a deep berryish flavor. About a month ago we opened a Gugial '95 Chateau d'Ampuis that a friend had given us and I was disappointed. It just wasn't anything special. I think it might have been cooked. Anyway, that's my sum total of experience with Cote Rotie so far. I've got a bottle of Jaboulet 97 Les Jumelles that I picked up on a whim because the price was good (about 35 euros) but I haven't heard too many great things about it. (edited for spelling error)

tommy, I'm going to try it next time we have steak (if I can plan a week ahead) and afterwards I'll let you know if I believe. Think it would work with defrosted beef? I buy beef at a local wholesale/retail place and have them cut the steaks to order for the freezer. Based on the family's diverse tastes I usually get a whole rib eye, cut into 3/4" delmonico steaks, a sirloin strip cut into 1" steaks and a tenderloin cut into 1- 1 1/4" filets. Our friend has also described, in gruesome detail, how green and slimy the sides of beef get after a few weeks of aging.

Picked up some hanger steak on Saturday for dinner. There were several pieces to choose from (all vacuum packed) and I opted for a cylinder- shaped piece again for ease of slicing and presentation. Delicious, as usual. Way up there as one of my favorites cuts, right after sirloin strip. Nicely seared and crusty without, rare within. Served with haricots verts, baked sweet potatoes and a bottle of cote rotie.

We have a friend who spent quite a few years as a meat cutter and is one of our best sources of information. Apparently when he and his wife first started living together they had a difference of opinion over how long steak (for example) would stay good in the fridge after getting it home. She, like many of us, had been brought up believing that you use it in one day or freeze it. He would take the steak out of its wrapper and leave it on a plate in the fridge for several days, until it was a darkish brown all over. Not the same as 21 days, perhaps, but he claims the steak will taste better. Now she's a believer, too.

I craved acidic and spicy foods. Lots of grapefruit and lemons, jars of pepperoncini, spicy Chinese food. Also feta cheese omelettes in pita bread, smothered in garlicky tahini. Someone once told me that dark beer was great for nursing mothers so after the babies were born my favorite meal was grilled hotdogs and Beck's. I don't know if the brewer's yeast helped the infants, but it sure settled me down. Congratulations, Liza!

That picture looks nothing like the hanger steak I buy to cook at home. The stuff I get looks more like a pork tenderloin -- a long cylinder, but it has the strong flavor and chewy grain of hanger steak. Anyone know what's up with that?

Stir fried with a bit of chopped garlic and red bell pepper. Sprinkle with a little salt and sugar, toss around and splash on a little soy sauce. The great fresh flavor really shines through.

I love hanger steak, and fortunately we live near a specialty store that usually has it available. Seared rare and sliced on the diagonal, yum yum. Sometimes I fancy it up by serving it with a little knob of butter and roquefort but usually we just sprinkle on a little fleur de sel. Now I know what I'm making for dinner Saturday night........ My daughter went through a phase where she watched Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals every day after school. I find her insufferable -- Ray, not my daughter (well usually not ) -- but I guess it's better than those stupid teenager reality tv shows.

Just came back from a family trip to London and were stumped for a place to eat lunch after our morning visit to the Tower. There didn't seem to many choices around that would please everybody -- then we remembered reading about the cafe at the Tate modern so we took the tube to Blackfriars and walked across the Millenium Bridge, which itself was worth the minor schlep. We had a lovely lunch at the Tate cafe, looking out the windows toward St. Paul's.

Vermont isn't supposed to get pounded as hard as we in western Mass will be. Our little one went to Stratton for the weekend with a friend and has been having a great time. We hope they start back before the weather gets too bad -- we're supposed to be leaving for London tomorrow! Glad the rest of the family is having fun at Okemo. Are they there for the whole school vacation week? Hope you get up there soon, too. Let me know if you ever feel like playing hooky on a weekday to ski. I'm only a rusty intermediate skier, but Okemo is my favorite mountain (especially World Cup).

I've used frozen pearl onions in several recipes (coq au vin, beef daube) with great success. No need to defrost them, just use them as is. They even carmelize beautifully also.

These are all great ways to prepare brussel sprouts. For Thanskgiving I combine them with chestnuts and cook in a bit of broth, butter and Madeira until the liquid reduces to a syrupy consistency. But am I the only one who like to steam them until they're crisp tender and munch as is, without anything else added? I love the sweet taste of the sprouts alone. Our whole family can go through many of these "tiny cabbages".

They may not look fancy or "gourmet", but See's chocolates are scrumptious. The ingredients they use (butter, cream, fresh nuts) are top-notch and the candies are just simply yummy. Our department gets lots of candy assortments from vendors around the holidays and the See's collections always go before the Godiva. But then again, the vendors aren't sending us Maison du Chocolat.................. edited for url

It's been my experience lately that restaurants have gotten more proactive in ensuring that diners will be keeping reservations. Even restaurants that ask for a confirmation call on the day of, or day before, the reservation have called me first to confirm. I've also had this happen with online reservation services. In every case, the staff have been polite and friendly and I've enjoyed the contact. It increased my anticipation of an enjoyable evening. As for cancelling reservations, I always call to cancel as soon as my plans have changed, even if it's only a few hours ahead of time. I also call to change a reservation if we've added or lost a couple so the restaurant can plan accordingly. The staff is almost always appreciative and polite.

I've never tried homemade lasagna noodles without briefly cooking the noddles first, and it always comes out better than store-bought (though I confess that I only make it once a year or so and in between times I use packaged lasagna noodles without cooking first). When I get home I'll check the recipe I use, but your ratio of eggs to flour sounds a little off. Were you using regular all purpose flour or unbleached? Also, I sometimes find it's preferable to make two separate batches of dough rather than doubling the recipe for one batch.

Popovers get a big yum from me. There's a restaurant nearby in Amherst, MA that serves fantastic popovers with apple butter. Problem is, by the time I'm through with the popover I'm too full to eat my dinner! Fortunately, though, they offer a soup-salad-popover combo that's just right. As for the bread temperature issue, I prefer warm fresh-baked bread and love it when a restaurant has the timing down to bake off several batches of rolls throughout the dinner service.

How does Cafe Spice Namaste measure up?

memesuze, The little cases do have see-through tops. I bought some little white sticky labels to identify what's inside, but I like still being able to see the contents. I keep them in the sleek stainless steel case so light isn't a problem: watchmaker cases. I opted for item g, set of fifteen. I bought three of them and plan to use one filled with spices and herbs as a gift. I still have a bunch of regular sized spice jars on a couple of racks on the back of the pantry door, but the overall effect is of appearing to be more organized. Now if I could figure out to do with all the condiment bottles.............

I love making up new marinades for pork, beef, fish,lamb and chicken. For some reason, I've never found that marinating vegetables ahead of time is worth the advance planning -- just brushing some on while grilling or roasting seems to do the trick just as well. My basic recipe is some type of oil (canola, olive, sesame), an acid component (flavored vinegars, lime juice, lemon juice, orange juice), herbs (fresh or dried) and sometimes wine. Then there are the "extras", like garlic, shallots, capers, pickled peppers, etc. For lamb I like to use a full bodied red wine or port and some honey if I'm grilling a butterflied leg or thicker cuts. For shish kebab I like a thinner marinade with just oil, red wine vinegar, red wine and herbs. For beef I prefer Asian style marinades, with just a drop of oil and some hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, chili paste, sherry, pinch of sugar and a pinch of baking soda. For pork and chicken I sometimes make a marinade using canola oil, orange juice, tarragon, mustard and curry powder. For swordfish I love olive oil, white wine vinegar, chopped garlic, capers, parsley, salt and pepper. For salmon I use a recipe from a friend that sounds weird but tastes great: brown sugar dissolved in water. Then I smear the filet with honey and top with cracked pepper. Or, you could use a spice rub. For chicken and ribs I use a dry rub which is incredibly simple but I can't remember right now . It's smoky, hot, sweet and salty. My mother always used Wishbone (or Ken's) Italian dressing as a marinade for London Broil and every once in a while I toss a tough piece of meat in a ziplock plastic bag with dressing and let it sit overnight and all day. Who says you can't go home again?

Sounds excellent. Another way I sometimes "fancy up" pound cake is by plating a slice on a pool of creme anglaise and topping with a dollop of softly whiped cream and some berries, garnished with mint leaf. Looks and tastes great, and is really easy when Sara Lee bakes the pound cake.

With pound cake I like lemon curd, sometimes lightened with whipped cream or creme fraiche, and raspberries. What did you settle on, and how did it work out?

I recently gave my spice collection a complete overhaul. I was inspired by an article in Real Simple magazine and actually ordered the stainless steel watchmaker kits, shown in the article, from Lee Valley tools and ordered new spice from Penzey's. When the order arrived I opened all the hermetically sealed packages and sniffed deeply. It was positively intoxicating . It's one of the first times I actually followed through when I saw something that looked neat. And neat it is: the cases are very sleek and take up much less space than all the jumbled bottles. I store the excess spices and dried herbs in our extra fridge downstairs.